“This is a man who has always been obsessed with the entertainment industry—an aspiring A-lister, reality-TV show host, and Hollywood hanger-on. To mock the entertainment industry as out of touch with the will of the people, while praising a man who cared more about dating Salma Hayek than he’ll ever care about the average American, shows a fundamental lack of awareness.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
Research: TV Entertainment Can Help Promote Tolerance
Importantly, “the more participants identified with the characters from the target out-group, the less prejudice they showed toward that group,” the researchers add. This points to the power of TV comedy to help viewers “understand, to feel similar to, and to feel more connected to” people they don’t necessarily come into contact with in their day-to-day lives.
American Universities Are Investing In New Prestige Arts Buildings. And How About The Programs?
American universities are making big investments in new arts facilities. At least a half-dozen major projects are coming online this year. Why?
Schools now think of the arts less as a peripheral extracurricular activity than as an opportunity for innovative collaboration. At Stanford, for example, medical students examine the Rodin sculptures at the Cantor Arts Center to learn about conditions that afflict the hand. Meanwhile, Rice is due to open the Moody Center for the Arts next month, a $30m exhibition-cum-interdisciplinary laboratory space. “I’ve learned how important visual imagination is to thinking about science and engineering,” says David Leebron, the university’s president.
A few years ago Princeton announced it intended to be an arts destination. USC declares its desire to be known as an arts university. Duke and Stanford and Columbia all have the arts on their minds. Is there really such a demand?
The rising demand is leading schools that have traditionally marginalised the arts to enter a new kind of arms race. Princeton University in New Jersey “was losing students to some of our rival universities because we didn’t have the visibility in the arts that we should”, says Michael Cadden, the chair of the Lewis Center for the Arts, which anchors a 22-acre, $330m arts-and-transportation hub due to open in October. Princeton has 30% to 40% more students studying the arts than it did ten years ago, according to Cadden.
Arts facilities can have a tangible effect on the kind of talent schools attract. In the decade since Duke University in North Carolina opened the Nasher Museum of Art, it has seen a steep climb in arts portfolios submitted by prospective students, from 980 in 2006 to more than 2,800 last year.
The reality of the “arts boom” in universities is perhaps a bit more modest. There’s clearly money available to be raised for new museums and facilities. The buildings are prestigious and good campus eye candy that donors can attach their names to. But is there evidence yet of a similar uptick in the scale of investment in the arts programs?
Streaming Surged In Home Video In 2016 (What Were DVD’s Again?)
“Revenue from sales and rentals of movies and TV shows totaled $12 billion in 2016, down 7% from the previous year, according to data released Friday by trade organization Digital Entertainment Group. Meanwhile, subscription streaming continued its torrid growth last year, surging nearly 23% to $6.23 billion in consumer spending, the group said.”
Child’s Play: How Scientists Learn From How Children Experiment
“A quarter-century ago, psychologists began to point out important links between the development of scientific theories and how everyday thinking, including children’s thinking, works. According to theory theorists, a child learns by constructing a theory of the world and testing it against experience. In this sense, children are little scientists – they hypothesise on the basis of observations, test their hypotheses experimentally, and then revise their views in light of the evidence they gather.”
The New Opera Producer Who Produces Out Of Her Apartment
Beth Morrison says she follows her guts and her ears in her work. “I won’t do anything unless I’m mad crazy about the music and the composer and really feeling like they’re contributing something to the field that is different,” she says.
Justin Davidson: How “Mozart In The Jungle” Has Grown To Understand Classical Music
“I expected a cascade of clichés and prejudices: a maestro with no sense of rhythm who waves his arms as if washing an invisible car, audiences of stiffs and snobs, perhaps a new symphony that launches the composer into a life of nightly standing ovations and perpetual Champagne on tap. Three seasons later, I’m not just sold; I’m consumed with admiration.”
Is Canada Becoming The First Post-Nation State?
“Ten years ago, two-thirds of population increase was courtesy of immigration. By 2030, it is projected to be 100%. The economic benefits are also self-evident, especially if full citizenship is the agreed goal. All that “settlers” – ie, Canadians who are not indigenous to the land – need do is look in the mirror to recognize the generally happy ending of an immigrant saga. Our government repeats it, our statistics confirm it, our own eyes and ears register it: diversity fuels, not undermines, prosperity.”
An Algorithm That Games Art Investment Values?
“The site, launched in 2014, offers investment advice to subscribers—the current cap is ten—who pay $3,500 per quarter for early access to a ranking of emerging and blue-chip artists. Like a brokerage analyst’s report, it uses terms such as “buy,” “sell,” and the even more alarming “liquidate” to guide clients. ArtRank’s algorithm arrives at its valuations through a combination of publicly available data such as past sale prices, forthcoming exhibitions, and social media posts from art world influencers as well as insider advice from collectors and dealers.”
New Galleries In Africa Follow International Interest (Or Is It The Other Way Around)
“Despite the challenges, the international market attention has also proved to be a catalyst to formation of new galleries on the continent, who could see a path and a model of sustainability, which did not rely on philanthropic funding as in the past or domestic markets. As a result, the past four years have seen something of a surge in the number of new galleries on the continent, adopting a more internationally focused commercial operating model.”