"Shock waves from the war have been felt throughout the arts and cultural world, with movie productions, museums and book festivals — not to mention universities, institutions and entire industries — experiencing bitter conflict over what qualifies as tolerable speech about the conflict and its combatants." - The New York Times
Our storytelling is necessarily derivative, since we’re responding to works of someone else’s imagination. And yet in how we frame the plays and operas and films we write about, and whether we even write about them at all, we’re implicitly telling a story about what’s newsworthy and what isn’t. - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
A report from the Sutton Trust found stark overrepresentation in the arts for those from the most affluent backgrounds, which it defines as those from “upper middle-class backgrounds”. - The Guardian
"More than a decade after Spokane’s city arts department was dismantled by former Mayor David Condon, Mayor Lisa Brown has announced that she plans to rebuild it in partnership with the independent nonprofit created in 2012 from the ashes of the former department." - The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA)
“Many Russian writers and historians are complicit in facilitating this war. It is their words and thoughts over the past 350 years that sowed the seeds of Russian fascism and allowed it to flourish, although many would be horrified today to see the fruits of their labour … - The Guardian
“Over the years it has become more and more pervasive to the point where, on those rare instances when a performance doesn’t get a standing ovation, you can see it on the actors’ faces, like ‘What did we do wrong?’” - The New York Times
“The arts are unifying to our country, and I think it’s going to be the salvation of our country,” she said Saturday at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor, “where we can come together, forget our differences, be inspired, laugh together, cry together.” - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
Ballot Issue 55, which was approved by Cuyahoga County voters by an almost 3-to-1 margin, more than doubles the existing surcharge on tobacco products. As the prevalence of smoking has declined, revenue from the tax had fallen by half over the past two decades. - Cleveland Scene
"Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan and her top aides directed employees to remove certain objects and details over the past year in order to avoid angering Republican legislators and making visitors feel ‘confronted.’” - Hyperallergic
Development - driven in part by remote work and the pandemic, and also by the TV show Yellowstone, is driving development. That is “a grave threat because of how it is carving up an ecosystem that must stay relatively intact to function.” - The New York Times
This year they will now visit a holding page before the start of the ticket sale, “at least a few minutes before the sale opens” according to organisers. Once the sale begins, each person “will randomly be assigned a place in a queue to access the booking process”. - The Guardian
Scientists analyzed ancient DNA extracted from skeletal remains and pieced together fragments of five people’s identities, rewriting the romantic stories of who they were and how they were related. - Washington Post
U.S. Archivist Colleen Shogan and her top advisers at the National Archives and Records Administration, which operates a popular museum on the National Mall, have sought to de-emphasize negative parts of U.S. history. She has ordered the removal of prominent references to such landmark events as the government’s displacement of indigenous tribes. The Wall Street Journal
