Art

Mary Ellen Poole discusses student leadership and faculty representation

Mary Ellen Poole, Carnegie Mellon University’s Dean of the College of Fine Arts, talks about increasing faculty representation and student leadership.
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, Mary Ellen Poole, Mary Ellen Poole Carnegie

Oscar Tang Dynasty: Met Renames Wing for $125-Million Donor & Ups Its “Emergency Relief Fund” to $100 Million

At some cultural institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum, naming rights can have expiration dates. That famously happened with the
Tags: Art, Metropolitan Museum, Ajblogs

Four Constraints of Arts Enterprise

Why is it that some arts initiatives or disciplines tend toward commercial markets, others non-commercial? Some tend toward complex and durable nonprofit organizational forms and some toward episodic projects? Some are independent of major media companies and others deeply dependent? And how and why do some initiatives evolve from one dynamic to another over time — from a scrappy and episodic theater collective, for example, to full-on corporate, venue-owning not-for-profit (like Steppenwolf)? ...
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, Steppenwolf, Dan Asaki

He went down to the crossroads

In today’s Wall Street Journal I review the Lantern Theater Company’s hybrid-theater streaming production of Me and the Devil. Here’s an excerpt. *  *  * Robert Johnson’s celebrity was wholly posthumous, the result of the 29 records that he cut in 1936 and 1937. An itinerant regional blues singer and guitarist born in Mississippi in 1911, he performed mainly in small towns in the Mississippi Delta, and his death at age 27 prevented him from attaining wider renown. Very little is known of...
Tags: Art, New York, Mississippi, Philadelphia, Johnson, Wall Street Journal, Columbia, Ajblogs, Clapton, Robert Johnson, Mississippi Delta, Charles Dumas, Eric Clapton Bob Dylan, Broadnax, Steve H Broadnax, The Hot Wing King

Replay: Cream plays “Crossroads”

Cream plays Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads” live at Fillmore West in 1968: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, Robert Johnson, Fillmore West

Sweating the Big Stuff for Small Nonprofits – Plus New Jobs Numbers

In the first few months of the pandemic, I often heard speculation about the extent to which shutdowns, event cancellations, social distancing, and a reluctance to travel would affect the finances of different arts organizations. Some contended that only the largest organizations, with their steady endowments and loyal patron lists, would power through. Others pointed to the inflexible cost structures of those organizations and argued that smaller and nimbler entities would recover faster over ...
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, National Science Foundation, Johns Hopkins University, BLS, U S Bureau of Labor Statistics BLS, Center for Civil Society Studies, Urban Institute Titled Nonprofit Trends, Nonprofit Panel Dataset Project, American University George Mason University, Georgia Tech University According

A special time of year…really.

Row X blog by Hannah Grannemann Your audience circled December on their calendar last spring. They didn’t want to miss the holiday show this year. Seeing something earlier than December was possible…they’d have to feel it out…but they would really try to get back to their holiday show. The holidays just weren’t the same last year without a trip to the theater to see their favorite production. Anticipating the show this year would be a little light shining for them through all the unc...
Tags: Art, Nea, Ajblogs, National Endowment, Jackie Alexander, Hannah Grannemann, Helen Freshwater, Andrew Recinos, Tessitura Network

Snapshot: Edward R. Murrow interviews Gene Kelly

Gene Kelly is interviewed by Edward R. Murrow on Person to Person. This episode was telecast live by CBS on December 19, 1958: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
Tags: Art, Cbs, Ajblogs, Gene Kelly, Edward R Murrow

Theater, on the record

Here are the Wall Street Journal drama columns I wrote during my hiatus from this blog: • To read my review of the off-Broadway revival of Paul Osborn’s Morning’s at Seven, go here. • To read my reviews of Alice Childress’ Trouble in Mind and the Broadway transfer of Diana, go here. • To read my review of Classic Stage Company’s off-Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins, go here. • To read my review of the Broadway premiere of Lynn Nottage’s Clyde’s, go here. I also wrote an a...
Tags: Art, Stephen Sondheim, Broadway, Diana, Wall Street Journal, Ajblogs, Clyde, Sondheim, Lynn Nottage, Classic Stage Company, Paul Osborn, Alice Childress

