The fundraising goal is gutsy for an organization of the Holocaust Museum’s size and relative youth. Its operating expenses were $116 million in 2016, according to tax filings that reported a federal grant of $53 million. In comparison, the Smithsonian Institution, which completed a $1.5 billion fundraising campaign last year, reported its annual budget at about $1.3 billion, or 13 times that of the Holocaust Museum.
Tag: 04.10.18
Unpublished J.R.R. Tolkien Book To Hit Shelves This Summer
“JRR Tolkien’s The Fall of Gondolin, his tale of a beautiful, mysterious city destroyed by dark forces which the Lord of the Rings< .em> author called ‘the first real story’ of Middle-earth, will be published in August. [It] will be the second ‘new’ Tolkien work to be released in two years, following the release of Beren and Lúthien in May 2017.”
Trying To Get A Better Understanding Of Consciousness
“Some say the gap—between nerve cells and life, the brain and the mind, objective reality and the subjective—will never be understood, because such understanding is beyond our human capacity. But I think it is possible to answer the question of how the brain becomes the mind. We just need to change our thinking.”
Cecil Taylor’s ‘Challenging’ Avant-Garde Jazz Was More Accessible Than (Some) People Think
“Consider the reaction of another listener: Jimmy Carter. In 1978, the president, not renowned as an especially sophisticated jazz listener, hosted a jazz festival at the White House. Most of the bill was reasonably mainstream, if widely varying in style – Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz, Clark Terry, Chick Corea – but it also included Taylor, who must have been hard-pressed to fit his expansive music into the requisite five-minute slot. The music was far from plain, but the man from Plains was agog. … ‘The president took the pianist’s two hands in his own, looking at them with wonderment and awe. ‘I’ve never seen anyone play the piano that way,’ he marveled.'” (includes sound clips)
Geffen Playhouse Begins New Playwrights’ Residency, ‘The Writers’ Room’
“The Writers’ Room will be led by Rachel Wiegardt-Egel, the [Los Angeles theater’s] newly named manager of New Play Development. A group of playwrights will each receive one-year residences beginning in September. There they can give each other feedback on plays, receive dramaturgical support, work with a director and actors, and read their plays to the public.”
Smithsonian To Open Satellite Museum In London
“The Smithsonian Institution has confirmed that it will work with the Victoria and Albert Museum to set up a joint gallery and exhibition programme in East London, on the former Olympic site. Yesterday (9 April) the Smithsonian’s regents (trustees) gave formal approval for their first base outside the US.”
Juilliard Selects Its Next Director Of Dance
“Alicia Graf Mack, an educator and former performer with Dance Theater of Harlem and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, will become the director of the dance division at Juilliard … She will begin in July, when Damian Woetzel, the former New York City Ballet principal, takes over as Juilliard’s president.”
Choreographer Donald McKayle, First Black Man To Direct A Broadway Musical, Dead At 87
“He performed with modern-dance pioneers Martha Graham and José Limón while still in his teens. At 21, he formed his own dance company, whose members included such renowned figures as Alvin Ailey, Arthur Mitchell and Eliot Feld. [He] also choreographed several early works that have become acknowledged as modern-dance classics.” In 1974 he directed and choreographed Raisin, a musical adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, for which he received two Tony nominations; he received further nominations for choreography for Doctor Jazz (1975) and Sophisticated Ladies (1981).
Patti LuPone Says YouTube Personalities Are Stealing Work From ‘Legitimate’ Stage Actors
“The business is horrible, it’s been horrible forever and it’s worse now because of Twitter and Facebook and YouTube, so legitimate actors that have trained in the profession have a harder time getting hired than personalities on YouTube, or on Twitter.” And what’s more, movie stars “should come to the stage with the right intention. And they should be stage-worthy, not try to come to the stage for credibility.”
Women Performers Have Been At The Heart Of The Circus For 250 Years, And They’re Still Breaking Paths Today
“It has been 250 years since ‘modern’ circus was born with Philip Astley’s invention of the equestrian ring in London in 1768. … What is often overlooked about that first event is that Patty Astley, a talented equestrian, was right there alongside her husband in the creation of modern circus. As part of her act, she rode around the ring with her hands and arms covered in bees. The history of circus is replete with powerful, talented female performers and artists. But they have often been overlooked in favour of their male counterparts.”