Last May, a drunken nationalist attacked Ilya Repin’s famous painting of the crazed tsar cradling the body of the son he just murdered. “The good news is that the specialists at the museum believe that they can fully restore the painting. The bad news is that it will take years.” – The Moscow Times
Norton Museum Of Art In Palm Beach Reopens After $100 Million Renovation/Expansion
The project, designed by Norman Foster and his firm, has “add[ed] 12,000 square feet of gallery space, along with new classrooms, a restaurant, a sculpture garden and a 210-seat auditorium.” – South Florida Sun Sentinel
University Suspends Professor For Reading James Baldwin Aloud In Class
Augsburg University in Minnesota suspended a professor for using the N-word during a class discussion about a James Baldwin book in which the word appeared — and for sharing essays on the history of the word with students who complained to him about it. – Inside Higher Ed
More And More, Scientists Are Leaving Academia For Private Industry
A recent study following the careers of over 100,000 scientists for over 50 years found that half of university-hired scientists leave the academic life after just five years. That’s a huge increase over prior years: According to the study, which was published in the Proceedings in the National Academy of Sciences, academic scientists in the 1960s stayed in the ivory tower for an average of 35 years. – Pacific Standard
The Last Two Years Were The Biggest Of Camille A. Brown’s Career — And She Nearly Died. Twice.
“The outside eye saw the success of Once On This Island, Jesus Christ Superstar Live, ink [at the Kennedy Center], and my cover on Dance Magazine,” the dancer-choreographer writes. “But over the course of 2017 and 2018, my appendix ruptured twice, I was in the hospital at least four times, and had two surgeries. For over a year, my attire consisted of baggy clothes to hide my stomach, PICC line, and bandages.” — Dance Magazine
All That Stuff J.D. Salinger Wrote Over His Last 50 Years Will Be Published, Heir Confirms
“In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, his son Matt Salinger has finally revealed, definitively, that his father never stopped writing and that almost ‘all of what he wrote will at some point be shared’.” — The Guardian
Matt Salinger, J.D.’s Son, Talks About His Father’s Long-Hidden Writings (And When The Hell We’ll Finally See Them)
“This was somebody who was writing for 50 years without publishing, so that’s a lot of material. So there’s not a reluctance or a protectiveness: when it’s ready, we’re going to share it.” When will that be? “We’re definitely talking years. … We’re going as fast as we freaking can.” — The Guardian
With Arrival Of Social Justice And Inclusion Movements, Museums Have To Question Everything About Themselves
“Recently, activists have begun to apply increasing pressure on a number of leverage points in museum systems: leadership and curatorial staff, financial backers, and the institutions’ narrative habits, as well as the provenance of institutional holdings. The question becomes, ‘Whose knowledge is it?’ — and, by extension, ‘Whose world?'” — Nonprofit Quarterly
How Wildfire-Ravaged Paradise, Cal. Managed To Put On Its ‘Nutcracker’ (Even If It Was A Month Late)
The worst fire in California destroyed Trudi Angel’s ballet school in Paradise, along with costumes and sets for the Nutcracker she’d been putting on there for 33 years (and along with pretty much everything in the entire town). But Angel’s young students pleaded with her to keep the show going this year — and the many people she knew in the wider ballet world pitched in to help. — San Francisco Chronicle
So What Happened To The News Business?
Last week there were thousands of layoffs at news organizations. Not just at traditional newspapers either. Buzzfeed, one of the buzziest new digital titles, downsized itself in an attempt to find a model that works. The news business has a number of business models at work right now, but it’s still unclear what will be successful. – The New York Times
Classic Hubris? The Rise And Fall Of The Newseum
“The distress sale of its building to Johns Hopkins University … has become a cautionary tale of bloated budgets and unrealized ambition. The museum has been weighted down by crushing debt and beset by management upheaval, and its downfall has long been foretold, but it is still a gut punch to an industry labeled the ‘enemy of the people’ by President Trump and struggling with digital-era financial troubles galore.” — The Washington Post
Peter Oundjian’s Next Job: Director Of Colorado Music Festival
The violinist-turned-conductor, who stepped down as music director of the Toronto Symphony last summer after 14 seasons, will be “the fourth conductor to lead the six-week long annual summer festival which takes place in Colorado Chautauqua, a National Historic Landmark near in Boulder, Colorado.” — Ludwig van Toronto
Ratings For “Mrs. Maisel” Are In (Sorta – And Who Can Trust Them?)
