ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

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Uffizi Gallery, Mecca Of Renaissance Art, Moves Slowly Into Contemporary Work

It's not easy to do this, since people come from all over the world to see the classics, but the Florence museum's dynamic director, Eike Schmidt, is working to "get the dust off" and exhibit new art in dialogue with the old. - The New York Times

Are NFTs Really The Future Of Art?

 The news that you could now, at least in theory, monetise digital art has spawned a speculative boom. - Irish Times

Don’t Panic, But Print Sales Are Going To Fall In 2022

To be fair, 2020 and 2021 were unexpectedly, thanks to the pandemic, very strong years for print. - Publishers Weekly

Some Of The Best-Loved Scenes In Iconic Movies Are Only There Because Of Test Screenings

Anne Archer shooting Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction. Julia Roberts dancing with Rupert Everett to end My Best Friend's Wedding. The freeway dance that opens La La Land. All there thanks to test audiences. And that Kevin Costner baseball movie nearly went out under the title Shoeless Joe. - BBC

How Do You Know You’re Not Living In A Simulation? (No, Really…)

Can you prove you’re not in a simulation? You might think you have definitive evidence that you’re not. I think that’s impossible, because any such evidence could be simulated. - Nautilus

Why Art Ought To Be A Daily Habit

Arthur Brooks: Engaging with art after worrying over the minutiae of your routine is like looking at the horizon after you’ve spent too long staring intently at a particular object: Your perception of the outside world expands. - The Atlantic

I Was At The Auditions For “Shortbus”, John Cameron Mitchell’s Sex Movie

Back in 2003, journalist Mark Harris had been going to write a book about the film and its process; now, as Shortbus is being reissued, he's revisited his notebooks. "This is going to be complicated. BOUNDARIES." - New York Magazine

At Daniel Barenboim’s Berlin State Opera, Things Are More Strained Than Ever

"For decades, Barenboim and the Staatskapelle shared common interests. Now, 'til death do us part' has become a burden. Complicating the dynamics of this stagnant marriage is a third party: Berlin's Culture Department, … (seemingly) unable to intervene in the quagmire at the Staatsoper." - Van

Seattle Symphony Crisis: Board Chair Digs In

The exodus of two-thirds of both administrative staff and board members — culminating in the resignation of music director Thomas Dausgaard — since the arrival of CEO Krishna Thiagarajan just over three years ago indicates a problem. What's happening now is not how a healthy organization would handle things. - Post Alley (Seattle)

The Shortcoming Of Immersive Art

The “immersive entertainment” industry, which includes nondigital experiences such as escape rooms and other content in which the participant feels a sense of presence in an artificial environment, is large and growing, spanning contexts such as live events, arts performances, and museums. - Jacobin

This Orchestra Somehow Kept Going Through Lockdowns, Floods, Power Outages, And The Madness Of Today’s Venezuela

The Orquesta Sinfónica Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho in Caracas is already the country's least conventional symphonic ensemble: they frequently perform in the barrios and regularly explore fusion with Afro-Caribbean music. Their most recent project, Sinfonía Desordenada (Disorderly Symphony), turned out to be, er, aptly named. - National Geographic

Social Media Is Flooding Us With Addictive Junk News

A digital drug for anyone with a phone, and especially young people, the TikTok app uses random reinforcement — similar to a slot machine on the Las Vegas strip — to keep users scrolling. It has changed the way Americans tell and view stories. - Salon

Getting Copyright, And Compensation, For The Choreographers Of Hit Music Videos — Including TikTok

Says dancer/choreographer JaQuel Knight, who founded Knight Choreography and Music Publishing Inc. to address the issue, "Over the past year and a half, so many of the biggest records were directly tied to TikTok dances. Those songs made millions. And the creators of the dances received zero." - Dance Magazine

Countries That Fund Public Broadcasting Better Have Healthier Democracies: Study

The question is: in which direction does the causality run? - Nieman Lab

Why Is Canadian Architecture So Dreadful?

Today, barring the newish Halifax and Calgary central libraries (which opened in 2014 and 2018, respectively), one wonders whether the average Canadian could name a building constructed in the past thirty years the country could be proud of. - The Walrus

Sometimes, Do Quit Your Day Job

Or, at least, that worked for Costa prize winner Caleb Azumah Nelson, who had been working at an Apple Store before an agent bit on his writing. - The Guardian (UK)

Sundance’s Design Might Hint At The Film Festival Of The Future

The not-too-distant future, at that. "Film festivals have always struggled with accessibility issues that can be mitigated by allowing people to attend from home. So perhaps hybrid festivals are the future even in the best of times." - Wired

She’s A Painter, A Writer, And The Only Woman Ever To Dump Pablo Picasso. Meet Françoise Gilot, Now An “It Girl” At Age 100

"It has been unsettling, if not entirely unwelcome, to find herself courted in recent months by art world pundits and curiosity seekers. … 'I am not going to make a big deal of being more than what I am,' she said. 'Or less.'" - The New York Times

Was Terry Teachout The Last Of The Conservative Arts Critics?

"For him, conservatism signaled a commitment to tradition, to persevering and building on past achievement. It was a conservatism of memory, not of grievance and spite. … With his death, this strain of conservatism seems not only rare but perhaps even extinct." - The Nation

Could End Of The BBC’s License Fee Spell The End For Public Broadcasting?

The licence fee announcement needs to be seen as part of a wider legacy in which the government has questioned the relevance of the whole idea of Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) and its role in the 21st century. - The Conversation
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