Can there ever be another Baryshnikov?
Plus, where art is most appreciated in the U.S.
Hello. Since the last time we spoke, I have:
Seen Met Opera’s production of Die Frau ohne Schatten.
Watched Alvin Ailey perform Revelations, Many Angels, and several other pieces at New York City Center.
Finished reading Djuna Barnes’s 1936 novel Nightwood.
Watched Maria (2024).
Now, the news.
Is Mikhail Baryshnikov the last highbrow superstar? asks
in a wonderful profile for The New York Times (I am seething with byline envy). Diamond traces an overview of Baryshnikov’s claim to fame—how he defected from the USSR for artistic freedom, settled in New York City, and reached such mainstream fame that led to countless magazine covers, an Oscar and a Tony nomination, and a pretty significant role on Sex and the City. But the work that Baryshnikov has directed the majority of his energy toward has not been decidedly not so mainstream, working with the choreographer Mark Morris, appearing in stage plays, and running his New York City foundation and arts complex, Baryshnikov Arts.Baryshnikov has arguably been the most well-known ballet dancer, if not dancer, period, over the past four decades—at least. But he has harnessed his fame in different ways than most, tending to his work with little regard for entrepreneurial opportunities or brand deals. Diamond writes:
Today, to have achieved this level of fame by dancing in a revival of “Apollo,” or in a ballet Jerome Robbins created specifically for you to Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1, seems unlikely at best. But Baryshnikov arrived at a very specific time — between the period when people like Leonard Bernstein or Maria Callas could be household names and novelists were regular guests on the country’s biggest talk shows and the era when the nation became obsessed with very new kinds of celebrity. Baryshnikov is a highbrow superstar, and possibly one of the last we will ever see.
A lot of factors went into Baryshnikov’s fame. First is his technical excellence. It was not unusual for critics, during his prime to describe Baryshnikov’s ballet technique and artistry as perfection. There are great dancers today (maybe none who have yet reached Baryshnikov’s ideal), but there are always emerging stars—like the Paris Opera Ballet’s Guillaume Diop, recently profiled in the New York Times. There is also the fact that Baryshnikov decided to defect from the USSR in a headline-making moment.
But two other factors played just as critical a role in his rise to stardom: The media environment of the later 20th century and the cultural regard, in that period, for art.
Today, the arts are increasingly defunded, taken out of schools, and made a privilege to experience—which has, in turn, made them a target of culture war ire. And as journalism has struggled to survive in the new millennium, SEO strategies and mercurial social media algorithms have made it harder than ever for publications to cover subjects that aren’t guaranteed traffic hits. No writer is producing what might be considered “clickbait” for their health. The trepidation that comes with pursuing a career in media has, perhaps, led to reduced mainstream awareness of subjects outside the domains of Hollywood, reality TV, and politics. And the death of monoculture (which can certainly have its upsides) means that you often have to go out of your way to find less-reported criticism and news. So how could we ever have another Baryshnikov?
Aside from the living legend, the second most known ballet dancer is almost certainly Misty Copeland, who Diamond mentions in his piece. Copeland—who herself started doing ballet through the Boys & Girls Clubs of America—has become a powerful advocate for arts access, especially for marginalized communities, and for diversity in dance. But Copeland, Diamond notes, has pursued more commercial paths, collaborating with Barbie, Disney, and Under Armour.
She has plenty of good reason to do so. While Baryshnikov told Diamond that money isn’t his concern, he’s in the privileged position of being so successful that money doesn’t have to matter; most dancers today can’t say the same—or they can, but only if they’re willing to make a financial sacrifice. Copeland’s commercial projects also help her advance the causes that are so important to her; in the absence of widely consumed media, artists must find other platforms to reach the masses. Mattel fits the bill.
The cost of living has risen considerably since Baryshnikov’s stardom began, and although dancers have had some serious labor wins in the past few years, they—like artists across all disciplines—have to hustle to make a living just doing their art. And not all are in a position to sacrifice financial stability for artistic experimentation. It is the same reason a novelist might do copywriting for a tech behemoth or a painter might work in marketing. It is also why the artists you see taking the most risks are those who may have secured their financial security earlier on (or have the privilege of generational wealth)—see actors like Daniel Radcliffe, Robert Pattinson, and Kristen Stewart.
