Art

Join the Conversation

I have said before here that the time for talk is long past and that figuring out a way to prod real action on DEI issues is essential. This Conversation, hosted by the Community Engagement Network, is an attempt to lay groundwork for actual movement. – Doug Borwick
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, Community Engagement Network, 04.07.21

Savage Beauty

 A generation of important Chinese composers, paradoxical beneficiaries of enforced rural relocation, wound up studying in the West. For many, Bela Bartok became a lodestar for his way of retaining the spontaneity and savage beauty of folk elements. And so they discovered a middle ground between Chinese and Western instrumental performance. – Joseph Horowitz
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, Béla Bartok, 04.04.21

Ashleigh Gordon Shares the Castle of our Skins

The co-founder, Artistic/Executive Director and violist of Castle of our Skins, a collective of artists of all kinds dedicated to advancing Black artistry through music, shares the philosophy behind her leadership work furthering the contributions of Black artists. –
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, 04.03.21, Ashleigh Gordon Shares the Castle

Nobel Prize: Sweet!

Lucky in Manhattan to have a Japanese market nearby, and because I’m enticed by anything in a post-Pop package, I fell for Nobel’s Super Cola, three ounces for $3, a dozen or so globes of hot surprise. I told myself that I sprung for my candyphile boyfriend, but they were really for me. When artists such as Lichtenstein or Indiana (not Gary) are ripped off for the package, I grab it. – Jeff Weinstein
Tags: Art, Indiana, Manhattan, Ajblogs, Gary, Lichtenstein, 04.01.21, Super Cola

Syracuse Musings: Words of Wisdom (or not) from Panelists at the Deaccession Symposium

Here are some lessons from old-school conference speakers who acknowledged the need for progress, but defended what former Metropolitan Museum director Philippe de Montebello once called “the primacy of art” in the museum’s mission. – Lee Rosenbaum
Tags: Art, Metropolitan Museum, Ajblogs, Philippe de Montebello, 04.01.21

Web Streaming and Book Publishing: Two Bright Spots for the Cultural Sector During COVID-19?

Compared with the average annual growth rate of arts and cultural industries as a whole (+3 percent), web streaming and web publishing surged by 12 percent, in terms of the value added by those industries to the U.S. economy. The book and software publishing industry grew by over 7 percent. In both cases, we might expect to see sustained if not accelerated growth when the 2020 numbers are released next year. – Sunil Iyengar
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, 04.01.21

Notes on Outsiders: Carl Weissner’s German Essays and Reportage

To get the drift of Aufzeichnungen über Aussenseiter, I’ve been typing pieces of text into Google Translate. It’s a helluva time-consuming job, but it’s more than worth the effort. It’s just obvious how classy and swinging the whole thing is! Herewith, an excerpt: “Buk Sings His Ass Off.” – Jan Herman
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, Carl Weissner, 03.30.21

Sophie Fuller Talks Women Composers

A Programme Leader at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance in London speaks about the inspiration of women who write music. – Aaron Dworkin
Tags: Art, London, Ajblogs, 03.27.21, Sophie Fuller, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music Dance

Obtuse in Syracuse: How the University’s Deaccession Symposium Got Compromised by Conflicts of Interest

Although last week’s Syracuse Symposium was nominally about Deaccessioning After 2020, it was mostly focused on the new museum imperative — advancing DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Access) by any means possible, even at the cost of dismantling, monetizing and redefining the “permanent” collection to further those sociopolitical goals. – Lee Rosenbaum
Tags: Art, Syracuse, Ajblogs, 03.26.21

The STEEP Road Back

The many threats and threads around reopening social spaces for live performance can easily blur together. Focused problem-solving and readiness require that we tease them apart. One way to do so might be the age-old approach to environmental scanning: the acronym STEEP. – Andrew Taylor
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, 03.25.21

Clive Gillinson Talks Leadership in a Digital World

The Executive & Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall shares the importance of the digital landscape and leadership teams. – Aaron Dworkin
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, Carnegie Hall, Clive Gillinson, Digital World, 03.20.21

Rare Book Collecting: Connecting Brion Gysin and Paul-Armand Gette

To rate collectors by the use they make of their collections rather than simply by completeness or the rarity and excellence of individual items makes great sense. – Jan Herman
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, Brion Gysin, 03.22.21, Paul Armand Gette

What Should Be on the Syracuse Symposium’s Agenda: The Urgent Need for Museum Deaccession Regulations

Museum professionals have instinctively recoiled at the thought of government interference in their activities, insisting that they can police themselves. But that hasn’t worked out too well when it comes to preventing misguided museum officials from converting works that rightly should remain in the public’s patrimony into easy money. – Lee Rosenbaum
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, 03.18.21

Is it possible to mourn James Levine?

