Diversifying The Arts Also Means Diversifying Boards

“Our staffs increasingly reflect the communities in which we operate.  But our Boards do not.  Larger, euro-centric mainstay arts organization boards are largely composed of an elite group.  Even in those cases where Boards have succeeded in recruiting people of color, more women and LGBTQ people, those individuals tend to be more highly educated, wealthier, and successful – from the privileged class.  And that’s not surprising.  Many organizations depend on their Boards to both contribute and to fund raise, and those with wealth and networks of people of wealth, are far more likely to be able to both contribute and successfully fundraise.”

*Of Course* ‘Sleep No More’ Performers Get Groped – And The Show’s Not Worth It

Lauren Wingenroth: “Last month, Buzzfeed News confirmed 17 instances of groping or sexual misconduct by patrons of the immersive theater show Sleep No More. Having experienced the show for the first time just a week before the story broke, I can’t say I was surprised by the accusations. … At every step of my two and a half hour journey through the show, I felt that the safety of the performers – and of the audience – was being compromised for the sake of an experience that just wasn’t worth the risk.”

When Literature Matters? When People Hate It

One problem is that the hatred of literature, found across the political spectrum, now conforms to the dimmest clichés of anti-literature without harboring any of its intensity. As far as I can tell, the usual suspects of today’s anti-literature comprise a short list: evangelical Christians, who occasionally aim to ban books on the basis that they are Godless; Enlightenment-core scientists, like Richard Dawkins, who admonish literature because it can’t access the Real promised and delivered by science; and, occasionally, well-intentioned progressives and leftists who want to correct literature by eliminating certain authors rather than undertaking the more difficult work of challenging their writings—their style, form, or content—through literary criticism.

How Contemporary Events Change The Context In Which We See Classic Theatre

As the national dialogue around gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity, disability and other factors is continually evolving, the theatrical canon is being rewritten daily. Will audiences not already in love with My Fair Lady find the relationship between Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle a budding romance that leads to equality between two people of different classes – or is it a document of a man moulding a woman into his ideal, for his own ends?

He’s Been Dead 100 Years, And He’s Still The First Modern Composer: Stephen Hough Writes About Claude Debussy

“Although it was Debussy’s orchestral work Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune that Pierre Boulez described as ‘the beginning of modern music,'” writes the MacArthur-winning pianist, “it was always at the piano where his revolutionary new approach to form and timbre developed.” (includes sound clips played by Hough and a playlist of his favorite Debussy recordings)

David Hallberg Injured Again

He was performing alongside Natalia Osipova in the Royal Ballet’s Giselle in London when he somehow hurt himself (no details were given) early in Act One. While he finished the act, he did not return to the stage after intermission. “Mr. Hallberg returned to the stage just 14 months ago, after a two-and-a-half-year injury-filled break and a painful, painstaking fight back to physical prowess. (Dancing with Ms. Osipova again, he has said, was one of his strongest motivations.)”

France’s Highest Court Throws Out Conviction Of Picasso’s Electrician For Possessing Stolen Artworks

In 2015, Pierre Le Guennec and his wife Danielle were given suspended sentences of two years in prison after authorities discovered a cache of 271 works by Picasso, believed to be stolen, stored in the couple’s garage. Now France’s Court of Cassation has ruled that prosecutors presented insufficient evidence that the artworks were actually stolen and has ordered the case to be retried.

Time For Dancers To Stand Up And Speak Out!

Supply and demand is one thing, but it’s heartbreaking to hear that lousy conditions follow. Does it have to be that way? The idea of self-value brings me back to the Ailey dancers, and why their disobedience — their independence — is encouraging. As artists elsewhere have been speaking up about their treatment, the Ailey dancers, in their acts of wordless absence, have joined those ranks. Theirs is a story of dancers finding a voice in a very public way, and drawing strength from one another. Dance can be seen as a passive world, until a group of artists boycotts their gala. By spotlighting the economics behind what they do, they reveal another facet of a dancer’s life.