"More than a year and a half into the pandemic, we've come to expect the unexpected. Perhaps the socialist revolution can start in an improv community? Enter the Comedy Co-op, a planned theater in the works by more than 30 local comedians." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
A big glass-and-steel ball is not vanishing into the mist. It sits there and it’s shiny and hard and you have to pay to get in. Doesn’t it also defy the whole point of a museum of movies, which is to take this vaporous art and give it substance and permanence? - Curbed
Both selections are historic: Lowe will be the first Native American nominated to lead the federal humanities agency and Jackson will be the first African American and Mexican American nominated to run the arts endowment. - Washington Post
“The illusion of reopening is that we’re back where we were in February of 2020. The reality is that in the meantime, there’s been incredible damage that has happened.” - New York Theatre
"Short for 'Making a Difference Dancing Rhythms,' the tap dance company marks its 20th official season this year. … Today, M.A.D.D. Rhythms remains deeply committed to improvisation, circling up to jam every time the dancers step onto the wood." - Dance Magazine
Charlotte Higgins: "It was by such steps" as well-timed leaks and carefully fanned disagreements "that the Booker became not just a book prize, but a heady tangle of arguments, controversy and speculation: a cultural institution." - The Guardian
"Nancy Wiener, 66, whose mother had also been a well-known expert in the field, acknowledged Thursday that she had taken possession of items that showed possible signs of looting … and presented them for sale with false statements of provenance." - The New York Times
The 12-time-Tony-nominated play was to open in February at the Center Theater Group's Mark Taper Forum. But the CTG has only one play by a woman in its entire season; in response, Harris suggests filling his slot a work by a female playwright. - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
Following this year's conflict-of-interest scandal (not the first), administrators of the Prix Goncourt have declared that any book by a family member or unmarried lover of a juror is ineligible and that jurors may not publish reviews of any semifinalist or finalist title. - Deutsche Welle
Last week the Long Museum West Bund shut for "facility maintenance," though it reopened two days later. Then the Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum announced, with no reason given, that it would close indefinitely starting October 1, normally the start of a busy holiday week. - The Art Newspaper
The Chandos release of Britten's opera stars Stuart Skelton with Edward Gardner conducting the Bergen Philharmonic; the Minnesota Orchestra took honors in its final season under Osmo Vänskä. Violinist James Ehnes is Artist of the Year; Young Artist of the Year is soprano Fatma Said. - Gramophone
Playwright Oscar Wilde once warned an age without criticism is “an age that possesses no art at all.” He never could have imagined an age when the arts are eager for resurgence, but there are few critical voices to herald their return. - CanvasCLE
At the Lucas Museum: “What would be fantastic is if people came looking for Star Wars and learn about Ralph McQuarrie and then they learn about Gentileschi,” Sandra Jackson-Dumont says. “If they come for Star Wars and leave having seen Kara Walker. - The Art Newspaper
According to a press release, the decision to shutter the 27-year-old play development mainstay was a “unanimous yet painful conclusion” of the organization’s board after “many long months of responding to pandemic-related crises and seeking paths to sustainability.” - American Theatre
“We’re well into the 21st century. It’s time to acknowledge that in many ways, and one of them is the way the orchestra looks on the stage,” says Philadelphia Orchestra president and CEO Matías Tarnopolsky. - Philadelphia Inquirer
