That's an interesting question, principally for a city that was invaded by Coffee Shops + Book Stores in the last 5 years. Brazilians do not read much, I've got to admit, but we are getting better.
I am a slow reader myself. I read a book per month. But I have a piece of information to clarify. I don't read silly books like the ones you find everywhere. Silly vampire, murder romance or self-help books. I mostly read theory books. Yes, I am that kind of person. yeahh...blurh...
So the readings are more dense and take more time. I just finished the last book I suggested in this blog: The Paper Canoe by Eugenio Barbaabout theater antrophology. It was amazing. He builds a paralel between the ocidental and oriental theaters, its costumes, its inpirations, ideologies, theories and thecniques.
It is a good choice of book for theater lovers.
I am reading a really interesting book by Eugenio Barba called The Paper Canoe. It is a Theater Antrophological Treaty which describes Barba's cultural experiences between Oriental and Ociental cultures and theater techiniques. Barba describes oriental theater schools and bring up references such as Decroux, Brecht, Meyerhold, Craig, Copeau, Artaud, Stanislavisk and Grotowisk. The author presents a really comprehensive study about acting and its different ideologies.
Eugenio Barba (born in Brindisi, 29 October 1936) is an Italian author and theatre director based in Denmark. He is the founder of the Odin Theatre and the International School of Theatre Anthropology, both located in Holstebro, Denmark.
Odin Theatre came to Brazil a little while ago to present its whole repertoire at Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil in downtown. The tickets were really hard to get. The demand was an absurd. After standing a long while in the line, I had the chance to watch one of their plays called Andersen's Dream.
The play was amazing. The arena stage had a mirror on top of it, so we had the chance of watching the play looking at the mirror upside down. There were more than 8 middle aged actors from all other the world. The play was acted in 8 different languages including portuguese (Augusto Omolu - a bahiano - joins the company for a long time). I can just say that i understood it all and it was so poetic.
No words were necessary for the message to be passed to the audience.
If Odin Theatre ever passes by your city or country, it is definitly worth to watch it!
During the past forty two years Eugenio Barba has directed 65 productions with Odin Teatret and the Theatrum Mundi Ensemble, some of which have required up to two years of preparation. Among the best known are Ferai (1969), Min Fars Hus (My Father’s House) (1972), Brecht’s Ashes (1980), The Gospel According to Oxyrhincus (1985), Talabot (1988), Itsi Bitsi (1991), Kaosmos (1993) and Mythos (1998). Some of the more recent productions are Salt (2002), Great Cities under the Moon (2003), Andersen's Dream (2005), Ur-Hamlet (2006) and Don Giovanni all'Inferno (2006) in collaboration with Ensemble Midtvest.
In 1979 Eugenio Barba founded the International School of Theatre Anthropology (ISTA). He is on the advisory boards of scholarly journals such as The Drama Review, Performance Research, New Theatre Quarterly, Teatro e Storia and Teatrología. Among his most recent publications, translated into several different languages, are The Paper Canoe (Routledge), Theatre: Solitude, Craft, Revolt (Black Mountain Press), Land of Ashes and Diamonds. My Apprenticeship in Poland, followed by 26 letters from Jerzy Grotowski to Eugenio Barba (Black Mountain Press) and, in collaboration with Nicola Savarese, The Secret Art of the Performer and the revised an updated version: A Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology (Centre for Performance Research/ Routledge).
One of the great challenges in our daily lifes is to get people to say a simple word: "yes". Yes to you, yes to your projects, yes to your blog, yes to your art piece, yes to your budget, yes to your dreams, etc. Yes comes with hard work and mainly negociation. Maybe you are not able to have what you want, but you can negociate to have most of it according to the parts.
Lots of artists under-estimate the negociating techniques in the artist´s daily life. To start off, many times, artists need to negociate with his or her family in order to become an artist. This is one thing you never see in someone becoming a dentist, for example.
"Hey, mom and dad. Hey, my wife. Hey, my husband. I want to become an artist, and, as you know, an estimate artist turn over is from 5 to 10 years. So, I need time and investment. Can you please sustain and support me in the meanwhile?"
Being an artist is more blasé and sometimes they just don´t get it. A blank canvas, a stage, a mic can be toatlly terrifying at times and the advances are not quantified like a certificate hanging on your wall or a job promotion. The achievements start off as being emotional inner-progresses like an abstract painting. The challenges of being an artist exceeds the challenges of making art. If you know what I mean.