Of course money is a problem. It always is. But I also think it’s worth interrogating what we mean when we say we want to increase access to the arts because oftentimes, this translates less to simply making the arts more visible and more to making them more palatable for a wider audience. The thinking is understandable but it feels a bit like art is being treated like a pill hidden inside of a dog treat. Can we only enjoy musicals if they’re full of pop music? Can we only appreciate an orchestra if it’s playing the score of Star Wars? Can we only digest dance if we see it in a Disney movie?
I’m not saying that these entries into different art forms shouldn’t exist. But I do think there is something to be said for raising your expectations of audiences. The Met Opera’s recent testimonials from children as young as six about its English version production of The Magic Flute show how sometimes, all people really need is an open mind to appreciate and experience something new. I know that we need to get better at drawing people in, at making them more willing to give something intimidating or unknown a chance. But what if the solution was as simple as just letting them watch?
If you’re good at reading, it may be because your brain is structured differently, found Mikael Roll, professor of phonetics at Lund University, in a recent study. Two regions in the left hemisphere of the brain related to associating and categorizing information and phonological awareness (understanding the relationship between signs and sounds) respectively are larger in avid readers. But don’t take this as a sign that nature supersedes nurture: Research has also shown that young adults who study language intensely enhance the structure of these brain areas. “It’s worth considering what might happen to us as a species if skills like reading become less prioritised,” Rolls writes. “Our capacity to interpret the world around us and understand the minds of others would surely diminish. In other words, that cosy moment with a book in your armchair isn’t just personal—it’s a service to humanity.”
Dallas Black Dance Theater, which you may recall fired its dancers in some serious union-busting, has been ordered to pay more than $560,000 to those dancers in a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board. The 10 fired dancers reunited last week for a sold-out benefit show on December 18 and 19. They won’t return to DBDT—which has also been ordered to issue apologies to the dancers and train staff in accordance with NLRB best practices—but they now have some financial padding (in the form of backpay, front pay, and compensation for damages) to help them find their best path forward.
Earlier this month, President Biden established a monument to honor thousands of Native American children who were forcibly assimilated between the 19th to early 20th century across the U.S. The Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument sits at the sight of the former Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and will be managed by the National Park Service. The Secretary of the Interior will “meaningfully engage Tribal Nations and the Native Hawaiian Community in the development of the management plan and ongoing management of the monument” to help protect indigenous knowledge and history.
Is physics the reason we are so drawn to Van Gogh’s Starry Night? Maybe! In any case, scientists have been studying the painting for years. Most recently, Yongxiang Huang and Yinxiang Ma of Xiamen University found that the whorls in Van Gogh’s work contain two different types of scientifically validated turbulence. Which may not mean much to most—but is still cool. “They know that something wonderful has been embedded in this painting and we are drawn to it—physicists and layperson alike,” Huang told The Washington Post. “The swirls and whirls—they are familiar to us.”
Patron of the arts and very wealthy person Allison Berg is helping people from underrepresented backgrounds become museum and arts curators through her organization, the A&L Berg Foundation, which offers $10,000 to “help emerging visual arts curators, educators, and administrator…learn to navigate the insular, often elitist, largely white world of visual arts.” Very cool of her! The annual program sponsors six fellows each year, and also brings them to a large arts event; this year, the first group of fellows attended the Venice Biennale. Critically, the fellowship doesn’t offer explicit curatorial or arts training—the fellows already know how to do that. “It is about the relationships and the behind-the-scenes that nobody talks about,” Berg told the NYT.
You may have already seen it, but the Metropolitan Museum of Art has unveiled the new design for its modern and contemporary wing by Mexican architect Frida Escobedo. She becomes the first woman to design a wing for the museum; her design will “increase…gallery space by nearly 50 percent, creating more than 70,000 square feet for the display of our outstanding Modern and Contemporary collection, while staying within the existing footprint and overall height of The Met.” The Tang wing, named after donors Oscar Tang and Agnes Hsu-Tang who in 2021 gifted the museum $125 million, will open in 2030.
Things are feeling weird at the Kennedy Center in advance of the next Trump presidency. The institution’s annual honors happened earlier this month (but will be broadcast on CBS/Paramount+ tonight), with President Biden in attendance; in his four years in office, Trump never attended, which leaves his future relationship with the Center in question. In January, Kennedy Center chairman David M. Rubenstein had planned to step down, but after the election, is now staying in his position until 2026. The Center says this decision, which was made by the board, is due to the fact that a search for a new board chair, which began in May, has taken longer than expected. But it is perhaps more notable that the Center is also busy preparing for its 250th Anniversary of America programming in 2026. Kennedy Center president Deborah F. Rutter told the NYT she is not worried about the institution losing federal funding under another Trump presidency, as funding remained steady during the first administration—in spite of Trump’s earlier threats to end both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The President appoints board members of the Kennedy Center, who serve six-year terms; currently, seven are Biden appointees, though he is expected to replace eleven Trump appointees whose terms are nearly up. Then, 18 Trump appointees will remain.
