In 1993, Ellen Futter she became the first woman to run a major museum based in New York - and she's had a long tenure, during which time she "has presided over a museum that seems both frozen in time and propelled forward by change." - The New York Times
The director/author/entrepreneur, who turns 80 on Labor Day, "thinks of himself primarily as a writer — he has written poetry and kept journals throughout his career — and has long maintained that his writing, not his films, will be his legacy." - The New York Times
Stalin was a man of ideas, to the point where he thought that by changing the ideas to which people are exposed he could redesign human nature itself. - New Criterion
"(She) influenced generations of dancers both as the founder of the noted dance department at Connecticut College and as the longtime dean of the school of the American Dance Festival." - The New York Times
Colleen Hoopes was killed by two bullets from a gun fired by her husband, Christopher Hoopes, in their bedroom. He told police that he was "startled" awake and shot at what he thought was an intruder before realizing it was his wife. - The Daily Beast
Pratt was often called one of Canada's greatest painters over the course of his extensive and successful career, which earned him appointment to both the Order of Canada and the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador. His work is held in galleries from coast to coast to coast. - CBC
“The moment you look at these early works you cannot help being fascinated they have such a strong physical presence. And the exhibits include one of the very few barrel structures still existing because most of them got destroyed when Christo and Jeanne-Claude moved to New York.” - The Guardian
He was sometimes called a post-minimalist, but he disliked the term, suggesting postmodernist as an alternative. But his music also embraced a time-expanding element — a sense of slowly unfolding — born of his fascination with the Indonesian gamelan. - Washington Post
For the last year, we have conducted interviews with people who have given at least one gift to a member of the royal family to try to understand the motivation of these present-givers. - The Conversation
"Weinstein had proved his skill at storytelling in the movie business. But trials are not movies, shot under controlled conditions and revised in the editing room." An excerpt from Ken Auletta's Hollywood Ending: Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Silence. - The New Yorker
Alla Nazimova, a Jewish-born native of Crimea, was raised in Switzerland, studied at the Moscow Art Theater, became a renowned stage actress in New York, made enormous sums in silent movies, and had numerous affairs with men — until she met Mercedes "I can get any woman from a man" de Acosta. - Tablet
Verdi built Villa Verdi on land he owned in Sant’Agata di Villanova, a hamlet near his home town of Busseto in the Emilia-Romagna region, in 1848. It was initially inhabited by his parents before Verdi moved in with his second wife, Giuseppina Strepponi, in 1851, remaining there until his death in 1901. - The Guardian
"Her controlled, carefully evolving, global visibility has been one of the great demonstrations of durational performance art. It is a feat ... made possible by the Queen's powers of concentration, stamina and presence of mind. She has become a Marina Abramović for the ages." - The Art Newspaper
Ms. Brophy, who had written self-published romance novels, had once speculated in a 2011 blog post that a wife who kills her spouse must be “ruthless” and “very clever” because she is likely to become a prime suspect. - The New York Times
“I feel like I’m starting a new life as a writer,” he says to me. “What I have is a pleasure in writing that is greater than it used to be. That may be a rare occurrence for a writer. Most of the ones I know are kind of winding down. I don’t feel that I am.” - Saturday...
