Category: issues

Applause Is The Crucial Thing We Lack In Performances Without An Audience

“So reflexive is applause, it can be easy to forget how powerful it is, what makes it important enough to fake” in performances and sports events without live audiences. “Applause is a marvel of atonal expressiveness. A spontaneous projection of unity. And much like the art it responds to, we are worse off without it; it’ one of those things we do to make us less afraid of each other.” – The Washington Post

‘I Do Not Envy Ms. Berg Her Position’ — New Director Of Jewish Museum Berlin Begins An All-Too-Sensitive Job

After thirty years at the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam, Hetty Berg is taking the helm of an institution which is, thanks to history, both highly visible and loaded with baggage. The museum’s situation is even more fraught than usual now because of two thorny issues in Germany: the return of anti-Semitism and the BDS movement, a controversy over which cost Berg’s predecessor his job. – The New York Times

New Zealand’s Top Arts Groups Can’t Get Visas For Their Overseas Performers

The New Zealand Symphony, Royal New Zealand Ballet, and Auckland Philharmonia all say that key members of their companies, foreign nationals who were abroad when the COVID lockdown began, are now blocked by the government from entering the country and taking up their jobs, even if they willingly enter quarantine when they arrive. – Radio New Zealand

NYC’s Ambitious Arts Diversity Plan? Who Can Tell What’s Working?

Under the plan, Mayor Bill de Blasio promised to hold august institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Carnegie Hall accountable for hiring more members of historically marginalized and underrepresented groups and for making their boards of directors and other leadership ranks more inclusive. But the Department of Cultural Affairs did not set numerical goals for what constituted progress, nor did it require that institutions provide baseline demographic statistics about their staffs. – The New York Times

Is New York City Mayor’s Push To Diversify Arts Institutions Working? There’s No Way To Know For Sure

“Under the plan, Mayor Bill de Blasio promised to hold august institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Carnegie Hall accountable for hiring more members of historically marginalized and underrepresented groups and for making their boards of directors and other leadership ranks more inclusive. … But the Department of Cultural Affairs did not set numerical goals for what constituted progress, nor did it require that institutions provide baseline demographic statistics about their staffs.” – The New York Times

Are All Arts Critics Really Just Bitter Failed Artists? No. No, They Are Not.

Well, what answer did you expect to find in a newspaper column? Nevertheless: “It might be difficult to grasp that writing a magazine cover [story] could appeal more than featuring on it, but for many it truly does. … [Critics are] besotted by an art form to the point [they] feel compelled to write about it for – let’s be honest – a meagre living.” Take, for example, Pulitzer Prize winner Jerry Saltz, who freely admits to being a failed artist but isn’t exactly known for being bitter or unenthusiastic. – The Guardian

Netflix Screws Up The Advertising For A Movie About The Problems With Sexualizing Young Girls

So here we have a movie, Cuties, that “has been praised for questioning how society and social media pressure young children into acting in sexually explicit ways.” Best way to advertise it, Netflix, probably isn’t with ” a picture of four young girls posed provocatively, some twerking while wearing hot pants.” (The streaming service learned that quickly, and changed things.) – The New York Times