"Manuel Oliver donned a paper mask of the face of Joaquin, who was a 17-year-old senior when he was killed. He grabbed a hammer and turned to a life-size portrait of Joaquin and methodically banged it four times — once for each bullet that had struck him." - The New York Times
Actually, there are two controversies. One is about restoration to the list of some of the epithets that were deemed offensive and eliminated in 2020. More appalling is the addition of some word forms, particularly plurals of irregular nouns, that just don't actually exist in English, such as "feceses." - Slate
"For this work, Smith’s decision to blend her contemporary interviews with historical accounts of Maryland in the mid-1860s is apt. The echoes of history reverberate loudly, revealing the power of historical trauma to shape behavior in the present day." - The Atlantic
"In all my years doing research at the National Archives, I had never cried. …" The Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and co-founder of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture writes about the implications of his research into the post-Civil War Freedmen's Bureau. - MSN (The Atlantic)
Vann R. Newkirk II, based on the diaries of Ella Sheppard, the group's first pianist and composer, and on materials in the historically black university's archives, recounts how the group came together in the 1870s to help save the impoverished school — and created a great American genre of music. - MSN (The Atlantic)
The museum's executive director also apologized for the way she discussed the postponement: "There are no excuses for what I said, regardless of my intentions." - The New York Times
"The path to God runs down the New Jersey Turnpike. About an hour from the Holland Tunnel, … a mirage appears: swirls of stone fluffed up into meringue peaks." Architecture critic Justin Davidson visits the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Robbinsville, just a few miles from Exit 8. - MSN (Curbed)
"Over the past four decades, Andrew Wylie has reshaped publishing in profound and, some say, insalubrious ways. He has been a champion of highbrow books and unabashed commerce, making great writers famous and famous writers rich. In the process, he has helped to define the global literary canon." - The Guardian
"'If you want to see a diverse and vibrant cultural community come to fruition, you have to build it," said Guy Ben-Aharon, founder of The Jar, which gathers small, disparate groups of people invited by "conveners" to evenings centered on particular artists from different disciplines. - MSN (The Washington Post)
"The growing tendency of artists to pronounce on everything from microaggressions to macropolitics shows that we need a fundamentally different understanding of the role played by artists and their institutions." - Compact Magazine
"The two sides spent the last several days putting the finishing touches on the deal, which will see the first-ever protections for actors against artificial intelligence and a historic pay increase. The deal will see most minimums increase by 7% — 2% above the increases received by the Writers Guild." - Variety
Jaroslaw Suchan, a former director of the Museum of Art in Lodz whose contract was not renewed by the Law and Justice government, said that the party had “treated culture as an ideological weapon.” But if a new government simply fired Glinski’s appointees, “they’d be repeating the last government’s behaviors.” - The New York Times
The notorious art object, titled America, was stolen from an exhibition at Blenheim Palace in England in 2019. There's as yet no indication of the whereabouts of the object itself, which is widely presumed to have been melted down. - The Guardian
Two members of the British group Just Stop Oil took hammers to the glass protecting Diego Velázquez’s "Rokeby Venus" at the National Gallery in London. (This isn't the first time that painting has been damaged by a protester: it was attacked by a suffragette in 1914.) - CNN
"After complaints from students and faculty ... , growing murmurs of protests at performances and an anonymous vote by student participants in the production, By the River Rivanna was canceled hours before its opening night." - MSN (Los Angeles Times)
Executive Director Carol Tatch’s "ouster comes amid an acrimonious battle between RACC, which has been the major funding organization for arts organizations in Portland and the tri-county area since the 1990s, and the City of Portland." - Oregon ArtsWatch
Sir Peter Blake, "at the age of 91, ... has been collaborating with a robot powered by AI and is excited by the artistic possibilities of this 'kind of magic.'" - The Guardian (UK)
It's back to the analog age at the British Library, for instance. "Library users, many of whom include writers with pressing deadlines, are beginning to be affected." - The New York Times
For years, economists and more than a few worried parents have argued over whether a liberal arts degree is worth the price. The debate now seems to be over, and the answer is “no.” - The New York Times
