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Hear For Yourself The Difference Between A $5,000 Cello, A $180K Cello, And A $1 Million Cello

Wendy Law uses the same bow, in the same room with the same microphone, to play the opening of Bach's First Cello Suite on a contemporary instrument by Jay Haide, a 19th-century English cello by Thomas Kennedy, and an early 18th-century instrument by Alessandro Gagliano, the first great luthier in Naples. - Digg (YouTube)

What Do NFTs Mean For The Art World?

Even the middlemen whom NFTs are designed to cut out are trying to understand what this revolution means for them. Mario Paredes runs Mexico City’s Galería Unión and said he’s been hearing about NFTs “every day since, I think, two weeks ago.” He said he personally doesn’t get it. “I think when people buy art, what they need is...

It Seems We Do Know What Shakespeare Looked Like — ‘A Self-Satisfied Pork Butcher’

That choice phrase from a 20th-century critic was about the effigy installed above Shakespeare's grave in Stratford-upon-Avon. The general presumption had been that the painted limestone statue had been made after the writer's death and was not necessarily modeled on the actual man. Now one scholar's research indicates that the piece was done by a professional tomb-maker who almost...

Opposition Growing To Proposed Ordinance To Restrict Chicago House Museums

“This zoning proposal would make the future uncertain for existing cultural exhibits and house museums and could derail efforts already underway to open new cultural institutions in historic buildings in residential communities.” - Chicago Sun-Times

How Did This Ballet Company Keep Its Dancers Working Throughout The Pandemic? Giving Them Other Jobs

The St. Paul-based Ballet Co.Laboratory has " dual-contract structure provides its dancers with administrative employment, whether in management, communications, development or teaching — a framework that became especially useful in keeping the dancers employed during the pandemic." - Pointe Magazine

Harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper, 79

Mr. Cooper’s adventurousness went hand in hand with scrupulous musicianship and articulate technique. He was a sensitive partner in chamber works, as in his recording, with Mr. Ma, of Bach’s sonatas for viola da gamba (played on the cello) and harpsichord. - The New York Times

Two New York Times Critics Discuss Whether They Dare Go To An Indoor Play Yet

Laura Collins-Hughes: Alexis, when you saw the invitation, what went through your mind?Alexis Soloski: Panic, basically. … I won't be vaccinated for months and I don't feel ready to make this moral/professional/hygienic calculus. You?" - The New York Times

Canadian Arts Leaders Call For Guaranteed Income For Artists

The arts leaders call the measure a crucial part of any sustainable future for arts and culture in Canada. And, as they point out, they represent the majority of Canada’s artists. The document details several hard facts about the devastating effect the pandemic has had on the arts sector in Canada this past year. - Ludwig Van

Scavenging For A Library From The Ruins Amidst Syria’s Civil War

"In a town under siege from Assad's regime, a small group of revolutionaries found a new mission: to build a library from books rescued from the rubble. For those stranded in the city, books offered an imaginative escape from the horrors of war." - The Guardian

The Return Of Tower Records?

Inspired by the vinyl LP revival, new CEO Danny Zeijdel thinks he can make a go of the online business and, ultimately, brick-and-mortar. For now, "you can visit the website, buy a vinyl record, a CD, even a cassette tape, or slake your Tower nostalgia with a logo T-shirt. Everything comes to you wrapped in that familiar yellow...

COVID Has Changed The Way Hollywood Works For Good

"'People are fooling themselves if they think we're going back to a pre-pandemic work lifestyle,' says Arianna Bocco, president of IFC Films. … To get a sense of the new contours of a business that has been battered by the pandemic, Variety spoke with dozens of entertainment industry players, almost all of whom predicted that the nature of office...

World’s Oldest Wooden Sculpture Is Far More Ancient Than We’d Thought — 12,500 Years

That's more than twice as old as Stonehenge and the Giza Pyramids and by far the oldest surviving piece of ritual art. The new dating means that the Shigir Idol, as it's called, dug up from a peat bog in the Urals in 1890, "challenges the ethnocentric notion that pretty much everything, including symbolic expression and philosophical perceptions of...

Germany In Talks To Return Benin Bronzes To Nigeria

As the issue of repatriating art and artifacts looted by European colonizers came to the fore over the past few years, Berlin came under pressure not to include its holdings of Benin bronzes in the new Humboldt Forum. Now high-level officials are negotiating the return of the bronzes — taken by British soldiers who destroyed the Benin royal family's...

Adam Zagajewski, ‘Poet Of 9/11’, Dead At 75

Already known and admired in his native Poland, he came to the English-speaking world's attention when The New Yorker published his "Try to Praise the Mutilated World" shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. - Yahoo! (AP)

Berlin Does Series Of Dry Runs For Reopening Performance Venues

"The pilot project, backed by Berlin Culture Senator Klaus Lederer, includes a series of nine events, held at seven different venues, including theaters, opera houses, concert halls and even a club, from March 19 to April 4. The Berliner Ensemble theater launched the test phase's first weekend." - Deutsche Welle

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