Mark Swed: “Robert Mann was one of a handful of transformative American musicians who in the years after World War II forever changed the way we think about and make music, who gave it a new meaning and a new necessity for a new age. The others were John Cage, Leonard Bernstein (whom you will be hearing plenty about in this, his centenary, year) and Maria Callas (whose music education may have been in Athens, but who was born and grew up in New York). The Canadian Glenn Gould, as a North American, also belongs.”
Tag: 01.04.18
Regulate Artificial Intelligence? It’s Not Time Yet
The challenges created by this novelty should not obscure the fact that A.I. itself is not one technology, or even one singular development. Regulating an assemblage of technology we can’t clearly define is a recipe for poor laws and even worse technology.
Melbourne’s Federation Square Has Become Iconic Public Space. Will An Apple Store Kill It?
In a single stroke, the state government proclaimed its intent to both interrupt the cohesive design vision of Federation Square and undermine the civic mission that made it central to Melbourne. The proposal raises a question for this city, and for many other cities as well: Can anybody stop the relentless push to corporatize public space?
Dance Companies Are Exploring New Sources Of Income
“L.A. Dance Project recently launched the subscription-based ladanceworkout.com, offering streaming workout videos led by company members. Groups of all sizes and even some individual dancers have launched merchandise lines bearing their logos. And, of course, there’s the perpetually innovative Pilobolus, which has been in the creative-revenue game for years, with books, advertisements, corporate appearances and more.”
What The Resistance Can Learn From The Campaign To Save The New York Public Library
“In September, with no shortage of Trumpian Goliaths rising up to threaten ever more of the institutions we rely on, we checked back in with a number of the activists whose work [Scott Sherman’s book Patience and Fortitude] documents. How, we asked, does the movement to save the NYPL look with a few years’ hindsight? What lessons might their experiences offer to activists taking stands against the powerful today? The answers we got back amounted to a crash course in effective resistance.”
Indianapolis Museum Of Art Director Defends New Vision For The Institution
“Newfields is a new brand for a new type of an organization. Our mission is to create exceptional experiences with art and nature and the nature part is all of a sudden being revealed in pretty serious and very positive, successful ways. “I still think we’ve got a little ways to go before more people understand that we’re all of these things and that we still are a great art museum doing programs and hiring curators and acquiring art, but some people are caught off guard, like, ‘Well, what are they doing on their grounds?'”
Met Museum’s New Admissions Policy Marks A Retreat From Being A National Museum
Phil Kennicott: “It will say to donors — who should take note and respond appropriately — that the Met no longer intends to be the country’s de facto national art museum. By sheer size and visitor numbers, it may remain the most prominent art museum in the country. But it now distinguishes between a local public — those who live in New York — and the rest of the country, which it treats merely as clients. It cannot reasonably approach major donors, those with art they want to leave in the public trust and those with money who hope to support access to that art, and say: We are the nation’s museum.”
Met Museum’s New Admission Policy Speaks To Much Bigger Problems
Jerry Saltz: “I do not begrudge the Met for trying to do whatever it can to maintain its preeminence. Yet this first-time attempt to raise admission before its new director arrives — intended to raise $6 million to $10 million annually — doesn’t entirely pass the smell test. It has an air of expediency, nervousness, an idea drought, of managers rather than art being in charge. Especially since the museum just spent more than $65 million on the space-eating, flow-disrupting, patron-inscribed fountains in the newly renamed Koch Plaza. This single act of philanthropy (Vegas fountains and all) would have covered almost ten years of this iffy admissions policy.”
Meet America’s Most-Produced Playwright: She’s A 35-Year-Old Atlantan In San Francisco
Lauren Gunderson: “I have come along at a very open time. In my career, if there has been massive sexism against me, I haven’t felt it much or perhaps I’ve been too busy to notice or something! So I have great hope for the future and we’re already seeing it.”
Daring Jewel Heist At Venice’s Ducal Palace In Broad Daylight
Venice Police Chief Vito Danilo Gagliardi said that the stolen items were a pair of earrings and a brooch made of diamonds, gold and platinum. The pieces — owned by Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani — were snatched in the bold daytime robbery on the last day of the exhibit. A preliminary investigation revealed that the pair were able to delay the alarm system for one minute so it wasn’t triggered until the thieves were making their escape, Gagliardi said. He described the culprits as “skilled.”