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Thieves Blow Up Dutch Museum Door To Steal A Golden Helmet

“The video is grainy but ominous: three hooded figures, clambering over one another to tug at a heavy access door of the Drents Museum ... and then an explosion and a flurry of sparks in the wee hours of Saturday.” - The New York Times

What Happens When A Theatre Critic Physically Can’t Sit Down

It’s edifyiing, truly: "Gazing over hundreds of heads and shifting my weight around in the dark, I was reminded time and again that theaters are just rooms full of people whose vulnerability, uncertainty and imperfections — including my own — are what bring them alive.” - Washington Post (Yahoo)

Hollywood Composers, Whose Work Is Drying Up, Find Solace In Home Concerts Of Their Chamber Music

"One surprising thing," says one of the co-founders of the free-with-RSVP series, called Night Temple, "is how these really accomplished film composers, who have music on big movies and big shows, say there’s something really vulnerable about writing for this. There's a bit of danger to it." - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

Daniel Libeskind Has Designed A Low-Income Housing Project, And It’s Good

"His global brand would seem like an odd choice for the most basic tier of New York’s urban shelter, sort of like handing out food-bank groceries in Louis Vuitton bags. … (Yet) the pairing of high-design auteur and low-income residents meets an assortment of needs and isn’t just noblesse oblige." - Curbed (MSN)

Inside The Professional Theater Scene In Las Vegas

"It’s scrappy, sure, with its rock’n’roll energy but theatermakers here are resourceful and don’t fit in boxes. … There's a palpable hunger to make theater against the odds, locals who can keep it viable are ready for it and artists enjoy the freedom of straddling aesthetic and artistic worlds." - The New York Times

The British Museum And Its 8 Million Objects, 6 Million Annual Visitors, Hundreds Of Researchers, And Overlapping Crises

"It is a sprawling, chaotic reflection of Britain’s psyche over 300 years: its voracious curiosity and cultural relativism; its pugnacious superiority complex; its restless seafaring and trading; its cruel imperial enrichment; its brilliant scholarship, its brutality, its idealism, its postcolonial anxiety." - The Guardian

Cartoonist Jules Feiffer, 95

"The Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter and children’s book author was one of the most humorously neurotic literary voices of his generation. … (He) found his voice in comics that provided a sardonic and sarcastic takedown of authority and conventional wisdom." - The Washington Post (MSN)

Without Reality TV, We’d Never Have Arrived At Today’s Inauguration

“The idea that blandly macho host would become one of the most influential figures in American life would have seemed as ridiculous as, well, Donald Trump getting elected president. Twice.” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)

Publishers, Who First Resisted And Then Embraced TikTok, Worry About What Can Replace It

As author Brandon Taylor noted on social media, it’s a little disingenuous for The NYT to publish this article since it’s a whole newspaper that could focus more on books. Still, BookTok was special, and the BookTok goodbyes were intense. - The New York Times

The Broad Museum Is Hit With Sexual Harassment And Discrimination Lawsuits

“The lawsuit accuses the Broad of failing to take 'reasonable steps to prevent retaliation and wrongful termination against Walker who opposed discrimination in the workplace.’” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)

When Is A Calder Not A Calder?

Or rather, when is a broken Calder still a Calder? "Richard Brodie, an art collector, says his ability to sell the work has been undermined by the Calder Foundation,” and he is suing to get the artist’s name back on the piece. - The New York Times

Getty Museums In L.A. Now Seen As “Beacon Of Fire Preparedness”

"The Center, which houses a sprawling collection in a modernist building, is described on the Getty website as a 'marvel of anti-fire engineering.' The Villa, which focuses on ancient Greek and Roman art, has a well-tuned anti-fire protocol that kept it intact amid the devastation (in) Pacific Palisades." - The Washington Post (MSN)

US Supreme Court Unanimously Upholds Law Banning TikTok

"TikTok, which has 170 million monthly American users, had argued the ban tramples on the First Amendment rights of both the app and its users — an argument that the court ultimately shot down on Friday." - TheWrap

David Lynch, 78

"(His films) bridged the mainstream and avant-garde, exploring the sinister recesses of the human psyche — and the mysteries behind America’s white picket fences — with an unsettling blend of melodrama, whimsy and nightmarish horror." - The Washington Post (MSN)

In Defense Of El Sistema, The Simón Bolívar Orchestra, And, Yes, Dudamel

European Union Youth Orchestra director Marshall Marcus, who's seen a lot of El Sistema's educational work up close, argues that those who denounce the program, its flagship orchestra and its most famous alumnus for providing window-dressing to the Maduro regime are missing the point — and overlooking the good El Sistema does. - The Guardian

The Extraordinary Efforts To Save The Getty Center From Fire

Fire extinguishers in hand, the museum said, the Getty’s staff scours the sparse ground beneath their boots as well as the canopies of oak trees overhead. They look for embers. - The Wall Street Journal

A Proposal For Keeping The Wanamaker Organ Safe And In Regular Use

The instrument's landmark status only means that it can't be destroyed or moved without approval: a new owner or occupier of the soon-to-be-former Macy's in central Philadelphia could simply mothball it. Peter Dobrin has a suggestion for the space that could keep the public coming in to listen. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

How The Getty Villa Survived The Palisades Fire: An Inside Look

"Getty Trust CEO Katherine Fleming described the scene on the ground and how she and her staff worked from a conference center-turned-war room at the Getty Center in Brentwood, about 10 miles away — all while 16 staff members remained at the Villa to implement emergency protocols." - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

“Post-Woke”? Is The Art World Set To Move Away From “Radlib” Identity Politics?

Ben Davis: "The main issue that will dominate, I believe, is cultural institutions trying, and probably failing, to process the confused splintering of the liberal ideological consensus. A faith in a certain type of cultural politics has fallen apart. What comes after, for the moment, is unclear." - Artnet

Why Do So Many Critically Acclaimed Shows Come From London Only To Be Panned In New York?

Jesse Green, who admits to being one of those New York critics doing the panning, has some ideas. - The New York Times
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