The principal of Arthur O. Eve School 61 in Buffalo got together with Scholastic Books and a vending machine company to adapt and stock a machine for the school’s library. The kids are not charged: each kid gets one token a month to use at the machine. (Yes, they get to keep the books.) — Buffalo News
Chinese Government Control Of The Art Market Threatens It
What counts as a problematic work tends, loosely, to be anything explicitly sexually suggestive, some nudes, those with religious subject matter and politically engaged works that might be construed as criticising the Chinese regime. A foreign exhibitor at one of the fairs says anonymously that they were not allowed to bring a work that joked about global trade and Chinese manufacturing. Works by Georg Baselitz and Francis Bacon, proposed by international galleries were apparently among those turned down this year.
90 UK Theatres Announce Plan To Increase Diversity In Non-Stage Staff
“Rather than putting the onus on employers to address this issue alone, we decided to assist them by using the best knowledge we had available – our members’ experiences. We asked reps about the reality of theatre recruitment to establish how it really works.” – The Stage
Undergrads Are Fleeing The History Major: Study
“History has seen the steepest decline in majors of all disciplines since the 2008 recession, according to a new analysis published in the American Historical Association’s Perspectives on History. ‘The drop in history’s share of undergraduate majors in the last decade has put us below the discipline’s previous low point in the 1980s,’ reads the analysis.”
NPR’s ‘Fresh Air’ Fires Movie Critic David Edelstein
The popular interview show hosted by Terry Gross cut ties after Edelstein posted on Facebook an ill-considered joke (subsequently deleted) about the stick-of-butter scene in Last Tango in Paris that was widely condemned on social media as offensive.
Struggling To Find The Aesthetic Self(ie)
Consuming these images is stultifying. To be digitally femme means to bathe anxiously in the images of others and act impotently in response, liking a photo or congratulating others on their beauty. More stultifying is that this is done in spite of knowing the effort that went into each composition. The selfie is a cover-up, hiding both the means of its own production and the true self.
The Communist Manifesto Becomes A Cantata
“Choral Marx, which was recently performed at NYU’s Skirball Center, consists of nine singers whose variously musical utterance transfigures, toys with, and otherwise implements eight heavily excerpted selections from the 1888 Samuel Moore translation of the Manifesto. Led by [composer Ethan] Philbrick’s cello, the band played all the hits: ‘The history of all hitherto existing societies/ Is the history of class struggle,’ ‘The bourgeoisie has reduced personal worth to exchange value,’ ‘There is a specter haunting this world’ and so on.”
How Hip Hop Is Influencing Architecture
Because the idea of hip-hop architecture is still very new, the design elements aren’t quite apparent yet, though Deconstructivism and Postmodernism are probably the closest reference points in forms that emphasize the design of façades, different heights for different sections of buildings, and references classical architecture.
27 Artists Talk About The Best And Worst Advice They Got
People have told me to stop being a perfectionist and make more work, more quickly. This is not bad advice in theory, but it does not work for me.
Facebook Censors Art Historian For Posting Image, Then Bans Him From The Platform
News of Ruben Cordova’s banishment has spread across academic circles as a warning against art historians and artists who might want to aggregate their research on Facebook’s platform.
Why Restaurants Are Designed To Be Noisy
Restaurants are so loud because architects don’t design them to be quiet. Much of this shift in design boils down to changing conceptions of what makes a space seem upscale or luxurious, as well as evolving trends in food service. Right now, high-end surfaces connote luxury.
Rethinking The San Francisco Conservatory Of Music (And Finding Success)
David Stull’s notion is that any reasonable education should teach you to think critically and creatively; write and speak effectively; work alone or on a team; translate constructive criticism to advantage, and, no matter the obstacles, continue to succeed. In sum, from a proper education, you should learn to embrace versatility, failure, and the desire to innovate. You should also know how to create a 501(C)(3).
French Report On Cultural Restitution Puts Museums On Edge
Stéphane Martin, president of the Quai Branly Museum, which has 70,000 objects from sub-Saharan Africa in its collections, said in an interview with the French daily Le Figaro that last week’s report was “a bad answer to the courageous question posed by the president.” While restitution was “not a word that I’m scandalized by,” he added, there are “other ways to engage in cultural cooperation with Africa.”
