What many may not realize is that when Devos isn’t busy gutting unions, spreading the word of God or reminding us that “nothing in life is free” (except her multimillion-dollar inheritance), she and her family are quite active in the arts world. In 2010, Betsy and her husband, Dick, donated $22 million to the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, to endow its Arts Management Institute. Her family also founded and funds ArtPrize, a renowned international arts competition that takes over the streets of Grand Rapids, MI every fall.
Tag: 07.19.17
How Much Adult Content Is Desirable In Children’s Theatre?
“I as a director do not feel it is my responsibility to have a dialogue with a young person about subject matter that should be left to the parents. So to do a scene that is dealing with sex — I mean, I have trouble even just communicating a kiss and the emotion of love and attraction, let alone talking through a scene where they’re having sex. There’s no way I could ever do anything like that.”
John Luther Adams – A Life In Music (And Environment)
“You know, I went north all those years ago, as a romantic young crusader and artist, and I imagined that in Alaska I could step outside my own culture — which is patently ridiculous. But somehow I was able to draw music from the air and the earth, and that has served me well. Even though it’s obviously a ridiculous idea, it’s given me a life’s work.”
Why You Can Feel Exhausted After Just Sitting At Your Computer All Day
“The human body reacts to stress in many of the same ways regardless of whether the source is mental, like a difficult math problem, or physical, like running. … If you’re conscious, your brain demands your energy, and lots of it. Using your brain takes real, honest, physical work – it’s just not visible to us the way using our muscles to exercise is.”
Why Progressive Rock Gets No Respect (But It Should)
Pop culture at large has enjoyed mocking prog obsession via negative portrayals of prog-rock fans (see: the weird misfit characters of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Buffalo ’66, for example). But, David Weigel argues, the genre doesn’t get enough credit for its dynamism and inventiveness.
Scientists Report Birds Use Jazz Technique In Their Songs
The ‘swinging’ birds were found after scientists used mathematical analysis to study the song of the thrush nightingale. The nightingale’s song deviates slightly in its note timing, making it more ‘expressive’ like a jazz swing track, the researchers, from the Max Planck Institute in Frankfurt, Germany, found.
Small Music Venues In The UK Are Disappearing – Is The Arts Council’s Support Of Classical Music To Blame?
“Across the UK, music venues that have flourished for decades have begun to disappear. This week, the Music Venue Trust, the charity that supports the interests of Britain’s small music venues, questioned Arts Council England’s decision to reject its application for funding. The trust argues that while Arts Council England does much to support new music, with money for the internet radio station NTS, live-streaming Boiler Room and contemporary music curators Capsule to name but three, 85% of its music funding has been allotted to opera and classical music, according to the charity, with £96m given to the Royal Opera House alone.”
If SoundCloud Shuts Down, You Know What? Music Will Be Okay
“The panic was illuminating, because there shouldn’t have been a panic in the first place. … ‘If SoundCloud is no more,’ Los Angeles rapper-producer Jonwayne tweeted, ‘people will continue to make music. Another [better] aggregate will take its place. We won’t miss it.’ … Singer-rapper D.R.A.M. offered a similar sentiment: ‘We gon’ be alright, I promise.'”
If The Confederacy Won: ‘Game Of Thrones’ Creators Plan Alt-History Series In Which Slavery Is Legal And Third Civil War (!) Is Coming
“HBO said that the show” – titled Confederate – “would portray events leading to a Third Civil War and follow ‘a broad swath of characters on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Demilitarized Zone – freedom fighters, slave hunters, politicians, abolitionists, journalists, the executives of a slaveholding conglomerate and the families of people in their thrall.'” (The Twitterverse does not seem to like the idea.)
Yes, Tony Kushner Is Writing A Play About Donald Trump
“The play, he says, will not focus on the Trump presidency itself, but will be set two years before the election. Kushner says he will try to write Trump as a direct character, rather than anything oblique or symbolic. ‘He’s the kind of person, as a writer, I tend to avoid as I think he is borderline psychotic,’ Kushner says. ‘I definitely think that incoherence lends itself well to drama, but he really is very boring. It’s terrifying because he has all the power, but without the mental faculties he ought to have.”