“According to Scott Timberg, a former arts reporter for the Los Angeles Times, we are witnessing a transformation: a downsizing of our cultural capital generated by ‘anti-elite rage, market populism, and corporate consolidation.’ The creative class is being exploited rather than supported — by its supposed ‘friends’ as well as its enemies.”
Tag: 01.14.15
California Governor Proposes Slashing Arts Budget
“The $1.1 million in state taxes that Brown wants to allocate for the arts council is one one-thousandth of a percent of the $113.3 billion in overall general fund spending he proposed last week. That continues a longstanding policy going back to the early 2000s in which California governors invariably have proposed anteing up the bare minimum from state tax coffers that’s needed to qualify for about $1 million in matching federal funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.”
After A Century, Wisconsin Orchestra Is Going Silent
The Green Bay Symphony “has survived world wars, the Great Depression, financial troubles, years-long closures, the introduction of television and the rise of rock ‘n’ roll. It has performed under different names in various venues, and morphed from an amateur community group to a professional one. And now, amid donor fatigue and declining ticket sales, the farewell season is in full swing. Musicians, though, remain hopeful that they can drum up support to keep the symphony intact.”
How The Dardenne Brothers Make Films As One Auteur
Luc: “We do everything together. The only place where there’s a slight division of labor is the screenwriting process. We structure and build the story together, and then I write. … In terms of the casting, the sets, the shoot, the editing – everything we do together.” Do they ever disagree? “No.”
The Making Of A Male Ballet Virtuoso
“Men’s ballet technique, unlike women’s, finds its expression in short bursts of extreme but controlled athleticism. … There are so many things to think about at once: the position of the feet, the torque of the turns, the composure of the upper body, the shifting gaze, the placement of the arms.” Marina Harss watches one master, Ethan Stiefel, pass on secrets to ABT up-and-comer Calvin Royal.
Hip-Hop Dance Moves Are Just As Hard As Ballet, Says Darcey Bussell
“I’ve tried to do some hip hop and it is so difficult. You need so many things to be able to do hip hop – extraordinary strength and ability. … Asian dance, with the arms especially, couldn’t be more similar to classical ballet: those emphases on the tiniest amount of detail, just where a finger is.”
Jake Berthot, 75, A Romantic Sort Of Minimalist Painter
“In many ways, Mr. Berthot spent his career exploring how to supplement and expand on the modernist monochrome without straying too far from it.” After a 1996 move to rural upstate New York, “the natural world became an increasing influence. He turned to depicting trees and hills so close in tone to their backgrounds that they almost seemed carved from them.”
Milan’s Trompe-L’Oeil Church
“Standing in the doorway, you’re drawn to the majestic, cavernous space behind the altar. Rows of columns support a lofty, gilded ceiling that matches the decadently adorned arches above the pews. But it’s all a clever deception – the space behind the altar is less than 3 feet deep. The seemingly vast expanse is actually a painted wall.”
Artists Using Drones In Your Work, The FAA May Be About To Ground You
“Artists in the US could have less than a year left to freely use drones in their work. Although current flight restrictions apply only to commercial, not artistic, use of drones, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is working on new regulations that are due to be submitted to Congress by September.”
Paris’s New Concert Hall, Meant To Bridge Divides, Has Created New Ones
The location and programming of the Philharmonie de Paris, perched right on the city line next to the ring road, are aimed to reach out toward the four million people living in the capital’s northern and eastern suburbs. But they – many of them immigrants or their French-born children – are wary, even as many in the city’s established classical music audiences object to the hall’s remote location.