From Sistema To The Montreal Symphony’s New Music Director: Meet Rafael Payare
Winding up in the local El Sistema orchestra, he became a conductor almost by accident when handed a baton and told to conduct a...
The Age Of The New Literary Memoir
The fantasy that you can say something so perfectly and with such absolute authority that it never needs another version told from another point...
What Harvard Learned From The Pandemic
Those 17 months—marked by the pandemic, remote teaching, protests against systemic racism and police brutality, and economic hardship for millions of people—made it clear...
How Public Radio Could Help Save Local News
With a vast network of local licensees spread across urban and small-town America, public media stations should serve local audiences and provide a window...
Toni Morrison Thought This Woman Changed Black Literature Forever. She Left Public View 23...
In 1975, aged 25, Gayl Jones shook the American literary world with her novel Corregidora. After more books and a turbulent personal life, Jones...
Translating Proteins Into Music
We’re computational biologists who believe that hearing the sound of life at the molecular level could help inspire people to learn more about biology and the computational...
When Virgin Voyages Wanted A Dance Show For Its Cruises, It Did Not Go...
No, Richard Branson's grownups-only cruise line chose three choreographers from The Dance Cartel. The trio couldn't believe that a cruise ship wanted their avant-garde-dance-meets-house-party...
What Is The Solidarity Arts Economy?
Why should culture and economic innovation go together? Because, right now, we have a superstar system in which the winners take all and the...
How Did Fox News’s Right-Wing Late-Night TV Host Beat Stephen Colbert In The Ratings?
Not only because Greg Gutfeld has no conservative competition in his time slot. "Right-wing comedy has become both a viable business strategy and a...
Seattle Art Museum Appoints Constance Rice As Board Chair
The museum believes she is the first Black woman to chair a board of a major art museum, besides ethnic art museums, in the...
He Acts And Directs In Four Languages. Actors Say He’s Gentle To A Fault....
Says Tiago Rodrigues, who's coming to Avignon from Portugal's Teatro Nacional, "I really love to see what happens to a play when you did...
Why All Those Blobby Book Covers?
This design trend, well into its third or fourth year in the major publishing houses, has attracted plenty of nicknames and attendant discourse online—culture...
Tommy Kirk, Teen Star Of A String Of Disney Hits, Dead At 79
In the 1950s and '60s, from ages 15 to 23, he starred in 11 Disney features, including The Shaggy Dog, Swiss Family Robinson, The...
Industrial Vacuum Cleaners, Traps, And Micro-Wasps: How Museums Fight The Bugs That Invade During...
It's a battle even in normal times, but when the pandemic closed museums, clothes moths, silverfish, and carpet beetle larvae were left with no...
Scarlett Johansson And Disney Settle Lawsuit Over “Black Widow” Pay
"Johansson had accused Disney of reneging on its promise to do a traditional theatrical release for Black Widow in favor of a simultaneous release...
Carlisle Floyd, Dean Of American Opera Composers, Dead At 95
"Floyd's operas, more than a dozen, were steeped in southern culture, examining the post-Civil War South, the Depression and small-town life. Works such as...
Spain Finally Approves Money For Expansion Of Prado
The €36 million ($42 million) allocation, delayed by six years, will fund the renovation of the neighboring Salón de Reinos (Hall of Realms), which...
England Launches New £20 Million Arts Fund For Capital Projects
Over the next two years, Arts Council England's Capital Investment Fund will issue grants from £100,000 to £750,000 to cultural organizations to make improvements...
Jonathan Franzen And His Evil Twin
Sometimes it seems like there are two people called Jonathan Franzen: the successful, acclaimed novelist, and his evil twin. This can be the only...
How Our Brains Prioritize Urgency Over Importance
The “mere urgency effect” describes our tendency to prioritize tasks we perceive as time-sensitive over tasks that aren’t time-sensitive, even when the rewards of the non-time-sensitive...
America As Internet Meme (What Could Go Wrong?)
The ultimate joke of Americancore might be that sense of disillusionment. - The New Yorker
Are Theatre Critics Being Too Kind?
Emerging from its forced hibernation for live performance, theater appears to be in trouble, so our compassionate reviewers/publicists/reporters feel duty bound to come to...
Science Why It’s Difficult To Enjoy Success
We know from research that purchasing an experience leads to more enduring happiness than purchasing a possession. But a study from Cornell found that this bias...
Studies Say Trigger Warnings May Be Harmful
The results of around a dozen psychological studies, published between 2018 and 2021, are remarkably consistent: trigger warnings do not seem to lessen negative...
New Vision For Orchestral Pops?
Orchestral pops programming now ranges from film scores, cartoon medleys and video game music to rap artists and jazz and circus acts. It’s whatever...
