Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mother Was An Enslaved Woman, Says Historian
A series of papers, discovered in Florentine archives, concerns the emancipation in 1452 of an enslaved Circassian woman, probably abducted as a girl, named...
The Latest Banksy Mural Was Demolished As Banksy Took Pictures
"The site of Banksy's latest work, an outside wall of a derelict farmhouse in the seaside town of Herne Bay in Kent, has been...
UK Extends Tax Relief For Theatres, Orchestras, And Museums
"The Treasury had doubled the rate of the reliefs ... about 18 months ago to help cultural bodies recover from the pandemic, but the...
“Everywhere” Demonstrates Hollywood’s Move Toward Linguistic Realism
Increasing use of non-English languages and subtitles demonstrates both a trend toward linguistic realism in Hollywood and also broader acceptance of linguistic diversity in...
Why Are Miami’s Arthouse Theatres Disappearing?
“Art Basel, New World Symphony, the Miami Ballet — every single art discipline in Miami has grown and blossomed with the city. The only...
Just What Do “Sensitivity Readers” Do?
Sensitivity readers can become the implied “baddy” or “goody” (depending on where you stand) in such cases, their service seen as the reason that...
A University’s Decision To Sell Its Art And A Battle For The Soul Of...
What is the purpose of studying at a university beyond job training? How can schools like Valparaiso, which emphasize learning outside of vocational courses,...
The Ballerina That Captured Ismene Brown’s Heart
Lynn Seymour’s death last Wednesday undammed an outpouring of truly wrenching sadness from those whom this extraordinary ballerina injected with her poison - as...
What If We’re Thinking About The Culture Of Climate Change All Wrong?
Much of the reluctance to do what climate change requires comes from the assumption that it means trading abundance for austerity. But what if...
New Oscars Diversity Data Collection Rules Have Producers Troubled
The goal is to spur more inclusive hiring in the film business, but some producers who are trying to comply say the process is...
China’s Most Popular Fiction Genre? Erotic Stories About Gay Men
"Danmei is romantic fiction about men or male beings – ghosts, foxes, even a mushroom – falling in love, written almost exclusively by and...
Grand Central Station Gets A New Transport Hub — Way Below
In the end, Grand Central Madison succeeds brilliantly in its mission of handling the flow of crowds. But this is merely directing traffic, and...
Promises Of Spring: Jill Lepore Reads Seed Catalogues
"Seed and garden catalogues sell a magical, boozy, Jack-and-the-beanstalk promise: the coming of spring, the rapture of bloom, the fleshy, wet, watermelon-and-lemon tang of...
AI Will Make Us Question Everything We Think Is True
The advancement of generative artificial intelligence is not an advancement toward artificial personhood for a simple, absolute reason: There is no falsifiable thesis of...
Dancing In A White Lab Coat With Yellow Fans And Blue Balloons: See The...
"The dance video, in which the blue balloons stood in for ions, depicted how Checkers Marshall's Ph.D. work aims to make metal-organic frameworks smaller,...
Librarians Are Showing The Stress
As I puttered around the conference, I thought about the fact that although books don’t have feelings, the librarians forced to remove them from...
100-Year-Old Movies Accompanied By 500-Year-Old Music — And It Works!
For nearly two decades, Tina Chancey and her ensemble, Hesperus, have been assembling and performing live music — songs and instrumental works from the...
Defending The American Musical
My sense of musical theater in America is that we may undervalue that the higher forms of the Broadway musical are every bit the...
The Guardian’s Chief Theatre Critic Defends Audience Misbehavior (Up To A Point)
Arifa Akbar: "Crunching or chewing can be a distraction, especially in the confines of the older, tighter West End venues, but theatre is a...
Roy Lichtenstein: Appropriation Artist Or Plain Old Thief?
"Since the 2000s, there has been a chorus of voices emerging from the comic book community decrying Lichtenstein's lifting of comic art — a...
John Jakes, Whose American History Novels Became Huge Hits, Is Dead At 90
"(He) wrote some 60 novels, including westerns, mysteries, science and fantasy fiction, and children's books. But he was best known for two series of...
Who’s Nailing TikTok Journalism? Germany’s Version Of The BBC World Service, That’s Who
Deutsche Welle has nine different accounts on the platform, and the oldest of them, Berlin Fresh (launched less than three years ago), has over...
UK Government Will Give An Extra $10.4 Million To Edinburgh’s Festivals
Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt will announce the £8.6 million ($10.4 million) in funding as part of the UK government's next budget. Scotland's...
Pompidou Center To Open A Branch Museum In Saudi Arabia
"On Sunday, Laurent Le Bon, the president of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, signed an agreement with the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) to...
Hyperion Records, Admired Indie Classical Label, Is Acquired By Universal
"The 43-year-old label — which is home to artists like Marc-André Hamelin, Angela Hewitt and Stephen Osborne and represents a catalog of 2,500 recordings,...
