And by long, we're talking centuries. "Swirling veils and drapery were added to Allegory of Inclination about 70 years after Gentileschi painted the lifesize female nude, believed to be a self-portrait, in 1616." - The Guardian (AP)
Arseny Avraamov's work, written and performed in Baku, Soviet Azerbaijan for the fifth anniversary of the October Revolution, "included the entire Caspian flotilla, cannons, locomotives, artillery regiments, hydroplanes, factory sirens, bells, foghorns, brass bands and a massive choir. Avraamov wasn't just conducting an orchestra, he was conducting a city." - BBC
"Mark Zuckerberg's empire has lost hundreds of billions of dollars in value and laid off 11,000 people. ... Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter has caused advertisers to pull spending and power users to shun the platform. It's never felt more plausible that the age of social media might end." - MSN (The Atlantic)
Data indicate that interest in classical music itself is growing, but BBC Radio 3, the more populist Classic FM, and newish Scala Radio have lost worryingly large chunks of audience in the past year. But there are good reasons why — and some of those might be fixable. - MSN (The Telegraph)
“The government has presented a compelling case that predicts substantial harm to competition as a result of the proposed merger of PRH and S&S,” Judge Florence Pan concluded. - Publishers Weekly
"The Calgary-based Mayr won for her novel ..., which follows a queer, Black sleeping car porter making a treacherous trip from Montreal to Vancouver in 1929." - Toronto Star
The overriding focus on the algorithm—and the content it delivers—has caused us to overlook a central part of TikTok’s operating logic: the phone. A failure to fully explore the role of this device in TikTok’s powers of transmission has resulted in a limited appreciation of how the platform works. - Wired
Martial law declaration "grants the country the power to 'evacuate' items of economic, social, and cultural significance. Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk are the four regions specified in Putin’s decree." - Artnet
When the American Alliance of Museums asked a volunteer committee to sign loyalty oaths and also something that meant they wouldn't criticize AAM in public, the scholars and museum directors resigned en masse. - Hyperallergic
"The English National Opera is to lose its £12.6m core annual funding from Arts Council England in a major shake-up that leaves its future uncertain. Instead, the prestigious company will get £17m over three years to 'develop a new business model', with a suggestion it moves from London to Manchester." - BBC
Mark Zuckerberg is obsessed with a virtual world no one wants, the company’s stock is down 70 percent from its peak, and it has lost $800 billion of its market capitalization. - Vice
It’s tempting to see Garfield as a footnote. But he was far better than his contemporaries at solving the puzzle of how to take the new acting techniques coming out of the New York theatre during the thirties and forties and adapt them for the screen. - The New Yorker
By 2018, Quiara Alegría Hudes found that the field she loved was causing more stress and heartbreak than joy and satisfaction. Last year, she published a memoir, My Broken Language; recording the audiobook, she realized that it sounded like monologue. So she's turned it into a play. - The New York Times
How do you adjust the acoustics of an already-completed auditorium? Turns out the architects and acousticians built in some adjustable features. - The New York Times
Uncertainty about an artist’s intentions—including, but not limited to, which way she intended the picture to be top and which bottom—is not a sign of what a certain man would call a “hoax”; it is a sign of originality of purpose and a tolerance for open-ended inquiry. - The New Yorker
"'I've always had aspirations to be a sit-down comic – not a stand-up one!' she says. 'The toy piano gives me that golden opportunity.' She is not limited to the piano either: in one arrangement ... she simultaneously plays toy piano, bicycle horn, bicycle bell and train whistle." - The Guardian
Will we continue to see the expansion of administration and management in arts organizations? Even if some may claim the expansion is justified, can the industry afford it? - Nightingale Sonata
"We don't know the protests are effective, and we do know they're likely to cause financial problems for many museums. Here I'll add my own concern: The activists look so silly. ... The soup-and-superglue movement fails an important test of youthful, radical politics: It does not look cool." - MSN (The Atlantic)
Today’s boredom is not hungry, a response to deprivation; it is a loss of cultural appetite, in response to the surfeit of claims on your attention and time.” - The New Yorker
