Nepali conservationist Rabindra Puri has hired local stonecarvers and craftsmen to create and display replicas of dozens of items of sacred art that were looted from temples and other sites over the past 60-odd years. The idea: return the stolen original to us and we'll give you the replica. - BBC
"Knowing that a work is by Haydn or Mozart allows us to see ‘inevitable’ connections. Take away the certainty of authorship, and it’s devilishly difficult to read the musical images within. … If someone can write pieces that can be mistaken for Haydn, what is so special about Haydn?" - The Guardian
Following another investigation that looked into further allegations (besides the original accusations from 2010), principal oboe Liang Wang and associate principal trumpet Matthew Muckey have been terminated and banned from the premises. The musicians' union has decided not to contest their firing. - AP
Sure, there are the rancorous meetings where people accuse you of peddling porn, and the death threats. But there are also overdoses, physical attacks, and the daily challenges of dealing with people who need a lot more help than you could ever offer. - The New York Times
"In my long career all over the country, I have never experienced a more comprehensively intelligent, generous and progressive audience. Where did that audience go? I suspect the answer to that question is not a short one.” - San Francisco Chronicle
One letter, signed by 2700 authors and entertainers, calls for a boycott of Israeli cultural institutions that are “complicit in violating Palestinian rights,” while another letter, signed by 1000 authors and entertainers, claims, “boycotts of creatives and creative institutions simply create more divisiveness.” - The New York Times
Or at least, that’s how Millennials remember the Book It! program, which is - shockingly - still going strong, 40 years in, with personal pan pizzas for kids in K-6th grade who read a certain number of books. - The New York Times
That’s a rise of 200 percent over 2023, which was already a huge year for organizations that rub their hands in glee as they try to stop kids from reading. - The New York Times
Anne Michaels, author of the spare, gorgeous Held says, "You can use brutal language to describe brutality, but that’s a lie; language can’t represent brutality. It’s exactly the same when I’m trying to get at the most beautiful, profoundly intense experience of intimacy.” - The Guardian (UK)
A package of articles considering some of the most important examples (including forgotten ones) of the style, from Eero Saarinen's Tulip table (the man detested table legs) to Isamu Noguchi's Akari lamps to the Eames Shell chair to Charlotte Perriand's modular shelving units to the city of Columbus, Indiana. - Dezeen
A two-part essay by Ben Davis in which he considers (Part One) what exactly it is about a work that can give someone the physical response he calls "aesthetic chills" and (Part Two) why visual art doesn't seem to induce those chills as often as other art forms do. - Artnet
"(This will be) the first time since at least 1888 the newspaper won’t have even one reporter dedicated to covering the city’s cultural life," said the paper's union. "The Sun will continue to cover news developments in the arts and food industries, but ... (not) the soul of features reporting." - TheWrap (Yahoo!)
"Everyone who works (in the job) has stories about the expensive, delicate, sacred and impossibly large things they’ve had to pack into a crate and ship somewhere:" weird things such as an electric chair, and difficult things like a 3,000 pound pre-Columbian artifact amidst an ice storm. - The Washington Post (MSN)
Gavin Newsom "declared his intent to expand the annual tax credit to $750 million, up from its current total of $330 million, which would make California the top state for capped film incentive programs, surpassing even New York.” - Los Angeles Times
“Reading books is a battle in a way that, once upon a time, it wasn’t. That is to say: it’s never a battle while I’m inside the activity itself but granting myself permission to get inside it can be.” - Tom Cox
The blackmail plot cost millions. “The state’s objective was to prevent the leak of photos, videos and audios that revealed King Juan Carlos I’s infidelity with actress and TV star Bárbara Rey. Public knowledge of the affair would have put the stability of the monarchy in jeopardy.” - El País
Bernadine Evaristo, Booker winner for Girl, Woman, Other, is “paying it forward” by hosting writer residencies at her house. “We need to build a more supportive infrastructure to help writers from every background thrive and, in doing so, keep literature in all its life-enhancing manifestations, alive.” - LitHub