Palestine’s Al Risan Art Museum (or Forbidden Museum) is staging a Gaza Biennale with more than 40 Palestinian artists’ involvement; currently, it is trying to raise $90,000 in funding, 100 percent of which will go directly to artists. The group is also seeking outside partner institutions with which it can display the art. “Despite unbelievable obvious obstacles, even with the basic obstacles of supplies, [the artists] found ways to still make work that’s extremely strong,” artist Tasneem Shatat told Hyperallergic. “We are also asking art institutions to be brave…to get into work where they can question and study this situation, more than as a result of art.”
Arts funding in Germany is not looking great, with Berlin’s government cutting arts spending by 12 percent, which could have a devastating impact on theaters, opera houses, and other cultural institutions. The Schaubühne theater has expressed concerns about going bankrupt, the performing arts group Berliner Ensemble and “the people’s theater” Volksbühne are likely to have to cut performances, and others are faced with similar prospects, according to German news service DW. And of course, when you cut the arts, that also has an impact on civic engagement. “Right now, cultural venues are urgently needed to debate current issues, to offer places for democratic discourse, to stimulate reflection or simply to create cohesion,” writes Olaf Zimmermann, managing director of the German Cultural Council.
Do you live in one of the most arts-vibrant cities in the U.S.? SMU DataArts, the National Center for Arts Research, released its annual index, with the San Francisco area taking top honors among large communities, followed by New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Minneapolis. Santa Fe took top honors for medium communities and Jackson, Wyoming, for small communities. This is a data-driven assessment, which takes into account supply and demand for arts, as well as public support for the arts.
Violence in schools continues to be an all-too-real and urgent problem in the United States. Can theater help? The suggestion may sound glib (of course other measures, like gun violence prevention, need to be taken as well), but it may have some merit. The Sacramento-based arts organization NorCal Arts has landed a $600,000 federal grant to teach kids conflict-resolution skills and de-escalation with theater arts as a teaching tool. “Theater is a profound tool for violence prevention because it fosters empathy, emotional literacy, and healing,” Allison Gamlen, visual and performing arts coordinator for the San Mateo County Office of Education, told EdSource. “Theater gives young people a safe space to explore challenging situations, process emotions, and even experiment with different outcomes. By embodying characters and committing to their circumstances, students learn to understand and navigate complex emotions—both their own and others.”
You know what also helps kids and adults as they move into the workplace? Studying the humanities. This kind of education enables people to feel a greater sense of connection to others, enrich their conversational skills, and increase empathy, says Anna Mae Duane, director of the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute.
What happens when protest means giving up a beloved piece of art? That is what some are asking in Lithuania as the National Opera and Ballet Theater has continued its “mental quarantine” of Russian culture since it invaded Ukraine in 2022. That means no Nutcracker—as it is composed by the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who died in 1893.
The ban on Russian art isn’t exactly a full-out ban, but rather a suggestion driven largely by former culture minister Simonas Kairys. But this month, a new culture minister, Sarunas Birutis, sparked controversy when he mentioned in a radio interview that he was a fan of Tchaikovsky and that people should not be “afraid that after watching a Christmas fairy tale we will become pro-Kremlin.” Still, there is no Nutcracker this year in Lithuanian’s state theater—and some fans of the beloved ballet are deeply unhappy.
This does bring up some serious questions about cultural boycotts, and who or what they may apply to. The New York Times made a great point about Britain’s National Gallery putting on a series of concerts featuring music by German composers to drive home a point that the country was at war with the Nazis—“not with Germany as a nation or culture.”
Still, some point out that Russia has often used its rich cultural history to distract from its current political atrocities, and others “see all Russians and their cultural heritage as irredeemably tainted by imperial thinking.” Some also suggest that Russian classical music, in particular, can be used for propaganda.
I can see the sides of all arguments. Perhaps I am biased because Tchaikovsky is one of my favorite composers, but I do wonder if the is a way to continue sharing art—especially when it is deeply historical and not directly tied to a currently in-power political regime—while acknowledging the context in which it is created. I want people to be able to experience the art so many love—but I also want to make sure that history, in all of its complexities, is preserved and understood, too. ▲