“Analysts were split on whether AT&T’s move would spur other companies to combine. Several attributed AT&T’s play as a way to position itself as a more robust competitor to Google and Facebook, which capture the lion’s share of online advertising, and Amazon and Apple, which have strong customer relations.”
Madeline Thien Wins This Year’s Governor General’s Prize For Writing
“Thien, a 42-year-old Montreal writer, has been awarded this year’s English-language fiction prize for her breakout novel Do Not Say We Have Nothing. The prize, which celebrates its 80th anniversary this year, counts many of the giants of CanLit among its previous winners: Hugh MacLennan, Gabrielle Roy, Margaret Laurence, Alice Munro, Mordecai Richler, Robertson Davies, Timothy Findley, Margaret Atwood, Mavis Gallant, Rohinton Mistry, Michael Ondaatje.”
Novel Claim: The 1980s Was A Golden Age For TV
“The ’80s bridged the gap between the medium’s tumultuous birth — when it seemed as if it couldn’t decide whether to be vaudeville, legitimate theater, radio with pictures, or free-form video art — and its Peak TV maturation, a period of increased artistic sophistication and overwhelming quantity, literary pretensions, and cinematic effects.”
Curtis Institute Fires Its Board Of Overseers
“Deeply disappointed” is the way overseers chairman Lowell J. Noteboom characterized his reaction in an email to other overseers. “I believe the discontinuance of the overseers is a significant loss to Curtis and that the administrative burden could have been managed in ways that would not have required such drastic action. That said, there seemed to be no will to craft a different solution,” he wrote.
Board Of Shakespeare’s Globe Decides To Jettison Controversial New Artistic Director
“Shakespeare’s Globe artistic director Emma Rice is to leave the theatre in 2018 after its board decided her methods are not authentic enough. Rice took charge of the London theatre in January but has come in for fierce criticism, including for her use of sound and lighting technology.”
The Enemy Within At MoMA: Dust
“Over two years, [Nina] Katchadourian interviewed staff members across every department, ultimately realizing that they were united by their stance against this pervasive, invisible-until-it’s-not element.” Then she created a new audio guide: “Wall texts encourage visitors to listen in at a dozen locations throughout the museum, including a tough-to-Swiffer ledge overhanging four stories of the museum’s atrium.”
Australia’s Opera Companies Should Get Extra $24M In Funding (And One Of Them Gets An Ultimatum): Government Report
“Australia’s four major opera companies should receive more than $24m in extra federal funding over four years, according to recommendations from the long-awaited National Opera Review. Along with the proposal for extra funding, the review also recommended that one of the companies, Opera Queensland, be given three years to sort its finances out or lose its status as a Major Performing Arts (MPA) company, which secures it government funding.”
London Gallery Sues Authentication Committee Over Agnes Martin: Decision Rendered Paintings “Worthless”
Mayor Gallery says that the authentication committee acted wrongly when it rejected 13 works submitted to it by the gallery’s clients. Neither Sotheby’s nor Christie’s will accept a work by Martin for auction or private sale unless it has been or will be included in the catalogue raisonné, the complaint says, so “a refusal by defendants to include an artwork [is] recognised in the worldwide marketplace as a conclusive statement that the artwork is a fake”, rendering it effectively “worthless”.