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A Crossroads For LA’s Largest Theatre

This Los Angeles cultural institution is at a crossroads as it goes through its first leadership change in 17 years, and confronts questions about its mission, programming and appeal in a changing city, all amid a debilitating pandemic. - The New York Times

Yale To Reevaluate Donor Influence

Concerns about inappropriate donor influence at Yale rose after The New York Times reported in September that Beverly Gage, a professor of history, had quietly resigned after the administration in her view had failed to defend against interference in the curriculum by two of the university’s most prominent and deep-pocketed donors. - The New York Times

Revealed: Millions Of Dollars Of Art Laundered Through Shell Companies

More than 1,600 works of art by some 400 artists were quietly shuffled through shell companies in tax havens according to records from the Pandora Papers. - Artnet

Cleaning Week At (Perhaps) Europe’s Most Beautiful Church

Every January, Dresden's Frauenkirche closes for seven days, "and dozens of carpenters, painters, and other craftspeople and cleaners get to work. The crew repairs wobbly benches and worn wood, touches up paint, and scrubs, sands, and vacuums every nook and cranny of the highly ornamented space." - Atlas Obscura

The Woman Who Can See 100 Million Colors

Concetta Antico is a tetrachromat, which means she has a fourth colour receptor in her retina compared with the standard three which most people have. While those of us with three of these receptors can distinguish around one million different colours, tetrachromats see an estimated 100 million. - The Guardian

Boycotting Joe Rogan Is Probably Futile

"If the protest succeeds in getting him booted, he can go back to making his podcast available on other platforms or launch his own. A 'win' would merely allow politically progressive artists to end their tacit association with a personality whose brand is the puncturing of liberal pieties." - The Atlantic

Literature’s Greatest Year: 1922

The response of artists and writers was to remake their work: a way of seeking either to control the strange and uncontrollable, or simply to portray it more truthfully. - BBC

Where Method Acting Was Born

In an excerpt from his new history of Method acting, Isaac Butler looks at the American Laboratory Theatre, where, in the 1920s, two of Stanislavski's students at the Moscow Art Theatre, Richard Boleslavsky and Maira Ouspenskaya, began teaching what they called Stanislavski's "system." - American Theatre

How Your Culture Determines How You Hear Music

While commonalities certainly exist the differences were astounding. How could it be that Rossini’s humorous comic operas, which have been bringing laughter and joy to western audiences for almost 200 years, were seen by our Kho and Kalash participants to convey less happiness than 1980s speed metal? - The Conversation

The Black Fiddlers Of Monticello, Led By The Sons Of Sally Hemings

Beverly, Madison, and Eston Hemings seem to have inherited musical talent from both their mother and their enslaver/father, Thomas Jefferson, a lifelong violinist. The brothers and their cousins (descended from Sally's sister) formed a very popular dance band that lasted for several generations. - Early Music America

Teachers Are Quitting And In High Demand In Other Industries

Teachers’ ability to absorb and transmit information quickly, manage stress and multitask are high-demand skills, recruiters and careers coaches say. - The Wall Street Journal

Viktor Orbán Is Building A New Museum District In Budapest. Of Course It’s Controversial

The right-wing prime minister's plan is to build five museums in the capital's long-neglected City Park; the first of them, the House of Music, has just opened. The conflict isn't (for once) over the museum's content, but over the use of rare open space in Budapest. - The New York Times

Making A Ballet Out Of “The Graduate” (?!)

That's the challenge choreographer Cathy Marston took on for San Francisco Ballet, where her new work, Mrs. Robinson, is now premiering. In a Q&A, she talks about why and how she did it. - Pointe Magazine

David Gordon, Patriarch Of Postmodern Dance, Dead At 85

"A leading postmodern choreographer who crossed over into playwriting territory, he was massively prolific for about 60 years. He combined movement and words in ways that could be stimulating or jolting, focusing on family or fantasy, or delving into Ionesco, Shakespeare, or Aristophanes." - Dance Magazine

The New York Times Crossword Is A Culture War Minefield

Says one puzzle constructor, "It becomes an endless series of judgment calls. Is this slang term offensive? Is that world leader merely unpleasant, or too toxic to even mention?" Adds one maven, "You have this responsibility to be aware of what it is that you're feeding those people." - Kotaku

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