The great breakthrough in human enlightenment was to develop techniques – empirical science – to allow us to grasp the real complexity of the world and to understand it in terms of the interaction of mindless (or at least unintentional) processes rather than humanly meaningful stories of, say, good vs evil. - 3 Quarks Daily
Contemporary debates about who ‘owns’ the classical past obscure the intellectual role it played in the emergence of modern democracy, and the reasons we are surrounded by its iconography in the first place. - Aeon
It is certainly not a popular theory, but it’s quite possible that, at this moment, America’s cultural venues may be larger than needed. Now companies must grapple with sustaining their homes at a critical time when audiences may not be attending in the same way they were 50 years ago, 25 years ago, or even in early 2020. - The Stage
If the mark of 21st-century politics is the ascendancy of culture and identity over economics and class, it could be said to have been born here in Turkey, home to one of the longest-running culture wars of them all. - The New York Times
"In interviews, orchestra leaders around the country (said) that things had been deeply disappointing early on this season for them, too — and that their panic had calmed amid winter and spring sales that were, if not boffo, at least not devastating." - The New York Times
No full-body imagery of Michelangelo's David here, the Scots say: "The designs commissioned by the Barolo restaurant were rejected from spaces in the subway over modesty concerns." - The Guardian (UK)
Don't stress, artists: "What the majority actually had problems with — what the decision was mostly about — was the Warhol Foundation’s failure to pay Goldsmith a licensing fee in 2016." - The New York Times
Amis "was among the celebrated group of novelists including Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes, whose works defined the British literary scene in the 1980s." - The Guardian (UK)
"Despite protests from station owners, listeners, first-responders and politicians from both major parties, automakers … are removing AM radios from new electric vehicles because electric engines can interfere with the sound of AM stations. And Ford (is) eliminating AM from all of its vehicles, electric or gas-operated." - MSN (The Washington Post)
We’re living a new, much broader Deep Blue moment, when the basic boundary lines between the outer limits of what machines and humans can do are suddenly in flux. Only this time, the people directly concerned aren’t just a few dozen grandmasters in the rarified world of top-level chess. This time, it’s everyone. - Persuasion
This is twisted. A variety of cities and governmental departments "are using an art form once thought to carry humanity’s highest ideals to hide the system’s most vulnerable from view." - Boston Globe
"In one of the more extreme attempts to attract a younger audience post-Covid, the newly renovated museum in Amsterdam is launching a 'poor man’s Rembrandt project.'" - The Guardian (UK)
This isn't great for theatre: "The Tonys have long been a prestigious event for CBS, but the show itself is more important to Broadway producers, who rely on the exposure on the national network to market their productions." And they're struggling, post-COVID-19. - Los Angeles Times
Across the entire geographic and chronological recorded history of human societies, storytelling has enabled different ways of seeing and thinking to be communicated without being overtly threatening to dominant structures of power and belief. - LA Review of Books
"Based on Gogol's short story 'The Terrible Revenge,' the opera (by composer Yevhen Stankovych) was directed by Andreas Weirich. ... 'We did some of the rehearsals in the bomb shelter,' he said. 'At times there were four air raid sirens a day – it became a new normal.'" - The Guardian
What led to Nataki Garrett’s resignation after just four years in the post, in which she spent as much or more time handling crises and fielding criticism as programming and making theatre? And what led OSF to the point where they had to put out their hand for help? - American Theatre
In just over two years, the school acquired Opus 3 Artists, Pentatone Records, and the major London agency Askonas Holt. SFCM president David Stull explains to Jeffrey Arlo Brown what the school's up to, and Brown considers for whom all this is, and is not, a good deal. - Van
“There is a massive shift there in terms of interests, what millennials consider relevant and find exciting. It will impact more than just what we put onstage. It will impact the entire economy of the performing arts. And how does that generation feel about philanthropy? - San Francisco Classical Voice
Her country's first female architect, Lari, now 82, gave up a career building high-profile landmarks to design simple, inexpensive structures of bamboo and mud that impoverished villagers and displaced people can build themselves for a fraction of what a prefab concrete shelter costs. - CNN
