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The Art Inspired By The Webb Telescope

“We designed the telescope to wow the scientists,” Mike Menzel agreed. Now, he said, “We’re here in an art show, watching some images that we helped produce becoming things that are almost iconic.” - The New Yorker

The Dangers Of Storytelling As A Learning Device

Historians have an increasingly strong incentive to tell dramatic stories which gain attention and make ‘impact’. But anyone in the business of reporting on reality - scholars, scientists, journalists - ought to be suspicious of narrative, even if they use it. - Ian Leslie

George Benjamin On The Art Of Writing Opera

Every note, every rhythm, every dynamic, every timbre, every expression, every slur: you must imagine it all to perfection in your inner ear. That is the job of a composer.” - The Guardian

Revisiting The Birth Of Drag As America Knows It Today

Queer historian Hugh Ryan describes the scene in Manhattan's then-cheap East Village, which started in the early 1980s as scrappy do-it-yourself performance art, was almost wiped out by AIDS, and was reborn in the '90s as persona-driven comedy and cabaret — all in dingy rock-n-roll dives. - Curbed

John Baldessari Estate Embroiled In Lawsuits

In one, the estate accused its former gallery and an insurance company of having damaged artworks, some beyond repair. In the other, the estate was sued by a production company who claimed that a tense back-and-forth with Baldessari’s descendants ultimately led to the cancelation of a Gagosian gallery show. - ARTnews

The Scrappy Independent Publisher That Established English As A Language Of Indian Literature

In 1958, P. Lal, Anita Desai, and other Kolkata writers who gathered in a Sunday-morning adda (a long, often serious discussion, very typically Bengali) founded the publisher still known as Writers Workshop, dedicated to Indian writing in English, which gave a start to many authors now famous worldwide. - Literary Hub

Badge Of Honor: Eight Writers Talk About What It Feels Like To Have Their Books Banned

"I find talking about the ridiculousness of the bans sometimes brings laughter, in the ways our people have learned to laugh to keep from crying. We do what we need to do: we resist, we inform, we amplify, we write.” - Harper's Bazaar

Inigo Philbrick’s Former Partner-In-Crime Reveals The Tricks They Used To Defraud Art Collectors

"Art dealer Robert Newland, who pleaded guilty last year to his role in a massive fraud scheme with imprisoned dealer Inigo Philbrick, has just filed bombshell new documents in a U.S. District Court ahead of his sentencing in New York next week." - Artnet

How Pacific Northwest Ballet Became One Of The Most Diverse Ballet Companies In America

While Boal emphasizes that changes at PNB go beyond numbers, the numbers do reflect the company’s cultural shift. PNB’s current roster of 45 dancers (expanding to 47 in November) is now more than 50% Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC). - Crosscut

Belarus Free Theater Sets Up Shop In Warsaw To Help Out New Exiles

The company's co-founders fled the Lukashenko regime in 2011, settling in London and leading clandestine rehearsals in Minsk via Skype. Now that the rest of the company has left Belarus, they're working out of Poland's national opera house with other exiled Belarusian and Ukrainian artists. - The New York Times

The Cable TV Bundle Is Falling Apart. Long Live The New Bundle!

Already, many cord-cutters are piecing together their own bundle, subscribing to a mix of services including Netflix, Max and Hulu. The deal between Disney and Charter has made it clear that cable providers — which often provide broadband internet service — are eager to put together streaming bundles for them. - The New York Times

Argentine Police Make “Historic Seizure” Of Nazi Propaganda And Shutter Local Publisher

"Argentina's Federal Police shut down a publisher that sold books that praised Nazi ideology, seized hundreds of texts and arrested one person … during Tuesday's raids in the town of San Isidro, north of Buenos Aires." - AP

Royal New Zealand Ballet’s Next Artistic Director Is, For A Change, From New Zealand

After 11 years under three successive leaders from overseas — Ethan Stiefel, Francesco Ventriglia, and Patricia Barker — and a certain amount of discord under the last two, the company has appointed Ty King-Wall, a dancer, choreographer, and teacher who was, for a decade, a principal at the Australian Ballet. - Stuff (New Zealand)

Northern England’s Top Concert Hall Gets A New Name: The Glasshouse

"For 19 years it has been called Sage (Gateshead) after a deal with its donor the Newcastle-based software company Sage. But the tech firm wants an arena and conference centre being built next door to be called the Sage in a £10m naming rights deal." - The Guardian

Fox Corp. Sued By New York City And Oregon For Lies About 2020 Election

"New York City's pension funds and the state of Oregon took legal action on Tuesday against Fox Corporation, alleging in a lawsuit that the Fox News parent company failed shareholders by allowing the right-wing channel to recklessly spread lies about the 2020 election that opened it up to ... defamation cases." - CNN

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