Vogel isn’t saying this lightly. She started a play reading series in the middle of a pandemic. “The reason that I started Bard at the Gate is because I have asthma and diabetes. I was actually in rehearsal in New York, and all of us got tremendously sick and we thought, Oh, no. And I came back home to Wellfleet. And then I thought, ‘Well, it’s possible that the virus has my number.’ … [But] I don’t want to die before I see the play that I quit my job over in 1978.” – Token Theatre Friends
Tag: 07.13.20
How We Moved An Entire Dance Festival Online
Cameron Ball, Festival Manager of the UK’s U.Dance National Youth Dance Festival: “The energy of sharing a studio space and the buzz of a live audience is hard to imitate, so inevitable compromises have to be made when access is via video conference or social media stream. But this jolt into a new format has some benefits and has revealed some ways to work technology into future events, which will be retained once the industry rebuilds.” – Arts Professional
When COVID Hit, Arts Groups Put Loads Of Free Content Online. Has It Connected With People?
“Concerts, conversations, classes, collages, child-friendly shorts and more filled arts websites and social media channels daily as institutions and individuals worked to preserve relationships and remind audiences of the arts’ societal importance. Was anybody watching?” Jeremy Reynolds checked in with the performing organizations in Pittsburgh and reports that “not all content is created equal.” – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Hagia Sophia As Political Hostage
Skeptics see Erdoğan’s decree as a last-ditch call to his nationalist base for support as his political star wanes among Turkey’s youth. Even before his disastrous Covid-19 response threatened to destroy the Turkish economy (queasy about offending his religious supporters, Erdoğan failed, for example, to impose quarantines on pilgrims returning from Mecca), he was facing growing opposition over his crackdown on civil society and the judiciary and his disastrous handling of Turkey’s foreign affairs. – The New Republic
A Modern Spire For A Restored Notre Dame? Mais Non!
The idea was met with skepticism from numerous architects, conservationists, and academics, and polls showed that the majority of Parisians favored restoring Viollet-le-Duc’s design. (The original spire, built between 1220 and 1230, fell into disrepair and was dismantled in the late 1700s.) – Artnet
Bringing Tap Dance To The Cause Of Social Justice: Ayodele Casel
From blending tap steps and rhythms with Puerto Rican and other Latin music to reviving the memory of great female tappers of the past to founding a rehearsal and performance space in the South Bronx to using the arts to teach leadership skills to young women from New York City charter schools, Casel is using “the power of this art form to speak to social justice, race, identity, politics.” – Dance Magazine
How I Learned To Be An Art Critic
“How did I learn to judge between one work and another? By looking and reading and looking and reading and looking. It is not a matter of mere subjectivity. You acquire the skill to transmit your excitement before a work, feel its pulse, recognize why it comes alive, pinpoint the source of its visual allure.” – Hyperallergic
Architecture’s Existential Crisis
Suddenly, the profession was at a crossroads. Was this a time for quick, targeted, pragmatic responses to a built environment that no longer felt safe, or was this a revolutionary moment, a call to rethink everything? – Washington Post
Was Washington Ballet’s Virtual Fundraising Gala A Bad Idea After All?
Organizers of the June 18 event, for which the company’s dancers gathered to tape performances which were streamed for attendees, say they followed all CDC and local health guidelines. Nevertheless, artistic director Julie Kent and one of the performers contracted COVID. “These human costs are devastating,” writes Sarah Kaufman, “and there is another victim here: trust. … Did the ballet make the right choices to fundraise in this way, and how much can we trust it on health matters in the future?” – The Washington Post
Citing ‘Toxic’ Workplace, Montreal Museum Of Fine Arts Fires Director
“[The museum’s press] release cites a ‘toxic’ work environment and ‘several departures of key employees’ over the last year — as well as an external evaluation of the museum’s internal climate and what it calls [Nathalie] Bondil’s ‘inflexibility’ in finding a solution. … The decision also follows a week of public controversy … not only [over] the work environment complaints … but also [over] a hiring decision made by the board against Bondil’s advice last week.” – Canadian Art