So “Mrs. Maisel” is a hit, according to Nielsen, averaging 1.9 million views in its second season. But the difficulties in coming up with an estimate of audience points to the chaotic state of ratings measurement these days. What, exactly, constitutes a hit in the era of streaming? – The New York Times
London Police Arrest Rappers For Performing A Song In Concert
Police say the duo’s song is incitement to violence. They’ve been cracking down. Police interference has undoubtedly had an impact on the scene’s lyrics. “A lot of rappers are censoring their music now. Even down to what they name their video, or what hashtag they use to promote it. They want to go under the radar. You put all that hard work into it, you gas everyone up – ‘Listen to my song!’ – and it gets taken down in 10 minutes. This is our livelihood, and it’s a serious financial loss to have a tune banned.” – The Guardian
A Grammar Guide For The Age Of Tweeting
This is an excellent time for someone to tell us how to think about these things. Social media has spawned a generation of un-Strunk-and-White-ified people who appear to believe that punctuation is optional, that grammar is for the elderly and that ending a sentence with a period is a deliberate act of aggression. – The New York Times
Buzzfeed’s Master Quizmaker Was a 19-Year-Old Who Did It For Free (Then Came Last Week’s Staff Layoffs)
“We were working too hard, making these elaborate things, and all of her stuff was really stripped down. She’d do five quizzes in a day, and I’d maybe do that many in a week. People were, like, ‘If this girl stops, that’s a problem.'” – CBC
Theatre Has A Problem Dealing With Older Women, And They’re Sick Of It
Director Marianne Elliott, whose Company just won a best musical award, says that older women in every area of the theatre world are sidelined “because they are perceived as ‘not valuable and something to laugh at.'” – The Stage (UK)
Opening The Door For Darker-Skinned Men In Hollywood
William Jackson Harper wants dark-skinned actors to have a lot more choices – and for himself, personally, aside from playing a nerdy, dead ethics professor on The Good Place, he wants more: “Stories of the black community in the U.S. Like right after the civil rights movement, I’m really interested in that because I feel like there’s a shift that — I’ve asked my mom about it because I remember her saying that growing up in our neighborhood was very idyllic in a lot of ways. And it was a black neighborhood, and it was the ’60s, and I was like, ‘Oh, wow, OK.’ So at what point did the neighborhood become less idyllic?” – HuffPost
The Bozeman Symphony Is Investigating Allegations Against Its Conductor
The board is investigating a series of allegations against its music director and conductor, Matthew Savery, while he remains in his job. A letter accusing him of serious bullying “was signed by 14 people, including former and present musicians, staff members and donors.” – Bozeman (Montana) Daily Chronicle
Assessing Toni Morrison’s Presence In American, And World, Literature
She’s almost always writing about such horror that it’s incomprehensible. But “Morrison has constructed a language adapted to the needs of a people who of necessity live at once in the present and the past. The animating spirit of her novels — that forked lightning present all at once across time — lights from within the areas of black experience she explores.” – Los Angeles Review of Books
The Pleasures And Perils Of Reviving A Contemporary Opera
One of the main issues for performers is that they can’t escape the recordings – both audio and video – of the original performers. “The most satisfying thing is when you finally get it, and you can do it, it feels wonderful.” – The New York Times
Hollywood Goes Full Out On Pop Star Glamor
Well, as long as moviemakers can secure the rights to music, of course. And usually they can: “Artists have realised that backing biopics and celebratory movies is a way of reaffirming their cultural relevance and opening new revenue streams as traditional incomes from record sales are on the wane.” – The Guardian (UK)
A Choreographer Pushing Community Against A World That ‘Is So Screwed Up’
Vicky Shick creates and edits at the same time, her dancers say, so they have to pay careful attention during rehearsals. “Shick’s works have become more exacting as they reveal the complexity of who she is: a 67-year-old choreographer who was born in Hungary and had dreams of becoming a ballerina, but instead carved out a career in postmodern dance. … With precision and strangeness, her dances celebrate the very thing she finds herself racked with: vulnerability.” – The New York Times
It’s A Little Late, But The Recording Industry Finally Steps Up
Last year’s awful pullquote about women in the recording industry needing to “step up” has turned into this year’s inclusion initiative. But it took a while, and the music industry is far, very far, from gender equity. – Los Angeles Times
Will Spotify Become A One-Stop Music And Podcast Service?
The music streaming giant wants to change its image and expand into other markets – including the (currently) hot podcast market. “Spotify’s 200 million users are already used to consuming audio from the service — and, crucially, while the music business is controlled by three big companies who have real leverage when it comes to licensing their stuff, podcasting is in its early days, and no one has a chokehold on podcast content.” – Recode