“A priority for educational philanthropists is to help schools compensate for social inequalities, which was true of the funders who supported arts education in Baltimore and Boston. But increased access to arts instruction does not guarantee that every student in a school system receives a high-quality, sustained arts education.” – Arts Education Policy Review
Intelligent, Intrepid, And Generally Appalling: The Real-Life Forger Played By Melissa McCarthy In ‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’
Historian and biographer Kathryn Hughes recounts the improbable career and character of Lee Israel, a talented and diligent biographer who turned into a talented and diligent criminal, alcoholic, and all-around train wreck. — The Guardian
Nasty, Brutish, And Short: Early Children’s Stories Were Shockingly Violent
“The history of children’s literature is a shocking affair, offering death, murder, abuse, death, racism, death, and damnation. … For most of history, authors have used their words to render children speechless. Some of the books scarred generations; some merely gave their readers insomnia that would last until puberty.” — Literary Hub
What We Gain And What We Lose With Peter Jackson’s Colorized World War One Footage
“Jackson asserts, reasonably, that if the cameramen of the Great War could have shot in color with sound, they would have. But such choices are trickier historically than they may seem. Most people looking at black-and-white footage of the war while it was going on never thought, Oh, if only this were in color, with sound! Any more than looking at it with color and sound now, we say, ‘Oh, but if only you could smell it!'” — The New Yorker
Screen Actors Guild Accuses Academy Of ‘Intimidation’ Over Oscars
In a statement, SAG-AFTRA [the actors’ union] has claimed that an ‘extraordinary and unwarranted pressure’ is being placed on their members” — that is, that the Academy won’t invite any actor who presents a trophy at the SAG Awards to be a presenter at the Oscars. — The Guardian
Podcasters In Search Of A Business Model
Audiences for podcasts are growing quickly. And the number of podcasts is also exploding. Podcasters are scrambling to find ways to support their work and business models that work.
The Amazing Internet Radio Station With Almost Every Kind Of Music There Is
Joan Harvey sings the praises of the astounding variety of music to discover (and facts to learn) at Concertzender.nl. (We here at ArtsJournal can recommend it, too.) Yes, the site is in Dutch, but most of it is available in (sometimes quirky) English if you click on the tiny Union Jack in the upper right corner. — 3 Quarks Daily
Intentional Forgetting May Be A Good Strategy For Remembering
“Traditionally, forgetting has been regarded as a passive decay over time of the information recorded and stored in the brain. But while some memories may simply fade away like ink on paper exposed to sunlight, recent research suggests that forgetting is often more intentional, with erasure orchestrated by elaborate cellular and molecular mechanisms.” – The Atlantic
Is It Really A Good Idea To Demand That Only Gay Actors Play Gay Roles?
Ryan Gilbey points out some of the unintended consequences beyond the usual “it’s called acting for a reason” argument. As one out gay actor put it, “In the current cultural climate I am invited to participate only on the basis of my supposed oppression.” — The Guardian
Actors Union Threatens Broadway Strike. Is This An Overreach?
