“Depending on whom you talk to, the 48-year-old ballet group is either facing imminent death or simply weathering the kind of economic storm that periodically afflicts many nonprofit arts groups. But a bright side has emerged as TBT goes about righting the ship. The groundswell of support that rose up when the company’s troubles came to light may have surprised even the ballet organizers, and it has brought in well over $1 million thus far.”
Tag: 09.17.08
The End Of Publishing? (Depends On How You Look At It)
“A certain segment of the publishing industry is in jeopardy: literary (with a capital L) fiction. More specifically, literary fiction from New York publishers. Look at who is doing the hand-wringing, who is doing the worrying. If this is the end (and it’s not), then what, exactly, is ending? There is much to be done for the publishing business to become a lean, mean, 21st (and beyond) century machine. The industry as a whole is woefully behind when it comes to digitization of books.”
UK Survey: Kids’ Reading Losing Ground To TV, Internet
“A survey of more than 1,500 parents by books charity Booktrust found that only one in three parents are reading to their children daily, down from 43% two years ago. The average four to five-year-old spends twice as long watching TV every week as they do reading with their parents, while secondary school starters spend more time doing their chores (46 minutes) than reading with their parents (41 minutes).”
How Data Are Controlling More Of Our Lives
“In recent years a new technology has emerged: computer programs that will drill through it all to pick out patterns and trends — information that may be useful to marketers, politicians, employers, doctors, matchmakers or national-security analysts. Such programs are extraordinarily sophisticated, and their creators need to be very clever indeed.”
How Do You Get To Be A Washington State- Approved Artist?
This year, 335 artists submitted applications to be on the state’s roster, which is updated every two years. Only 68 of them, or 20 percent, made the cut — meaning that at least three of the five judges voted “yes.”
The Disappearance Of Specialist Conductors
“Why has the music industry stopped interpreters from following their natural instincts and being true to themselves? We need to find another [conductor like Vernon Handley]. If we don’t, what we face is a future of all-purpose performers, good at most things and outstanding at none.”
Lessons From The Hirst Sale: Art Market Is Immune To Bad Economy
“The auction’s triumph suggests that the current art market is invulnerable to a general economic slowdown, in part because purchases of high-end art tend to involve long waits for specific works or pieces by in-demand artists–not impulse buys easily discouraged by downbeat headlines. Plus, collectors are typically cash-rich individuals or institutions, and today more of them are from Russia and the Persian Gulf States.”
Lost Your Job? Will Free Theatre Tickets Cheer You Up?
Theatre impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber is offering free tickets to two of his West End musicals to bankers who have become unemployed in the credit crunch.
The Nobels Of The Arts World – This Year’s Praemium Imperiale
The ¥15 million (ca. $142,000) award, presented by the Japan Art Association for painting, architecture, sculpture, music and theater/film, is intended as an arts-world equivalent to the Nobels. They go to to Richard Hamilton, Peter Zumthorn, the Kabakovs, Zubin Mehta, Sakata Tojuro.
Cirque du Soleil Pulls Out Of 2010 Olympics
“Cirque du Soleil will not be part of the Vancouver 2010 opening or closing ceremonies despite high expectations that Canada’s premier entertainment group would appear. A source close to the company blames tight control exerted over the creative process by VANOC and the IOC.”