New York City To Develop A Plan For Culture

“The legislation, which the City Council passed by a vote of 49 to 0 on Tuesday, requires the city to analyze its current cultural priorities, assess how service to different neighborhoods can be improved, study the condition of arts organizations and artists, and plan how the city can remain artist-friendly in a time of high rents and other economic pressures.”

Actor-Playwright Gets Naked To Give France’s Culture Minister A Dressing-Down On Live TV

At the award ceremony for the Molières, the country’s top theatre honors, Sébastien Thiéry came onstage completely nude to scold Fleur Pellerin: “Do you know, madame minister, that playwrights are the only ones in the profession not to have the right to receive unemployment benefits? Do you think that’s fair? … Why this discrimination? Is it because we are physically ugly?”

Dancing With Your Ex In A Piece You Made Together (It Doesn’t Have To Be Awkward)

Damien Jalet: “There was definitely a question mark when suddenly we were not a couple. Would we continue to perform this? There was a moment of transition – it was tough because, with each performance, you go back to where you were in your life when you were creating it. But for [Sidi] Larbi [Cherkaoui] and I, work had been such an important part in our relationship. We felt it was beautiful to preserve that.”

Trumpeter Rolf Smedvig, 62

“Perhaps best known as one of the founding members of the widely acclaimed Empire Brass Quintet, Smedvig enjoyed a busy career as a soloist with major orchestras, including those in Boston, Chicago and Cincinnati. In 1973, the 19-year-old Smedvig was hired as assistant principal trumpet of the Boston Symphony by music director Seiji Ozawa. Smedvig, then the youngest member of the orchestra, moved up to principal trumpet in 1979.”

Does Piano Music Help Patients In Medical Waiting Rooms?

“In the journal Musicae Scientiae, Michael Silverman and Jon Hallberg of the University of Minnesota describe a small program they created and implemented in which music students—specifically, classical pianists and guitarists—spent time performing in a primary care clinic waiting area. Subsequent interviews with staff members of the clinic found their reaction was overwhelmingly positive.”

‘The Wire,’ The Burning Of Baltimore And The Limits Of Art

“The conflagration in Baltimore is a reminder that art’s power can work both in service of change and against it. Watching a fictional story is not precisely the same thing as bearing witness. And when consuming that story becomes a substitute for action or an argument that action is futile, fiction can paralyze us just as surely as it can inspire us.”