The panopticon-style jail, built in 1789 and closed in 1965, is on the tiny island of Santo Stefano, part of the Pontine Islands off the coast about halfway between Rome and Naples. The Italian Ministry of Culture is spending €70 million ($86 million) on the project. - ARTnews
The merger, announced last fall and officially completed on Jan. 31, is funded by $61 million in donations from foundations and individuals. The money will go toward maintaining the print paper, improving the websites, and hiring 50 new people for the two newsrooms. - AP
The effort is concerted. "Many parents have seen Google docs or spreadsheets of contentious titles posted on Facebook by local chapters of organizations such as Moms for Liberty. From there, librarians say, parents ask their schools if those books are available to their children." - The New York Times
This is not great. "It’s a fine line that creators have to walk. You can be a creator and true to yourself and true to your opinions, but that may come at the risk of your creator business." - Los Angeles Times
Probably things very similar to crimes offline - assault, murder, torture, etc. Unfortunately, the so-called Web3.0 isn't missing any of that, or the racism, transphobia, sexism, and homophobia that drives so much of offline violence. - Wired
Massachusetts Cultural Council executive director Michael Bobbitt is "convinced the crisis presents an opportunity to restructure arts funding, transforming the sector into one that is more affluent, inclusive, easier to navigate, and higher profile than it ever was before." - MSN (The Boston Globe)
"Despite being seemingly worlds apart, comedy and porn have always been linked in some form or another. From the goofy humor of X-rated spoofs to … edgy comics who live to shock the prude out of us, both styles of entertainment require a certain level of fearlessness." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
The program will cover two thousand arts and culture workers for a span of three years. The government has earmarked €25 million ($28.3 million) for the plan, which is expected to go into force later this winter. - ArtForum
These visionary entrepreneurs, who represent some of the continent’s best talent in professions ranging from architecture to finance, are creating new models of preserving and showcasing art, history and culture. From Lagos to Luanda, they are building local museums, archives, libraries, arts spaces, and cultural centers. - Hyperallergic
The program, launched by the city government and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts last March, provides $1,000 a month, no strings attached, to 130 participants (chosen from 25,000 applicants). Here's a look at how two of them, a choreographer and a writer/teacher, are doing. - San Francisco Chronicle
“Things like disease, disability, death, the processes of scientific experimentation and discovery, they don’t happen in a vacuum. They take place in the context of human experience — so these things are always in discourse with each other." - Hyperallergic
"The renaissance of traditions spans everything from new museum exhibits to artisans integrating old crafts into modern furniture and designers selling handmade jewelry, bags and shoes online." (Not to forget, of course, belly dancing.) "There's also the redevelopment of buildings to champion Egyptian identity." - Bloomberg CityLab
"The charity Queer Britain has taken on the ground floor of the Art Fund building in (King's Cross) for the museum but hopes to eventually find a permanent home." - London Evening Standard
Over the past few months, arts administrators across the city have become increasingly distressed by the significant delays they’ve experienced while trying to get the money they were promised—and by the confusing communications they’re getting from the city's granting organization itself. - KQED
The EU special representative for human rights says, "I’m alarmed by reports of alleged torture and incommunicado detention of author . He remains in detention without trial, despite a court order for his unconditional release." - LitHub
