Tag: 12.08.16

Why Are So Many Scientists So Resistant To The Idea Of Animals’ Consciousness And Emotions?

Zoologist Antone Martinho: “Were I not an animal behaviour researcher, I would hardly notice; but because I am, I constantly ask myself: why do I treat my pets like thinking, conscious companions, and the ducklings in my lab like feathered robots? The reluctance of my field to engage seriously with animal consciousness is, I believe, holding back our efforts to truly understand their behaviour.”

Faculty At Notre Dame Demand Inclusion On Conservatives’ Professor Watchlist

Last month the conservative youth group Turning Point USA launched this website to identify academics who (in the opinion of Turning Pointers) “advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.” (Last week George Yancy wrote an Op-Ed for the New York Times about finding his name on it.) Now, saying “this is the sort of company we wish to keep,” more than 100 professors at Notre Dame have signed an open letter asking to be included.

Composer Elliott Schwarz, 80

A mid-century modernist who loved puzzles and puns, Schwartz wrote one piece called By George that spliced together snippets by Georges Gershwin and Handel and another called Elevator Music that had the audience riding in the titular conveyance while musicians played portions of the score on various floors.

Study Puts Some Numbers On How Silo-ized Theatre-Goers Are

We like to talk about an “arts community” as if it’s really a thing, but in fact, art is a very personal experience, and people tend to be fans of who they like rather than the art form generally. They go to specific artists or plays or museums. New music fans aren’t necessarily interested in baroque music or opera or Mozart. The audience that shows up for the ballet is completely different from the one that goes to fringe theatre.

A study by TRG Arts of Washington DC theatre puts some numbers to the silo-ization of the city’s theatre audience. Though the number of people going to theatre generally in DC is up significantly over a decade…

The results pointed to a 13 percent increase in theatergoing households and a 25 percent increase in households buying single tickets. It even showed that D.C. theater outpaces the national rate of getting audiences to buy subscriptions — the companies realized a 20 percent increase during the decade in question.

… about 85 percent of the theatre audience goes only to a single theatre. In other words, they’re loyal to the place or company they like rather than the art form writ general. Each of the seven theatres TRG tracked has a specific profile:

Even beyond the core seven troupes that TRG studied, Washington theaters make it their business to be different — in style, in size and in price. Finding the portals to smoothly propel audiences from one stage to another is the ongoing challenge.

So when we talk about “the arts community” what is it we actually mean?