The acquisition reinforces consolidation trends across the creative sector, mirroring similar deals in music, film and television. Creative and cultural industries have a “tendency for bigness,” and this is certainly a big deal. - The Conversation
Palmer divides editors at her unnamed magazine into two categories: “the privileged (Workhorses) and the super-privileged (Show Horses).” Not since the 1980 publication of “The Official Preppy Handbook” has an author summed up an elite subset so deftly. - The New York Times
The structure of our societies is such that when you’re wealthy, availability of The Commons is of negligible benefit. However, when your private command over resources is limited, i.e. you’re broke, the “cultural-infrastructure” determining which level of access to which resources is permissible, may set the entire course of your life. - 3 Quarks Daily
Revenue from the tax, collected on hotel rooms and rental cars in Bexar County, may be used for sports arenas and parks, but also performing arts venues and associated infrastructure. Here's what's on the two ballot proposition in November (one of which would fund a new San Antonio Spurs arena). - San Antonio Report
The opera house issued a public appeal to the Riigikogu Cultural Affairs Committee on Thursday, stating that if the current lack of funding continues as it is, the sustainability of the national opera is in serious danger. - ERR (Estonia)
“Everybody in the business is talking about this right now,” said Robert Wittman, a former art-crime investigator with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who runs his own art-recovery practice. By everybody, he means both jewelry thieves and the private investigating firms who make a living hunting them down. - The Wall Street Journal
Under the new policy, Ticketmaster says it will limit all individuals and entities, including professional resellers, to a single verified account tied to a unique taxpayer ID. Accounts that appear duplicative or fraudulent will be canceled. - TicketNews
Approximately one billion-with-a-b was the figure reported when longtime Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson decided to sell and basically retire from the 007 business. However, a recent earnings report for Wilson and Broccoli’s company Eon Productions revealed a purchase price which was nowhere close to ten figures. - Variety
By adapting the community land trust model — a strategy long used to preserve affordable housing for teachers, city workers, and other essential labor sectors — the group is securing permanently affordable, community-owned homes and creative spaces for artists. - NextCity
Eric Lu, a 27-year-old pianist from Massachusetts, won the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, becoming the first American since 1970 to receive the top honor in a contest regarded by some as the Olympics of classical music. - Washington Post
“Poems from an Attic: Selected Poems, 1936–1995, to be published on 6 November, brings together decades of work that Murdoch largely kept private, stored for years in a chest in her Oxford home.” - The Guardian
As one producer said about the mandatory location inspection by a fire marshal, "As a resident, I understand the need for fire protection and to preserve our parks, especially now. But ... I'm paying almost $1,500 a day for a guy to sit in his car for most of the time." - TheWrap (MSN)
There are actually some good, and even practical, reasons not to insure the Louvre or its contents. By law, in fact, such items are insured only when they travel. - The Telegraph (UK) (Yahoo!)
“(One expert) said that high-visibility safety jackets had become such a ubiquitous symbol of authority — like a clipboard or a reporter’s microphone — that they were like ‘a cloak of invisibility.’” (Not to mention that the screaming yellow or orange fabric distracts the eye from the wearer’s face.) - The New York Times