Tag: 07.23.20

No More Dead Guys On Horses: Reimagining The Entire Idea Of Public Monuments In The U.S.

Historically, the purpose of monuments, says Ken Lum of Monument Lab in Philadelphia, “has been to activate or even sustain a certain narrative of memory which people of influence have deemed worthy or important to maintain. They are mnemonic devices.” And, traditionally, they’ve usually been large sculptures of men. (If they were of women, those women were usually fictional or allegorical figures rather than actual people.) But that has changed over the past few decades, with the standard-bearer being Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Now that a whole slew of old-style monuments is being removed, Carolina Miranda looks at what might be replacing them. – Los Angeles Times

New Project Aims To Get More Black Theater Professionals Backstage As Well As Onstage

“Career opportunity on Broadway doesn’t begin at the box office, but in the front office. And that’s where T. Oliver Reid, Warren Adams and their fellow advocates have set their sights in a campaign to massively increase black employment in the theater business. Their effort — under the banner of a new organization, the Black Theatre Coalition — is already making an impact.” – The Washington Post

TikTok Will Spend $200 Million On Creators (How And On Which Creators? Good Question)

“TikTok is launching a program to fund its most popular creators directly for their videos — with an initial $200 million earmarked for the U.S. … How much individual creators will be eligible to earn — and what specific criteria those payments will be based on — isn’t fully clear.” But you can apply starting in August. – Variety

Kennedy Center Will Reopen Its Large Theaters Next January

Pandemic permitting, the Center and its resident companies, the National Symphony Orchestra and Washington National Opera, plan to present performances for full audiences n its three large venues early in the New Year, with a few socially distanced, small-scale or outdoor performances before then. The big Broadway touring shows won’t be back until May. – The Washington Post

Andrew Lloyd Webber Tries Putting On A Socially Distanced West End Show

It was a one-time pilot project, performed in front of 640 people spread out through the Palladium, one of London’s biggest theatres. The program: one singer, Beverley Knight, doing two half-hour sets separated by an intermission. Alex Marshall reports on how it went. (ALW’s reaction on seeing the “full” house: “I’ve got to say this is a rather sad sight.”) – The New York Times

Misty Copeland On How Protests Are Waking Up The Dance World

“It’s the first time in my position that I feel like I’m truly being heard,” she explains of how she’s using her voice to raise awareness, later adding, “This has been my life’s work as a dancer: speaking about racism in the world, and in ballet, speaking about the lack of diversity. And to have my company, to have the ballet world listening, and to have different panels to speak about this—in a way that I have before, but again, for the first time, people are really seeing it. And I think that’s what’s different about this time, is that I feel like we have true allies and people from other communities and races that we’ve not had before.” – The Root

Why Pandemic Literature Doesn’t Work (So Far)

No one has had time to truly refine their ideas about personal life in a state of widespread isolation and existential dread, and literature, even when political, is a fundamentally personal realm. It relies on the ability to channel inner experience outward, and because no inner experience of the coronavirus pandemic could plausibly be described as complete, prose that renders it static and comprehensible rings false. – The Atlantic

Nyerges on the Purges: Virginia MFA’s Director Defends Bondil, Himself, Other Beleaguered Leaders

Already battered financially by the pandemic, many art museums now find themselves barraged by attacks from aggrieved staffers and former employees accusing the higher-ups of racism, harassment and micro-aggressions. But until Alex Nyerges candidly responded to my post about the firing of Montreal Museum of Fine Arts director Nathalie Bondil, I hadn’t come across any major museum officials who dared to publicly contradict the critics. – Lee Rosenbaum