The project’s leaders announced on Wednesday that they had raised their goal of $550 million to cover the cost of the renovation, and that the hall will reopen to the public in October, a year and a half ahead of schedule. - The New York Times
The processes of intelligence are so intricate, so multilayered and baroque, no wonder some people might be tempted by stories about a top-down Creator. But we know evolution must have been able to come up with intelligence on its own, from the bottom up. - Aeon
The Endurance was found off the coast of Antarctica, approximately four miles south of the position originally recorded by its captain, Frank Worsley. It has not been seen since it was crushed by ice and sank in the Weddell Sea in November 1915. - The Guardian
"Yevhen (Eugene) Lavrenchuk was imprisoned in Naples for more than two months after Russia issued a call for his arrest through Interpol's 'red notice'" for fugitive criminals; he was released after Italy's justice minister intervened. (Until last year, Lavrenchuk was the controversial artistic director at Odesa's opera house.) - The Guardian
Nearly 50 rejected venue grant applicants have taken the SBA to court, including escape rooms, a dance convention, a circus arts company, a ministry, a Manhattan jazz club, a “pet event” organizer and Michigan’s state fair. About fifteen cases have been resolved, with $52.7 million in venue grants awarded to those businesses. - Crosscut
"A team using techniques more commonly used to track wildlife estimates that 68 percent of chivalric and heroic works produced in medieval Europe survive today. For individual manuscripts, or handwritten copies of literary works, that figure drops to 9 percent." - Smithsonian Magazine
“There’s a lot of structural change underway and nobody knows where this is going. I think there’s a strong desire from all the actors to rethink how these institutions should run.” - Artnet
Scholar Silvia Ferrara suggests that — since we don't have a Rosetta Cord giving us a text side-by-side in Inca knots and Spanish letters — we take an approach something like the way Amy Adams's linguist character in Arrival deciphered the aliens' squid-ink emissions. - Literary Hub
So is a country’s level of media literacy anything more than a measure of the wealth and the education of its population? How can we tell if a country’s disinformation curriculum is the reason its population is relatively protected against online falsehoods? - The New York Times
In the wake of the stolen presidential election and Lukashenko's vicious crackdown on the subsequent demonstrations, the underground troupe decided to go into exile. Now they're in London to stage a production that premiered two years ago in Minsk and is now more timely than ever. - The Independent (UK)
"Almost on the hour, we’re hearing about cultural boycotts, departures of curators and directors, and the shuttering of institutions. The moral convictions behind these choices cannot be doubted. Yet I feel compelled to caution about cutting ties too rashly, and with no clear pathway back to normalcy." - Artnet
As translator, scholar, and critic, he played a major role in showing Americans that Greece has a thriving modern culture alongside its ancient history. He was C.P. Cavafy's leading champion, and his translations of poets George Seferis and Odysseas Elytis helped earn them Nobel Prizes. - The New York Times
"The simple premise is that if you make a generational commitment — and about 25 to 30 years is a generational commitment — to flooding the market with exceedingly talented people from diverse backgrounds — in this case women — then you will make a change." - Variety
Looking in particular at the High Line, the 606 in Chicago, and Buffalo Bayou Park in Houston — all of which turned urban industrial detritus into expensively landscaped attractions — Kevin Loughran argues that these privately funded spaces divert city resources from parks in poor areas and enrich real-estate developers. - Bloomberg CityLab
In Paris, Warsaw, Budapest, Prague, and elsewhere, ballet troupes have been helping their fleeing colleagues: finding them housing, letting them join class, and, if budgets permit, hiring them. The Mayor of Paris even gave the stranded Kiev City Ballet a residency at the Châtelet Theatre. - The New York Times
