21,643 stories from ArtsJournal
"The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head."
H.L. Mencken, "A Time to be Wary"
Continue reading Almanac: H.L. Mencken on bureaucracy at About Last Night.
After posting my contrarian defense on Tuesday of Gary Garrels, I ducked, anticipating a pile-on of invective. Instead, I got confirmation of what I've always known: I've got a classy reader…
The sculpture of Jen Reid was erected on Wednesday but removed by Bristol City Council just over 24 hours later. Ms Reid had been photographed standing on the empty plinth after the Colston …
"Whatever we do right now," Gustavo Dudamel said, "has to have an impact not only in the time we are living but also to help us achieve what we can do in the next years. That's why we were n…
"Early in the spring-2020 semester, I had planned to say quite a bit about Homer's figurative use of disease and the literary tradition it initiated. But as we concluded February in exhauste…
There's a difference between a harassment campaign and suffering the consequences of hateful behaviour. Clearly, we all understand that there is a line that shouldn't be crossed, a point in …
"Perhaps because I spend a lot of time listening to people with crazy opinions, I am sympathetic to the view that the only way to live a healthy intellectual life is to expose oneself consta…
"This moment and movement did not come out of nowhere but emerges from longstanding frustration among BIPOC theatremakers … [who] have never truly felt welcome in an industry geared toward…
While the numbers of Blacks in dance has continued to grow, the corresponding increase in the overall presentation of Blacks in dance has been relatively nominal and stagnant. To date, compa…
The character as passed down from the Diaghilev Ballets Russes original is not only painted in outlandish blackface makeup, he is, as Wendy Perron puts it, "mean and aggressive [and] prodigi…
If such monuments do have a connection to history, it is because they attempt to shape it, not reflect it. To believe we can learn history from them is like a judge choosing only to hear tes…
" a prequel is hitting the shelves. Fitzgerald's novel enters the public domain next New Year's Day, and on January 5 Little, Brown is releasing Michael Farris Smith's Nick. "The publishers …
For much of the 1970s and 1980s the Anna Wyman Dance Theatre was regarded as one of Canada's foremost modern-dance companies. In 1975 it became the first modern dance troupe to tour Canada a…
Kate Knibbs: "Occasionally, circumstances arise where someone or something so high and mighty takes such a ludicrous tumble that the pratfall practically begs for a gleeful response, even fr…
A two-page letter sent by former employees and board members to Smithsonian secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III "alleges that more than 10 former or current Black employees have 'reported or exper…
"In 20 years, I've never been hired by a Black person; I've never been directed by a Black person; I've never had a Black C.E.O. of a company; I've never had a Black president of the board; …
Anthony Tommasini: "The status quo is not working. If things are to change, ensembles must be able to take proactive steps to address the appalling racial imbalance that remains in their ran…
Conductors Thomas Wilkins and Roderick Cox, clarinetist Anthony McGill, bassoonist Monica Ellis of Imani Winds, singers Lawrence Brownlee and Latonia Moore, and composers Tania León, Jess…
"Concerts, conversations, classes, collages, child-friendly shorts and more filled arts websites and social media channels daily as institutions and individuals worked to preserve relationsh…
"She originally created The Magic School Bus in 1986 with illustrator Bruce Degen. The core idea of a sweet and nerdy crew of schoolchildren taking field trips into scientific concepts, bodi…
Because the display of a painting in a prestigious museum can increase its value, the loan can be seen as breaking conflict-of-interest and self-dealing rules and a complaint was filed with …
As the heart, lungs, gut and other organs transmit information to the brain, they affect how we perceive and interact with our environment in surprisingly profound ways. Recent studies of th…
The Fifth Avenue flagship will welcome visitors " only those with masks, and only up to a quarter of the building's regular capacity " five days a week beginning Aug. 29. The Cloisters will …
The man who functioned as the chief of police for the Ansar Dine extremists who took over the historic Malian city in 2012, destroying medieval shrines and manuscripts and terrorizing the ci…
"Fear is like a giant fog. It sits on your brain and blocks everything"real feelings, true happiness, real joy."
Albert Brooks, screenplay for Defending Your Life
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