Michael R. Corcoran, 96, of Newport, RI, has an inimitable way of "whipping through hundreds of lots while engaging crowds with a blend of repartee, potted histories, antiquarian acumen and name-dropping with the subtlety of an anvil being shoved off a roof." - The New York Times
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s 2025 budget allocates $73 million for the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (which administers city arts grants) — 11% more than the agency actually received this past year but less than City Council had approved for fiscal 2024. Arts organizations are puzzling it all out. - WBEZ (Chicago)
"Fifteen small arts organizations complained in a Nov. 1 open letter that the city of Portland plans to unfairly decrease their collective share from the city’s arts tax and give a greater share to the largest arts organizations, like Oregon Ballet Theatre and Portland Center Stage." - Willamette Week (Portland)
It fell to director Joel Souza, new cinematographer Bianca Cline, and a cast and crew of about 250 people to complete Rust. Now they have to release and promote it, answering to critics who consider it macabre and exploitative to finish and screen this film. - The Hollywood Reporter
"Sotheby's will pay $6.25 million and adopt reforms to settle New York Attorney General Letitia James' lawsuit accusing the famed auction house of fraudulently helping clients avoid sales taxes on tens of millions of dollars of art purchases." - Reuters
"Restoration chief Philippe Jost says €140 million (around $148 million) still remains from the funds as the cathedral prepares to reopen next month. The surplus, sourced from both billionaire benefactors and countless small donors, will be used to support vital future preservation work on the 861-year-old Gothic monument." - France 24
"Union representatives of the Paris Opera Ballet are calling for the abolition of the internal promotion competition for dancers. For the first time, the annual examination, which allows dancers to reach the next rank in the hierarchy of the corps de ballet, has been partially postponed." - Gramilano
If you control the choke points of social mobility, then you control the nation’s culture. And if you change the criteria for admission at places such as Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, then you change the nation’s social ideal. - The Atlantic
"(He) brought a commanding presence to historical figures like Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and King Edward VII, and to notables of classic theater like King Lear, Macbeth and Willy Loman. He was perhaps best known to American audiences for his performances in British television imports." - The New York Times
Projected economic gains from hosting such events can appear impressive on paper, but questions remain about who ultimately benefits. Several reports in support of hosting mega-events use inflated numbers to document indirect economic impacts and job creation without accounting for initial public spending and other hosting costs. - The Conversation
Vicky Holt Takamine, who has spent decades mastering and teaching hula and working to preserve native Hawaiian culture, has been awarded the 31st annual Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, given each year to a 'highly accomplished figure' who has 'pushed the boundaries of an art form." - The New York Times
Afterwards, fundraising became much more of a spectacle. Donors were re-imagined and empowered as “saviours”. Celebrities began to view endorsement of charities as a key part of their star profile. - The Conversation
Everyone seemed to know which books the term picked out, what the generic bones of the novel were, and why novels mattered. People talked about “the death of the novel” as though it could mark an inflection point in the history of civilization. - The New Yorker
Authenticity is not a feeling, but an active way of being defined by conscious attention to the fit between who we are and the situation(s) in which we find ourselves. - 3 Quarks Daily
Yes, the future chief of Fox News, fresh off getting Nixon re-elected, took control of a California show called Mother Earth, revamped it (badly) and took it to Broadway, where it flopped. Meanwhile, the show's composer, one Toni Shearer, quit — and ended up fronting one of the 1970s' superstar groups. - Playbill
