“We want to say that on the one hand are the good books, the hard books, the books that require dedication of the reader, of the work readers do. The books that Real Writers (apparently a self-selecting class) write. And then there are these others. Yet it’s a strange thing to watch book culture, which is itself in a perpetual stage of fear about its own decline, slice off pieces of its very own flesh.”
Tag: 10.13.12
The Welsh National Opera Gets A Large Gift – From The Getty Family
The £1.2 million ($2 million) gift comes with at least one string attached: “The works planned for the next five years include one by composer Gordon Getty, son of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty.”
Broadway Has Gone Crazy For Classics – Again
Is the revival-filled season a sign of decreasing creativity, or simply a return to seriousness? (And does it really matter?)
And The Stirling Prize For Architecture Goes To …
A new plant science institute in Cambridge “that achieves at many levels – in blending a world-class science facility with a public social space in a highly energy efficient building.”
Rescuing, And Rebranding, The Orange Prize For Fiction
“After a four-month hiatus, and a media blackout during the long, wet summer, the literary award formerly known, from 1996 to 2012, as the Orange prize announced the restoration of its original title, the Women’s Prize for Fiction (WPF). It would be funded by a group of private benefactors led by Cherie Blair and bestselling writers Joanna Trollope and Elizabeth Buchan.”
Rhetoric And Logic Mean Little In The Face Of Poetry
“Nothing is more important to the future of humanity than the freedom to make new ideas,” says poet and teacher Dorothea Lasky. And “the act of writing poetry is important for the creation of those new ideas.”
Artists Take Sides In Vancouver Debate Over New Building(s)
“The Vancouver Art Gallery is currently housed in a 1906 provincial courthouse that was renovated by Arthur Erickson Architects before its opening in 1983. People may love the location, but it’s hard to find anyone in the visual-art community who thinks the space is adequate.” What – or where – is the VAG’s next move? Artists, the board, the gallery director, and a prominent donor don’t see eye to eye.
Problem: The Museum Has Too Many Ships
How does New York’s struggling South Street Seaport Museum responsibly deaccession some of its ships? That’s hard to figure out when the original homes don’t want the ships back.
Are Nonprofit Theatres A Little Too Commercial?
A new report from the Center for the Theater Commons says that “the nonprofit theater appears to have lost sight of its values and raison d’être.” Should we blame Broadway?
This Year’s Booker Shortlist Makes Language The Winner
“Forget ‘readability’; excellence this year will be defined through language and imagination. It has been, as Stothard says, ‘an exhilarating year for fiction.'”