There are several notable ways in which civically engaged arts organizations differ from more market-driven arts organizations, including: they maintain stronger networks with other community organizations such as schools, senior centers, etc.; they consider civic engagement a key force driving the mission; they’re consciously aware of their nonprofit status.
Tag: 10.01.17
The ‘Bilbao Effect’ At 20, And Why It’s Been So Hard To Reproduce Elsewhere
“When he got to Bilbao a month before [the Guggenheim Bilbao] opened, says Frank Gehry, ‘I went over the hill and saw it shining there. I thought: ‘What the f*** have I done to these people?” … The museum was opened 20 years ago this month, by the king and queen of Spain, since when it has become the most influential building of modern times. It has given its name to the ‘Bilbao effect’ – a phenomenon whereby cultural investment plus showy architecture is supposed to equal economic uplift for cities down on their luck.” Rowan Moore looks at Gehry’s icon and his thoughts about it (he hates the idea of a “Bilbao Effect”) and at why the phenomenon hasn’t worked so well in other cities that have tried it.
I Agreed To Curate A Literary Festival. What Was I Thinking?
“Just in case you’ve ever wondered what the job of a curator is like, it’s the old duck analogy: above the waterline you’re serenely sailing along the water, moving events from venue to venue and e-mailing publishers; underneath you’re furiously paddling just to stay afloat.”
The Night Prison Guards At Rikers Stole A Dali Painting
“Their plan was poor to begin with, but the execution left everything to be desired. While he never confessed, the group’s alleged ringleader, a man with the appropriately cinematic New York name of Benny Nuzzo, is believed to have created the copy that was put into the place of the missing painting.”
Curators Trying To Collect History As It Happens Are Pretty Busy These Days
For instance, after the nightclub shooting in Orlando, a curator and her staff “drove a van through the streets in the weeks after the shooting, collecting drawings, cards and other objects from impromptu memorials, and putting up signs explaining that the tributes were being taken to a museum. Later, when the crime scene investigators were finished, she returned and persuaded the owner of the nightclub to let her have for the collection a bullet-riddled door from the bathroom and a cabinet where people had hidden.”
Progress Can – And Often Does – Cause Suffering, Says Video Artist John Akomfrah
The artist, who grew up in the shadow of London’s Battersea power station, says, “Once you become aware of the implications of climate change for future generations, it is almost as if you have to respond. But I’m not a scientist or a campaigner, I’m an artist. I’m interested in the philosophy of climate change rather than the hard science.”
An Opera For The Little Rock Nine
The opera is still being written, but it had its first major performance in Little Rock, at Central High School, to an audience that included some of the nine who integrated the school these 60 years ago. “In a scene in which the students explain why they volunteered to integrate the school, unaware of the dangers they would face, [Minnijean Brown Trickey] heard her own words from long ago sung back to her:
‘I sort of loosely thought,
So, well, why not?
I’m beautiful, I’m smart,
I’m talented. How hard,
How hard could this be?'”
A 13-Year-Old Syrian Refugee Has Won A Poetry Prize In Britain
Amineh Abou Kerech learned to speak English one year ago. How did she win a poetry prize for 10-13-year-olds? Her sister says, “She sits in her bedroom all the time and practises, practises.”
Top AJBlogs Posts For The Weekend Of 10.01.17
Hyde Park Jazz Fest, summer’s last dance (photos)
Chicago’s Hyde Park Jazz Festival in the first days of fall (Sept. 23 & 24th) which were unusually hot, is an exceptional event, curated for creative artistry, local and otherwise, drawing a highly diverse crowd Late afternoon … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond JazzPublished 2017-10-01
From Belgium, A Love Supreme
A Love Supreme by Salva Sanchis, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker/ Rosas comes to the U.S. A Love Supreme. (L to R): Thomas Vantuycom, Bilal El Had, Jason Despilieux, and José Paulo dos Santos. Photo: Maria … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2017-10-01
The Aspen Pipeline
Today, a man elected last November is othering United States citizens, POC in Puerto Rico. We should stand up to that because it’s important to call out our outrage—even though he won’t be likely to … read more
AJBlog: The Bright RidePublished 2017-09-30
Patti Smith in All the Poets
FOR the last few months I’ve been doing a series on musicians and their interest in literature and writers for the Los Angeles Review of Books. So far, all of these have been strong … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrashPublished 2017-09-29
Hear me talking to you (cont’d)
I’ve started a podcast about theater in America, a collaborative venture with Peter Marks and Elisabeth Vincentelli called Three on the Aisle. To listen to the first episode, go here. Here’s the press release, which … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2017-09-29
The Newest Tate Modern Looks Good, Especially If You’re Swimming In The Ocean
Twelve years and £20 million later, Tate St Ives has a large new room, and a lot of back-end improvements as well. “It is only a room, as Cézanne didn’t exactly say of Monet, but what a room.”