ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

Stories

The High-Tech Wizard Of Biblical-Era Manuscripts

"(Michael Langlois's) approach, which combines the close linguistic and paleographical analysis of ancient writings with advanced scientific tools … can sometimes make long-gone inscriptions come back to life. Or it can bury them for good — as in his exposé involving (forged Dead Sea Scroll fragments)." - Smithsonian Magazine

Robert Gottlieb On The Relationship Between Editor And Writer

The editor represents many things, and different things to every writer. It's a financial relationship. It's an approval relationship. It's a technical relationship. It can be a close one or it can not. Some writers don't want to be social with their editors. Others need to talk to them constantly. - NPR

A Revival Of Morse Code Is Putting The Digit Back In Digital Communication

"Strangely enough, while the number of ham operators is declining globally, it's growing in the United States, as is Morse code, by all accounts. … Equipment sellers have noticed this trend, too." - Smithsonian Magazine

The Extraordinary Literary Partnership Of Robert Caro And Robert Gottlieb

They bicker all the time, about every comma, period, and semicolon. Actually, don’t even get them started on semicolons. Gottlieb refers to a “civil war” that took place over the punctuation mark’s usage. The flintiness about every little thing is part of their shtick. - The Atlantic

Bachtrack’s Annual Classical Muic Statistics Show Most-Performed Works, Composers, Busiest Artists, Etc. For 2022

Among the surprises: nearly a fifth of the 100 most-performed works were written after 1918, and topping the entire list is Ravel's La Valse. Not so surprising: Mozart is the most-performed composer of concert works and operas, and Arvo Pärt is still the most popular living composer. - Bachtrack

Chaos In Streaming — An Inevitable Consolidation?

Not one of the people running streaming TV services think there are going to be a ton of TV services in the future. They think they will eventually consolidate into a few big players. - Vox

Turns Out One Of The More Controversial Russian Oligarchs Is, Behind The Scenes, A Major Hollywood Player

A wrongful termination lawsuit against production company New Republic Pictures by its founder has revealed that billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev — major art collector, soccer team owner, and the guy who wildly overpaid Donald Trump for a Palm Beach mansion — has helped finance some serious blockbusters. - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)

Warner CFO: We Went Overboard On Streaming

“There was a lot of thinking of, you know, let’s do more more more, not necessarily ‘let’s do the exact right things, let’s do what works,” he added. “We have the the ability, the benefit, to be Monday morning quarterbacks here.” - The Hollywood Reporter

More Theater Companies Consider Moving Away From The Traditional Artistic Director Model

Lily Janiak looks at the situation in the Bay Area, where small companies in particular have had trouble hiring or retaining ADs — the long hours, heavy demands, low pay, and hesitant post-pandemic audiences are just too much — and are trying joint-leadership models instead. - San Francisco Chronicle

Paris’s Rodin Museum Abandons Its Unpopular Plan To Build A Satellite in The Canary Islands

"The Rodin Museum in Paris has scrapped its controversial €16 million (roughly $17 million) project to build an outpost in Santa Cruz de Tenerife … following scathing criticism from prominent Spanish politicians, educators, and art world figures." - ARTnews

Archaeologists Unearth Massive 1,000-Year-Old Viking Hall

"Archaeologists digging in the village of Hune in Denmark have discovered the remains of a vast Viking hall — what they're calling the 'largest Viking Age find of this nature' in more than a decade. … It likely dates to the reign of Harald I, who ruled Denmark from 958-986 C.E." - Artnet

Academic Freedom Wars Continue After Professor Is Fired For Showing Students Images Of Muhammad Made By Muslims Centuries Ago

The incident happened in a virtual art history class at Hamline University in Minnesota last fall: the professor gave his students advance warning before showing drawings of the Prophet from medieval Persian illuminated manuscripts to demonstrate that the prohibition of such images has not been universal within Islam. - ARTnews

San Francisco’s Basement Performance Venues Flooded By Repeated Storms

"As with the historic storm that pummeled the Bay Area over New Year's weekend, the outside world doesn't always stay outside. Now flooded venues … are just hoping they don't suffer more damage (from the) so-called 'bomb cyclone' (and) 'pineapple express'" storms this week. - San Francisco Chronicle

Turns Out Alexei Ratmansky Is Leaving ABT To Go To New York City Ballet

Two weeks ago, the world's most admired living ballet choreographer announced that he's ending his 13 years as artist in residence at American Ballet Theater next summer. Now he's announced that he'll be starting an initial five-year term in a similar position at City Ballet. - The New York Times

UK Government Abandons Plan To Privatize Channel Four

"The decision represents a dramatic U-turn by Rishi Sunak's Conservative government to that of Boris Johnson, which was forging ahead with privatization proposals last year under then-culture secretary Nadine Dorries." - The Hollywood Reporter

Our Free Newsletter

Join our 30,000 subscribers

Latest

Don't Miss

function my_excerpt_length($length){ return 200; } add_filter('excerpt_length', 'my_excerpt_length');