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To Punish Disney, Sen. Josh Hawley Introduces A Bill To Curtail Copyright

"Hawley's bill would dramatically rewrite U.S. copyright law, shortening the total term available to all copyright holders going forward by several decades. It would also seek to retroactively limit Disney's copyrights." Introducing the legislation, Hawley explicitly cited "woke corporations like Disney ... pandering to woke activists." - Variety

What’s Happened To Fundraising Costs In The Pandemic

Whereas fundraising efforts in 2019 raised $6.22 for every fundraising dollar spent, return on fundraising increased to $7.35 in 2020, driven mostly by fundraising expense reduction. SMU Data Arts

A Visit To The Independent Art Republic Of Užupis

For much of the past six centuries, the neighborhood was the Jewish quarter of Vilnius.  Following World War II, the district was badly neglected by the Soviet occupiers; after Lithuanian independence in 1991, Užupis was cheap, and artists flocked there. The "Republic" was an April Fool's gag that never ended. - Euronews

The Tension Between The Work Of Being A Mother And The Work Of Being An Artist

Happy day after Mother's Day in the U.S.: "The kingdoms are at odds. The baby cannot care for itself, the art cannot create itself, and rarely can the two be done in tandem." - The Atlantic

Should Portland Tear Down And Replace Its Largest Downtown Performing Arts Building?

The Keller, where the Portland Opera and Oregon Ballet Theatre perform, isn't seismic safe, a report says. (That's not even addressing the myriad of acoustic problems in the auditorium.) But it's part of Portland's civic architecture. What should the city do? - Oregon ArtsWatch

The Marvel Cinematic Universe Exploits The Heck Out Of Marvel Comics Artists

Not shocking, perhaps, but still pretty monstrous: "The increasing pride with which the studio uses exact replicas of artists’ work leads one to wonder whether those artists are being fairly compensated for that usage, if at all." (The answer is pretty much "nope.") - Hyperallergic

Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine Could Change, And Maybe Galvanize, Cultural Scenes Across Eastern Europe

The dangers that war brings and the huge influx of refugees will surely alter the region's arts along with the rest of society. Yet the conflict has already sparked new cross-border cultural collaborations in nations that tend to be united only in their fear of Russian aggression. - The Art Newspaper

Colonial Jamestown, Oldest English Settlement In US, Is Getting Inundated By Climate Change

The site of Captain John Smith's 1607 settlement, still a rich archaeological source, is on a low-lying island in Tidewater Virginia, tucked between the James River and a swamp — and now caught between rising sea levels and increasingly frequent flood-level rainstorms. - MSN (The Washington Post)

Canadians Debate What Canadian “Content” Is

The definition of Canadian content is at the heart of a bill before Parliament that would make streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ feature a certain amount of Canadian programs and invest in "Canadian stories," as traditional broadcasters must do. - CBC

How Cyber Data Tools Can Empower Arts Organizations

“Arts organizations have access to a wealth of data and they don’t know how to use it, beginning with the days of Ticketmaster, when you could print out lists of tickets sold and build mailing lists, to the highly sophisticated automated databases and analytic systems we have today." - San Francisco Classical Voice

A Big New Foundation Funder For The Arts

A preliminary estimate of the worth of the collection is $180 million, according to Christie’s, and the designated beneficiaries include leading California-based organizations with whom the Gettys have had a longstanding relationship. - San Francisco Classical Voice

Rebuilding Ukraine Must Include Culture, Not Just Infrastructure

"It's intergenerational heritage we're losing, and it's not just for one country. What's important to understand is that it's not just about saving the famous monuments that are ruined. It's more about saving a way of life. It's about building back the whole cultural landscape afterwards." - Bloomberg CityLab

Do Arts Non-Profits Do Things Backwards?

Solving the external problem has to come first. Then a good nonprofit strategizes the second part. Good faith efforts require that to happen in that order. Sadly, almost all nonprofit arts organizations – at best – try to do this in reverse order. - Alan Harrison

Bolshoi Theatre Cancels Operas And Ballets By Directors Opposed To Ukraine Invasion

"The theatre gave no reason for dropping Timofey Kulyabin's production of the opera Don Pasquale and Kirill Serebrennikov's ballet Nureyev, which will be replaced by productions of Rossini's The Barber of Seville and Aram Khachaturian's ballet Spartacus," the latter a piece of patriotic populism from Soviet days. - The Guardian

Influencer Culture Takes Over Academia

In the persistent wake of the pandemic, the pressure for scholars to self-promote has only intensified. Starved for opportunities to share our latest findings at in-person conferences, we take to Twitter, Instagram, or perhaps our email signature to hype our new books and articles. - Salon

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