A decree has declared the traditional king of the region where the artworks were made, the Oba of Benin, their official owner. Now the museums and governments who'd been negotiating with Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments don't know whom they should be dealing with. - The Art Newspaper
The Birmingham Hippodrome's Patrick Studio "will be led by a Head of New Musical Theatre, who will commission, develop and produce new musicals in collaboration with creatives and partners." - WhatsOnStage (London)
To honor Kelly's 100th birthday, Jack Shear is dividing 146 works among 19 museums, with MoMA, Art Institute of Chicago, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and SFMOMA getting 25 each. He's also giving $100,000 to those four and the Whitney and $50,000 grants to 45 other museums. - The New York Times
"Titled the 'Unlock Ticketing Markets Act,' the legislation aims to 'help restore competition to live event ticketing markets by empowering the Federal Trade Commission to prevent the use of excessively long multi-year exclusive contracts that lock out competitors, decrease incentives to innovate new services, and increase costs for fans.'" - Variety
Terry Gross isn't going anywhere; she remains as host and executive producer. Starting May 1, her on-air partner will be Tonya Mosley, a contributing interviewer for the show and former host of NPR's Here & Now, as well as creator/host of the podcast Truth Be Told. - MSN (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
"You can imagine the challenges of getting the choir, the organ, the fanfare and the orchestra together. So yes, it's going to be very challenging, but potentially very exciting." - BBC
The 45-minute show from Edinburgh Castle, which began in 1982, usually attracts more than 250,000 spectators. Organisers said the world famous event would not run this summer as it had no sponsor. - BBC
“The governor got very angry over the position Disney took and he’s decided to retaliate against us, including the naming of a new board to oversee the property, in effect to seek to punish a company for its exercise of a constitutional right. And that just seems really wrong to me.” - The New York Times
There’s this huge sense of people claiming spaces and positions without truly investigating them. I’m trying to speak to this idea that art isn’t just art, but also the culture in which it’s situated. It’s completely changed because of this mass medium. - ARTnews
A wealth adviser based in Florida whose firm has researched and invested in fintech companies told ARTnews that “cheap money” fueled a surge of interest in “exotic alternatives.” But the current economic environment has squelched that trend. - ARTnews
It was called the Museum for African Art when it opened in 1984 and for decades afterward. After a long, troubled move into a new building at the northeastern corner of Central Park, it has broadened its focus to visual and performing arts, politics, finance, and cuisine. - The New York Times
Without the weight – cultural as well as literal – of the collected edition, it’s possible few would care about these surviving plays. Something similar happened to other playwrights of the period, whose work was not given the authority of a collection. - The Conversation
"Panahi, 62, is best known for films including The White Balloon, The Circle and Taxi Tehran – and for spending his career under close observation by Iran's government. His travel ban was first imposed in 2009." Rumors are that he has gone to France, possibly for the Cannes Festival. - The Guardian
There’s something irrevocably empirical about the fact that poems and novels and paintings and music and films stir cognitive-affective goings-on that have the bearings of sense. And there is something irrevocably empirical, too, in the pressure to admit these goings-on as ‘thoughts’ or ‘meaning’. - Aeon
