Broadening the focus to include more qualitative and mixed method techniques could make it easier to improve practice and integrate arts interventions more deeply into the healthcare and justice systems, it suggests. “The outcome that’s the easiest to measure is not necessarily the best thing to measure,” the report notes. “Is a different type of ‘gold standard’ possible?” — Arts Professional
Tag: 11.30.18
Tiny Books Are Another Symptom Of The Great Twee-ification Of American Culture
Katy Waldman (using the Dutch name under which tiny books have become popular in Europe): “A dwarsligger‘s teeniness is inseparable from its tweeness. But dwarsliggers embody twee in another respect: as displays of individualism, idiosyncrasy, quirkiness.” (Nevertheless, she kind of likes them.) — The New Yorker
‘Crazy Money’ Has ‘Corrupted’ Architecture, Says Highly-Paid Starchitect
“In a keynote speech at the World Architecture Festival in Amsterdam [in late November], [David] Adjaye said that architecture should be the ‘arbiter of ideas’, yet many of today’s projects are driven by ‘elitism that is to do with hyper-commercial liberalism and who controls money’.” — Dezeen
Simon Rattle’s Seven Pieces Of Advice For Every Young Musician
4. Being an amazing musician doesn’t make you an amazing grown-up. (There are important aspects of adulting he didn’t learn in time.)
5. Even world-famous musicians have identity crises. (He once tried going an entire year without listening to any music.)
6. The bonds you make with fellow musicians will be intense. (This would be why he keeps marrying his singers.) — BBC
John Waters Talks About Film, Art, And His Careers In Each
“I’m always trying to question those two businesses, art and film, in a way that’s celebrating the mistakes, and what goes wrong, and insider knowledge. … I would say that still many people who know my films have absolutely no idea that I have an art career. And I kept that very separate on purpose, because … celebrity is the only obscenity left in the art world, and it is the one thing I will always have to fight.” — The Believer
While AIDS Ravaged The Arts World In The 1980s, The New York Times Obituaries Euphemized
“Like most obituaries, these carried the weight of individual lives, many taken too soon. But unlike other obits, they were laced with evasions — omissions effectively erasing a person’s life, effectively erasing AIDS. … Those who lost their lives — many of them pathbreaking artists and individuals who, if still here today, would be running our museums, our publishing houses, our media companies, opera houses, and drama guilds — died before we had enough to remember them by. To trace the stories behind such obituaries is to unearth the very voices that shaped our culture, to recover what’s been lost.” — Slate
Bloomberg Public Art Challenge Awards $1M To Jackson, Miss. For Art About Nutrition
“The funds will support the project ‘Fertile Ground: Inspiring Dialogue About Food Access,’ which aims to inform policy related to nutrition by using art as a medium to communicate the complexities of the issue in the city. Local and national artists, landscape architects, filmmakers, farmers, chefs, nutritionists, and community members will be invited to collaborate on a citywide exhibition featuring installations and performances, as well as other programming.” — Artforum
The World’s First Serial Podcast Opera — But Is It, Really?
Composer Jason Cady’s Buick City 1am “is an intriguing concept, addressing several of the traditional form’s shortcomings in relation to the modern world: it makes no undue demands of one’s attention span (four 25-minute episodes), it is accessible (anywhere, 24/7, via one’s phone), and it is free.” But does it qualify as an opera? Using a quite reasonable definition, Gina Leishman suggests that the answer is no. — Financial Times
Why Does The Industry Keep Marketing Classical Music As A Tranquilizer?
Classical radio stations promote their programming as “calming and refreshing,” an “oasis,” or “an island of sanity.” Playlists on YouTube and audio streaming services have titles like “8 Hours Classical Music for Sleeping”; inexpensive compilation CDs offer “The Most Relaxing Classical Music in the Universe.” Jennifer Gersten, winner of the 2018 Rubin Prize in Music Criticism — identifies at least one reason why the industry keeps falling into this rut, and argues that the habit sells both the music itself and potential listeners very short. — Washington Post
One Of London’s Grand Victorian Performance Halls Reopens After £18.8M Restoration
The Alexandra Palace, designed by the architects of the Royal Albert Hall, opened on a north London hilltop in 1873 — and burned down 16 days later. It was rebuilt in 1875 and was very popular but never made money; it “suffered more false dawns and setbacks in its 145-year history than almost any other playhouse in the country” and served a number of undignified uses over the decades. It’s now back in service as a performance venue for the first time in more than 80 years, refurbished and modernized to seat an audience of up to 1,000. — The Stage