In Tehran, Architects Design A Modernist Mosque Without Minarets, And Conservatives Freak Out

The site for the mosque is next to the City Theater, one of Tehran’s landmarks of modern architecture, and authorities were very concerned that the new building not overshadow its neighbor. So the architects designed a spare, low-rise building that sweeps up from the ground toward the focal point of worship. Now religious hardliners are refusing to recognize it as a mosque at all.

Kirkus Changed The Rating On A Book – Why This Is An Earthshaking Move

In doing so, Kirkus, one of the country’s most prolific book reviews, has somehow managed to misapprehend both the nature of reviewing and the nature of books. As I’ve written in this magazine, criticism exists in different flavors, but its defining feature is an individualism of response. That response can be wise or unwise, popular or unpopular. A reviewer can squander authority by seeming too often at odds with good judgment. But, without critical autonomy, the enterprise falls apart.

Oskar Eustis Talks About His 30 Years Working With Tony Kushner

“There’s no artist I’ve learned more from than Tony, and what I’ve learned is a kind of fearless grandiosity. Angels was an immense act of arrogance — to write a seven-hour play about gay people when you were a completely unknown writer whose one show was at best a succès d’estime. So there came a moment where it became clear to me that the Eureka Theatre did not have the resources to do Angels in America.And at that point, I’d have to say, ‘Thank you very much for writing this, but you’re two years late, it’s still a huge mess, and I have a theater to run.’ But I did the opposite. I said, ‘That show is so good that I believe in it more than I believe in my theater company.’ And I left the Eureka and went to Los Angeles to produce Angels in America. I spent six years total with Angels.”

LA’s New Institute Of Contemporary Art Joins An Increasingly Crowded Downtown Art Scene

“The ICA LA joins a number of new downtown arts spaces. The Broad Museum, founded by collector Eli Broad, opened in 2015, and the Main Museum, spearheaded by downtown developer Tom Gilmore, followed in 2016. Other speculators have latched onto the art angle too. Plans for a recently announced, futuristic development by Danish architecture wunderkind Bjarke Ingels feature outdoor sculptures and gallery spaces alongside boutiques and upscale “artist lofts.” The Artist Loft Museum of Los Angeles, a pop-up just opened in a longtime artist’s studio, exists to acknowledge the artists who gave the Arts District its name but can no longer afford to live and work in the area.”

Hate The Artist, (Still) ove The Art?

“Harvey and Bob Weinstein produced some schlock and some beauts. Both brothers had awful reputations as people to work for and with. Now, because some 50 women have had the courage to accuse Harvey, we know chapter and verse on being a bully and pig in Hollywood. On that evidence, the soaring movies his name is on did nothing to enlighten or redeem their producer. But it would be a pity if his grossness were to deprive us of the light that those creations let shine.”

The City You Didn’t Know Was An Early Hotbed Of Black Ballet Talent

During the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s, Philadelphia had a thriving scene that nourished some of the later 20th century’s most important African-American dancers. Dance Magazine‘s Jennifer Stahl interviews Memoirs of Blacks in Ballet founder Theresa Ruth Howard about what made the city such a relatively good place for black dancers to work, while Judith Jamison, Delores Browne, and Joan Myers Brown offer comments on video about the city’s dance history.

Brazilian Artists Fight Back Against Right-Wing Activists Disrupting Art Events

“An open letter written by a group of Brazilian artists and art professionals that condemns ‘the rise of hate, intolerance and violence against freedom of expression in the arts and education’ in the country has been signed by more than 1,000 people since it was published online last week. … The letter cites a specific string of incidents that have happened over the past year, including the closing of an exhibition dedicated to queer art at the Santander Cultural Center in Porto Alegre … and a nude performance by the artist Wagner Schwartz at the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo.”

Top Posts From AJBlogs 10.23.17

Dark Matters from Finland
Tero Saarinen Company performs at the Joyce Theater. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2017-10-23

Music as Communication: with you, with myself, with it
I write music for three reasons that I can name, though there may be others that elude me.  These three reasons jockey with one another for primacy from one work to the next, and sometimes … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2017-10-23

The Most Under-Rated 20th Century American Composer — Take Two
Back in the thirties and forties, there were no American music historians to tell the story of American classical music. So the task fell to a couple of composers: Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson. … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2017-10-22

 

Directors Of British Theatre Companies Condemn Harassment In The Industry

The statement comes after allegations of sexual misconduct by the US film producer Harvey Weinstein prompted a blizzard of related claims on both sides of the Atlantic. On Friday the Guardian revealed one of the most influential directors in British theatre, Max Stafford-Clark, was forced to stand down from the company he founded after being accused of inappropriate, sexualised behaviour.