On Friday, the old Santa Maria della Misericordia “will open its doors as a functioning mosque, its Baroque walls adorned with Arabic script, its floor covered with a prayer rug angled toward Mecca and its crucifix mosaics hidden behind a towering mihrab, or prayer niche.” The project constitutes all of Iceland’s pavilion, and it has evoked more than a little ambivalence, despite a centuries-long Muslim presence in the city.
Category: AUDIENCE
Jerry Saltz Shares A Dozen Stories Of Sex In Museums
“Museums are incredibly sexy spaces to me, but I have never had sex in a museum. Over the years, though, I’ve heard from those who have. … So I asked people on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram if they’d send their stories or reports of sex in the museums. Here’s just a few of the stories I got back.”
Why It’s No Good Blacklisting Theater Critics From Shows (According To A Theater Critic)
Lyn Gardner: “While the producers of any show may argue that as it’s their party, they can invite whoever they want, the principle of extending invitations across the board to established newspapers and reviewing outlets is a sound one. Trying to exclude particular reviewers is not – if for no other reason that it makes that individual critic seem more important than they are and hints at, if not outright censorship, than at least an over-developed desire to manipulate coverage and ensure good reviews all round.”
Banning A Critic From A Show Never Works Anyway (Says Another Theater Critic)
Mark Shenton allows as how a banned critic will probably get to see the show somehow and write about it anyway.
Orchestra Ditches Its Sheet Music And Opens Up New Relationship With Music And Audience
“I had the feeling if we didn’t have music stands we would be forced into a new relationship and that, at a performance level, it would just bump us up. It is not that I think the audience is ADD and needs bells and whistles to enjoy the music. A lot of the music we do is storytelling.”
Who Isn’t Consuming The Arts? And Why Aren’t They?
“When large numbers of people face barriers to participating in the arts in the way they might want to, we know that we’re missing opportunities to improve people’s lives in concrete and meaningful ways. What’s really behind this phenomenon of lower participation rates among economically disadvantaged people? And what can, and should, we do about it?”
Great Dead Comedians To Take The Stage Again – As Holograms
“The National Comedy Center, which is scheduled to open next year in Jamestown, N.Y., is to unveil plans for a comedy club that will feature holograms of stand-ups and comic actors from various eras.”
What Do We See In Our Minds As We Read? And What Don’t We See?
Many readers know – or think they know – the answer to that question. “The problem is that upon close examination the reading experience is far more complex and far less visual than is commonly supposed.”
To Beam Or Not To Beam? How Live Broadcasts Are Changing Regional And Touring Theatre
Do screenings of stage productions from London steal audiences from local theatre or expand them? Nobody can agree on the answer. (Yet.)
The New Influencers Hollywood Craves? Bloggers
“Major Hollywood studios such as Disney-owned Marvel are anxious to win over superfans, especially those who help build excitement online among other youngsters ahead of a movie’s debut.”