Thanks to the “massification” or “democratization” of culture, we can all claim to be cultured even if we have never read a book, listened to a symphony, or attended an art gallery. Eliot said that “higher culture” is the domain of an elite. Vargas Llosa is in favor of putting an end to “morally repugnant” elites which are at variance with our egalitarian ideals. In doing so, however, we achieve “a pyrrhic victory” whereby we dumb down and become too all-inclusive: “everything is culture and nothing is.”
Category: AUDIENCE
Why Charging Admission Might Be A Good Idea For UK Museums
“Sometimes you have to think the unthinkable. If we want museums to prosper and thrive in a harsh economic climate with central government talking about 40% cuts, an entrance fee may be the best way forward. And it may have a good side.”
Why Do People Dress Like Slobs To Go To The Theatre?
“When people were invited onstage at a recent performance of “Penn & Teller on Broadway,” many women looked as if they had stepped out of a jazzercise class, while men ambled around in hideous cargo shorts.”
A New (Important) Role For Libraries?
“Public libraries are becoming a one-stop shop for manufacturing in the digital age. Because libraries are investing in machines like 3-D printers, someday soon everyone with access to a public library could become an inventor or create something.”
The Tragedy Of iTunes And Classical Music
“When the developer Erik Kemp designed the first metadata system for MP3s in 1996, he provided only three options for attaching text to the music. Every audio file could be labeled with only an artist, song name, and album title. Kemp’s system has since been augmented and improved upon, but never replaced.” Robinson Meyer explains why Apple’s music software is such a disaster at handling classical (and other kinds of) music.
Report: Canadians Are Abandoning Traditional Cable TV
“The IDC report projects that the number of Canadians opting for traditional television services like cable and satellite will drop by about half a million to 11.3 million subscribers by 2019. The marketing research company also estimates revenue from those same services will decline by 7.8 per cent over the next five years to $8.3 billion.”
How Do You Balance The Rights Of An Artist With The Progress Of A Culture (Who Owns What?)
“The achievements of a people, be they in politics, in science or even in war, must belong on some level to the people for them to bring forth further achievements. And what is true of a society’s great experiment is true of the culture that society produces.”
Changing Media, Changing Criticism (For Better And Worse)
“The Internet has had an explosive and largely positive impact on film culture. The average film lover can read good critics from around the world for free, draw on more academic resources than ever and simply see more films than ever before. They can argue, engage, question and inform each other in film forums and keep up on the latest discoveries from festivals around the world.”
Metropolitan Museum Breaks Attendance Record
“Buoyed by strong international tourism, a spate of well-attended shows and a seven-day-a-week schedule, the Metropolitan Museum of Art drew 6.3 million visitors in the last year, the most since it began tracking these statistics more than 40 years ago.”
‘An Evening in the Theater (Patti LuPone Just Stole My F@#king Cell Phone)’
That’s the title of a song – written from the point of view of that unwise woman in the audience – recently posted to YouTube by composer Robert Maggio and lyricist Matthew Hardy. “I hope she doesn’t open my iTunes / My recording of Gypsy is Bernadette / And my Evita is Madonna / If she sees it, she’ll be really upset.”