“After nearly a yearlong legal wrangle, a court in St. Petersburg has ruled in favour of the State Russian Museum staff who have been fighting against plans for a $17m overhaul of the Mikhailovsky Palace, the museum’s main building. The plaintiffs argued that the refurbishment would damage the museum’s architectural heritage and museum collections.” The judge is being called a hero for having the courage to rule against a government project. – The Art Newspaper
Tag: 06.10.19
Utah Symphony’s Thierry Fischer To Succeed Marin Alsop At São Paulo State Symphony
Alsop, who is currently music director of the Baltimore Symphony and begins as chief conductor of the Vienna Radio Symphony this fall, steps down from Brazil’s leading orchestra at the end of this year. Fischer, who will remain the Utah Symphony’s music director through the 2021-22 season, begins in São Paulo next March, after the summer break there. – Gramophone
Brazil’s Museums Exempted From Bolsonaro’s Massive Change To Cultural Funding Law
“Among the changes [to the “Rouanet Law“] due to come into effect next year is the reduction of the annual funding cap per project from 60m reais ($15.44m) to 1m reais ($257,000), but museums, material and immaterial heritage projects, conservation initiatives and some entertainment productions will be exempt.” – The Art Newspaper
How America Became Obsessed With Drag Queens
What was once a glittery subculture on the edge of gay culture has become one of our global pop preoccupations with its own hierarchy of stars and story lines for the fans to get behind, marketing deals and Billboard chart-toppers. – New York Magazine
Do The Tony Awards Point The Way Forward?
The Tonys ceremony, a local party opened to the nation by the patronage of CBS, is a more welcoming showcase for idealism than the billion-dollar business of Broadway. But in paying tribute to those artists who stopped our breath with the unimpeachable honesty of their gifts, the awards point the way forward. – Los Angeles Times
Why Is The Tony Awards Show So Bland?
There’s a disconnect between the insistence on the theater world’s wokeness and the blandness and inoffensiveness of the show. Or perhaps there isn’t. – The New York Times
Why Did A Hedge Fund Buy Barnes & Noble? Can Anything Save It?
Barnes & Noble will probably never be the cultural and commercial force it once was, even if it doesn’t end up quite those dire straits. It has missed too many opportunities by now. But it still has a chance to write a next chapter that doesn’t include its demise. – Bloomberg
Two Actors On Their Way To Perform Assaulted In Homophobic Attack In England
The two actors were embracing in the street when “‘assailants verbally abused them and thew stones at them from their car window,’ with one of the actors being hit in the face by a stone.” – The Stage (UK)
Is Notre-Dame’s Restoration Becoming A Symbol Of Macron’s Gung-Ho Presidency?
Ah, of course. Of course. “Instead of being a unifying project, the vexed question of the restoration of the Notre Dame has become a metaphor for the battle between Macron’s modernising ‘startup nation’ vision of France, and the large number of French citizens who don’t want anything to do with it.” – The Guardian (UK)
The Art Of Protest In Putin’s Russia
To put it bluntly, Russia is terrible for activists and artists. Both? Wow. So, for the ones who haven’t fled the country, it’s necessary to find new, creative ways to protest the repression, preferably without becoming a martyr. – BBC