Last week the Long Museum West Bund shut for "facility maintenance," though it reopened two days later. Then the Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum announced, with no reason given, that it would close indefinitely starting October 1, normally the start of a busy holiday week. - The Art Newspaper
The Chandos release of Britten's opera stars Stuart Skelton with Edward Gardner conducting the Bergen Philharmonic; the Minnesota Orchestra took honors in its final season under Osmo Vänskä. Violinist James Ehnes is Artist of the Year; Young Artist of the Year is soprano Fatma Said. - Gramophone
Playwright Oscar Wilde once warned an age without criticism is “an age that possesses no art at all.” He never could have imagined an age when the arts are eager for resurgence, but there are few critical voices to herald their return. - CanvasCLE
At the Lucas Museum: “What would be fantastic is if people came looking for Star Wars and learn about Ralph McQuarrie and then they learn about Gentileschi,” Sandra Jackson-Dumont says. “If they come for Star Wars and leave having seen Kara Walker. - The Art Newspaper
According to a press release, the decision to shutter the 27-year-old play development mainstay was a “unanimous yet painful conclusion” of the organization’s board after “many long months of responding to pandemic-related crises and seeking paths to sustainability.” - American Theatre
“We’re well into the 21st century. It’s time to acknowledge that in many ways, and one of them is the way the orchestra looks on the stage,” says Philadelphia Orchestra president and CEO Matías Tarnopolsky. - Philadelphia Inquirer
The city’s leaders are acquiring the cellphone data of unwitting tourists and using hundreds of surveillance cameras to monitor visitors and prevent crowding. Next summer, they plan to install long-debated gates at key entry points... - The New York Times
It’s possible for subtitles and dubs to be so seamless that they feel invisible without pushing audiovisual translators ourselves out of sight. - Zocalo Public Square
"Most creative industries in (sub-Saharan) Africa were grossly underserved," — the major exceptions being Nigeria and Senegal — "in part due to the failure of policymakers and local authorities to protect and invest in audio-visual industries." - The Guardian
As has been previously reported, his gallerist, George Bergès, is looking to fetch between $75,000 and $500,000 a piece for Biden’s paintings. And this has raised ethical issues the White House has not fully addressed. - Mother Jones
"It's run its course. … Its job was to take away the shadows that had dominated European art for centuries. It was only European art that used them. … The arts of China, Japan, India and Persia never use shadows or reflections." - The Art Newspaper
In the museum world, there’s enormous potential stored in the museum’s permanent art collection – not as a financial asset, but as a lever for amplifying impact. Unfortunately, museums too often consider their collections to be exclusive. - MuseumNext
Some dance departments have found that lecture courses such as dance history and anatomy work perfectly well virtually (and give students some scheduling flexibility as well). Others say that video conferencing opens new possibilities for artist residencies. - Dance Magazine
The Arbuckle affair was the most notorious in a string of Hollywood scandals that threatened to kill off the movie industry in its adolescence. - The New Yorker
The artwork, the oldest tapestry in the possession of the UK's National Trust, underwent 1,300 hours of conservation. While the colors are brighter and the detail work clearer, still murky is the question of where the piece spent most of the past five centuries. - The Guardian
