The 34-year-old Ayrshire native will be the first woman and the first Scot to head the country's flagship arts event in its 75-year history. - The Scotsman
The Bavarian capital's mayor followed through on his warning that the Russian maestro would be dismissed if he didn't denounce Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Gergiev lost several other gigs over the weekend as well, including honorary chair of the Edinburgh International Festival. - BBC
The 28th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards pulled off the first in-person awards ceremony of 2022, moving ahead as if things were normal after other gatherings canceled or went entirely virtual due to the omicron variant. - Variety
They include an effort to convert a World War II British destroyer into a ship with sails (blocked by price and preservation issues), an application to hang a fishing boat on the side of the Seattle Art Museum (met with “vehement objections” from the building’s architect, according to Burden) and a plan to put a Sputnik satellite replica into...
To tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis effectively, we urgently need to address cultural values relating to consumption. An important aspect of this is the role models presented on our screens and in books. - The Conversation
Mr. Ratmansky, who grew up in Kyiv and danced there early in his career, immediately decided to leave Moscow, and with the help of the Bolshoi, made arrangements to travel home to New York via Warsaw, along with the rest of his international creative team. - The New York Times
This phenomenon, where the sound of a word triggers an emotion or a meaning, is referred to as “sound symbolism”. Yet the idea that there might be a link between the sound of words and their meaning flies against accepted linguistic thinking. - The Conversation
As its capabilities advance, the idea is that AI could start to generate entire online worlds, along with all the stuff that inhabits them — not to mention all the online material that’s currently mostly made by humans. - The Byte
Deborah Borda, president of the New York Philharmonic, gave me a virtual tour on Zoom the other day. What I saw leads me to believe that Geffen Hall will leave the rest of the world playing catch-up. - The Critic
"I never expected Russian artists to publicly take a stand, to venture, to risk, but when they did, I am struck (mostly) by the humanity, and the specificity of language in conveying that humanity." - The Opera Queen
The Moscow-based ballet company were set to return to London this summer but their tour has been called off as Ukraine was hit by air strikes and Russian fighters closed in on the country's capital Kyiv. - Daily Mail (UK)
First of all, "the Warner Grand Theater building was originally designed for film screenings, not live performances, so the depth of the stage had to be expanded from 18 feet to 53 feet." - Fast Company
"In the last few years, as China’s diplomatic relations with the west – and in particular the US – plummeted, the preferences of Chinese audiences changed, too." Now homegrown Chinese media is in vogue, changing Hollywood calculations (and funding). - The Observer (UK)
"The props are collectively valued at roughly $200,000, and include a replica of a Fabergé egg, several sets of silver and gold candelabra, a clock face of a William IV grandfather clock, a 10-piece silver dressing table set and crystal glassware and decanters ."- The New York Times
