AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Isaiah Zagar, Known For His Psychedelic Philadelphia Mosaics, Is Dead At 86
A self-taught mosaicist, Mr. Zagar used broken bottles, handmade tiles, mirrors, and other found objects to cover walls across the city, particularly in South Philly. His Magic Gardens on South Street has become a landmark, attracting 150,000 visitors a year. – The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
- Seattle Symphony’s Home To Close For Renovations This Summer
“Benaroya Hall, the longtime home of the Seattle Symphony …, will close for six weeks beginning in July for the final phase of a $20 million renovation to the building’s entrances, lobby and public-facing spaces, the Symphony announced Thursday. (No performance spaces are part of the renovation plans.)” – The Seattle Times
- Architectural Drawings Of Trump’s Planned White House East Wing Released
“The drawings picture the East Wing volume extending well into the White House lawn. At roughly 90,000 square feet, its footprint is more than twice the size of the previous East Wing building, which is now fully demolished. … The documentation includes site plans, building plans, elevations, landscape drawings and renders.” – Dezeen
- Internal Kennedy Center Email Reveals Details Of Planned Renovation Work
“The renovations are more modest in scale and scope than what President Trump has publicly outlined for the revamped arts center, and it is unclear whether or not these plans are the extent of the intended renovations.” – NPR
- Black Actress Sues Harvard’s American Repertory Theater For Discrimination, Alleging Permanent Scalp Damage
Nike Imoru said that for last year’s staging of The Odyssey, she was told to get cornrows but was not provided with a competent stylist as Equity’s contract requires — and that the backstage worker who did the work instead left her with permanent damage, including the loss of most of her hair. – CBS News
ISSUES
- Architectural Drawings Of Trump’s Planned White House East Wing Released
“The drawings picture the East Wing volume extending well into the White House lawn. At roughly 90,000 square feet, its footprint is more than twice the size of the previous East Wing building, which is now fully demolished. … The documentation includes site plans, building plans, elevations, landscape drawings and renders.” – Dezeen
- Why Does Bernini’s Beloved Elephant Sculpture In Rome Keep Losing The Tip Of Its Tusk?
Because people keep knocking it off — most recently, this past weekend, when police found the four-inch marble fragment from the left tusk on the pavement nearby. – AP
- V&A Museum Acquires First-Ever YouTube Video
“The V&A has acquired a reconstructed early webpage and the first video ever uploaded to the platform by co-founder Jawed Karim,” a V&A spokesperson said. – CNN
- Judy Chicago Walks Away From “Nightmare” Google Project
The celebrated visual artist Judy Chicago has walked away from a major commission at Google’s headquarters project in the Loop, comparing an aspect of working with the tech giant as “a nightmare.” – Chicago Sun-Times
- Saudi Arabia Commissions World’s Largest Mural, Which It Hopes Will Be Visible From Space
The job — to create a painting 50,000 square meters large, roughly the size of nine football fields, in the Saudi capital, Riyadh — has gone to New York-based artist Domingo Zapata, who is reportedly getting an “unlimited budget.” – Page Six
MEDIA
- Internal Kennedy Center Email Reveals Details Of Planned Renovation Work
“The renovations are more modest in scale and scope than what President Trump has publicly outlined for the revamped arts center, and it is unclear whether or not these plans are the extent of the intended renovations.” – NPR
- Almost Everything We Knew About Mayan Culture Turns Out To Be Wrong
Outsiders’ power over the story of the Maya is written into the people’s very name. After their arrival in the early 1500s, the Spanish named local populations “Maya” after the ruined city of Mayapán in present day Mexico. Yet the Maya never saw themselves as one people and were never governed under one empire. – The Guardian
- Metaphor? Leader Of US Constitution Center Steps Down As America’s 250th Birthday Begins
The first and only museum dedicated to the US constitution has been plunged into turmoil over the sudden departure of its president, a legal scholar widely respected for his commitment to non-partisanship. – The Guardian
- Pennsylvania Re-Orients Its Arts Funding Guidelines Toward Economic Development
“The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts is rebranding its granting operation as a new entity called Pennsylvania Creative Industries. The new granting guidelines are in line with a new strategic plan that leans more heavily into creative entrepreneurship and economic development.” Arts organizations in the state are concerned. – WHYY (Philadelphia)
- California City Reports $1.5 Million Embezzled From Its Arts Funding Agency
“The statement from (Fresno Arts Council), which handled public grants set aside by the local parks and arts tax for the past few years, said the arts council began securing records and initiating ‘appropriate next steps’.” Meanwhile, the City Council has removed the granting process from Arts Council control. – The Fresno Bee (MSN)
MUSIC
- Outsourcing Publishing Decisions To Influencers
Bindery Books, a startup founded by publishing veterans, uses social media book influencers as acquiring editors to champion underrepresented authors and build engaged reader communities. – Los Angeles Times
- Children’s Vocabularies Are Shrinking In Shift From Reading To Screens
“So many children are now falling behind,” Dent said. “The vocabulary gap is getting bigger and there is a real perception that vocabulary development is suffering and that impacts on learning.” – The Guardian
- A New York Times Obituary Writer Contemplates The Ancient Egyptian Book Of The Dead
“To begin with, a Book of the Dead is a misnomer, applied by 19th-century Western scholars. A more accurate translation of the title would be ‘Spells of Coming Forth by Day.’ Unlike obituaries, they aren’t biographies. They aren’t even books. And, they’re not of the dead. They’re for the dead.” – The New York Times
