Ann O’Loughlin: “All women writers face an uphill struggle to have their work recognised in the same way as their male counterparts, but for those of us writing bestselling commercial fiction, there is a mountain to trudge up every time.” – Irish Times
Tag: sj
American Alliance Of Museums Launches Program To Diversify Museum Leadership
“The project, ‘Facing Change: Advancing Museum Board Diversity & Inclusion,’ will be supported by $4 million in grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Alice L. Walton Foundation and the Ford Foundation. The funds will go toward training and resources over the next three years that will help museum leaders better reflect the communities they serve.” — The New York Times
The Disney Princess Body Proportion Issue
“Disney princesses have extremely small waist-to-hip ratios that are nearly impossible to achieve naturally,” write anthropologist Toe Aung of Pennsylvania State University and independent researcher Leah Williams. They argue that such characters “might heighten or reinforce our preference for lower waist-to-hip ratios, and the perception that physically attractive individuals with lower waist-to-hip ratios possess morally favorable qualities.” – Pacific Standard
Orange County Has Changed Politically. Its Stages Don’t Seem To Have Kept Up Demographically
“While our political transformation was reflected emphatically at the ballot box in 2016 and even more so in 2018, the effects of O.C.’s increasing diversity haven’t been felt everywhere. The local theater scene, for example, reflects only part of the new demographic reality.” – Voice of Orange County
Anonymous Was A Woman And Its No-Longer-Anonymous Funder
“Last year, 77-year-old artist Susan Unterberg revealed that she’s the patron behind this grantmaking outfit” — which selects ten female artists over 40 each year for $25,000 grants — “though the nominators and final award panel members will remain shrouded in mystery. … While supporting creative women constitutes a grantmaking niche, its focus on equity aligns well with the ongoing social justice trend in arts funding.” — Inside Philanthropy
In L.A. County, Using The Arts To Help Keep Kids Out Of Jail
“A one-year, $750,000 grant from the Ford Foundation’s Art for Justice Fund will help launch the Arts and Youth Development Project, intended to serve youth and families at risk of involvement or already involved with the juvenile justice system.” — Inside Philanthropy
Billion-Dollar Foundation Dedicates Itself To Racial Equity. Founder’s Heirs Protest
Some of the 340 heirs of John Andrus, whose estate created Minnesota’s Surdna Foundation, back in the 1930s, are protesting the foundation’s funding of progressive causes and its decision to devote itself to racial equity. What would Andrus have wanted? – Chronicle of Philanthropy
Opera Roles Are Classified By Voice Types. Also Gender Types. Is This A Problem?
“Imagine a soprano who has just changed her voice type from mezzo-soprano to soprano. She’s immediately at a disadvantage if she lists every role that she’s performed on her resume, because it will immediately cause the review panel to question the legitimacy of her soprano-ness. The next inevitable step is that they’ll question her ability to sing the role for which she’s currently auditioning. This isn’t a gender issue any longer, but rather an issue of the current classification system’s inability to handle change.” – NewMusicBox
Why The 87-Year-Old Founder Of Philadanco Dance Wants To Start A New School
Joan Myers Brown: “We started talking about how children are no longer interested in training. They see So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing with the Stars and want to do ‘trick, trick, trick,’ rather than putting in the hours honing proper technique.“We wanted to change the system of teaching dance in their schools.” – Philadelphia Inquirer
Think Cultural Criticism Doesn’t Matter At A Time Like This? Think Again
Todd VanDerWerff: “We need cultural criticism not just to tell us which movies to go see and which ones to avoid, but to tell us things we already knew but didn’t know how to express. If reporting can explain the world to us, cultural criticism can explain us to us.” — Vox