"As the inventive design director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the 1960s and '70s, turned the presentation of art into a gasp-inducing genre of theater" — most famously in the Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibition of 1978-79 — "giving the staid institution mass appeal and inspiring widespread changes in the style and spirit of museum exhibitions."...
With Cannes on the verge of reigniting international festival activity and Telluride keen on reclaiming the Oscar influencer throne, festivals are mobilizing to become the frontlines for an industry that must assess an uncertain future. - IndieWire
"The exquisite set of Raphael tapestries currently on display in the grand gallery of Madrid's royal palace has survived five tumultuous centuries of wars, rebellions, bombs, bullets and fire – only to find itself menaced by the more quotidian threat of opportunistic pigeons and their droppings. … The need to ventilate the gallery, which gives on to the...
"SOCIAL! the social distance dance club advertised a COVID-conscious rave this spring, where people were free to let loose together in the Park Avenue Armory's Drill Hall. David Byrne MC'd the evening's festivities, but the real dance happened before the party. The choreography was as follows." - The Brooklyn Rail
Graeme Wood, who studied both languages himself, talked with a Princeton professor (who did not wish to be named) who says that the department expects no drop in the actual number of students who study Latin and Greek — but that there may be majors who don't need to learn the languages, just as not all English majors need...
"The change since last spring, as measured by the return of surging morning-to-midnight crowds, is head-snapping. While just 106,900 tourists visited Las Vegas in April 2020, according to the Convention and Visitors Authority, some 2.6 million people visited this April — a big rebound, but still almost a million shy of what the city was attracting before the pandemic."...
"According to the results, the wearing of masks cuts the spread of aerosol droplets by 99 per cent, with those transmitted also travelling much more slowly. Professor of biophotonics at , Laurence Lovat, says: 'Andrew Lloyd Webber is right. If theatre-goers wear appropriate masks and follow other rules already in place, theatres become safe places to go to.'" -...
"Located just a few meters from the seashore , the structure, a public building" — known then as a basilica (not to be confused with the later, Roman Catholic use of the term) — "was divided into three sections: a main hall and two side parts. According to the archaeologists, the main hall was surrounded by massive marble columns...
"Oxford University's right to print books was first recognised in 1586, in a decree from the Star Chamber. But the centuries-old printing history of Oxford University Press will end this summer, after the publishing house announced the last vestige of its printing arm was closing. The closure of Oxuniprint, which will take place on 27 August subject to consultation...
Complaining about other, more successful writers is one of the most popular activities on Twitter, as is devising elaborately exacting standards of correct speech and vigorously, if informally, prosecuting those who violate them. - Slate
When the artist is the instigator of damage (to their own work, or that of another, such as Robert Rauschenberg erasing a Willem de Kooning work), the act of vandalism becomes part of an artistic strategy. - The Art Newspaper
Disappointingly, however, that silver lining has been tarnished by an unconscionable rush to the auction house by numerous museums eager to take advantage of a very bad decision made last year by the Assn. of Art Museum Directors. To ward off expected catastrophe, AAMD hastily relaxed a fundamental prohibition against using income from the sale of museum art to...
No other American city has opened up this sort of wide-ranging dialogue about how cities make monuments. Swept up in this inquiry are five statues of Abraham Lincoln, as well as monuments to George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, and the Italian Fascist Italo Balbo. - Bloomberg
With no dance floors or concert halls to fill, many listeners turned toward gentler, unobtrusive music to help quiet their restless minds. In response, artists who might not have publicly ventured into this sometimes esotericterrain now feel emboldened to do so. - The New York Times
