Category: today’s top story

The artists were protesting a show of videos a the San Francisco Art Institute that showed animals being killed by a hammer. “The shock of the protest lies not only in its vehemence but also in the fact that it involves the rare spectacle of artists, including many SFAI faculty members, advocating censorship.”

“Losing critics for serious film is like taking away the padding on the crutches of a very sick man with two broken legs and one working eye. It’s not going to keep it from limping along, but yeah, it hurts like hell.”

“Innovation isn’t linear. It operates in a complex system, and that’s where artists live and work. Innovation is what they do with the symbolic forms they create, and artists also have greater understanding about risk taking, about analysis and interpretation, approaching it quite differently from the way science approaches risk, for example. It’s the way artists engage with curiosity that make them innovative.”

“Basically the orchestra was currently doing like eight concerts a year and for the money that we’re spending, we can’t afford to do that to get just eight concerts a year.”

Talks are continuing between the musicians of Louisiana’s Shreveport Symphony and their management, which wants to slash salaries 75% and convert the musicians to part-time per-service players. Meanwhile, it has emerged that the symphony’s board decided the cuts were necessary after hearing reports from two industry consultants who considered the orchestra’s current model unsustainable.

“Nearly every arts organization can trace malaise and marginalization to a lack of arts education in schools. What this dearth of arts education has meant to our ability to function as a cohesive, harmonious society is one broad issue.”

“The winning design, which will be 276 metres (905ft) above the ground, will not require any permanent modification of the existing structure. It will double the capacity of the public viewing area on the tower’s top floor.”

“At first, a phone that can shoot video might seem like just another gadget with just another feature. But the leap here is that coupling a video phone with the Web makes showing, sharing and storing video just about effortless.”

An anti-Islam movie being produced by a right-wing Dutch politicians has stoked fears of violent protest. “A film that no one has seen and of which no one can say that it will ever exist has become a daily topic of discussion and speculation in the Netherlands.”

“Just five years ago there were questions about whether black audiences would come to a Broadway show in significant numbers.” But three recent Broadway productions featuring mostly black casts have succeeded in drawing huge African-American audiences, and many in the industry see potential for much more of the same success.