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The Artists Secretly Creating Miniature Buildings For Street Mice Across England And Europe

The collective that makes the buildings - they call themselves AnonyMouse - are, they said through an interlocutor, "a loosely connected network of mice and men, originating in the town of Mälmo, in southern Sweden." - BBC

One Of The Coolest Trends That Should Stay Post-Pandemic

Renting your own movie theatre isn't cheap, but (once we can gather in greater numbers than two or three), it's not exactly unaffordable. And it makes some things far better: For instance, "when attending a public theater, your experience is completely reliant on the strangers in there with you. It all hinges on others adhering to theater etiquette rules,...

Why Has Post-War Britain Been Obsessed With Portraiture?

Seriously, Britain, what's up? "The best-known artists are the ones who wedded their style to 'human clay.'  America, on the other, hand has seen Pop Art, Minimalism, and Color Field painting challenge their predecessor, Abstract Expressionism, which had challenged Regionalism and Conceptual Art; the proverbial 'Death of Painting' challenge all of painting; and marginalized artists challenge all of these...

Operas Have Tried Everything During The Pandemic, Including Opera-By-Mail

And that's actually been great. For instance, once an opera in L.A. might have reached a thousand people in a sold-out night; during the pandemic, more than 22,000 watched the same opera online. "The experimentation afoot within companies like On Site and festivals like Prototype signal a new, vital place for experimental approaches to opera — which now feel...

Dr. Fauci Says That Theatres May Reopen In The Fall If Vaccination Program Is A Success

He said that "the timeline hinged on the country reaching an effective level of herd immunity, which he defined as vaccinating from 70 percent to 85 percent of the population." In addition, audiences will likely be required to wear masks for some time, for the safety of performers and staff. - The New York Times

Quibi Sells Its Library To Roku

That's right, even the streaming device is getting into content now. (Actually, it already was; this is just the newest content it has acquired.) "Quibi’s content could be especially valuable because it features well-known celebrities. Hollywood also is hungry for new content because the COVID-19 pandemic has canceled or delayed new production. And the programming can help set Roku...

Michael Apted, Director Of Coal Miner’s Daughter And The 7-Up Series, 79

Apted's series - the latest, 63-Up, came out in 2019 - was only one project from the director of many movies, including Gorillas in the Mist and The World Is Not Enough. But the British director referred to the Up documentaries as "the most important thing I have ever done." Last year, he said that "The series was an...

The Damages To Art In The Capitol Building

Insurrectionists' "time in the building is now represented by the damage they left behind. A 19th-century marble bust of former President Zachary Taylor was flecked with what appeared to be blood. A picture frame was left lying on the floor, the image gone. The photos and videos, some of them taken inside by the rioters themselves, were startling." -...

Yes, Things Might Look Up, But It Will Be A Long Slow Recovery For The Arts

For a broad chunk of the population, turning off that switch might not be as simple as being told it is okay to do so. Some local museum officials I’ve talked to think it might be 2023 or 24 before they return to pre-pandemic revenue levels. - Chicago Tribune

Neil Sheehan, 84, NYT Vietnam Reporter Who Got The Pentagon Papers

"Mr. Sheehan, the son of impoverished Irish-immigrant dairy farmers, graduated from Harvard University and served in the Army before joining the United Press International wire service. Reporting from Saigon in the early 1960s, he became known as one of the “fearless threesome” of Vietnam War correspondents." - The New York Times

A New “Arts Worker” Movement

Built on the concept of the “arts worker” — an immense labor category representing 8.8 million Americans doing everything from designing clothing to sweeping museum floors — this movement asserts that the arts are as foundational as farming or manufacturing. And its focus is not so much public relations as it is survival, an aim reinforced daily by the financial...

Why Are A Bunch Of Teens Convinced That Helen Keller Wasn’t Deaf-Blind?

Blame TikTok and the pathologies of social media in the age of fake news. A couple of (so-called) satirical videos were posted last year on the app; teens picked up on them and made their own vids joining in; as #helenkellerisfake and #helenkellerhateclub got millions of views, the facts that Keller was world-famous for what she achieved and died...

What Dallas Black Dance Theatre Learned About Virtual Performance And Charging For It

Dallas Black Dance Theatre envisions and is now developing a full complement of virtual activities. These include conservatory-level dance training at the same professional level as in-studio classes, student matinee/field trips, lecture/demonstrations, in-school dance residency programs, community outreach, and touring programs made available to presenters, as well as a home-school education program for those looking to incorporate dance into...

‘Now I’m Sounding Like One Of My Characters’ — Suzan-Lori Parks On Playwriting

"It's like what 'Michelangelo' said, right? He's working with the marble and taking away everything that's not the sculpture. And let's put Michelangelo in quotes, 'cause was he really the one who actually said that? But, anyway, the idea still holds. I feel that whatever I'm writing exists already. … Like I'm following something through the woods. Eyes open....

We’ve Become Much Nicer At Waging War

We have, in fact, become nicer and less violent as individuals. We may have domesticated ourselves by our choice of mates and by breeding out those who are most violent, or killing those who are most violent among us, like the way wolves have been domesticated into friendly dogs who sit on your lap. We may have become nicer...

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