ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

Stories

Spain Will Pay $7.8 Million A Year To Keep Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection In Madrid

The Spanish government has concluded what is, in effect, a 15-year rental agreement with Baroness Carmen Cervera, the widow of Baron Hans Heinrich von Thyssen-Bornemisza: in exchange for an annual payment of €6.5 million, she will allow her collection of 400 artworks — which range from Rembrandt and Caravaggio through van Gogh and Monet to Roy Lichtenstein, and estimated...

World’s Largest Movie Industry Finally Has Its Theatres Back To (Almost) Normal

"India began allowing 100 percent occupancy in cinemas on Monday, lifting a 50 percent cap on seating capacity that had been in place since October 2020. … Various COVID-19 prevention measures remain mandatory for both cinema staff and patrons, including staggered show times and bookings, mandatory social distancing, and the use of face masks and hand sanitizers." - The...

Figuring Out The Writers That Figure Out The Future

"The most important promise underlying much of the canon inaugurated by Future Shock is that with the right foresight, readers can not only prepare for what’s coming, but also profit from it. This whiff of insider trading presents the future as a commodity, an exercise in temporal arbitrage in which knowledge of new developments yields a financial edge." -...

DC’s Duke Ellington High School For The Arts Is Unique. So Why Is It Being Abandoned?

It has been educating future artists and entertainers for 47 years. It also ranks in the top 7 percent of U.S. schools in challenging its students academically. Few campuses nationally have students as enthusiastic about their school. Yet Ellington officials say the people who run D.C. public schools have failed to honor promises they made in 2017 to put the...

Why Big Superstar Cities May Be In Trouble

Derek Thompson: "Last year, I wrote about how even a modest remote-work revolution—no more than 10 percent of Americans working remotely full time after the pandemic is over—could affect the U.S. labor force (e.g.: fewer hotel workers) and party politics (e.g.: more southern Democrats). But the more I researched remote work and spoke with experts, the more I realized...

Apple Versus Facebook In How The Internet Should Work

“What are the consequences of seeing thousands of users join extremist groups, and then perpetuating an algorithm that recommends even more?” - Wired

Swedish Film Festival Takes Social Distancing To Extreme — Plays To One Viewer

"Over the course of the coming week, it will hold screenings in two urban venues for just one festival attendee. And it has also sent a single viewer to a tiny, barren island in the North Atlantic to watch the 70 films in competition — alone." - The New York Times

How US Presidents Engage With Washington Culture

There are early signs that new president Biden and his vice-president, Kamala Harris, "could provide a much-needed boost for cultural scene hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and focus attention on the District of Columbia’s (DC’s) long campaign for statehood." - The Guardian

10 Musicians Under 40 Who Are Changing Classical Music

They have YouTube channels, they expand repertoire, they perform in unconventional places. These are musicians who are building the future of classical music. - USAToday

How The Arts Reinvented During The Trump Years

"The arts in the past four years have evolved in ways that are as broad and powerful as they are now commonplace. Many artists and arts groups seem determined to do nothing less than change the world. As one example, there’s probably not a single major museum, orchestra, or arts center that isn’t thinking about inclusion in everything it...

The Pandemic Has Killed Whole Classes Of Friendships

Understandably, much of the energy directed toward the problems of pandemic social life has been spent on keeping people tied to their families and closest friends. These other relationships have withered largely unremarked on after the places that hosted them closed. The pandemic has evaporated entire categories of friendship, and by doing so, depleted the joys that make up...

How To Write About The Internet

A book critic considers. "Relative to the amount of space it takes up in the collective and capitalist imagination, the internet has had less of an impact on contemporary fiction than one might expect. It is increasingly acknowledged in novels, but it seems oddly difficult to represent well. I don’t know whether that’s because most of us have been...

Israeli TV Is Having A Global Moment

Hollywood, in search of the next Shtisel, a hit show for Netflix. Apple TV+ and HBO Max are also trying to cash in, both by buying shows already in existence and funding new Israel-focused shows and storylines. - Los Angeles Times

Madrid’s Far-Right City Councilors Want To Destroy A Mural With Rosa Parks And Other Strong Women

The mural, which also depicts women including Nina Simone, was the result of a popular vote four years ago. But "the far-right party Vox had called for the mural in the Madrid neighborhood of Ciudad Lineal to be removed and replaced with another representing five male and five female paralympic athletes. The current work, which is painted on the walls of...

Smiley Face Eyeroll Laughing Face Could Become Some Of The Clearest Work Communication

At least, that's what one emoji-loving CEO proposes. "Millennials and post-millennials now make up at least 65% of the workforce in the U.S. Emojis are an essential part of how most of this generation communicates in their personal life. Businesses typically view communication skills as highly valuable in employees, so why suppress such an important tool?" Ah. Side-eye surprised...

Our Free Newsletter

Join our 30,000 subscribers

Latest

Don't Miss

function my_excerpt_length($length){ return 200; } add_filter('excerpt_length', 'my_excerpt_length');