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Holocaust Museum LA Plans To Transform Itself With Major Expansion

When it moved into its current location in 2010, the museum expected 15,000 visitors a year; by 2020, it was getting 65,000. Now, with an additional building by Belzberg Architects due to start construction next year, the museum plans to draw 500,000 annually by 2030. - MSN (Los Angeles Times)

Hip-Hop Does Not Owe Anyone Political Consciousness Or Moral Virtue

"To generations of listeners, Public Enemy were the ideal of a hip-hop group: fiery and politically engaged, marching through the streets to demand change. In fact, Public Enemy were an anomaly. Explicit political commentary has played a consistent but relatively minor role in the genre's evolution." - The Guardian

Performative Diversity?

The current emphasis on diversity and inclusivity, however warranted, endangers or distorts a cultural canon that we cannot (in fact, must not) wholly jettison. Indeed, the canon is newly pertinent. - American Purpose

How Three New York City Ballet Dancers Prepared Themselves For An Uncertain Return To The Stage

Gia Kourlas: "To get a better understanding of what this strange time has been like, I checked in with … a member of the corps de ballet, a soloist and a principal to track their experiences … as they made their way to opening night." - The New York Times

Are Audiobooks Superior To Paper?

Audiobooks aren’t cheating. They aren’t a just-add-water shortcut to cheap intellectualism. For so many titles in this heyday of audio entertainment, it’s not crazy to ask the opposite: Compared to the depth that can be conveyed via audio, does the flat text version count? - The New York Times

60-Hour Workweeks Are Regular In Film And TV All Over The World: Survey

"A global survey of working conditions has found long working hours are now the norm across the film and television industries worldwide, with 50- to 60-hour workweeks common among production crewmembers in the 20 countries surveyed." - The Hollywood Reporter

A Wave Of Unionizing At US Museums, With Baltimore The Most Recent

"Workers at the Baltimore Museum of Art have announced plans to form a union, making the employees the latest in a nationwide push for better working conditions and higher pay at art museums, a field that suffers from drastic inequities." - Artnet

Protesters Picket Opening Night At Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Theatre

"The protest is a revival of efforts this summer …(against) what they describe as a toxic culture. … Former employees passed out fliers decrying artistic director Bernard Havard's $745,015 pay and spoke to patrons about the lack of racial representation at the theater." - MSN (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

Houston Symphony And Musicians Sign Longest Contract In Their History

"The contract went into effect Oct. 1 and runs through Oct. 3, 2026. The deal includes matters of health care, restoration of the musicians' pre-pandemic salaries by October 2022 through incremental increases. Musicians also negotiated for additional leave for birth and adoption of a child." - Houston Chronicle

Plagued By Internal Turmoil, American Shakespeare Center Cancels Fall Season

"(With) the Staunton, Va.-based troupe, known for its Elizabethan-style, no-frills approach to the classics, … convulsed by defections and division, it has abruptly canceled its entire fall slate of in-person productions." - MSN (The Washington Post)

Nobel Prize For Literature 2021 Goes To Tanzanian Novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah

The author of ten novels, born and raised on Zanzibar and resettled in England as a refugee in the 1960s, was cited for "his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents." - The Guardian

Streaming Has Killed Music Genres. That’s A Real Loss

Musical genres have long had a peculiar imaginative power and participatory quality. They aren’t just labels imposed by an industry; they’re shaped by passions and arguments, love and disgust, allegiances and disavowals. - The Atlantic

European Movie Box Office Down 70 Percent In 2020

European movie theaters suffered a 70.4% year-on-year drop to €2.6 billion ($3 billion) in box office revenue in 2020. In terms of admissions, there was an annual drop of 68.4% to 430 million tickets sold. - Variety

Art Pranks (With A Message) On The Rise?

Most of these prankster examples either take a jab at the art market. This intersection seems to have escalated in the last five years, with the impact of these artworks escalated by the capacity for social media to take their commentary viral in real time. - ArtsHub

First Time: UK Audiences For Streaming Beat Traditional TV

Out of almost a thousand 18-70 year olds who watch at least 5 hours of television per week, more are watching via streaming platforms than traditional pay-TV services, according to research conducted by the National Research Group. - Variety

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