Everyone knows that by investing in the arts and incorporating arts and culture into their economic development plans, counties can reap numerous benefits — economic, social, civic, and cultural—that help generate a more stable, creative workforce; new tourism; and more livable communities. But as long as cultural sustainability is framed in terms of promotion, national image, tourism and economic advantage alone, there will never be a true paradigm shift. Continue reading »
To track this creative upswing, the Austrian Cultural Forum, Goethe-Institut Washington, Embassy of Switzerland and Georgetown University’s Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics have launched “Theater of the Voiceless,” an international symposium and festival on documentary theater that runs June 16 to June 19 at various venues in Washington, D.C. Continue reading »
Have you noticed that the French and the Scandinavians dominate this year’s Golden Globe nominees for best foreign language films? To a disproportionate degree. So what exactly happened that only the French and the Scandinavians grabbed most of the Golden Globes booty? Are the best of the best among this year’s foreign language films really so Eurocentric? Continue reading »
Highlights will include Storytelling by Matoka Eagle (Santo Domingo, Tewa), a Hoop Dance by Michael Taylor (Choctaw), a Caribou Dance (from the Inuit people of Alaska), a Buffalo Dance (from the Hopi people), a Grass Dance and Jingle Dress Dance (from the Northern Plains people), a Stomp Dance (from the Southeastern tribes), and a Shawl Dance (from the Oklahoma tribes). In the final section of the program, the audience will be invited to join in the Round Dance, a friendship dance Continue reading »
The group will use Casa Herrera, a 17th-century Spanish Colonial property located in the heart of Antigua, as a home base while exploring local, historical points of interest and taking part in lectures and tours taught by professors from the university and Mesoamerican scholars. Continue reading »
Kaypi Perú,which means “This is Peru” in the indigenous language of Quechua, includes an art market, music and dance performances, hands-on activities for kids, short films, photo exhibitions of Machu Picchu and the Inka Road, traditional plants, as well as Peruvian Paso horses and alpacas Continue reading »
Eskinder, who received this year’s PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award, was one of 20 journalists and political activist to be sentenced to long prison terms on terrorism-related charges, accelerating a trend where vague anti-terrorism laws are used to silence peaceful dissenting voices in Ethiopia Continue reading »
The projects receiving funding are the Ruta de la Amistad in Mexico City, Mexico; Salvador de Bahia, Brazil; Balaji Ghat in Varanasi, India; the Canterbury Provincial Government buildings in Christchurch, New Zealand; the ruins of the former Cathedral of Saint Michael in Coventry, United Kingdom; and the town of Sawara in Japan. Continue reading »
PEN American Center named Eskinder Nega, one of Ethiopia’s leading advocates for press freedom and freedom of expression, the winner of the 2012 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award. Continue reading »
Eve Ensler’s new site, http://www.eveensler.org, will be a comprehensive archive of her extensive articles, essays, books, plays, films, documentaries and speeches Continue reading »
The Native Arts & Cultures Foundation, a philanthropic organization dedicated exclusively to the revitalization, appreciation, and perpetuation of indigenous arts and cultures in the United States, is accepting applications for its 2013 Artist Fellowships. Through the fellowship program, the foundation seeks to foster the creativity of Indigenous artists, allowing the opportunity for study, reflection, experimentation, … Continue reading »
NEW YORK; LOS ANGELES; and ROWE, MASS: “Acting.” “Being.” “Meditation.” “Awakening vision.” “Radiant health.” “Retreat.” These words and ideas leap out when one speaks of Shantigar, the educational foundation and performing-arts retreat founded by the playwright Jean Claude van Itallie in an old Davenport farm on a mountainside in Western Massachusetts near Vermont. One of … Continue reading »
SAN DIEGO, CALIF.: Tamasaburo Bando V is one of Japan’s most celebrated performers of Kabuki, the traditional dance/drama form whose roots date back some 500 years. On Thursday, March 22, 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., the 61-year-old artist offers a free presentation that is open to the public as part of the annual Kyoto Symposium, March … Continue reading »
NEW HAVEN, CONN.: The Caribbean‘s leading Carnival artist will lecture on how “to play mas.” On Friday, March 25, 2:30 to 5pm, the Caribbean artist Peter Minshall will give a talk, entitled “Blue Devils, Bats and Fancy Sailors,” in which he will detail the “mas,” a form of creative expression in the Trinidad Carnival. The … Continue reading »
As confusion over arts funding drags on in Bosnia and Herzegovina, how inspiring it is to discover in Sarajevo an artistically rich international theater festival that serves as another point of light shining over that country’s darkened horizon Continue reading »
XIAMEN, CHINA and PARIS, FRANCE: The International Theatre Institute (ITI) – the world’s largest organization for the performing arts – is holding its 33rd world congress at the Xiamen International Conference and Exhibition Centre in Xiamen, China, from Sept. 19 to 24, 2011. Held under the auspices of UNESCO, the congress will have a strong … Continue reading »
What’s amazing about “Ruined”—why it became the most decorated drama of 2009, including winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama—is that it peers closely at some of the continent’s most intractable conflicts by giving the women of the Congo their own voices… Continue reading »
“She was camera shy, wouldn’t look at the camera, so it was difficult to get her picture,” says the photographer and performance artist William Yang. “Her dancers held her in high esteem, revered her, regarded her as the guru. In an interview she was asked how she chose her dancers, and her reply, as I remember, was, ‘…if I could somehow love them.’ ” Continue reading »
NEW YORK CITY: At a July morning news conference in New York City, the 86-year-old and hugely influential British director Peter Brook and his collaborators — librettist Marie-Hélène Estienne and composer Franck Krawczyk — confessed, with a laugh, that if they had their druthers, their lovely A Magic Flute would be performed entirely in English. “We … Continue reading »
THEATRE SVOBODA (DIVADLO SVOBODA) Czech Republic, 2011 98 Min, Color DIRECTOR: Jakub Hejna PRODUCER: Jiří Konečný SCREENPLAY: Jakub Hejna, Barbora Příhodová DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Jiří Chod CAST Josef Svoboda EDITOR Jakub Hejna MUSIC Anthony Phillips The most riveting scene of Theatre Svoboda — the feature-length documentary film about the famous Czech scenographer Josef Svoboda — takes place … Continue reading »
