Tag: 03.11.19

Hirshhorn Museum Wants New Sculpture Garden To Be ‘A New Front Door On The Mall’

“Seeking to raise its visibility and welcome more visitors, the Hirshhorn Museum plans to redesign its sunken sculpture garden to create an expanded entrance on the Mall and directly connect the artsy oasis to the museum’s main plaza.” Says the board chairman, “You have 25 million people walking on the Mall every year and right now our garden is largely invisible.” – The Washington Post

If Attention Is Currency, Critics Need To Reconsider How They Spend It

“It’s time for arts writers, critics, journalists, gatekeepers, and arbiters of culture—anyone whose job it is to bestow attention onto others—to reconsider how to allocate that currency. More specifically, the most responsible thing we can do, as people who professionally dole out attention, is to withhold it more often than not. But hear me out—there’s more to it than that.” Oregon Arts Watch

Should Spotify Ban Michael Jackson And R Kelly From Its Platform?

There’s a big difference between no-platforming and not promoting. I know that’s obvious, but it feels like this distinction isn’t stressed enough in debates about free speech. Spotify was right to remove Kelly from its featured playlists because that equals promotion. And it was right not to ban his songs altogether because that gets you into really dangerous territory: it turns the likes of Spotify into a moral arbiter and opens up a can of worms about who deserves to be banned next. – The Guardian

A Dance Company For Black Women, Without Mirrors, Music, Or Body-Shaming

“Incorporating four components into their practice: dance, discussion, writing and American Sign Language, dance company BLAQ works to give black women a space where they can be free of the stereotypes and discrimination they experience in daily life and heal through the unfiltered expression of dance.” Reporter Becca Most visits the Minneapolis studio with BLAQ founder Deja Stowers. – AP (Minnesota Daily)

Once Again Trump Proposes Killing PBS. Congress Won’t. So Why Keep Trying?

There are a few reasons. A presidential budget is essentially a messaging tool these days, a way to show your supporters that you’re addressing their priorities; Congress has to actually decide where real money will go. Just about every member of Congress has a public radio or TV station in his or her district; any transition from rhetoric to reality would be felt back home. But it’s also because public broadcasting is actually pretty popular and pretty trusted by Americans. – NiemenLab

Composer-Pianist Lives His (Other) Dream — And Has A Finger Snap Off ‘Like A Twig’

“Yotam Haber is an established composer and pianist, an assistant professor at the University of New Orleans, a former artistic director of New York’s MATA festival and winner of a Guggenheim fellowship and a Koussevitzky Foundation commission, among many other honors and awards. Since childhood, though, he has had another dream: to race sled dogs in Alaska. Last week, Haber’s dream came true” — but at quite a cost. – The Washington Post

Actors Theatre Of Louisville Appoints Artistic Director

“After a nationwide search that began in 2017, Actors Theatre of Louisville has found its new artistic director — Robert Barry Fleming, a Kentucky native who was previously working as associate artistic director of the Cleveland Play House. Fleming will replace Les Waters, who announced his departure from the organization after leading it for seven years.” – Inside Louisville

Cellist George Neikrug, 100

He served as principal cellist with the Baltimore Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and was a widely admired teacher, and he’s best remembered for a still-legendary 1960 performance at Carnegie Hall of Ernest Bloch’s Schelomo with the NBC Symphony under Leopold Stokowski. – The Strad