American troops brought jazz records with them; Japanese musicians picked up work entertaining the troops. There was a proliferation of jazz kissa (cafes), a distinctly Japanese phenomenon where locals could sit and listen to records for as long as they wanted. - The Guardian
While the orchestra isn't changing performance venues, the 20,000-square-foot Stella Boyle Smith Music Center will include a 300-seat auditorium for rehearsals and student and chamber performances as well as offices, practice and education rooms, and instrument storage. The projected cost: only $9 million. - Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Driven by booming appetites for crime novels, sci-fi, fantasy, romance and personal development titles, sales last year showed an increase of 5% on 2020. The sales were worth £1.82bn – a 3% increase on 2020. - The Guardian
The London-based company Corali does, in fact, do programs in those places, but they've also worked with Sadler's Wells theatre and the Tate galleries and created a piece about filmmaker Derek Jarman. Their latest project will see them all impersonating the singular poet Edith Sitwell. - The Guardian
The quarter features an image of Angelou with her arms uplifted, a bird in flight and a rising sun behind her, with a portrait of George Washington on the “heads” side. The US Mint said the image of Angelou was “inspired by her poetry and symbolic of the way she lived”. - The Guardian
As writer Laura Gascoigne puts it here, "Is Gauguin redeemable? By today's standards, no. Would he want to be redeemed? Almost certainly not." - The Spectator (UK)
Composer-performer and "soundscape ecologist" Bernie Krause has used 5,000 hours of field recordings, made over 50 years and featuring 15,000 species, to create The Great Animal Orchestra, commissioned in 2016 by the Fondation Cartier in Paris and opening this year in the US and Australia in 2023. - Artnet
Researchers found two objects, a rune stick with text in both Latin and Norse and a piece of bone with a Norse inscription, in the Norwegian capital's Medieval Park. The pieces are thought to date from between 1100 and 1350. - Smithsonian Magazine
The job went to media reporter David Folkenflik, by now quite experienced in, and respected for, stories about his employer — and he finds that the situation there is more complex than the quote in the headline (from ATC host Ari Shapiro) might indicate. - NPR
Clark, who gave up 35 items he bought between 2003 and 2008, is "the latest in a line of people taken in by Douglas A.J. Latchford, a British art dealer who died in 2020 while facing charges of antiquities trafficking." - The New York Times
The world's most visited museum is teaming up with another Paris institution, the Grand Palais, to crate the light show, which will debut in Marseilles beginning in March. - Artnet
The RSC has signed a three-year contract with Cunard that will see a group of actors from the company performing two programs and offering workshops on board the Queen Mary 2 beginning this summer. - Daily Mail
The letter lists worldwide examples which have the potential to cause real-life harm, which went under the radar of YouTube's content policies. It says these are "insufficient" and not working. - BBC
Bibliotherapy is premised on the idea that books can be healing tools. The main distinction is between clinical bibliotherapy, where texts, including fiction and nonfiction, are recommended by a clinical therapist, and nonclinical bibliotherapy, as practised by a facilitator such as a librarian. - The Walrus
