Rachael Gunn of Australia already has an established career as an academic (studying breakdancing and popular culture), and the public roasting she received after her zero-points performance at the Olympic finals in Paris, along with subsequent worldwide scrutiny on social media, have become too much to put up with. - AP
Both companies currently have debt problems and are relieved for the investment. What's more, Sotheby's is trying to turn itself into a luxury brand beyond the art market — and so is Abu Dhabi, which spent its money on prestige cultural institutions while Dubai developed its reputation for luxury consumerism. - ARTnews
Nepali conservationist Rabindra Puri has hired local stonecarvers and craftsmen to create and display replicas of dozens of items of sacred art that were looted from temples and other sites over the past 60-odd years. The idea: return the stolen original to us and we'll give you the replica. - BBC
A decade ago, Anne Hathaway was widely mocked for her earnest, try-hard theater-kid ways, and when Ariana Grande, totally a theater kid in her youth, decided to become a pop star, she hid that past and those attitudes. But now the pop-culture pendulum has swung 180 degrees. - The New York Times
"(The University of the Arts) filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in September, enabling the school to sell off its real estate, spanning 76,000 square feet across (nine buildings), all situated within Philly’s bustling South Broad Street commercial corridor." - Artnet
Access to the popular video app won't be blocked for Canadian users, but the Industry Minister said that the order, which is based on evidence and assessments from Canada's intelligence agencies, is meant to address security risks related to ByteDance Ltd.’s establishment of TikTok Technology Canada Inc. - AP
Cusk was announced as the winner of the £10,000 prize, which recognises 'mould-breaking' fiction, … on Wednesday. … Parade comprises the stories of various artists, all called G. One of the Gs – based on artist Georg Baselitz – paints upside down; another is a woman with a 'wild' past, now unhappily married." - The Guardian
"Knowing that a work is by Haydn or Mozart allows us to see ‘inevitable’ connections. Take away the certainty of authorship, and it’s devilishly difficult to read the musical images within. … If someone can write pieces that can be mistaken for Haydn, what is so special about Haydn?" - The Guardian
The de-aging technology comes from Metaphysic, a visual effects company that creates real time face swapping and aging effects. During filming, the crew watched two monitors simultaneously: one showing the actors' actual appearances and another displaying them at whatever age the scene required. - Wired
"(This) which can mean adding subtle movement that never registers as choreography, or creating an unapologetic, front-facing dance number, or designing dancing that looks totally spontaneous — mostly without any dance-trained bodies." Choreographers Susan Stroman, Sonya Tayeh, and Sam Pinkleton explain how they meet the challenge. - Dance Magazine
Wiley’s strategy for dealing with the allegations has been to publicly fight back. He hired Marathon Strategies, a crisis-PR and investigative firm that has been helping him highlight unflattering information about his accusers. - New York Magazine
Fuck has an enormous range of uses across many parts of speech, as this dictionary details: sexual and nonsexual, positive and negative, literal and figurative, funny and violent. For any situation, there’s probably some sense, some expression or catchphrase, some proverb, some intonation that can be brought to the table. - LitHub
With this new focus, he was ready when people were “freaking out” and looking for songs. “There is no repertoire like this in existence,” he said, “and I’m in a place where I can effect change. Why don’t I try to create a legacy, or start a movement of people writing pieces?” - The New York Times
"A pioneering five-year research project, Neurolive, run by cognitive neuroscientist Dr Guido Orgs and choreographer Matthias Sperling, … brings together neuroscience and dance to investigate what’s happening in our brains when we watch live performance." - The Guardian
