If people are ragging on poor Sanna Marin, the Finnish prime minister who was videotaped while out partying, then Lyndsey Winship will wield her gimlet eye and keyboard to choose her top three and bottom three world-leader dance moves. (There is a Boris in each bracket.) - The Guardian
For young graffiti artists, their highly stylistic and calligraphic “wickets” were an alternative to gang life in communities abandoned by slumlords and the city. The city spent $3 million a year and brought in the National Guard to rid Philadelphia of graffiti. - Philadelphia Inquirer
Artist Varvara Logvyn has been painting the steel obstacles, which look like giant jacks from a children's game, in the traditional, brightly colored Petrykivka style. She describes the project as "my way to talk with the world about Ukraine, about our war, about our values." - MSN (The Washington Post)
Arguably, our culture of leadership is in disrepair. Our ability to recognize and celebrate excellence is in doubt. Our effectiveness at building consensus is broken. Our ability to celebrate dissent and debate (one of our greatest strengths) is damaged. How do you fix it? - Post Alley
"Ms. Vincent was a lesbian. She was not transgender, or gender fluid. ... She was a contrarian, and proud of it. ... She tilted at postmodernism and multiculturalism. She argued for the rights of fetuses and against identity politics, which she saw as infantilizing and irresponsible." - The New York Times
Half a century after Heizer stuck his first shovel in the ground, “City” is finally opening to visitors, which may be the most unbelievable thing of all. It had become the art-world version of ancient Atlantis, a chimera. - The New York Times
Most of them are in city and town centers, and many are architecturally significant and can't or shouldn't be demolished. Yet they're usually too small for soccer matches or rock concerts. A few, however, have been remade into cultural centers, notably in Barcelona, Benidorm, and Tenerife. - The Guardian
The streamer spent $5 million to build it for The Two Popes, and it seems nobody understands why it wasn't repurposed. (Perhaps because the Vatican doesn't want a full-size replica under another institution's control out there and would only license this one if it were destroyed after filming?) - Artnet
The concert is the first on a 15-day tour, and the players won't risk COVID transmission, so they asked the Edinburgh Festival Chorus to sing with masks. The choir refused, so the Philadelphians decided to do Beethoven's 5th instead — and some people are furious about it. - MSN (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Says Dr. Zahi Hawass of the 2,200-year-old stele, which provided the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics, "The Rosetta Stone is the icon of Egyptian identity. The British Museum has no right to show this artefact to the public." - The National (Abu Dhabi)
She feels she has achieved her goals at the upstate New York summer festival: "Creating a 'festival' environment and focusing on our brand of theater as a bridge to diverse communities, (and) addressing complex issues through storytelling and music making." And she's balanced the budgets, too. - The New York Times
Irish musician Martin Hayes: "We need to eat, to sleep, to have shelter, to keep our bodies alive, ... our souls need music, art and poetry, and we need human connection. We need to be near people and we need to experience music in the space with others." - Irish Times
The state senator who introduced the bill said, "Today, artwork previously stolen by Nazis can be found hanging in museums around New York with no recognition of the dark paths they traveled there." But no longer. - Hyperallergic
Every dance is site-specific in some sense, but, in a warming world changed by war, political upheaval and a pandemic, some choreographers forgo traditional venues entirely. Whether their work is about climate change, social dynamics, systemic oppression or community vibrance. - Dance Magazine
It’s been a bumpy road, one with high highs and low lows, for MoviePass. The company shot to notoriety in 2017 by offering customers in any city the option to see one movie each day for $9.99 a month. The too-good-to-be-sustainable price point proved to be economically ruinous. - Variety
