The SunBreak » arts

Jewish Renaissance Music Gets “Obscene” with Ensemble Lucidarium

Philippa Kiraly — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 19:29:01 +0000

For some time Ensemble Lucidarium has been exploring and recreating Jewish music from medieval times and the Renaissance, and they brought one of the programs to Town Hall Saturday night under the auspices of the Early Music Guild. Titled Una Festa Ebraica—Celebrating Life, the program covered the music of joyous Jewish occasions, from the bris—when … Continue reading →

City Arts Fest Begins in 5…4…3

Michael van Baker — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 23:29:04 +0000

Also suited for adults, in both senses of the word, is the KT Niehoff/Lingo Productions & Jill Donnelly fashion-party/installation-spectacle "Emerald City: I Have to Be Seen in Green." It's about "adornment, personal aesthetics, and how we choose to present ourselves to the world."

Cash-Strapped and Debt-Burdened, Seattle’s Major Arts Institutions Face Leadership Transitions, Too

Michael van Baker — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 18:50:24 +0000

"Kimerly Rorschach, new SAM director, is a museum-builder," runs the headline in the Seattle Times the morning after Rorschach's appointment was announced. It's an odd lede because Seattle Art Museum--and the Seattle Asian Art Museum and Olympic Sculpture Park--are, well...built.

Adventures in Arts Marketing: What If Everybody Came?

Michael van Baker — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 19:42:36 +0000

I know you want the whole Helicon checklist for high-performing arts groups, so here goes: a) a clear purpose and compelling vision, b) deep community engagement, c) unblinkered evaluation and analysis, d) nimbleness and flexibility, and e) distributed leadership. That all sounds good, but you really need to soak up the examples provide to learn the underlying lesson, which is that this is only going to work if your organization is predisposed to evolutionary change (not many are), or if pressing environmental factors are giving you the leverage you need.

Arts Marketing for Dummies

Michael van Baker — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 23:16:04 +0000

Jeremy Barker, our At-Large Arts contributor, forwarded me some "new thinking," that reminded me of the kinds of solutions that conflict with institutional values. Joanna Harmon in Minneapolis asks: "What if small companies and loose collectives of theatre artists were enabled by a single group of administrators, rather than each company reinventing its administrative wheel?" This will sound more or less interesting to you--I'm willing to bet--depending upon your role in arts administration.

Rising Visa Denials and Delays Keeping Artists and Arts Groups on Pins and Needles

Michael van Baker — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 20:43:04 +0000

This Thursday, On the Boards will open a show you almost didn't get to see, "L'Effet de Serge" by France's Vivarium Studio. For the first time, says On the Boards, their request for an artist's visa was denied. "In our 34-year history we have brought hundreds of foreign artists to the U.S. and this is the first time that we have encountered this kind of visa difficulty," reads the OtB blog. Especially on the West Coast, a crackdown of sorts on visa issuance seems to be in progress, and no one seems to know why.