The company danced at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in the 1990s but hasn't been back since. But starting next month, following a $5.3 million renovation, Richmond Ballet will be performing its Moving Art series of classical and contemporary work at the VMFA's Leslie Cheek Theater. - WRIC (Richmond, VA)
Seeing the seams is part of live performance’s charm—it asks the audience to actively participate in the suspension of reality, as opposed to having it ready-made for them. Broadcast opera retains some of that immediacy, but without the magic of a live performance, it’s harder to forgive its failings. - The Atlantic
The movie industry has gotten much more careful in the past few decades about authenticity (Emilia Pérez notwithstanding). Yet screenwriters won't write out foreign-language dialogue, or phonetically spell dialects or regional accents, in the formal screenplay itself, and there are good reasons for that. - The Conversation
“We can’t stand the fact that the sticker price is so high despite the fact that nobody pays it.” This pricing strategy took hold in the early 1980s. - The Atlantic
"Police in Kashmir have raided dozens of bookstores and seized more than 650 books as part of crackdowns on dissent in the Indian-administered region. Most of the titles were written by Abul A’la Maududi, a prominent 20th-century Islamic scholar who founded Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamic organisation banned in Kashmir." - The Guardian
This report represents the first time the Australian book industry has been granted a detailed level of insight into recreational readers and also offers ideas on how to motivate more Australians to read. - ArtsHub
Exhibition giant Cinemark reported record fourth-quarter revenue of $814 million, up 27 percent year-over-year and 3 percent above the pre-COVID pandemic fourth quarter of 2019. - The Hollywood Reporter
With each day bringing new troubles and concerns, how should we proceed? Ideally, with boldness, though that quality seems to be in short supply, especially in the arts world. What a far cry from 2016 when, within hours of the shock Election Day result, Toni Morrison’s quote that “this is precisely the time when artists go to work. -...
Over a 50-year career, the Malian writer-director did much to establish sub-Saharan African film as an internationally recognized industry in terms of art as well as commerce. He was the first Black African filmmaker to win a feature film award at Cannes: a Special Jury Prize in 1987 for Yeelen. - AP
The Culture Secretary is expected to use a speech in Stratford-upon-Avon, birthplace of William Shakespeare, to announce a new £270 million Arts Everywhere Fund to help organisations in urgent need of financial support. - The Independent
It plays like a David Mamet drama, complete with an inciting incident, characters bringing years of baggage to every scene and a surprising climax. Its cast includes a president carrying a grudge, a board of megawealthy executives unaccustomed to being fired, A-list celebrities and drag queens dragged into the fray. - The Wall Street Journal (MSN)
The evolution of cooperation has been of interest to biologists, philosophers and anthropologists for centuries. If natural selection favours self-interest, why would we cooperate at an apparent cost to ourselves? - Aeon
"They constitute an unusual cohort, bucking the bad news of the American theater by having made it past emerging to emerged. Granted, pretty much all of them did so with the help of other industries. … These nontheater jobs are how playwrights make real money and get health insurance." - The New York Times
Police seized 71 paintings, including fake Rembrandts, Picassos, Warhols, and Banksys, some completed and others half-finished, along with a plethora of painting materials, forged certificates of authenticity, and bogus catalogues. Authorities say evidence suggests that an art restorer is at the center of the racket. - The Guardian
