"Set to a budget of 200 million rubles ($2.05m), The Witness has grossed less than 14 million rubles ($143,000) in its first two weeks, with viewers across the country reporting empty cinema halls." - The Observer (UK)
"The bust known as 'Portrait of a Lady' was acquired in 1966 by the Worcester Art Museum, … dates from A.D. 160 to 180 and is believed to be a life-sized portrayal of a daughter of Marcus Aurelius or another Roman emperor, Septimius Severus." - AP
"Simon & Schuster was the only one of the country's four largest trade publishers to show an improved profit margin in the first half of 2023 compared to last year. While industry sales were generally flat, companies cited higher costs as the major reason profit margins shrank." - Publishers Weekly
He's responsible for some of the most important projects of the 1990s growth of central Los Angeles as a cultural and civic center, including the Anderson building at LACMA, the renovation/expansion of L.A. Central Library, and the Colburn School. - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
Regular journalism plumped up with NGO filler and paid for with foundation dough too easily becomes either risibly partisan or a kind of kitsch churned out without regard for anything someone might want to read. - The Point
"Peter Gelb is telegraphing to composers that stylistic conformity within the boundaries of a populist musical means is the only possible route to success in New York, offering rewards in exchange for lack of risk. This mindset would be unthinkable in any other discipline." - Van
At the British Museum, flat funding from the Conservatives has meant a real-terms cut in revenue grant-in-aid of 37% between 2009-10, under Labour, and now, under the Tories. - The Guardian
Salinger’s public legacy, a gnarled mess of copyright enforcement designs, First Amendment controversies, and the persistent desire to be left alone by the press, is one of America’s most unique. - LitHub
I reminded them that I was older than their dads, but they didn’t mind, and I became a fusion of agony uncle, village witch doctor and fly on the wall. I witnessed their dramas, and learned the minutiae of their lives. - The Guardian
"Partly because it’s a relatively new area of giving, it’s hard to get a reliable count of how much philanthropy funds journalism. A report by Boston Consulting Group estimated $150 million per year is given to nonprofit news outlets. The same report said that industry needs up to $1.75 billion." - AP
"The event has always had its spiritual side: 10 guiding principles, a nondenominational temple and recurring burning rituals. And in recent years, religious groups have been carving out their own space on 'the playa' offering judgement-free, radically inclusive rituals that seem to grow more popular each year." - Religion News Service
Getting here required not just artistic pluck but political backing, a half-billion-dollar construction budget, and the creation of a new institution with the interdisciplinary ambitions, if not the scale, of a Lincoln Center. - New York Magazine
Performing without sheet music is the hallmark of the Aurora Orchestra, a British ensemble directed by Nicholas Collon. "People used to say to me, jokingly: 'What next from memory? The Rite of Spring?' And here I am writing this at the end of our final day of rehearsals." - The Guardian
The museum is now deluged with renewed calls for the restitution of contested objects, and raising a huge sum for an impending refurbishment looks even more difficult. At a time when it needs leadership most, the museum is rudderless, after its director, Hartwig Fischer, resigned on Aug. 25. - The New York Times
A host and producer of a Norwegian true-crime documentary series write about how and why, instead of the customary practice of using actors to recreate events, they used generative AI software to create animated video. - International News Media Association