Take A One-Woman Drag Show About Machismo And Consent. Now Have A Man Perform It. What Happens?
At the Edinburgh Fringe this past summer and currently in London, Los Angeles actor Natalie Palamides performs her solo show titled Nate, in whch she plays an unrepentantly dopey douchebag. For two nights this week, Palamides had the show’s director, Phil Burgers (who performs as a clown under the stage name Dr. Brown), stepped in for her while she called out directions from just offstage. Did the gender swap change everything about the show? Brian Logan went to find out.
Why It Might Not Be So Easy For France To Return Cultural Treasures
There are legal blocks to permanently removing items from French collections and, as a practical matter, there will almost certainly be push-back from the museums themselves.
Rennie Harris Is The Ailey Company’s First-Ever Artist-In-Residence
Gia Kourlas talks to the choreographer about Lazarus, a two-act work (the company’s first) he’s creating for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s 60th anniversary. Harris says he’s basing his movement on GQ, a street-dance style which he says developed in Philadelphia at the time break-dancing evolved in New York.
Only A Few Months After Launching, YouTube Is Pulling Back From Its Premium Service
Google will scale back its production of scripted content starting in 2020. While neither reported YouTube Premium — the $11.99-a-month subscription service — would close, it is unclear how many viewers would continue to pay, when the same content would be available for free, though with ads.
Why Do Opera With Homeless People?
“When you say you’re working with a choir made up of homeless and formerly homeless people, people have the impression of what that means and it’s not an Individual one, as the members of the chorus show, it’s one of ‘huddled masses.’ I want this project to correct that misconception.”
Two Panels Of Mantegna Painting Reunited For First Time In At Least 300 Years
The lower half of the 1492 diptych, titled The Descent of Christ Into Limbo, has been owned by a private collector since 2003; the upper panel, The Resurrection of Christ, belongs to the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo and was only recently identified as Andrea Mantegna’s work. The pair will be displayed together beginning next month at the National Gallery in London.
Victoria Donohoe, Longtime Art Critic For Philadelphia Inquirer, Dead At 89
She never learned to drive, never had a TV, never mastered computers or email. Yet for 50 years she covered shows at museums and galleries all over the Philadelphia metro area, filing more than 1,000 articles from 1962 to 2012.
With New Contract, San Francisco Symphony Musicians Are America’s Best Paid
The four-year labor agreement, ratified a week before the old one expired, sets a base salary of $3,263 per week, a figure that will steadily rise to $3,570 per week for the final six months of the term.
Berkshire Museum Says It’s Finished Selling Off Art
“Nearly a year and a half after it announced plans to part with 40 artworks from its collection in order to close a budget gap, pay for building repairs and renovations, and pursue a new programming agenda [focused on science and history], the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, said today that it has completed the sales, bringing in $53.25 million for 22 works.”
Stephen Hillenburg, Creator Of ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’, Dead At 57
A former marine biology teacher who studied animation, Hillenburg began his TV career at Nickelodeon, where he created and ran the wildly popular TV series that has run for 20 years and spawned two feature films, a Broadway musical, video games, and a myriad of merchandise.
India Just Finished The World’s Tallest Statue. Now It’s Building Two That Are Even Taller
With a 597-foot bronze of independence leader Sardar Patel completed in Gujarat, work is underway on a 696-foot sculpture of the 17th-century Maratha conqueror Shivaji just off the beach in Mumbai. And plans have just been announced for a 725-foot statue of the Hindu god Rama in the city of Ayodhya, considered to be Rama’s earthly birthplace, in Uttar Pradesh state. And yes, Hindu nationalism is tied up with all three projects.
In Search Of Literary Fame
“Young man, literary glory, or the fame that comes from learning and then writing, is one of the very few forms of glory presently available to the commoner. Admittedly, it’s not as impressive or satisfying as the glory that derives from public service, since action is much worthier and nobler than thinking or writing, and more natural. We weren’t made to spend our lives sitting at a table with pen and paper, and doing so can only be detrimental to your health and happiness. All the same, as I said, this is a glory that can be achieved without initial riches and without being part of a large organization. Theoretically.”