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'Merrily We Roll Along' was Sondheim's big flop. Can she save it?
NEW YORK, NY.- In the beginning, everybody cried. A lot. Id say the entire cast spent the first two weeks of rehearsals in tears, in tears, and they had no idea why, said Maria Friedman, director of the new, hotly anticipated revival of Merrily We Roll Along. Thats the Stephen Sondheim-George Furth musical from 1981, which opened Dec. 12 at the New York Theater Workshop, and all but sold out its limited run the day tickets became available. In a season plump with Sondheim revivals (Into the Woods, next years Sweeney Todd) and literature, this one carries an especially heavy cargo of expectation: the hope that its creators most notorious flop might finally be rehabilitated. A British star of musicals and a peerless interpreter (and friend) of Sondheim, who died a year ago, Friedman, 62, tends to talk in breathless, boldfaced italics ... More

Yo-Yo Ma is finding his way Back to nature through music
NEW RIVER GORGE NATIONAL PARK, W.VA.- A hikers mouth dropped when she learned why a small group was forming at a rocky overlook here. Yo-Yo Ma, she was told, is going to do a pop-up concert. She waited patiently, leaning against a wooden guardrail, beyond which lay a serenely undulating vista of West Virginias tree-covered mountains, bisected by a horseshoe curve of the New River and dotted with the shadows of scattered clouds. From this spot, Grandview, the landscape appeared nearly untouched, interrupted only by a railroad track along the water. Members of the National Park Service set up a tripod to livestream the performance. Poet Crystal Good stood before the crowd of a few dozen passers-by, and before giving a reading, said, Let me take a moment, because this is so beautiful. Then Ma, far from any major concert hall and hundreds of miles ... More

Alice Teirstein, who introduced youths to dance, dies at 93
NEW YORK, NY.- Alice Teirstein, a fixture of the New York dance scene for a half-century as a dancer, choreographer and teacher, and the creator of Young Dancemakers Company, a free summer program that gives budding teenage dancers and choreographers a chance to develop their skills and test them in performances, died Nov. 25 at her home in the New York City borough of Manhattan. She was 93. Her daughter, Eva Teirstein Young, confirmed the death. She began to draw attention as a dancer and choreographer in the late 1940s while still a college student. After her marriage in 1951 to Dr. Alvin Teirstein, she dialed back her dance activities while raising four children. But in the early 1970s, while living in the New York suburb New Rochelle, she became more visible again, performing and staging her own dances in Westchester County and eventually in the city ... More

The Fotostiftung Schweiz and the Kunstmuseum Bern secure Balthasar Burkhard's significant estate
BERN.- The Fotostiftung Schweiz (Swiss Foundation for Photography) and the Kunstmuseum Bern have reached an agreement with Vida Burkhard, widow of the renowned Swiss photographer Balthasar Burkhard, to secure his significant estate and enter into a partnership. The Fotostiftung Schweiz will take over the photographer's archive and the Kunstmuseum Bern will receive four important works from the estate for its collection, thanks to the Gottfried Keller Foundation. Balthasar Burkhard was one of Switzerland's most important photographers. His estate includes his archive, which comprises artistic work as well as pho- tographic commissions. In his will, Balthasar Burkhard designated his wife Vida Burkhard as sole beneficiary and the Kunstmuseum Bern as reversionary beneficiary. This arrangement proved to be unworkable. In the meantime ... More

Melbourne businessman David Bardas AO and family gift important bronze by Auguste Rodin
MELBOURNE.- A powerful and imposing bronze by French artist Auguste Rodin (18401917), who is widely regarded as the founder of modern sculpture, has been generously gifted to the NGV Collection by David Bardas AO and his late wife Sandra Bardas OAM. Walking man (LHomme qui marche, moyen modÃ¨le), conceived by Rodin in 18991900, and cast in 1964 by the Georges Rudier Foundry, Paris, is the first sculpture in the non finito style to enter the NGV Collection. Considered one of Rodins most important contributions to art history, his non finito works challenged conventional notions of sculpture at the time by presenting the human form as incomplete. Walking man is Rodins most recognised and admired work in the non finito tradition. The gifted Walking Man cast - the only one in Australia - was recently authenticated by the ComitÃ© Rodin ... More

