“Knowledge is not a lean-back process; it’s a lean-forward activity. Just because public domain content is online and indexed doesn’t mean that those outside the small self-selected group of scholars already interested in it will ever discover it and engage in it.”
Tag: 08.23.11
What It Feels Like To Have The Movie You Wrote Flop
Sean Hood: “When you work ‘above the line’ on a movie (writer, director, actor, producer, etc.) watching it flop at the box office is devastating. I had such an experience during the opening weekend of Conan the Barbarian 3D.”
Restored Bolshoi Theater To Have An Organ
“It was quite a journey, but finally the 1,819 tubes for the huge instrument made it to Moscow: an eight-ton [custom-made] organ from Belgium is now housed at the reconstructed Bolshoi Theater.” (The auditorium had not previously had an organ.)
Paper-Pushing That’s Really Useful: Partitions That Can Make Disaster Shelters Bearable
“Canadian studio Molo has designed a system of paper partitions that provide privacy at shelters in the wake of a disaster. … Like an accordion, the kraft paper walls can expand and contract until they meet the edge of another wall. … [They] require only a few people to assemble with minimal instructions and no tools.”
What It Takes To Do A Butoh Workshop
“The instructor is down on his knees, peering between my legs, licking his lips like a pervert. ‘You’re a woman,’ he tells me, ‘naked from the waist down, walking across a glass floor. Everyone is watching you from below.’ As I walk mindfully across the room, he commands me not to act, but to be the ekisu, or essence, of that woman.”
Annals Of Innovative Fundraising: Iowa Arts Center Offers Naming Rights For Toilets
“So it’s come to this: A recently renovated arts center in Cedar Rapids is selling the naming rights to its shiny new toilets. For just $1,000, donors can name one of six urinals or 15 commodes in Legion Arts’ 110-year-old social hall, which recently underwent a $7 million renovation prompted by the floods of 2008.”
New Antiquities Chief Appointed In Egypt
Mohamed Abdel Fattah is expected to wield less power than Mr. Hawass, a media celebrity who was credited with increasing tourism and securing the return of antiquities from foreign museums and collectors.
Philadelphia’s Next Music Director Offers A Week’s Free Work
“Yannick Nézet-Séguin is adding an extra week of conducting to his 2011 activities with the Philadelphia Orchestra – and isn’t charging for his time and trouble.”
Chicago Lyric Opera And Union Agree To 5% Wage Cuts
The American Guild of Musicians and Artists (AGMA), the “union representing Lyric Opera of Chicago’s principal singers, choristers, non-singing actors, dancers and production staff has ratified a one-year contract calling for a 5 percent cut in base salaries.”
The Problem With Arts Conferences
Many of these events “have, at best, been a showcase of great work without much other content and, at worst, been mutual commiserating or back-scratching. I know the big conversations happen, around the country, daily. Arts organisations are innovating, taking risks, finding new methods and partners for collaboration. So why doesn’t this creative, intelligent, forward-thinking attitude translate into organising good conferences?”