The union says actors wages for staged readings in developing projects haven’t increased since 2007. But it believes that actors in this early stage ought to get a cut of future profits. An interesting idea, but it immediately raises questions about who owns what and how they should be rewarded. – Clyde Fitch Report
In L.A. County, Using The Arts To Help Keep Kids Out Of Jail
“A one-year, $750,000 grant from the Ford Foundation’s Art for Justice Fund will help launch the Arts and Youth Development Project, intended to serve youth and families at risk of involvement or already involved with the juvenile justice system.” — Inside Philanthropy
Priest Decides Painting In His Church Might Be By Michelangelo. Then It Disappears
“After confiding in just 20 trusted people of his suspicion that a painting in his church was a lost masterpiece, a priest in the small Flemish town of Zele, 45 miles north of Brussels, has had to call in the local police over its sudden disappearance. …The work, depicting Mary, Joseph and a sleeping baby Jesus, was due to be assessed within days by a respected Michelangelo expert.” — The Guardian
Kanye West Gives $10 Million Toward James Turrell’s Great Land Art Piece
The rapper decided to donate the money after making what he called an “art pilgrimage” last month to see Turrell’s Roden Crater in Arizona’s Painted Desert. Turrell has been working on the project since 1977. — The Art Newspaper
After His Anti-Gay Instagram Post, Sergei Polunin Gets Dropped By Paris Opera Ballet
It was only last Thursday that the company announced that Polunin would be making a guest appearance as Siegfried in Swan Lake. Saturday, artistic director Aurélie Dupont announced that he wouldn’t be appearing after all, because of certain “public statements … [that] didn’t correspond to her values or to those of the institution she represents.” — The New York Times
Miami Art Mogul Launches Award He Hopes Will Rival The Turner Prize
Jorge M. Pérez, the real estate developer whose lead gift for a new building inspired the renaming of what is now the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), has endowed the $50,000 Jorge and Darlene Pérez Prize, an unrestricted award to a living artist selected by PAMM. An additional grant of $25,000 will go to a young alumnus of the National YoungArts Foundation in Miami. — Artnet
Christians In Israel Protest Against ‘McJesus’ Scuplture
“Hundreds of Christians protested outside the Haifa Museum of Art in Israel on Friday against Jani Leinonen’s McJesus sculpture of a crucified Ronald McDonald, conflating the American fast-food chain with the crucifixion. Yet the Finnish artist insists that he requested the work be removed … last September and that it is on display against his wishes.” — The Art Newspaper
Bass Theo Adam Dead At 92
“A distinguished Wagnerian and Strauss specialist, his more than four-decade international career saw him perform on the world’s greatest stages, but it was the Bayreuth Festival that he made his artistic home.” — Limelight (Australia)
IHeartRadio Launches A New Broadway Shows Channel
The new channel will compete with SiriusXM’s “On Broadway,” which also features songs and such hosts as Seth Rudetsky and John Tartaglia. – Washington Post
Hugh Grant Makes Appeal For Return Of Script Stolen From His Car
“In the unlikely chance that anyone knows who broke into my car tonight and stole my bag, please try and persuade them to at least return my script. Many weeks worth of notes and ideas. And perhaps my children’s medical cards.” – Variety
New Push To Locate Books Looted By Nazis
Given the scope of the looting, the task ahead remains mountainous. In Berlin, for example, at the Central and Regional Library, almost a third of the 3.5 million books are suspected to have been looted by the Nazis, according to Sebastian Finsterwalder, a provenance researcher there. “Most major German libraries have books stolen by the Nazis,” he said. – The New York Times
Music Makes Art Magic: Atelier des Lumières
Instead of relaxing into the New Year and creating the annual column about the favorite things of the last 12 months, we went to Paris. Yes, we saw a lot of art in a week. It was all glorious. But then we had this experience. — Margy Waller
Monday Recommendation: Thelonious Monk’s Works In Full
Kimbrough, Robinson, Reid, Drummond: Monk’s Dreams
— Doug Ramsey
The Last Manhattan Arcade
Chinatown Fair Family Fun Center is a video arcade – and not a new, hip, bar-focused pinball arcade, but an old-school video arcade, which has survived Manhattan’s rising rents and the rise of personal gaming by constant reinvention. – The New York Times
The Truth About The So-Called Gig Economy
We’re all going to be driving an Uber before long, and everyone who’s not will be freelancing at something else, right? Or maybe the gig economy isn’t growing so fast – or isn’t really growing at all. Economists can’t agree. – The Atlantic
The Story Of ‘Spider-Man’, France’s Most Spectacular Art Thief
“Long before the burglar Vjeran Tomic became the talk of Paris, he honed his skills in Père Lachaise, the city’s largest cemetery … Tomic and his friends turned the cemetery into a parkour playground, leaping from the roof of one mausoleum to the next, daring one another to take ever-bolder risks.” — The New Yorker