“Some forewords are transitive: acts of seduction that are at the same time documents of earlier seductions. … Other forewords are parasitical; like cuckoos’ eggs laid in crows’ nests they hatch and flourish at the expense of their hosts. … As for prefaces (and afterwords), these may be explanatory, apologetic, triumphal, tendentious, rueful, score-settling, spiteful, bibliographic, theoretical (as is the case with Chandler’s), or gently embarrassed (as is the case with Cheever’s) but the best of them — like Cheever’s — are also what I would call restorative.” — The Paris Review
Tag: 01.22.19
Funding Boom In Higher Ed Benefits The Liberal Arts
There’s a growing consensus across the donor community that the liberal arts can effectively complement the STEM model. Throw in traditional support for endowments and digitization projects, plus gifts earmarked for philosophy studies, and it becomes clear that the liberal arts funding space is more diverse and robust than one would initially suspect. – Inside Philanthropy
For The Bauhaus Centennial, Reviving Its Unique Ballet
The Berlin Academy of Arts and the Bavarian State Ballet are co-producing a revival of the 1922 Triadic Ballet by Bauhaus polymath Oskar Schlemmer. — Artnet
For Her Upcoming World Premiere, Composer Julia Wolfe Goes Shopping For Scissors
Reporter Michael Cooper joins the Pulitzer winner in the search for shears (“The big thing is the sound. I’m not really looking for how they cut.”) for her new piece about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911, Fire in my mouth, written for the New York Philharmonic and The Crossing and arriving on stage this week. — The New York Times
Google Invests Millions In Wikimedia and Gives Access To Machine Learning Tools
“It’s certainly positive that Google is investing more in Wikipedia, one of the most popular and generally trustworthy online resources in the world. But the decision isn’t altruistic: Supporting Wikipedia is also a shrewd business decision that will likely benefit Google for years to come.” – Wired
Existential Threats
Toward the end of last year someone asked what was the most important reason for arts organizations to embrace community engagement: economic viability or cultural justice. But those issues are not separate ones. — Doug Borwick
The Oscars And The “Quality” Issue
Kevin Fallon: “The real dissonance, as this year’s Oscar nominees make clear, is between Oscar voters and critics. It’s not whether voters care if their movies have been seen by the general public that is the big question anymore. It’s whether they care if their movies are good.” – The Daily Beast
Actress And Singer Kaye Ballard Dead At 93
‘[Her] antic performances took her from vaudeville and nightclubs to Broadway, regional theaters, and film and television roles, including as a sitcom star [of The Mothers-in-Law] and a frequent guest on talk shows.” — The Washington Post
Takeaways From This Year’s Oscar Nominations
The nominations reflect a completely polarized votership many of whose various constituencies can’t stand one another! The resemblance to real life is uncanny. – New York Magazine
Ten Years After Pina Bausch Died, Her Company Moves On To New Choreographers
Four of Tanztheater Wuppertal’s dancers, including veterans and new members, talk about enterting the very different artistic worlds of Dimitris Papaioannou and Alan Lucien Øyen. — The Guardian