“A series of mosaics and a fountain decorated with a statue of Hercules were among the discoveries made when the 5,500 sq. m site [near Vienne, south of Lyon] was examined in preparation for the construction of four apartment blocks.”
Actor Robert Hardy, Known For ‘All Creatures Great And Small’ And The Harry Potter Films, Dead At 91
In addition to his roles as Siegfried Farnon (the grouchy vet) on Creatures and Cornelius Fudge in the Potter franchise, Hardy played Winston Churchill in at least eight different properties on stage and screen (including one in French).
First-Ever Int’l Festival For Glass Art Debuts Next Month In Venice
Venice Glass Week will feature “more than 140 commercial and institutional exhibitions, talks and conferences, educational activities, open furnaces, film screenings and evening events. The aim is to show how traditional glassmaking techniques can be used to innovative effect in a contemporary context, while also educate visitors about Venice’s glassmaking history”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 08.03.17
Ystad Jazz Festival: The Opener
The 2017 Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival launched with a tribute to Monica Zetterlund (1937-2005). The singer’s legacy in her homeland seems to steadily expand, and the attendance reflected her continued presence in … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-08-03
This Year’s Kennedy Center Honors Includes Rapper For First Time
The 2017 roster of honorees continues to favor popular culture at the expense of theater and classic music. This year’s celebration will spotlight three pop musicians who have collectively sold hundreds of millions of recordings. Absent are big-name Hollywood actors and Broadway stars.
Have The Kennedy Center Arts Honors Abandoned The Traditional Arts?
“Representatives of the wide range of traditional arts, including classical music, opera and ballet, have been slowly edged out until, it seemed, they were lucky to be represented with a single award among the five given out each year. This year even that toehold looks precarious. Of the five artists to receive the 2017 Kennedy Center Honors, only dancer and choreographer Carmen de Lavallade falls into the tradition of the arts on which the Kennedy Center was founded and built its reputation.”
The End Of Families Gathering Round The TV
It’s another thing to blame on the Internet: “New research from Ofcom [Britain’s equivalent of the FCC] has found that 45% of people now watch a programme or film alone every day while nine in 10 watch alone every week. The media watchdog says that a third of Britons say members of their household sit together in the same room watching different programmes on different devices.”
Philippe de Montebello On What’s Ailing The Met Museum
“The messages that are sent out have a completely unbalanced emphasis on contemporary art, as if somehow the crowds that come to the Metropolitan Museum on Fifth Avenue—where people go to see Egyptian, Greek, and Islamic Art and great European paintings—are suddenly going to come to see contemporary art. This when there are a thousand commercial galleries all over New York, and how many museums with contemporary art? It’s nonsense.”
Can Private Funding Save Public-School Music Education?
In Philadelphia, they’re trying: after-school programs like Play On, Philly! are now well-established, and both local musical institutions like the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Mann Center and major foundations are directing energy and money specifically to music and arts education. Yet, Peter Dobrin reminds us, there are dangers to look out for.