In third world countries, the reality is completely stressed. Let´s imagine like that: if in a first world country it is difficult to be an artist for some people, in a thrid world country being an artist is, at first, a character trace refletcted in braveness, persistence and hope.
(Please, refer to a great post about this: Tips on how to become an artist.)
So, I bring you here this great book, that will help you to maximize your efforts in a negociation with your marchand, your manager, your producer, your partner, your theatre company, you choir, etc.
Click here to get the PDF file of "GETTING TO YES -Negotiating an agreement without giving in" by Roger Fisher and William Ury from Harvard Law School.
Back in 2004, when I joined an academic exchange program in Springfield, Missouri (USA), I got John Berger´s essay book. I read some essays as soon as I got it, but I confess I officially started reading it now.
I have to say that if you want a good book to read this is the one!
The essays include tense (tender + dense) meditations on painters like Picasso, Matisse, Pollock, Goya, Poussin and Gauguin, as well as sculptors like Lipschitz, Brancusi and Zadkine.
I have had a hard time trying to find and get good art management books to read. Brazil lacks of this kind of book, therefore, the formal information acquired are mainly from Europe and USA. Anyway, I decided to buy some theorical books in order to know more about the managing and marketing art. Here is a basic one I bought:
This is a great book if you want to find out more about the contemporary art world. The artists portrayed here are all modern (and living) conceptual and/or abstract artists. Calvin lets us know particular things about the artists life, career, atelie, ideology. You feel compeled to search more as the life of an artist is totally relevant to an understanding of his or her work.
There are 10 artists which include: Damien Hirst, Cindy Sherman, Julian Schnabel, Richard Serra, James Turrell, Matthew Barney, Maurizio Cattelan, Jasper Johns, Jeff Koons and John Currin.
I read this book really fast during my traffic hours. This is a rich and resourceful book. I liked it!
Here is a great reading tip: Psychology of Intelligence Analysis by Richards J. Heuer from Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from the United States. The book is divided into 3 parts: our mental machinery, tools for thinking and cognitive biases.
And what the heck does this have to do with art? Art is an expression and you can only express something you understand in some level. Learn how to read yourself and others and understand the minds are necessary for artists, if not for anyone.
Download it here and enjoy!
One of my finnest resources to scape the crazy talks of my co-workers is to listen to online videos. For that matter, I love TED! TED is an online conference site that bring together people from three worlds: technology, entertainment and design. One speech that I liked a lot was Elizabeth´s. The author of Eat, Pray and Love talks about the artist X geniuses concept and shares a different way to think about creative genius.
I particularly like the passage that begins at the 10th minute and 12th second. She quotes one fine 90-year-old poet, Ruth Stone, about criativity and inspiration.
Check the movie trailler for Eat, Pray and Love with Julia Roberts!
I am crazy about finding new art references from all over the world in the internet, but I find it really challenging to find art management study references. Here in Brazil we dont have many art business courses or books. So I crave anything. If you know any link, e-book, web-site you think is good, please, e-mail me!
Here is a really insightful lecture by Michael Kaiser hosted by MIT Sloan. Michael Kaiser is the president of The Kennedy Center in Washington DC (USA). Known as the "the turnaround king" for his work at such arts institutions as the Kansas City Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre and the Royal Opera House, Kaiser has earned international renown for his expertise in arts management.
I loved his last book "The Art of the Turnaround: Creating and Maintaining Healthy Arts Organizations" as it "....presents a ten-step . . . program to save or revive struggling arts organizations. The author's program is practical, and he follows it with a series of case studies in which he works his magic over and over again. He offers interesting anecdotes, and the portrayal of the logistics of traveling shows deserves particular mention . . ." -- Choice. You will find yourself writting down notes and ideas to use in your own company!
His main tips for an art organization turnaround are:
1. Someone must lead;
2. The leader must have a plan (and the organization a clear mission);
3. You cannot save your way to health ("you cannot save an art organization by saving money");
4. Focus on today and tomorrow, not yesterday;
5. Extend your programming planning calendar;
6. Marketing is more than brochures and ads;
7. There must be only one spokesman and the message must be positive;
8. Fund-raising must focus on the larger donor, but don't aim too high;
9. The board must allow itslef to be restructured;
10. The organization must have the discipline to follow each of these rules.
The truth is that turnarounds are not a miracle, but the determined implementation of a coordinated planning and the "lack of sleep".
