“KUT in Austin, Texas Public Radio in San Antonio, KERA in Dallas and Houston Public Media have been in talks for about a year with conference calls on a near-weekly basis. … The journalism hubs are intended to increase regional coverage for both NPR and the stations participating in each collaboration.”
Tag: 08.31.18
How Funders Distort Artistic Vision
“There’s a push from the politicians to constantly fund something new. And what we really need is sustainable, long-term development. That’s how you build inclusion – because people who are excluded need to understand how they can get involved. If you keep changing the rules it’s bloody difficult for the people who are on the inside, and it becomes impossible for anyone on the outside.”
The Viola’s Big Problem
The viola is an inherently quixotic instrument. Its construction is a compromise between an acoustic ideal and human limits: For its sound to bloom as effortlessly as that of a violin or cello, its neck would need to be impossibly long. For most of the instrument’s history, composers have conspired to keep it out of the limelight, assigning it a supporting role. And chamber music conventions dictate that on the rare occasion that a viola does get the melody, it’s facing the wrong way.
The Oh-So-Brief Glory Of The Tangent Piano
That’s brief in two senses: the instrument had a heyday of just a generation or so in the second half of the 18th century (only about 20 instruments survive), and the decay of the sound is quick enough that, as musical instrument historian Cleveland Johnson puts it, “on the tangent piano, one hears not only the beginning of every note, but the end. The instrument allows [its player] to play with this space between notes.” (includes sound clips)
Ellie Mannette, Who Perfected The Steel Drum As Instrument, Dead At 90
“As a child in Port of Spain, Trinidad’s capital, Mr. Mannette became fascinated with the bands he saw using trash cans and buckets as drums, hitting them in different ways to create different sounds. For the rest of his life, he sought to elevate and expand the craft of steel-pan music, and to share it with the world. He became a master tuner, builder and teacher.”
Choreographing To Get The Obsessions Out Of His Head: Reggie Wilson
“An idea hits me and I think, Oh, that’s cool. I usually don’t follow it when it first happens. And then it will recur and recur, over and over again. It gets to the point of obsession. Making a dance will help me process it, think about it on multiple levels … Then I have to ‘get rid of it,’ which means incorporating it into my everyday existence. Then it stops being disruptive.”
A Crowdsourced Virtual Museum Commemorates Houston’s 2017 Floods
“What is the Houston Flood Museum? First off, it’s somewhere that can be visited only online. It’s a website, which went live last week, whose creators envision a platform where people can pool their stories from [Hurricane] Harvey and, perhaps one day, future storms. From shared experiences, they hope, will come understanding. And healing.”
Is Programming Better When Artists Curate?
Performing arts institutions are recognizing they need vision to make it in an increasingly tough market. And artists have vision. But just going out and hiring artists is no replacement for the kind of institutional mission that makes vision work. And putting artists in these positions without thinking through their role in the larger organization risks undermining all their efforts and, in some cases, ghettoizing contemporary music still further as something that lies outside the organization’s main mission.
Arts Council England Reports Major Drop In London Arts Attendance
The figures include a dramatic decline of 17m (28%) in attendance and visits at London’s NPOs, which was marginally offset by modest increases in some other parts of the country.
Dance Is Thriving In The Catskills. But Is It Too Much?
The increase in activity is exciting, but as more and more dance residencies and presenters crop up, some of the people in charge have begun to express concerns about overcrowding even as they float dreams of synergy. Will the competition for financial support and audiences be zero sum? Or might the influx be beneficial to all, turning the region into a cultural destination, like the Berkshires?