It was supposed to be Bahrain’s flagship cultural initiative, an art fair with international programming that would raise the profile of the Gulf State’s artists, diversify the economy and boost tourism. But after only three editions, Art Bahrain, now renamed Art Bahrain Across Borders, is facing accusations of unpaid invoices and chronic mismanagement from both exhibitors and former collaborators.
Tag: 07.23.18
Why ‘Drunk History’ Is The Ideal Corrective To Most Documentary TV
Emily Nussbaum: “It’s informational, but it doesn’t mind that you don’t know everything, because it gets that nobody does. This openheartedness makes it educational television in a broader, emotional sense — it’s like Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, or Schoolhouse Rock!, if those shows had more orgies and Nazis.”
What Orwell Knew: We’d Be Eaten By Our Screens
What’s most striking about the telescreen’s ubiquity is how right and how wrong Orwell was about our technological present. Screens are not just a part of life today: they are our lives. We interact digitally so often and in such depth that it’s hard for many of us to imagine (or remember) what life used to be like. And now, all that interaction is recorded.
Preserving Cuba’s Musical History Is No Easy Matter, Even In 2018
EGREM, the state recording label, has sound archives capturing thecomplete history of Cuban history from 1964 onward as well as a lot of what came before the Revolution. Maintaining those archives remains a struggle, thanks to very tight money and the still-not-lifted U.S. embargo. Even a clogged air-conditioner filter presents a major danger: if it can’t be repaired or replaced quickly enough, EGREM’s tapes and records could literally melt.
St. Louis Rep Gets A New Artistic Director
Hana S. Sharif has been named artistic director of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. She will succeed Steven Woolf, who is retiring at the end of the 2018-19 season after more than 30 years in the position. Currently, Sharif is associate artistic director at Baltimore Center Stage, where she has directed productions including “Pride and Prejudice,” “The Christians” and “Les Liaisons Dangereuses.”
Daniel Barenboim: ‘I Am Ashamed Of Being An Israeli Today’
“The founding fathers of the state of Israel who signed the declaration [of independence] in 1948 considered the principle of equality to be the bedrock of the society they were building. … Instead, we have a [new] law that confirms the Arab population as second-class citizens. It follows that this is a very clear form of apartheid.”
Is Lyn Gardner Suggesting That Theatres Pay For Developing A New Crop Of Critics? Or For Turning Audience Members Into Critics?
“A new approach to theatre criticism, in which theatres see developing critical voices as part of audience and artist development and invest in it accordingly in terms of both time and money, is needed. … Particularly when The Stage survey indicates that word of mouth and friends is a more trusted source of opinion than mainstream publications. Could audiences be those friends too?”
Judge Orders Return Of 2,500-Year-Old Stone Bas-Relief To Iran
“The bas-relief, which depicts a Persian guard, was seized in October by investigators for the Manhattan district attorney’s office from the Park Avenue Armory, where it was being offered for sale at an art fair. … Investigators say the item was reported stolen from Tehran in 1936, and then was stolen a second time, in 2011, from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, to which it had been donated decades earlier.”
For First Time, Graphic Novel Is Nominated For Man Booker Prize
“Nick Drnaso’s Sabrina, a work that Zadie Smith called ‘the best book — in any medium — I have read about our current moment,’ is the surprise name among the 13 finalists announced today. It appears alongside Rachel Kushner’s The Mars Room, Sally Rooney’s much-hyped Normal People and Michael Ondaatje’s Warlight.”
28 Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Students Injured In Bus Crash
The students, aged 12 to 21, were being transported from the dorms for the company’s summer instructional program to a Sunday evening recreational event when one of their buses rear-ended the other.