- For The First Time In Its 167 Years, This Newspaper’s Reporting Is 100% Paid-For By Subscriptions
The Irish Times (like most outlets) always depended on advertising to fund its operations. This year, thanks to the strategy followed by its leaders (and the fact that it’s owned by a trust rather than an asset management firm), the paper’s 150,000 print and digital subscribers cover the newsroom’s expenses. – Press Gazette (UK)
- Recent US Post Office Delays Are Hitting Publishers Hard
Recent USPS service problems aren’t exclusive to newspapers. But for a business where timeliness is baked into the value proposition, they can be uniquely damaging, leading subscribers to cancel and even, in some cases, threatening advertising revenue. – NiemanLab
PEOPLE
- Isaiah Zagar, Known For His Psychedelic Philadelphia Mosaics, Is Dead At 86
A self-taught mosaicist, Mr. Zagar used broken bottles, handmade tiles, mirrors, and other found objects to cover walls across the city, particularly in South Philly. His Magic Gardens on South Street has become a landmark, attracting 150,000 visitors a year. – The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
- Seattle Symphony’s Home To Close For Renovations This Summer
“Benaroya Hall, the longtime home of the Seattle Symphony …, will close for six weeks beginning in July for the final phase of a $20 million renovation to the building’s entrances, lobby and public-facing spaces, the Symphony announced Thursday. (No performance spaces are part of the renovation plans.)” – The Seattle Times
- Architectural Drawings Of Trump’s Planned White House East Wing Released
“The drawings picture the East Wing volume extending well into the White House lawn. At roughly 90,000 square feet, its footprint is more than twice the size of the previous East Wing building, which is now fully demolished. … The documentation includes site plans, building plans, elevations, landscape drawings and renders.” – Dezeen
- Internal Kennedy Center Email Reveals Details Of Planned Renovation Work
“The renovations are more modest in scale and scope than what President Trump has publicly outlined for the revamped arts center, and it is unclear whether or not these plans are the extent of the intended renovations.” – NPR
- Black Actress Sues Harvard’s American Repertory Theater For Discrimination, Alleging Permanent Scalp Damage
Nike Imoru said that for last year’s staging of The Odyssey, she was told to get cornrows but was not provided with a competent stylist as Equity’s contract requires — and that the backstage worker who did the work instead left her with permanent damage, including the loss of most of her hair. – CBS News
PEOPLE
- Isaiah Zagar, Known For His Psychedelic Philadelphia Mosaics, Is Dead At 86
A self-taught mosaicist, Mr. Zagar used broken bottles, handmade tiles, mirrors, and other found objects to cover walls across the city, particularly in South Philly. His Magic Gardens on South Street has become a landmark, attracting 150,000 visitors a year. – The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
- Seattle Symphony’s Home To Close For Renovations This Summer
“Benaroya Hall, the longtime home of the Seattle Symphony …, will close for six weeks beginning in July for the final phase of a $20 million renovation to the building’s entrances, lobby and public-facing spaces, the Symphony announced Thursday. (No performance spaces are part of the renovation plans.)” – The Seattle Times
- Architectural Drawings Of Trump’s Planned White House East Wing Released
“The drawings picture the East Wing volume extending well into the White House lawn. At roughly 90,000 square feet, its footprint is more than twice the size of the previous East Wing building, which is now fully demolished. … The documentation includes site plans, building plans, elevations, landscape drawings and renders.” – Dezeen
- Internal Kennedy Center Email Reveals Details Of Planned Renovation Work
“The renovations are more modest in scale and scope than what President Trump has publicly outlined for the revamped arts center, and it is unclear whether or not these plans are the extent of the intended renovations.” – NPR
- Black Actress Sues Harvard’s American Repertory Theater For Discrimination, Alleging Permanent Scalp Damage
Nike Imoru said that for last year’s staging of The Odyssey, she was told to get cornrows but was not provided with a competent stylist as Equity’s contract requires — and that the backstage worker who did the work instead left her with permanent damage, including the loss of most of her hair. – CBS News
THEATRE
VISUAL
- An Evolving Notion Of Literacy That Explains Everything
Literacy literally restructured our consciousness, and the demise of literate culture—the decline of reading and the rise of social media—is again transforming what it feels like to be a thinking, living person. – Derek Thompson
- The Anatomy Of (Enduring) Class Struggle
Despite years of Eat-the-Rich–type discourse, we seem to struggle with how money and power operate without falling into either conspiratorial exaggeration (the fantasy of Satan-worshipping elites ritualistically drinking baby blood is centuries old) or fawning admiration for the taste and sophistication of the rich and famous. – The American Scholar
- Arguments For Why People Are Worthwhile
When we speak of dignity, worth, or the respect owed to persons, we are not engaging in idle abstraction. These concepts do real work. They justify constraints on what the powerful may do to the vulnerable. – 3 Quarks Daily
- How Universities Became Centers Of Liberal Thought
In the past thirty or so years, the academy has replaced the church as the center of the liberal moral imagination, providing the sense of a community bound by ethics, a firmament of texts and knowledge that should inform action, and a meeting space for like-minded people. – The New Yorker
- The Man Who Thinks The Enlightenment Was A Mistake
Rod Dreher emerged from the conservative blogosphere in the 2000s and won fans with his daily stream of testy opinions and unguarded anecdotal writing. He seems almost allergic to ideological consistency, has long had readers on the left as well as the right, and sometimes changes his mind over the course of a single paragraph. – The Atlantic