Twelve Functions of Arts Management

Ask any arts professional or arts-management academic about the “functions” of arts management and they will likely have a ready list in mind. Production, marketing, management, finance, accounting, fundraising, and such, are common to division of labor in the arts. They show up in department names, job titles, conference workshops, and curriculum requirements in arts management degrees. But I haven’t seen many efforts to capture and sort these functions in more durable and consistent ways – or ...
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, Webster, Henry Mintzberg, Otto Scharmer, Stephen Langley, Hunter Haley, Ellen Rosewall David M Conte

Return engagement

Once again, I have been absent without leave from this space, mainly because I was overwhelmed with work (the theater season is now going at full speed) but also for personal reasons (my girlfriend’s mother has been ill). It will take a bit more time for me to ramp all the way up to a full schedule of postings, including links to the Wall Street Journal theater reviews and other pieces that came out during my unplanned absence. Nevertheless, I’m going to make a determined effort to resum...
Tags: Art, Ajblogs

DVORAK’S PROPHECY on NPR — Are the Arts Still a “Fit Topic” for Historians?

At the conclusion of the National Public Radio feature I’ve produced about “The Fate of Black Classical Music,” Jenn White
Tags: Art, Npr, Dvorak, Ajblogs, National Public Radio

Natalie Butler talks about the development of teaching artists

Natalie Butler, Dean of Learning and Teaching at People’s Music School, shares about the importance of professional development for teaching artists!
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, People 's Music School, Natalie Butler, Natalie Butler Dean

The Brooklyn Museum’s $50-Million Windfall & Its Diversity Deficiency

The Brooklyn Museum, which on Monday announced its landmark gift of a whopping $50 million from the New York
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, Brooklyn Museum

Dvorak’s Prophecy — A Two-Hour Webcast

My brand-new book Dvorak’s Prophecy and the Vexed Fate of Black Classical Music (already a best book of the year
Tags: Art, Dvorak, Ajblogs

Dvorak’s Prophecy, the CIA, and More

My two-hour conversation with Kirill Gerstein, who hosts an indispensable weekly “webinar” dealing with musical issues, mainly focused
Tags: Art, Cia, Dvorak, Ajblogs, Kirill Gerstein

Gabriela Lena Frank talks about being an artist citizen

Gabriela Lena Frank, Composer-in-Residence with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Recipient of the Heinz Award, Winner of a Latin Grammy and Recipient of the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, speaks about the role of an artist citizen.
Tags: Art, Philadelphia, Ajblogs, Gabriela Lena Frank, Gabriela Lena Frank Composer

‘I Am That I Am’ ‘I Am That, Am I?’ Brion Gysin and the Divine Tautology

The Brooklyn-based publisher DABA is bringing out the most complete edition of Brion Gysin’s permutated poems published and recorded to date. The book is gorgeous to look at, sets the poems in their rightful context, and does justice to Ian Sommerville’s computer collaboration. “The whole idea of the permutations came to me visually on seeing the so-called Divine Tautology in print. It looked wrong, to me, non-symmetrical. The biggest word, That, belonged in the middle but all I had to do wa...
Tags: Art, Brooklyn, Ajblogs, Daba, Brion Gysin, Ian Sommerville, Alec Mapes Frances

“Mundi” Fun Day: The Prado Joins “Salvator’s” Detractors; Modestini, Its Restorer, Again Argues It’s a Leonardo

Prado museum downgrades Leonardo’s $450m Salvator Mundi in exhibition catalogue I rubbed my eyes in disbelief at the above
Tags: Art, Prado, Ajblogs, Leonardo, Salvator Mundi

