11.29.15 – ArtsJournal Wayback

For Tap-Dance Genius Michelle Dorrance, The MacArthur Award May Change Everything – But Not Yet

“I don’t have [the award] yet, so I’m still poor. The first year, I’ll pay off as much debt as possible, and put the rest aside for taxes – it’s not a fun answer. Then, of course, I should probably have a savings account or IRA. I’m 36.”

Early Music Superstar Jordi Savall, Afraid For His Safety, Cancels Concert In Calais’s Migrant Camp

The viola da gamba virtuoso and director of supergroup Hesperion XXI – and UNESCO Artist for Peace – was praised last week when he announced that, in honor of International Migrants Day, they would perform in the “jungle,” the makeshift settlement of refugees looking for some way across the Channel to Britain, where they hope to settle. Then Savall called off the concert, claiming that he hadn’t received sufficient assurances of security for himself and his musicians.” (in French; Google Translate version here)

Is It Still Possible To Be A Public Intellectual In 2015?

Alice Gregory: “It’s not self-evident that one’s stances on, say, abortion and what counts as a good movie should align, but they do, remarkably, again and again. To believe in enough of these correlations, and to convince others that you are right, is the role of the public intellectual.”
Pankaj Mishra: “The public intellectual, incarnated as access journalist, policy wonk and, after 9/11, laptop warrior for liberalism and democracy, … has ended up whispering advice and encouragement to power.”

Americans Champion Meritocracy. But The Results…

When a company’s core values emphasized meritocratic values, those in managerial positions awarded a larger monetary reward to the male employee than to an equally performing female employee. Castilla and Bernard termed their counter intuitive result “the paradox of meritocracy.”

The University Of Arizona Still Wants Its De Kooning Back

“The museum had just opened when a man and a woman walked in. They were the sole visitors. The woman, described as being in her mid-50s with shoulder-length reddish and blond hair, distracted the a security guard by making small-talk while the man, who appeared to be in his 20s and wore a mustache and glasses, cut the painting from the large frame, leaving the edges of the canvas attached.”

Seriously, How To Get Gender Parity In Theatre?

“This is the way that recognition of the issue—which is usually step one—has been sidelined by those who want to feel that they’ve addressed the problem but don’t actually want to address it. They say it’s already been addressed, solved, and resolved. They say that now it’s a merit-based system, and anyone who isn’t entering and moving up the pipeline doesn’t have merit. They say that women have other priorities, choosing families and personal lives over their work. They say that to give voice to artists who don’t meet their standards would be minimizing the quality of the work they offer the world.”

How To Fix Risk-Averse Arts Institutions

From a Portland playwright and grantwriter: “Consider just doing a show when you’re ready and not forcing yourself to program a whole season. Consider strategic partnerships. Consider not becoming a nonprofit and being an LLC instead. Consider the difference between what you want and what you need. (Do you WANT your own building, or do you NEED your own building?) Consider what you’re spending money on. Invest in people first, stuff second.”

Toronto’s Mayor Dances In The Nutcracker

He played the moose. Wait, the … moose? “This is a Canadianized version of the Nutcracker, and that’s why there is a moose in it.”

William Blake, Poet And Artist And Sex Radical

“Blake also claimed he encountered Satan on the staircase of his South Molton Street home in London.”

Tag: 11.29.15