"The board now presents the San Francisco Symphony as a survivor forgoing experimental treatment and in need of a cautious caretaker. … What has changed over the years is that many boards have become increasingly corporate, increasingly powerful and increasingly clueless." - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
With due reference to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Jeremy Reynolds reports on what The Pittsburgh Symphony, Opera, and Ballet Theatre are trying, such as design-your-own packages and flat fee/membership options. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"With his distinctive lumbering form and droll delivery, Walsh was an ideal supporting player. A master of off-kilter comic delivery and dogged edginess, he excelled at roles that dwelled in the darker corners of humanity. No matter whom he played, he made a colorful impact." - The Hollywood Reporter
The 1987 Franco Zeffirelli production is one of the company's most lavish, and doing the opera without most of it really does diminish the experience. Still, only about 150 people left and requested refunds, leaving nearly 3,000 to watch the Puccini before a static set from Act II. - The New York Times
"A trio of paintings by Peter Paul Rubens will remain with their current owner, the Courtauld Gallery in London, the UK Parliament’s spoliation advisory panel ruled. … The panel, which determines the rightful ownership of contested artworks, rejected three separate claims for the Rubens works." - ARTnews
"A scared-sounding young man told me that there was a monster in his closet. Obviously, I was supposed to tell him to open the door and look inside, so that the story could begin. But something about the darkness, the solitude, and the persuasive fear in the actor’s voice made the call feel suddenly, uncannily real." - The New Yorker
Despite being surrounded by a protective metal fence, white paint was thrown onto the artwork and discovered by local residents on the morning of March 20. - ARTnews
Using a non-invasive method that harnesses machine learning, an international trio of scholars retrieved 15 columns of ancient Greek text from within a carbonized papyrus from Herculaneum, a seaside Roman town eight kilometres southeast of Naples, Italy. - The Conversation
Authors Equity brings Silicon Valley–style startup disruption to the business of books. It has a tiny core staff, offloading its labor to a network of freelancers; it has angel investors; and it is upending the way that authors get paid, eschewing advances and offering a higher percentage of profits instead. - The Baffler
For most of their adult lives, the two women employed an elaborate hoax in which Hepworth’s paintings were exhibited and sold under Preece’s name. Their trick was particularly successful in the 1920s and ’30s, when they fooled not only Woolf and Bell, but other major art-world figures. - Hyperallergic
Pacific Northwest Ballet goes through 2,000 pairs per year; during Nutcracker season, New York City Ballet uses up 500 pairs a month. And they're not recyclable unless you pull them apart and separate individual materials. How to keep the shoes out of landfills? Well, here are three options. - Dance Magazine
Leisure reading has been linked to a range of good academic and professional outcomes—as well as difficult to fully explain. But a chief factor seems to be the household one is born into, and the culture of reading that parents create within it. - The Atlantic
"When Pope Benedict XIV sent a team of three mathematicians to inspect the dome in 1742, they found, as Benedict suspected they might, a cataclysm waiting to happen." They worked out calculations to get the dome in balance, and, in the process, invented modern engineering. - The American Scholar
The UK scientist Mary Archer will scrutinise how Arts Council England (ACE) distributes public subsidies as part of a wide-ranging review overseen by the UK government. - The Art Newspaper
"With one intriguing exception, activity increased in the areas of the cerebral cortex involved in the brain's language-processing network when these polyglots — who spoke between five and 54 languages — heard languages in which they were the most proficient compared to ones of lesser or no proficiency." - Reuters
