"For scholars, the rosy tale of a purely heroic unleashing of freedom may be long gone. But does America still need a version of its origin story it can love? … In civic life, where we stake our beginnings matters." - The New York Times
From the Old Slave Mart on Chalmers Street to historic plantations and downtown mansions to the new International African American Museum to walking tours for visitors, the Holy City is facing up to ugliness that it long tried to decorously ignore. - National Geographic
Not only are they reviving classics of the Cultural Revolution like The Red Detachment of Women, new works celebrating the Party's achievements are being written for and performed by opera houses, ballet troupes, orchestras, choirs, and even Chinese hip-hop artists. - The New York Times
With bidding starting at $1,000, a total of 51 collectors competed for the NFT during a sale titled “This Changed Everything.” The winning bid was place around 10 minutes before the end of the auction. - ARTnews
As part of a major renovation and expansion of its Central Park West headquarters, the New-York Historical Society (founded 1804) will devote an entire floor to the new American L.G.B.T.Q.+ Museum, expected to open in 2024. - The New York Times
The NEA research examines the creative infrastructure supporting tech-focused artistic practices and provides insight into the existing challenges and opportunities faced by artists and organizations working at the intersection of arts and technology. - NEA
George Osbourne, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer in David Cameron's Conservative government from 2010 to 2016, instituted savage cuts to the budgets of arts institutions. Why did the board of the British Museum unanimously choose him as chairman? For the same reason that American arts organizations put rich and powerful people on their boards. - The Guardian
The 6,000-seat performance venue at the Hollywood Park sports and entertainment complex in Inglewood, Calif., will be called “YouTube Theater.” - Variety
"Penn Live Arts is the new moniker for the group and series long known as the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. The switch comes as the major arts presenter evolves to become more closely integrated with Penn students, faculty, and curriculum, and as it plans to increase the number of presentations it does in locations beyond its campus...
And Boris Johnson doesn't care at all. In fact, he's putting another monument - that's right, unbelievably, Stonehenge!? - at risk as well. - The Guardian (UK)
Rome was hardly white, whether in architecture or demographics. But historically, Europeans and white Americans - and especially Mussolini and his followers - have thought, and represented in art, otherwise. Why it matters today: "Cultural practitioners have an unprecedented chance to help the wider public engage with an idea of Rome that’s more diverse, realistic and interesting than the...
It feels as if there has been a dendrocentric turn in culture recently; a new sensitivity to the arboreal and, more broadly, the botanical. - The Guardian
