"The city agency (Metro Arts) is behind schedule because it’s still recovering from last year’s chaotic funding cycle. … This year, (there's) a much smaller pool of money to distribute: $3.2 million, down from over $7 million last year. And this year’s applicant pool is larger than last year’s record high." - WPLN (Nashville)
Justin Davidson: "A new museum wing here can’t just be an exercise in logistics. It’s also a presence in Central Park and a half-billion-dollar embodiment of the museum’s encyclopedic mission. … (Frida Escobedo's design) looks laudably simple because it provides an elegant solution to a tangle of trade-offs and constraints." - Curbed (MSN)
"In the lame-duck session …, support continues to build for a bill that would require AM receivers to be included in vehicle dashboards. Three more House members have signed on as co-sponsors for the proposed AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, bringing the total number of supporters in the House to 271." - Inside Radio
"In the months since the revelations, I revisited Munro’s stories, spoke with members of her family and tracked down a number of her unpublished letters. Munro’s appalling failures as a mother seem to have been an imaginative incitement, instrumental to her artistic project." - The New York Times Magazine
The gift from the family foundation of real estate magnate and former Chicago Tribune owner Sam Zell provides "vital" capital to reduce debt, fund retirement benefits, and pay for tours, special artistic projects and digital initiatives, said a statement from orchestra management. - Chicago Sun-Times
"The Strand Book Store has reached a tentative contract agreement with its staff union, which is represented by United Auto Workers Local 2179, putting an end to a strike that stretched through the weekend and much of Monday." - Publishers Weekly
"A federal judge in Texas rejected the auction sale of Alex Jones’ Infowars to The Onion satirical news outlet, criticizing the bidding for the conspiracy theory platform as flawed as well as how much money families of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting stood to receive." - AP
The 1911 Wright Model B was flown, recklessly and repeatedly, around the skies over Philadelphia by brewery heir Grover Cleveland Bergdoll. In 1935, after he fled to Germany, the plane went on display at the Institute. Now Bergdoll's daughter and granddaughter claim the museum stole the plane. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
Novelists increasingly defined their craft by opposing tradition, and so placed themselves at loggerheads with most of their possible audience. There is something essentially Pyrrhic about the triumphs of “Ulysses” (1920) and “The Man Without Qualities." - The Wall Street Journal (MSN)
The Tokyo-based collective of artists and engineers operates nearly 60 temporary or traveling exhibitions around the world, with permanent installations in Japan, China, Saudi Arabia — and, opening very soon, the company's largest-ever work, in Abu Dhabi. And the shows are astoundingly popular. - The New York Times
I looked at more than 200 museums, and counted which artists were on view any time during December. The resulting list includes a little more than 3,400 artist names. Of these, only about 300 appear more than once—a tiny fraction. - Artnet
“A full-time job should serve the basic things you need to take care of yourself, housing, food, health, even mental health. I’ve struggled to buy shoes, which I need as I spend all day in the galleries. Why should my coworkers and I have to go to Goodwill for shoes?” - ARTnews
The Stradivarius on which Joseph Joachim played the world premiere of Brahms's Violin Concerto will be auctioned on February 7, and Sotheby's is estimating its value as between $12 million and $18 million. (The current record was set in 2011: $15.9 million for the Lady Blunt Stradivarius.) - Artnet
UK Theatre joint chief executive Claire Walker warned that “unplanned increases in staffing costs” were adding to a theatre sector already at “risk”. - The Stage
Loftis goes to the New Jersey Symphony from his position as Chief Advancement and Revenue Officer of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO), where he oversaw the fundraising, marketing, special events, and analytical research departments. - Symphony
