“United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has reversed a district court’s preliminary injunction and dismissed free speech claims in Little v. Llano County. The lawsuit, filed in April 2022 by seven Llano, Texas, library patrons, concerns the removal of 17 books from the Llano branch library.” - Publishers Weekly
For more than 40 years (he) wrote with clarity, wit and love about a city in transition from the era of “urban renewal” slum clearance and suburban flight into new ideals of urbanism. - The New York Times
The museum of ancient Greco-Roman art and its collections survived the January fires, but 1,300 damaged trees have been removed from the grounds. The Villa will reopen on June 27 — on a limited Friday-to-Monday schedule, reservations required — with North America’s first major exhibition of art from the Mycenaean civilization. - Los Angeles Magazine
There’s no other system of encoding information quite like khipu, the knotted strings and cords used to keep records in the Inca Empire. For years, the research into their meaning was at a standstill, but in recent years there’s been progress in both recovering lost khipu and deciphering them. - The Atlantic (MSN)
The art schools were easy to get into and their teachers were well regarded. The schools’ core view was that the postwar world would be creative, incorporating a number of disciplines. Their graduates would be in tune with culture. - The Wall Street Journal
“The big leap that the OSS made was book knowledge: the accumulation of a vast amount of seemingly trivial information, if analyzed intelligently, … would be directly valuable in deciding the direction of battles and of the war. … This work is exactly the kind that librarians and archivists undertake routinely, every day.” - Public Books
This season, Arden has given Broadway its most surprising and heartwarming new musical, “Maybe Happy Ending.” The show, which originated in South Korea, is a futuristic rom-com about two robots nearing the end of their life cycles. - Los Angeles Times
Small wonder that the “Odyssey," a staple of the Western canon and the progenitor of so much, from sci-fi to rom-com, has been enjoying a bump in popularity of late. - The New York Times
In an era when Wisconsin has consistently ranked near the bottom in per capita arts spending nationwide — and with ticket sales declining since the COVID-19 pandemic — infighting over this funding has become more intense. - WUWM
“Storm King now boasts one of the world’s greatest collections of outdoor sculpture, with more than 100 works by 20th-century greats, but it has always lacked electricity, piped water, and most of the other hallmarks of civilisation.” Until now. - The Guardian
“The current mood is one of dreadful anticipation of further hostility toward arts and culture, in general, and toward any institution or organization — nonprofit or otherwise — whose values do not align with the goals of this presidency.” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)
We can be confident technological forces beyond our control shall soon enough ensure the emergence of an altogether more “relatable” Bard for those so inclined — fittingly diverse in origin and speaking with a Bolton accent. - The Critic
When done well, lectures can be utterly illuminating, when you are listening to a brilliant speaker discuss a topic about which they have more knowledge than anyone else in the world. Why wouldn’t a student who has signed up to study with such an expert want to hear them speak. - The Critic
“In 2023, the government began an initiative called the Culture Canon, with two streams: an ‘experts’’ canon and a ‘people’s canon,’ (each with) 100 items that have played a key role in shaping Swedish culture. … Yet even the suggestion of such a definitive list is dividing opinion in Sweden.” - The New York Times
Museums and cultural centers are not just the setting, the battleground, as it were, for these cultural-cum-political fights; they are seen as part of the oppressive apparatus the protesters are attacking. - Sapir