Rachel Dickson appointed Deputy Director, Academic at The Glasgow School of Art
GLASGOW.- Rachel Dickson, current Dean of Academic Programmes at Central Saint Martins (University of the Arts, London) is to be the Deputy Director, Academic at The Glasgow School of Art it was announced today. Rachel, who graduated from the Royal College of Art with an MA Ceramics and Glass, has an extensive career as an academic leader within creative education. She has significant experience in designing and leading courses across all levels of Higher Education, of interdisciplinary working, improving the student experience and delivering new approaches to education that encompass social justice, responses to climate emergency and equality and diversity. Prior to her appointment as Dean of Academic Programmes at Central Saint Martins she was Associate Head of School at Belfast School of Art at the University of Ulster. In her current role ... More

Arts organizations in New York City will receive $58 million in grants
NEW YORK, NY.- More than 1,000 arts organizations across the city will receive grants totaling $58 million from the Cultural Development Fund, the city announced Thursday. A portion of the grants will go to organizations within underserved communities, programs that are dedicated to disabled artists and audiences, and programs that extend access to the arts to groups whose primary language is not English. We are working really hard to make the arts accessible for everyone, said Laurie Cumbo, the citys commissioner of cultural affairs. Among the grant recipients are the Parsnip Ship, which produces radio plays; Firelight Media, which supports nonfiction filmmakers of color; and the Noel Pointer Foundation, which teaches string instruments in public schools. Cumbo said she was proud of the application process, which was revamped to include a virtual peer-panel ... More

Adelaide Festival welcomes Associate Director for 2024-2026
ADELAIDE.- Adelaide Festival has announced international arts leader Wouter Van Ransbeek has joined the senior leadership team as Associate Director for delivery of the 2024 to 2026 Adelaide Festivals. Wouter Van Ransbeek, who lives in the Netherlands where he manages his own production company The Rainmakers, will work alongside Artistic Director Ruth Mackenzie and Chief Executive Kath M Mainland. He will support Adelaide Festival collaborations with European-based multi-arts performances and events, to ensure the festival is internationally connected with established companies, as well as scouting emerging work that is cutting edge and of the highest standard. A highly regarded theatrical producer and arts leader, Wouter previously worked as Co-Artistic Director of Internationaal Theater Amsterdam (ITA) alongside award-winning director Ivo van Hove ... More

CARBON 12 opens an exhibition of works by Anahita Razmi
DUBAI.- Anahita Razmi's work of appropriation and transcultural recontextualization takes a novel trajectory in THE RIFF, the artist's 4th solo exhibition at CARBON 12. Through a conceptual use of somewhat offbeat media, the exhibition contrives a visual and sonic assemblage of recurrent symbols of (post-)nationalisms, fading empires, and past cosmopolitanisms, and draws attention to essential questions around living in the world together as people, not necessarily as citizens of national states. Analogue photography, black-and-white aesthetics, and a focus on sound have a strong voice throughout the exhibition. The works concretize abstract notions of processes that participate in coordinating vectors of power, as evident in the series of large-size photographs WORLD MUSIC (2022) taken on a special analogue 6x6 medium format film used by motion picture professionals for sound recording ... More

Anthony Meier's namesake gallery celebrates history of Mill Valley, California with relocation to historic landmark
MILL VALLERY, CALIF.- Anthony Meier, president of the Art Dealers Association of America, is pleased to announce the relocation of his namesake gallery from San Francisco to Mill Valley in Californias scenic Marin County. The new flagship will open its doors with In the Shadow of Mt. Tama historical exhibition that explores the rich artistic history of Marin County from the 1940s through the 1970s. Founder, Anthony Meier, comments: The move to Mill Valley comes at a time when the gallery is rethinking how we can best serve our artists and our communities. Having operated out of a residential building in San Francisco for the past four decades, it has always been part of our ethos to go against the grain and have dedicated art-lovers seek us out ... More

Aay Preston-Myint appointed Executive Director of SF Camerawork
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.- SF Camerawork announces the appointment of Aay Preston-Myint as Executive Director. Preston-Myint will begin in their new role January 1, 2023. A Bay Area-based artist, educator, and curator with over 20 years of experience in arts administration, justice and equity work, and programming, Preston-Myint comes to SF Camerawork from the Headlands Center for the Arts, where they have served as Senior Manager of Public Programs and Fellowships since 2018. Preston-Myint stewarded Headlands Bay Area Fellowship, a program that radically shifted the organizations focus to artists rooted in the Bay Area. They also oversaw residencies and grants and produced public programs for over 60 local and international artists that Headlands serves annually. Preston-Myint was a leader of Headlands diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives ... More