10.20.16 – Page 2 – ArtsJournal Wayback

Thom Jones, 71, The Janitor Who Became A Literary Star In The 90s

Even during the years when he was working in factories, pushing a broom, getting fired from jobs, battling illness and going through rehab, Mr. Jones always thought of himself as a writer. “I’m a great believer in fate, and I believe that all those things in my life had to happen — being a drunk, a boxer, the epilepsy, the diabetes,” he told the Seattle Times. “You have to suffer a lot before you can be a writer of fiction.”

What The CIA’s “Secret” Abstract Art Collection Says About Spies, Politics And Art

The original 11 paintings still hang on the walls of the agency’s headquarters, “represent[ing] an elemental approach to art [and] a swashbuckling donor,” according to a brief blurb on the agency’s website. What these paintings represent about the CIA’s relationship to the art world, though, is more complicated. On these walls, the intersection between US art and politics is especially busy.

Seattle International Film Festival Gets A New Director

Seattle International Film Festival, the largest film festival in the country, has been searching for a new executive director for a year. Thursday morning they announced they’ve found one in Sarah Wilke, who has been the managing director at Seattle’s premier contemporary performing arts haus, On the Boards, for the last 12 years. She’ll take over for interim director Christine Martin in January.

Philly’s Theatrical Decency Cop (He Was An Actual Policeman)

“For most of two decades, Detective Sgt. Jake Gomborow was usually the cop on the aisle. … ‘Acting under instructions, I attended the performance [of a drama titled King Hunger] … on Saturday evening, December 6th, 1924. The acting in the entire play, aside from the few vulgar and sacrilegious remarks, was weird and gruesome, and in my opinion, the average audience in any theatre would have walked out before the show was over. My reason for not stopping the performance was because it is in its first American appearance.”

So How Hard Is It To Work As A Black Ballerina?

“Many company directors – consciously or not – think, ‘I don’t know if it looks like ballet if it doesn’t look like 12 identical swans.’ … While dancers and company directors … say it’s extremely difficult for black dancers to get a job in a ballet company – especially if that company already has a ‘token’ black ballerina – they acknowledge that the task of diversifying dance troupes is made more difficult by social attitudes besides racial division.”

Pittsburgh Symphony Management And Musicians Agree On About As Much As Trump And Clinton

“Most of those disagreements have to do with the future: how much money the musicians, who have been on strike since Sept. 30, will make; how their retirements will be funded; and what the organization’s five-year financial forecast should look like. But … the two sides also differ over basic matters that have already taken place, such as whether the musicians were notified about the latest concert cancellations before management announced them to the public, and whether the musicians permitted management to give them a presentation about the organization’s finances.”

Aroma Artist Wins $100K Hugo Boss Prize

“Known for her collaborations with biologists and pungent Petri dish works, [Anicka] Yi exhibits smell as sculpture. ‘It isn’t unusual to smell a work by Yi before seeing it stewing in a corner or leaking down a wall,’ Beau Rutland wrote in the January 2013 issue of Artforum. ‘Scent becomes an interception, a piling-up of unexpected triggers, awakening sensations often ignored in aesthetic spaces.'”

As Tensions Between India And Pakistan Ratchet Up, Bollywood Becomes A Battleground

“Pakistan on Wednesday imposed a blanket ban on Indian shows on its television networks and radio stations, a day after one of India’s top film directors vowed not to hire actors from Pakistan in response to a major Indian cinema group’s declaration that it would not screen films with Pakistani casts. The tit-for-tat measures come amid deteriorating relations between the two countries after an attack in September on an Indian Army base by militants who India says were from Pakistan.”

Actors Say Video Game Industry Isn’t Treating Them Well

The video game industry is in the midst of a boom, with $23.5 billion in domestic revenue in 2015 — including spending on hardware and accessories — up 5% from the previous year. Popular games often gross more than Hollywood’s biggest movie releases, with “Call of Duty: Black Ops 3” raking in $550 million in three days to become the bestselling game of 2015. But one group feels left out in the cold — actors.

Tag: 10.20.16