Yes, but with an enormous asterisk.May 4, 2011. If only it had stopped there. – David Patrick Stearns
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, James Levine, 03.17.21

AAMD’s Deaccession Dilemma (& the Met’s Equivocations)

Is the “slippery slope” on the verge of becoming even more treacherous? In conversations with its members this week, the Association of Art Museum Directors discussed whether the organization should consider an indefinite extension of the two-year relaxation of its time-honored deaccession guidelines, which had prohibited the use of art proceeds for anything other than acquisitions. – Lee Rosenbaum
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, Association of Art Museum Directors, AAMD, 03.15.21

Cue the Regulators! Met’s Deaccession Regression Attracts the Critical Eye of NYS Attorney General’s Office

The Metropolitan Museum’s adoption of the Association of Art Museum Directors’ relaxed deaccession standards, driven by the financial challenges of the pandemic, has caught the attention of at least one official in the New York Attorney General’s Office. – Lee Rosenbaum
Tags: Art, Metropolitan Museum, Ajblogs, Association of Art Museum Directors, New York Attorney General 's Office, 03.05.21

Pandemic Polemics: Metropolitan Museum’s Off-Key NPR Message vs. Cleveland’s Harmonious Storage Show

The Met’s premature revelation that it might take advantage of the AAMD’s relaxed deaccession standards, selling art to pay for “care of the collection,” was an object lesson in how not to roll out a controversial, temporary policy change. A palate-cleansing corrective to that unappetizing situation can be found in Stories from Storage, a current show at the Cleveland Museum of Art. – Lee Rosenbaum
Tags: Art, Cleveland, Ajblogs, Cleveland Museum of Art, AAMD, 03.01.21, NPR Message

Jazz beats the virus online

Chicago presenters of jazz and new music, and journalists from Madrid to the Bay Area, vocalist Kurt Elling, trumpeter Orbert Davis and pianist Lafayette Gilchrist discussed how they’ve transcended coronavirus-restrictions on live performances in two Zoom panels I moderated last week. – Howard Mandel
Tags: Art, Chicago, Madrid, Bay Area, Ajblogs, Kurt Elling, Orbert Davis, Lafayette Gilchrist, 02.24.21

Lawrence Ferlinghetti Dies at 101; His Pictures of a Gone World Remain

A literary era passes. It was already past, yet it still has influence. My account is minimal in the scheme of things but here ‘tiz anyhow, excerpted from My Adventures in Fugitive Litrichur. – Jan Herman
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, 02.24.21

The Relativity Switch

This story may sound like a metaphor. But it’s actually a case-in-point. – Andrew Taylor
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, 02.24.21

“Black Art’s” Blackout: Who’s Absent from HBO’s Survey of “Today’s Top African American Artists”?

Although it gives us fascinating inside-the-studio glimpses of several important artists at work, Black Art: In the Absence of Light insufficiently illuminates the depth and breadth of work African-American artists are producing today. – Lee Rosenbaum
Tags: Art, Hbo, Ajblogs, 02.23.21

Clarion

Someone’s calling, maybe me. C. C sharp? D? My scalp tightens, which makes me wonder where I am, and who, too. But this voice today is a shell’s, of a conch from a Pyrenees cave, assigned as Paleolithic, 17,000 years old. – Jeff Weinstein
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, 02.20.21

Jeff Alexander Shares the Importance of Live Orchestral Music

The President of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra speaks about the importance of live, in-person concerts and the day-to-day leadership of a major symphony orchestra. – n
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 02.20.21, Jeff Alexander Shares the Importance

The Five Flavors of Strategy

As the chaos and confusion of the global pandemic shows distant glimpses of something less chaotic, the question of “strategy” is emerging once again. Now that arts organizations are making space to imagine the “next normal,” it’s worth remembering what “strategy” actually is and does. – Andrew Taylor
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, 02.17.21

Reimagine Yourself

The failure to lift our eyes and see that our core work can and should be connecting people with art is the principal source of the problems we have experienced over the last 20-30 years. – Doug Borwick
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, 02.16.21

Liz Lerman Talks Movement & Discord

The choreographer, performer, writer, educator, and speaker shares her creative process and the connection between movement and discord. – Aaron Dworkin
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, Liz Lerman, 02.13.21

How Do You Play a Flower Pot?

What makes washtubs sound best? How about coffee cans? For the answers, check out Lou Harrison’s instructions for his Concerto for Violin and Percussion. So far as I am aware, it is the most memorable, most original violin concerto by any American. It also creates a visual spectacle ideal for COVID-era streamed performances. – Joseph Horowitz
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, Lou Harrison, 02.10.21

David Stull Discusses Acquiring Opus 3

The president of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music speaks about the school’s historic acquisition of Opus 3 Artists. – Aaron Dworkin
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, David Stull, 02.06.21

Can a New LACMA Rise from the Rubble? Quaffing Michael Govan’s Kool-Aid

The doubts engendered in me by the shifting ground (related to the proximity to the La Brea Tar Pits) under the cranes being used for construction of LACMA’s new Geffen Galleries caused me to reflect back on Govan’s spotty track record for delivering on his ambitious, provocative proposals. – Lee Rosenbaum
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, LACMA, Govan, Michael Govan, 02.05.21

Build Back Better

At this point I would implore arts organizations not to return to pre-pandemic practices with nothing more than modest tweaks. This is a time for serious reconfiguring. So let me suggest three categories for new or significantly expanded approaches. – Doug Borwick
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, 02.03.21