Q&A with Lucy Glendinning Extraordinary British Sculptor Works from Inside Out

Some of her pieces are to be exhibited at Art Miami (Nov. 30 – Dec. 5, 2021) From left: Feather Child 3 / The Unknown Boy 2 / Folding Girl These sculptures have a striking “innerness,” an interiority of gaze and stance. They also express a human connection to animal origins. Is that what you intended? GLENDINNING: I like the idea of the works being internalised as if contemplating themselves. Sometimes this is deliberate and sometimes this is how they turn out — so to speak.  ...
Tags: Art, Miami, Somerset, Kiki Smith, Ajblogs, Louise Bourgeois, Erwin Wurm, Glendinning, Oldenburg, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Kohei Nawa, Lucy Glendinning, Gerard Bellaart, Mark Merer, Rebecca Horn, Ronnie Horn

Quick Study: Tracking the Viral Spread of Musical Genres

In this episode, we look at how statistical models for tracking infectious diseases can help researchers monitor the spread of popular music genres. The source article is here. A transcript of this podcast is available at the NEA website. Click here for the most recent episode of Quick Study.
Tags: Art, Nea, Ajblogs

Getting It Right

As part of Engaging Matters’ 10th Anniversary, we are highlighting important and/or popular posts from the past. In reviewing such posts it became clear that many were grouped thematically. As a result, this Anniversary series will, for the most part, present the theme with links to relevant posts rather than simply re-posting individual items. Early this year, looking/hoping for a light at the end of the COVID tunnel, I wrote a series of posts addressing the need to take the opportunity...
Tags: Art, Delta, Ajblogs

Dvorak’s Prophecy — Online Wednesday

It’s my pleasure to be Kirill Gerstein’s guest this Wednesday for his “Kronberg Academy” online seminar – that’s
Tags: Art, Dvorak, Ajblogs, Kirill Gerstein, Kronberg Academy

‘so like the realm of / love and ardor’

© Marcel DuChamp So like the realm of love and ardor the singularity of death has come to this — in a world of trouble we shrink, abandoned, into history. This multiplicity of dying is hard on the living — our past is clarified and subtracted from the finite, hurled into the infinite, unknowable as it has ever been. © JH
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, Marcel Duchamp

Garo Saraydarian disrupts traditional music theory

Garo Saraydarian, faculty in the Composition and Theory Departments at the Longy School of Music, shares how they are disrupting the Eurocentric framing of music and changing the way that theory is taught!
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, Garo Saraydarian, Longy School of Music

Replay: Illinois Jacquet plays “Flying Home”

Illinois Jacquet plays “Flying Home” on The Ed Sullivan Show. The drummer is Jo Jones. This episode was originally telecast live by CBS on July 10, 1949: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
Tags: Art, Cbs, Ajblogs, Jo Jones, Illinois Jacquet

In memory of…

Lt. Col. Jason K. Fettig and the United States Marine Band perform “When Jesus Wept,” a movement from William Schuman’s New England Triptych, based on the music of William Billings:
Tags: Art, Jesus, New England, Ajblogs, William Schuman, William Billings, United States Marine Band, Jason K Fettig

Snapshot: Tony Bennett sings “If I Ruled the World”

Tony Bennett and the Woody Herman Herd perform “If I Ruled the World,” by Leslie Bricusse and Cyril Ornadel, on The Ed Sullivan Show. This episode was originally telecast live by CBS on March 21, 1965: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
Tags: Art, Cbs, Ajblogs, Leslie Bricusse, Tony Bennett, Cyril Ornadel, Woody Herman Herd

Pucker Up: Skittish About the British at Metropolitan Museum’s Prints Stint

I paid a belated visit to the Metropolitan Museum’s Modern Times: British Prints, 1913–1939 on Monday, having already published
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, Modern Times, Metropolitan Museum 's Prints Stint

Marketing and Engagement

Image for ACE Program from AFAC website It has been some time since I have had the courage to discuss marketing here. When I first did so many years ago I quickly learned that my view was hopelessly colored by the unfortunate marketing habits of many arts organizations–self focus, ignorance (sometimes willful) of the interests of the people they were trying to reach, and an elitist use of “inside baseball” language in promotional materials. I think I’ve learned a lot since then about the...
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, Amman Jordan, AFAC, Moukhtar Kocache