ISSUES

Maine Banned Smartphones In Schools. It’s Changed Students’ Interactions

Students are connecting with each other more in the time between classes, staff across the state said. And during lunch, staff are hearing louder and more lively conversation in the cafeteria — a stark contrast from previous years when phone use stifled talking. - WBUR

Oakland Arts School The Crucible Suddenly Closes

“The Crucible, a longtime West Oakland arts institution known for welding, blacksmithing, glassblowing and other hands-on classes as well as fire-related performances, has temporarily closed because of serious financial problems, leaving staff, faculty, students and artists uncertain about what comes next.” - San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)

Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Is A Juggernaut. So How Does It Work?

Things are going so well for the Trust that, in recent years, it has made some of the tinier theater spaces it owns and manages available free of charge to individual artists and small arts organizations. And yet, mentioning the Cultural Trust to some Pittsburgh artists can bring a wince. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Perot Museum Of Nature And Science Plans $185 Million Expansion

“Plans include a five-story parking garage, a new arrival pavilion, a dedicated area for school bus drop-offs, a pollinator garden and a paleontology garden. This will double the amount of square footage that the museum has dedicated to exhibits, but now outside the building.” - KERA (Dallas)

The Film Director Whose Impossible Class Struggle Movie Won At Venice

Lee Chang-Dong: "I constantly asked myself: am I worthy of telling this story? And if I am, how do I tell it? Do I stand close to the workers, or keep my distance?" - The Guardian (UK)

A Huge Fire Has Destroyed Hitler’s Nazi Guesthouse

For some reason (the reason being that after WWII, "local officials fought successfully to keep it, seeing it as a historical site that could attract visitors"), it was still standing, and had a popular restaurant. - The New York Times

“Why Satire Is No Laughing Matter”: An Essay By Sacha Baron Cohen

“Satire doesn’t just needle politicians or regimes — it occasionally helps bring them down. … Historian Ben Lewis credits Soviet joke-­telling with helping to topple communism, by making it impossible for even the system’s own enforcers to take it seriously. … ‘Every joke,’ George Orwell observed, ‘is a tiny revolution.’” - Time

This Year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Booted From The National Mall, Thrived On A Nine-Month U.S. Tour

“Clifford Murphy, the director of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, which runs the festival, called it a ‘democratizing experience’ — one that added up to more than just making lemons into lemonade.” - The New York Times

Colombia’s National Museum Is The First Casualty In The New President’s Culture War

Last week, Abelardo de la Espriella, a far-right politician sworn in as President in August, declared a "cultural counterrevolution" and had dozens of artworks and historical objects removed from the Museo Nacional in Bogotá. In response, some 62,000 people demonstrated in the capital, arguing that the President's action violates Colombia's 1991 Constitution. - Artnet

Hong Kong Overhauls Its System For Performing Arts Funding, And Groups Are Nervous

Since 2008, the territory’s government has funded nine designated major performing arts groups, including the Hong Kong Ballet, Philharmonic, and Repertory Theatre. The city’s chief executive has announced a planned change to a more flexible, “merit-based” system which would make room for more organizations. - South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)

San Francisco Has Not Paid Artists The City Grants They Were Awarded This Year

“In typical years, grant agreements are sent in early July, with artists getting money in hand within four weeks. As of October, multiple artists still haven't received a dime, and at least two received their grant agreements only after the Chronicle wrote the commission to ask about the delay.” - San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)

What’s Behind The Current Wave Of Theater, Film, Literature, And Other Art About AIDS

Much of the new work being done has a sense of mission — a feeling that, 45 years after the epidemic first broke out, something many gay people today are too young to remember — a struggle that changed our world cannot be permitted to recede into mere abstraction. - T — The New York Times Style Magazine

Did Drought Really Cause The Collapse Of Ancient Maya? New Studies Cast Doubt

Taken together, the research is part of a shift in how researchers have come to consider one of antiquity’s great mysteries, awakening yet another fierce debate in academia over the effects of climate on civilizations, and why they fray. - Washington Post

Ticket Broker Sued In $120M Ticket Bot Scheme

The DOJ and FTC allege that REPS & Co violated the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act by opening thousands of accounts across Ticketmaster, AXS and other ticket services and circumventing the ticket platforms’ purchase limits. - The Hollywood Reporter

Will Humans Still Know How To Clean It Up When AI Flubs Major Tasks?

"As people become less involved in a task, they can become less prepared to step in when needed. Researchers have called this the out-of-the-loop performance problem." - The Conversation

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