Those affected said they “felt unable to raise concerns”, and he “operated without sufficient accountability”. The London theatre said it “truly apologises” for not creating a culture where people felt able to speak freely.
Tag: 11.15.17
Study: Art In The Workplace Inspires Creativity
“Appreciating art induces inspiration, which in turn facilitates performance on creative tasks. Our results show that simply displaying art in the work environment could enhance employees’ creative capabilities, thereby driving innovation.”
New York Public Library Unveils (Another) New Master Plan
“The $317 million plan, approved by the board on Wednesday, will be the largest renovation in the history of the [system’s flagship] building, which opened in 1911. … [The plan] does not dictate any specific future for the most hotly disputed unused historic space in the building: its seven football-field-size floors of stacks, which have been largely empty since 2013.”
The New Museum Of The Bible Does Its Job Very, Very Well – And Yet …
Philip Kennicott: “What it does well, it does as well or better than any museum in the country … bearing with it something that most historians and museum professionals may have thought was long discredited: the ‘master narrative’ idea of history, that there is one sweeping human story that needs to be told, a story that is still unfolding and carrying us along with it.”
Masha Gessen, Jesmyn Ward, Robin Benway, Frank Bidart Win 2017 National Book Awards
“At a glitzy gala in New York City on Wednesday night, four writers emerged with one of the world’s most illustrious literary prizes, the National Book Award: Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing, won for fiction; Masha Gessen’s The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia, for nonfiction; Frank Bidart’s Half-light: Collected Poems 1965-2016, for poetry; and Robin Benway’s Far from the Tree, for young people’s literature.” (includes video of complete ceremony)
$450 Million – Leonardo’s ‘Salvator Mundi’ Is Now The Most Expensive Artwork In History
“After 19 minutes of dueling, with four bidders on the telephone and one in the room, Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi sold on Wednesday night [at Christie’s] for $450.3 million with fees, shattering the high for any work of art sold at auction. It far surpassed Picasso’s Women of Algiers, which fetched $179.4 million at Christie’s in May 2015.”
Philadelphia Orchestra Names Two Interim Co-Presidents To Succeed Allison Vulgamore
“Matthew Loden and Ryan Fleur will share administrative leadership, with the title of interim co-presidents, as the orchestra looks for a successor to … Vulgamore,” who departs Dec. 31. “Fleur and Loden are currently executive vice president for orchestra advancement and executive vice president for institutional advancement, respectively.”
‘Toxic’ Office Culture Leads To Massive Staff Turnover At Queensland Symphony: Report
“Twenty-seven full-time and part-time staff have left [the Australian] orchestra in just 21 months, an unusually high turnover rate for the company which currently lists 26 people on its staff. … Orchestra insiders claim that morale at the QSO is ‘toxic’ and an external consultant has been contracted to improve morale and company cohesiveness. Former staff describe scenes of ‘backstabbing, gossip and shouting matches’ among administrative staff and management.” At fault, allege current and former staffers, are music director Alondra de la Parra and CEO David Pratt.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 11.15.17
Another classical music critic is sent into the night … and this time it’s me.
Life in the newspaper world these days can’t help but feel like Russian Roulette. With every wave of layoffs, my position has seemed that much closer to its end. And I’m surprised that I lasted as long as I did. … read more
AJBlog: Condemned to Music Published 2017-11-15
Soft power and the arts (2/3)
The British Council and the University of Edinburgh have teamed up to prepare an empirical analysis of the actual effects of soft power (my introduction on soft power and the arts is here). How does … read more
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth Published 2017-11-15
“Ballsy Bidding”: My Storify on Leonardo’s (& Christie’s) $450-Million Jesus Superstar
That surely wasn’t the Getty or any other public (as opposed to single-collector) museum who plunked down a jaw-dropping $450 million after a dramatic 19-minute bidding war, the likes of which I’ve never seen, … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-11-15
What’s The Place Of Live Theatre In A More Virtual World?
“I believe the future is less about what ‘live theatre’ is or isn’t, and more about the further blurring of lines of categorization. People will be less clear about the difference between “theatre” and “live performance” and “immersive” and “public art” and “interactive”, especially once ‘reality’ based technologies like AR/MR/VR invade the live sphere with faster and smaller real-time processing.”