"His legacy, like his life, is one of contradictions: he was a radical socialist and hugely successful businessman, who made wallpaper for Queen Victoria; a passionate champion of craftsmanship and workers’ rights, whose designs have become a template for mass-produced tat.” - The Guardian (UK)
That company is Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, directed for 20 years by Ivo van Hove and since 2023 by Eline Arbo. Her adaptation of Annie Ernaux’s The Years originated at ITA before being restaged with British actors in London, where the production just earned Arbo an Olivier Award. - The Guardian
The more closely you look at the profession of journalism, the stranger it seems. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, fewer than fifty thousand people were employed as journalists in 2023, which is less than the number of people who deliver for DoorDash in New York City. - The New Yorker
Established in 2021, the company — also called the National Artistic Ensemble — works to collect and preserve the traditional dances of the many ethnic groups in the CAR, a nation wracked for years by civil war, instability and extreme poverty. - France 24
TikTok already existed in a kind of limbo before last week, but now its strange state of in-betweenness is intensified: it is both alive and dead, allowed to persist but technically illegal. Trump, who may have benefitted from its audience’s attention during the 2024 election, cannot let it be banned. - The New Yorker
Until recently the Kaplan painting had been considered to have been completed between 1670-72. That dating has now been revised, with Wheelock stating it as 1670-75. Vermeer died on 15 December 1675 and Young Woman seated at a Virginal is most likely his final picture. - The Art Newspaper
This is where the N.E.H. and N.E.A. would serve Mr. Trump well: not only correcting “woke” excesses, but also providing an elite counterpart to MAGA’s populist thrust. Expert critics, scholars and artists could ensure that only traditionalist projects are funded. - The New York Times
The Prado hopes that actually knowing exactly how many people are in these crowded scenes will help us better understand these paintings, and how the artists were using large quantities and repetition in their work. - Artnet
Leading the pack is Amazon’s The Chosen, the multi-season series recounting the life of Jesus that has become an international smash and made lead actor Jonathan Roumie a superstar. Yet there’s an entire sub-industry making adaptations of Bible stories from both Old and New Testaments, and its products are extraordinarily popular. - The Guardian
Hania Rani, 34, has become a shooting star in a genre of pop-inflected minimalist music often referred to as neoclassical, or alt-classical... “It’s not being composed to help people relax,” she said in a recent interview. “The music might be slow — not so loud, not upbeat — but it’s actually intense.” - The New York Times
Communities with greater access to arts organizations have: 33% more volunteers supporting nonprofit organizations, 7% more active voters who are registered and eligible for voting, 3% lower levels of income inequality... - SMUData
“I’m not sure why he chose to react to my email with such hostility, but I think it’s important for people to read this exchange and to note that the Kennedy Center does not currently have good leadership,” she wrote. - Washingtonian
The great historian had published some fiction while a student at Princeton, but nothing since then. While doing research in Caro’s archives, however, journalist Chris Heath discovered the drafts of a mid-career novel Caro had worked on but never finished. Naturally, Heath talked with Caro about it. - Smithsonian Magazine
Trump's order asks to avoid “ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort” and “rewrite” America’s history and “inappropriately disparage” heroes, and to foster “unity” by emphasizing America’s “unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness,” rather than cultivating division by portraying the nation as “inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed.” - CityJournal
