Tag: 05.19.15

Back From Triumphant Visit To Cuba, Minnesota Orchestra Signs New Contracts With Osmo Vänskä And Musicians

Just 17 months ago, as the lockout dragged on and Osmo resigned as music director, it seemed just possible that the MinnOrch could shut down entirely. Now Osmo is signed through 2018-29 and the musicians through 2019-20, donors have pledged $6.5 million in new money to fund it all, and – get this – negotiations were completed with no lawyers involved.

John Luther Adams Is Crowdsourcing A Sound Installation For the Met Museum’s New Building (The Old Whitney)

“Soundwalk 9:09 … will ask NYC wanderers to email field recordings from the blocks separating what Adams calls the ‘Big Met’ and the new building. When the collection period ends on July 31, Adams will begin molding the recordings into a piece that will last exactly as long as its title, nine minutes and nine seconds. ‘I find the breath of the city itself, that roar, really beautiful, like the roar of the sea,’ Adams says.”

‘Turn To The Pigs For Inspiration’: How I Became A Countryside Choreographer

Ben Duke: “I am currently working on a solo version of Paradise Lost. I am playing God. I haven’t seen him around here any more than I did in London, but such a self-obsessed bit of casting is easier down here where there are far fewer people to tell me it is a stupid idea. If it doesn’t work out, I will turn to the pigs for inspiration.”

New York’s New Pop-Up Theatre Built For An Audience Of One

“Many theater owners like to say they offer an intimate show but only one really means it. That would be Theatre for One – a 4-foot-by-8 foot portable theater that allows one audience member at a time to see one short play performed by a single actor. … This year, new plays were commissioned from Craig Lucas, Will Eno, Lynn Nottage, Jose Rivera, Thomas Bradshaw, Zayd Dohrn and Emily Schwend.”

Is This The Year Of The Very Long Novel? Or Does It Only Seem Like It?

“Maybe it was ever thus? ‘I don’t think the long novel ever went away,’ says Jennifer Brehl, who edited Neal Stephenson’s forthcoming 880-page sci-fi story Seveneves. … But the notable thing about these books isn’t that their heft is unprecedented; it’s that all the forces Hallberg alluded to in 2010″ – basically, culture-wide gadget-induced ADD – “are exponentially stronger today.”

Brooklyn Museum Appoints Anne Pasternak As New Director

“The choice of Ms. Pasternak is unusual because she has never held a job in a museum. After a brief period working for a commercial art gallery, her career has unfolded entirely within the nonprofit world of up-by-your-bootstraps alternative spaces and nomadic arts groups. But at Creative Time, where she assumed the directorship in 1994, she had become well known for both her socially engaged programming and her skills in negotiating the shoals of New York City government, real estate and fund-raising, where she made artistic events accessible partly by removing them from museums.”

Poll: Americans Think Art Is “Important” But Unsure About…

Beyond the study’s muddled findings about the ways US citizens value visual art (or don’t), YouGov’s more tangential poll questions turned up some amusing results. For instance, when asked “Do you own any paintings, sculptures, or other art works?” a full 4% of respondents — or about 40 people among the 1,000 polled — said they were “not sure.”

Surprise: Whitney Museum Announces A New Chief Curator

“At a meeting with the board of trustees on May 19, director Adam Weinberg announced that Scott Rothkopf, 38, is getting a promotion to chief curator. Currently the Nancy and Steve Crown family curator and associate director of programs, his new title will be deputy director for programs and Nancy and Steve Crown family chief curator. The current chief curator, Donna De Salvo, will be moving into a newly created position: deputy director for international initiatives and senior curator.”