Stories

A Chagall Etching Is Liberated After Languishing For 20 Years In Customs

The etching, L’Acrobate au violon (1924), and another work were confiscated from a shipment of art being taken from France to Switzerland in 2005 after French agents determined that the items weren’t authorized to leave the country. The pieces were rediscovered after two decades, and the Chagall is now on display in Besançon. - Artnet

The Ancient World Beyond Greece, Rome and Egypt

The de facto equation of ‘ancient history’ with ancient Mediterranean history, at least in most of the Anglosphere, has endured for many generations. But we are on the cusp of a dramatic shift in perspective that is producing a much bigger, broader and more exciting view of ‘the ancient world’. - Aeon

Meet The Costumer Who Paints New York City Ballet’s Pointe Shoes

“To be a shoe colorist for New York City Ballet, as Tim Foster has been for 15 years, is to occupy a small yet important niche. Most pointe shoes and ballet slippers are manufactured in a pale pink. But the company’s repertoire requires a rainbow of hues.” - The New York Times

They’re Still Making New Discoveries At Pompeii

Archaeologists in Pompeii, the ancient city buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, have unveiled the partially reconstructed frescoed ceiling vault of a banquet hall featuring detailed images of Greek mythology. - AP News

Performing Arts Centers In Australia’s “Second Cities” Form A Network

Four of Australia’s leading regional performing arts organisations have joined forces to establish a new national pathway for developing and presenting large-scale Australian theatre, backed by funding from Creative Australia. - Limelight

The Artist Helping Trump Remake How Washington DC Looks

Unlike other culture czars for the administration who have quickly come and gone, Mr. Taylor has an artistic background that makes him a distinct and persistent champion of the president’s vision. - The New York Times

The Amazon’s Two Historic Opera Houses Get UNESCO World Heritage Status

The two venues — Teatro Amazonas in Manaus, the port in the central Amazon basin, and Theatro da Paz (sic) in Belem, the port at the mouth of the river — date from the late 19th-century rubber boom, which made those cities wealthy enough (for a while) to bring in major artists from Europe. - DPA (Yahoo!)

Huntsville Public Radio Dropped NPR Programming — Here’s What Happened

Its listenership has grown since the change. WLRH is ranked as the No. 4 most listened-to station on its most recent Nielsen report, according to Brukner. It usually ranks around No. 10. - Alabama.com

Maybe Losing Federal Funding Ended Up Being An Opportunity For Public Media?

After the federal funding loss, the industry saw that it hadn’t plateaued but instead “found a whole new level of support,” Chinn said. Stations saw record giving, with some even raising enough to cover the loss of federal funding.  - Current

Why Did Paramount Agree To Delay Its Warner Deal?

With a $7 million-per-day ticking fee that kicks in starting Oct. 1 -- which would cost Paramount $650 million a quarter -- why would Paramount agree to such a delay? The key lies in the nine words preceding the June 1 target date: "until five days after the outcome in a trial." - The Wrap (MSN)

Sure, We’ve Canceled A Bunch Of Previews, But Our “Game Of Thrones” Play Is Just Fine, Says RSC

“Ticketholders for five preview performances of the play, Game of Thrones: The Mad King, were more than a little dismayed last week when the shows, scheduled for July 20-24, were canceled. ... A show on Saturday, July 25, was also called off just hours before the curtain was set to rise.” - The New York Times

What If More Intelligence Doesn’t Make Us Better?

If we think of intelligence as the ability to extract information from data, then even an infinitely advanced model endowed with infinite compute will be limited by the fact that there’s a limited amount of information that can be extracted from the data. - Noahpinion

Meet The Messi Of Ballet

In Argentina, they call her the Messi of ballet – although when it comes to who has the finest footwork, they should really be calling him the Núñez of football. - The Guardian

Authors Have Mixed Feeling About Anthropic “Win”

One possible way for authors to get a fairer shake in the age of AI could be through the licensing of their work to AI companies. - NPR

The Return Of “Tamizdat”: Why So Many New Russian Books Are Being Published Abroad

“Freedom Letters … (is) one of a growing number of cultural organizations that have joined forces with bookstores, wholesalers and book-fair organizers to build a literary resistance among the Russian diaspora. Together, they publish, sell and distribute books that can’t get through Russia’s restrictive new censorship laws.” - Bloomberg

Our Free Newsletter

Join our 30,000 subscribers

Latest

Don't Miss