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Biden Makes Historic Picks For New Heads Of NEA And NEH

Both selections are historic: Lowe will be the first Native American nominated to lead the federal humanities agency and Jackson will be the first African American and Mexican American nominated to run the arts endowment. - Washington Post

Playwright Jeremy O. Harris Withdraws “Slave Play” From L.A. Run

The 12-time-Tony-nominated play was to open in February at the Center Theater Group's Mark Taper Forum. But the CTG has only one play by a woman in its entire season; in response, Harris suggests filling his slot a work by a female playwright. - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)

Africa’s Film Industries Could Create 20 Million Jobs: UNESCO Study

"Most creative industries in (sub-Saharan) Africa were grossly underserved," — the major exceptions being Nigeria and Senegal — "in part due to the failure of policymakers and local authorities to protect and invest in audio-visual industries." - The Guardian

“Abstraction, I Think, Is Now Over,” Writes David Hockney

"It's run its course. … Its job was to take away the shadows that had dominated European art for centuries. It was only European art that used them. … The arts of China, Japan, India and Persia never use shadows or reflections." - The Art Newspaper

IATSE Members Vote Overwhelmingly To Authorize Hollywood Strike

The vote by the affected members — cinematographers, electricians, video editors, costumers, and the like — was 98.7% in favor of greenlighting what would be the union's first-ever nationwide walkout on film and television production. - Variety

The Novel In A Time Of On-Demand Everything

If what fiction most essentially is for us is a volume of commodified time, one of the most notorious facts of contemporary literary life is that there is so little time for it. - BookForum

How Do We Justify Touring Orchestras When It Worsens Climate Change?

I'm increasingly uncomfortable with attending concerts "interpreted by these internationally-touring orchestras when I realize that at least 80 people took a plane for a single concert; particularly when I know that I can listen to a similar interpretation of the same piece by a more local orchestra. - Van

Technology Isn’t As Neutral As We Want It To Be

No tech is without cost, but "the digital revolution, instead of just ambivalence, seems instead to promise utopia but deliver harm." - Toronto Star

The Age Of The New Literary Memoir

The fantasy that you can say something so perfectly and with such absolute authority that it never needs another version told from another point of view, as my grandfather might have believed, is long over. - The New York Times

What Is The Solidarity Arts Economy?

Why should culture and economic innovation go together? Because, right now, we have a superstar system in which the winners take all and the rest are left with crumbs. Because, just like art, housing and dignified work are human rights. Because artists are the original gig workers. - Nonprofit Quarterly

Carlisle Floyd, Dean Of American Opera Composers, Dead At 95

"Floyd's operas, more than a dozen, were steeped in southern culture, examining the post-Civil War South, the Depression and small-town life. Works such as Susannah, Of Mice and Men and Cold Sassy Tree opened opera houses to a distinctly American repertoire. He also wrote his own librettos." - NPR

Are Theatre Critics Being Too Kind?

Emerging from its forced hibernation for live performance, theater appears to be in trouble, so our compassionate reviewers/publicists/reporters feel duty bound to come to the rescue. The rah-rah is uninhibited: troupes must be supported... - Arts Fuse

Uh Oh – A Looming Book Shortage?

 “This fall, the global publishing business can expect disruption in shipping, increases in costs throughout the supply chain, shortages in consumables used for packing and shipping, and shortages in manufacturing supplies for books and printed matter." - Jane Friedman
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