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Interpol Debuts A New App To Track Stolen Art

Last week, the global crime-fighting group debuted a new app that aims to make the process of identifying and reporting stolen works as simple as swiping on a smartphone. After downloading the free app—called ID-Art—users can upload images or input keywords to search for information about specific missing objects. - Smithsonian

Nobel Committee Was Nervous About Giving Prize To Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Fifty years on (as is the rule), documents on the deliberations for the 1970 prize have just been made public, and some committee members were genuinely concerned that awarding the Soviet dissident writer, who had already spent time in the gulag, would put him in danger. While Solzhenitsyn did win that year, he didn't collect his medal until after...

Archaeologists Object To Plans For New Floor For The Colosseum

Experts including Rossella Rea, the former director of the Colosseum, have raised concerns about the project’s €15m ($18.2) price tag, and claimed that the new floor will obscure views of the Colosseum’s subterranean bowels. - The Art Newspaper

San Diego Symphony Has A New $85 Million Outdoor Venue

The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, located on the downtown waterfront, seats up to 10,000 people and (because it's San Diego and they can) will be used year-round. It hosts a livestream with selected orchestra members on May 21 and will have its first full orchestra concert, under music director Rafael Payaré, later this summer. - The San Diego...

NPR Is Starting To Put Its Most Popular Podcasts On Traditional Radio

The traffic started out the other way, of course, with over-the-air programs being released as or adapted into podcasts. "But podcasting has turned into an incubator of sorts for new radio shows, with several now making their way to local airwaves. … Starting out as a podcast offers show creators a chance to explore and experiment while also building...

Hollywood Is Now Producing Companion Podcasts To Movies And TV Series

Why? Money, of course: to put it in business-speak, the companion podcast "offers a new way for creators to diversify IP assets." What's the draw? "People want to spend more time thinking and talking about the shows that they're watching, whether they're binge-watching it or watching it once a week," says HBO's director of podcasts. "It's on their mind,...

‘There’s Something Going On’ — Who Will Really Be Running LA’s MOCA?

"As the Museum of Contemporary Art prepares to reopen after a historic pandemic closure, it finds itself in the midst of restructuring, moving director Klaus Biesenbach into the role of artistic director and hiring an executive director to co-run the institution with him. But The Times has spoken with more than two dozen people including current and former MOCA...

As Broadway Prepares To Reopen, Here’s How It Will (And Won’t) Be Operating Differently

"Ticket-buyers are being told they will be required to wear face masks (although it's not clear how changing advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention might affect that expectation). Theaters will have upgraded HVAC systems with virus-trapping filters. Most ticketing will be digital. And theaters are reserving the right to impose a variety of safety protocols" —...

Bayreuth Festival: Christian Thielemann May Have Lost His Other Job, Too

At the beginning of this week it was announced that the conductor (who was, when he was younger, hailed as a new Herbert von Karajan) was not offered a contract renewal at the orchestra and opera house in Dresden. It turns out that his term as music director at Wagner's own opera house in Bayreuth expired on Jan. 1,...

St. Paul’s Cathedral In London Is Running Out Of Cash And Could Close

With the pandemic having cut off the revenue from tourist admissions, the landmark's income is down by 90%. The engineer in charge of maintenance and upkeep says the 300-year-old building is "rotting" and all renovation projects have been halted; there's little to no money for the professional choir that sings services; the Dean of the Cathedral said frankly, "If...

Tech Versus Big Journalism

A war is on between the tech titans and a relentless generation of largely digital-native reporters looking to speak truth to power while racking up Twitter followers in the process. Depending on whom you ask, the great Tech vs. Media Standoff of 2020–21 is either a “fake fight” between “20 people and 500 other people,” all quick to take...

SAG/AFTRA Sign First Agreement On Social Media Influencers (What Does That Mean?)

The Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists' national board voted to adopt its first-ever agree­ment for influencers—personalities and performers paid to promote products and services on networks like Instagram and TikTok, plus non-networked websites. In addition, those side hustles are no longer prohibited for current members of SAG-AFTRA. - Dance Magazine

Nicholas Kenyon’s New History Of Western Music

The book’s subtitle, New Adventures in the Western Classical Tradition, makes its soft boundaries clear. As managing director of London’s Barbican Centre, and former director of the Proms, controller of Radio 3 and music critic of the Observer – and therefore a colleague and friend to those of us in the business of classical – Kenyon has heard and...

Companies Are Struggling To Become Data-Driven. The Toughest Part? Culture

The goal is to "invite people who have not been thinking about this topic to really think about it in their day-to-day work. It really creates the culture of control, culture of responsibility and understanding." - Protocol

Inside The Art NFT Boom

No one quite agrees on what this gold rush means. If you ask hard-core champions of Bitcoin — the often-libertarian “crypto natives,” as they call themselves — NFTs presage the future of digital property. They’re a glimpse at a coming day when people spend their income on digital items they can trade, resell or hoard as an investment; when...

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