"After 12 years and 261 million euros (more than $256 million) of renovations, the country's national library in the heart of Paris has reopened and is showing off more than 900 of its treasures." - The New York Times
"The Palafoxiana Library ... owes its existence to one of Puebla's early Catholic bishops, Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, who in 1646 donated his private library of 5,000 volumes to a local religious college — with the hope that anyone who knew how to read would have access to them." - AP
"Displaced families in Syrian camps are begging for donations on TikTok while the company takes up to 70% of the proceeds, a BBC investigation found. Children are livestreaming on the social media app for hours, pleading for digital gifts with a cash value." - BBC
It turns out that Cecily Chaumpaigne, believed to have been the victim of Chaucer's alleged attack, was on the same side as Chaucer in the legal case at hand: they were both defendants in a lawsuit by Chaumpaigne's former employer, whom she left to work for Chaucer. - The New York Times
"Selected from a pool of shortlisted projects, the outstanding new building replaces a library gifted to Magdalene by Samuel Pepys 300 years ago and provides the students of the University of Cambridge with a new space that includes an archive and an art gallery." - ArchDaily
Zachary Woolfe: "Any judgment on a hall's acoustics is highly provisional after just a few visits. ... But a mighty improvement is already obvious. ... (And) a theater in which it once felt like miles from the back row to the timpanis now verges on intimacy." - The New York Times
Not that they've stopped gluing themselves to art, mind you. A pair from the group Just Stop Oil went to London's National Gallery and threw tomato soup at van Gogh's Sunflowers, then glued themselves to the wall beneath the painting (which, thank heaven, is covered by protective glass). - The Guardian
To begin with, you have to recognize how great a role Russian classical music plays in Putin’s foreign propaganda program. Most people don’t see that. There are official documents that substantiate this. - Van
“If you talk about neuroscience and how the brain works, there’s a lot of unknowns. It’s the wild west.” Ultrafast ultrasound could trace brain signaling with great precision, documenting how circuits and groups of cells interact as the brain performs functions from perception to decision-making. - Nautilus
The value of auction sales of contemporary and modern African art surged by 44% to a record high of $72.4m (£65.6m) last year, according to consultants ArtTactic. - BBC
A hotel room lease is still a service with or without a guest. “Art, however, does not exist until it occurs in an audience, so it is neither product nor service. It is a participatory process which requires the consumer of the process, and without whom the art becomes simply a rehearsal or paint on a canvas.” - American Theatre
The artist told buyers who bought pieces from his latest collection to choose either the physical artwork or the NFT representing it. Those who chose the NFTs were told their corresponding physical piece would be destroyed. - BBC
We have been tracking pent-up demand for cultural entities over the course of the pandemic. Has this demand been realized? What might this mean for cultural organizations as they continue their pandemic recoveries? Here’s what we know. - Colleen Dilenschneider
Interim artistic director Dana Genshaft: "What attracted me was that SFDW felt like going camping: leaving structures of a big machine behind, self-producing, finding joy in casualness, simplicity. ... (I've also heard our audiences express liking access and proximity, performances in a small house.)" - Pointe Magazine
Few American magazine editors of the 20th century can match. Like Harold Ross of the New Yorker, Henry Luce of Time, Life, and Fortune, Clay Felker of New York, he conceived a hugely successful magazine ex nihilo, to satisfy a public appetite whose potential he alone saw and monetized. - Free Beacon
