According to research conducted at the University of Toronto, study participants who read short-story fiction experienced far less need for “cognitive closure” compared with counterparts who read nonfiction essays. Essentially, they tested as more open-minded, compared with the readers of essays. “Although nonfiction reading allows students to learn the subject matter, it may not always help them in thinking about it,” the authors write.
Seven Deadly Sins Of Philanthropy
Whether these transgressions rise to the level of an offense against religious law is a debate best left to theologians. However, examining the worst sins of the philanthropic sector and possible ways to remediate these issues occupies the thoughts of many of those active in the foundation world.
When Does A Piece Of Art Violate A Subject’s Rights?
What is the line between art and commerce? It is an important question, given that art enjoys broader free speech protections than the latter. It’s unlikely a Nike TV spot can successfully claim to be art—but what about a painting with limited edition prints sold through a website? When does that line get crossed?
Why Fewer Galleries Are Opening Than Were Ten Years Ago
A new report from UBS and Art Basel, The Art Market | 2018, found that the rate of galleries opening has fallen dramatically over the past decade. In 2017, just 0.9 galleries opened for every one that shuttered, down from five openings to every closure 10 years prior, a sign the art market could be losing its dynamism as new entrants face increasingly high barriers to entry.
The Arts’ ‘Spillover Effect’
“If we could fully understand the impact of arts and culture on wider society, would this change arts strategies and policies? Jonathan Vickery charts the progression of thinking on the ‘spillover’ effect.”
Unhappiness Isn’t Just Inevitable, It’s Indispensable
“Because the brain grades on a curve, endlessly comparing the present with what came just before, the secret to happiness may be unhappiness. Not unmitigated unhappiness, of course, but the transient chill that lets us feel warmth, the sensation of hunger that makes satiety so welcome, the period of near-despair that catapults us into the astonishing experience of triumph.” Neurobiologist Indira M. Raman explains why the brain requires that contrast.
Why Artists Are Allowed Inside Museums To Copy The Masters
The oldest of these programs is that of the Louvre, which began during the French Revolution in 1793, reportedly just a month after radical Parisians converted the royal palace into a museum. Back then, it was a rule that any artist who wished to enter the museum and copy from the work of the masters would be given an easel to do so—it’s not surprising, then, that among its alumni are familiar names, like Edgar Degas, Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dalí.
Is Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Mass’, Ultimately, Even A Piece Of Music? Maybe Not – And That Doesn’t Matter
“[The work] is hung on a musical frame. But more saliently to most audiences, perhaps, it is religious, it is social, it is political. … Maybe the technical term for it all is simply this: groovy.” Peter Dobrin considers the new recording of Mass, released for the Bernstein centennial, by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra (and a whole lot of others).
Huge Network Trafficking In Fake Native American Art Busted By Federal Investigators
“The investigation was named Operation Al Zuni after Al Zuni Global Jewelry, a well-known business in Gallup, New Mexico, owned by Nashat Khalaf, a Palestinian immigrant and prominent Indian arts dealer. … The Indian Arts and Crafts Board estimated in 2016 that the retail value of the 350,000 pieces of jewelry seized during [a large 2015] raid exceeded $35 million.”
Every Winner Of This Year’s National Book Critics Circle Awards Is A Woman
“Joan Silber took the fiction prize for her novel Improvement. … The nonfiction prize went to Frances FitzGerald for her book The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America, a sweeping history of the Evangelical movement from the Puritan era to the 2016 presidential election. Layli Long Soldier won the poetry prize for her acclaimed collection Whereas. The autobiography prize went to Xiaolu Guo for her book Nine Continents: A Memoir In and Out of China. The prize in criticism went to Carina Chocano for her essay collection You Play the Girl: On Playboy Bunnies, Stepford Wives, Train Wrecks, & Other Mixed Messages. The prize in biography went to Caroline Fraser for her book Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder.”
How Do You Measure The Soft Power Of Culture?
The impact of cultural work is complex: it imparts insights, experience and attitudes that do not necessarily have to culminate in a ‘work’, but may create new networks, creative ideas, and extended action horizons. Here, the artistic process itself is often just as important as the result. In terms of intercultural understanding, it is sometimes even more so.
Britain’s Literary Prize For Writers Of Color Goes To A Collection Of Essays
And – perhaps ironically! – the book is titled after a viral blog post from 2014 by author Reni Eddo-Lodge: “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race.” The prize is for, in Britain’s terms, a BAME writer – Black, Asian, or minority ethnic. The judges said it was “a thunderclap of a book” and that it “unflinchingly confronts a country where racism is – by all indicators – at an all-time high, but there are no identifiable racists.”
When A Fashion Designer Works With A Ballet Company, Things Can Get Interesting
Erdem Moralioglu’s company is famous for its evening gowns and “decadent craftsmanship.” How will he work with dancers at the Royal Ballet in London?
Amazon’s Unorthodox Formula To Calculate Whether A Streaming Series Was Worth The Cost
While The Man in the High Castle, for instance, had one of the lowest costs per first stream after its first season, $63, that number jumped up to a whopping $829 following the production of Season Two. Mozart in the Jungle season two, despite having one of the studio’s lowest budgets at $37 million, cost $581 per first stream. Feminist cult favorite Good Girls Revolt was singled out as the highest cost per stream: $1,560 against its $81 million season one budget. The show got the axe after one season and just 1.6 million viewers.
How Amazon Measures The Success Of Its Original Series
Amazon execs, Reuters says, believe the first series you watch after signing up deserves the credit for luring you to Prime (whether you liked the show or not apparently doesn’t matter, nor is it clear whether you need to finish a full season of a show for it to count). Unfortunately, Reuters chose to only publish a fraction of the data it says it obtained, making it hard to draw any broad conclusions about the relative success or failure of Amazon shows.
Art Dealers: The Website Is The New Foot Traffic
While dealers say the majority of sales are still consummated in person, often in the framework of long-term relationships, the seeds of those relationships are increasingly being sown online, rather than through traditional routes like art fairs and referrals. The stakes are high: Galleries’ long-term survival may ultimately depend on building up a robust digital presence.
Is Conspiracy Fiction Dangerous In The Post-Truth Era?
Ned Beauman, who writes conspiracy novels: “When we observe the Alt-Right questioning the established facts and the established world order, the last thing we should do is offer them a monopoly on that attitude. Nonetheless, if I had just written a novel that extolled, say, the spiritual joys of being alone with nature, and meanwhile enormous numbers of ill-prepared people were being found dead in the woods after succumbing to snakebites or dehydration, I might try to introduce some balance into my next paean to the wilderness.”
Corruption, Basically: John Kander And Ann Reinking Talk About Why ‘Chicago’ Never Feels Dated
Kander: “Because corruption in society never seems to go out of style. Every once in a while, it becomes more obvious than not.”
Reinking: “Every step is basically a word. Especially with musical theatre, because you’re not doing it for dance’s sake, you’re promoting a story – and, more than that, a moral.”
How Much Of Art Conservators’ Work Should Be Visible?
The question arose (again) with the $450 million sale of da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi after former Met Museum director Thomas Campbell posted an image of the painting pre-conservation on Instagram. Ben Luke looks at the issues – and at four Old Master paintings said to have suffered conservation “indignities” in the past.
The Issues Dance Companies *Really* Need To Fix, Per The Readers Of Dance Magazine
Jennifer Stahl: “The bottom line: Readers agree it’s time to hold directors accountable, particularly to make sure that dancers are being paid fairly. But the good news is that change is already happening. Here are some of the most intriguing ideas you shared via comments, email and social media.”
Groups Press NPR To Release Investigative Report By Journalist Who Left In Harassment Scandal
“Peace Corps alumni and drug safety organizations are calling on NPR to immediately air an investigation by Daniel Zwerdling, a veteran reporter who left the network last month after facing sexual harassment allegations. The two-part report on the anti-malarial drug mefloquine had been scheduled to air in late November.”
James Levine Sues Metropolitan Opera For Defamation And Breach Of Contract
Just three days after the company fired the conductor for “sexually abusive and harassing conduct,” Levine has filed a legal action for more than $5.8 million. “It was only upon learning that the allegations would be published in the press,” argues the filing, “that the Met and Gelb, cynically hijacking the good will of the #MeToo movement, brazenly seized on these allegations as a pretext to end a longstanding personal campaign to force Levine out of the Met and cease fulfilling its legally enforceable financial commitments to him.”
There’s Another New Banksy In NYC (This One Planned), And It’s In Support Of A Political Prisoner
“The anonymous British artist’s 70-foot-long mural was unveiled on Thursday, and it protests the imprisonment of the Turkish artist and journalist Zehra Dogan, who was sentenced last March for painting the destruction of a Turkish [Kurdish] town, with the country’s flag flying over rubble.”
There’s No Problem At All With Royal New Zealand Ballet’s Working Culture, Investigation Finds
“The review was commissioned amid speculation of a poor working culture at the [company] after it was reported close to half of the 36 dancers it employed were leaving, and not all by choice, at the end of 2017. The substance of any specific allegations made or the responses to them were not within the scope of the review, which looked more at how complaints had been managed and its general working policies.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.15.18
The Big Crack
The vintage-candy vault is a Brooklyn cliché, like stoop ball, stickball, new pink Spaldings (Spawl-DEENS) down the grate. … read more
AJBlog: Out There Published 2018-03-15
Bill Frisell And Brad Mehldau: Alone
Their recording histories encompass dozens of collaborations, but in their new albums two of the most prolific recording artists in modern music go it alone. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-03-15
Mieczyslaw Weinberg on Film
Is Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996) a third Soviet composer to set beside Shostakovich and Prokofiev? An increasing number of musicians seem to think so, including the peerless Latvian-born violinist Gidon Kremer, himself a product of Soviet training. … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2018-03-15
Beware the Eve of the Ides of March
Today is the Ides of March, so I should have known better than to go to a performance yesterday of Julius Caesar at London’s new theatre, The Bridge. Remember, it was on … read more
AJBlog: Plain English Published 2018-03-15