The project has been plagued by shaky funding and construction delays. “Adjacent to the city’s spiffy new art museum along the Biscayne Bay waterfront, the Frost Science Museum features a 500,000-gallon aquarium that will house sharks, barracuda, tuna and sea turtles; an Everglades exhibit; a state-of-the-art planetarium; an exhibit on the evolution of flight from dinosaurs to jet fighters; and numerous labs, conference rooms and hands-on experiences.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
Has The Internet Finally Put An End To Old-Style Critics?
“While critics may continue to exist, the conditions that allow them to reach and effect an audience have been eroded. Arts coverage, no matter the medium, is largely reduced to quick responses to what’s new this week. There are exceptions of course, but can you imagine an hour-long conversation between John Berger and Susan Sontag being broadcast on Channel 4 today?”
Virginia Lawmakers Would Require Teachers To Warn Parents About “Sexually Explicit” Literature
“Virginia schools would have to send parents a list of any teaching materials containing “sexually explicit” content at the start of every school year under a policy being considered by the state Board of Education. All local school boards would be required to set up a way for parents to opt out of objectionable materials; teachers would have to provide replacement texts for those who ask for them.”
This Year’s Edge Question For Smart People:
Each year John Brockman poses a question to a broad cross-section of some of the smartest people in the world and publishes their responses on The Edge. This year’s question is: “What scientific term or concept ought to be more widely known?”
That Time Claes Oldenburg Designed A Bridge For Rotterdam When He Hadn’t Been Asked
“Of course we realized how unlikely it was that a large bridge of our design might be chosen by the city, but we proceeded as if it could happen,” Oldenburg wrote in a statement on the project.
Buffalo NPR Affiliate Adds An Arts Desk With Local Funding
“Cultural organizations and artists in our community have cited awareness of their work as one of their top priorities. Having a dedicated arts and culture news desk at WBFO is an excellent way to highlight the depth and breadth of the cultural sector in our region.”
Music In The Age Of Discovery (So Why Do Our Choices Seem To Be Narrowing?)
How are you discovering music? Radio used to be the main way music spread. Now it’s YouTube videos, and, increasingly, streaming channels that figure out playlists algorithmically. But the promise of all music anywhere courtesy of the internet hasn’t really worked out. Increasingly our musical worlds are defined in narrower terms and we have to work to get out of them.
The promise of the internet and the opportunity for democratization in music just haven’t gone the way I’d hoped, so these soundtracks and pointed multimedia releases have been welcome. As music discovery becomes more concentrated and consolidated (goodbye, Vine) thanks to Spotify recs and Tidal-only exclusives (my New Year’s resolution: cancel Tidal) and Beats 1 premieres that one feels obligated to indulge for the sake of relevancy, the free-for-all that once was a deep-dive internet search for a weird track has dissipated a bit, in lieu of streaming services handing you what you want on a platter. “Discovery” features feel like an exercise in marketed groupthink, even when they occasionally do yield new music.
Now we more and more live in musical bubbles defined for us by behavioral formulae. It might feel like we’re being adventurous because we’re encountering music new to us. But that “new” is selected to fit familiar characteristics of music and artists we already know.
Perhaps nothing wrong with that. We like what we like and why not have more of it. But as we increasingly live inside our niches while fooling ourselves that we’re still encountering new experiences, our ability to have common culture and shared cultural experiences erodes.
LA Or San Francisco? Where Will George Lucas’ Billion-Dollar Museum Be?
“The “Star Wars” creator is financing the project himself. He plans to spend more than $1 billion to build the museum, endow it and provide a trove of initial artworks valued at over $400 million. Together with Chinese architect Ma Yansong, Lucas has proposed a sleek, futuristic design looks like a cross between the Guggenheim and a galactic starfighter. The museum’s bold design and concept make clear that the 72-year-old filmmaker sees it as part of his legacy, and he is increasingly impatient to break ground.”
Edinburgh Invests Another £300,000 In Its Festivals
“The extra money will go the Expo fund, which is available to the 12 key Edinburgh festivals to help Scottish artists create and showcase their work on an international stage. It takes the total sum given by the government to support the festivals in 2017/18 to £2.3 million. The cabinet secretary for culture, tourism and external affairs, Fiona Hyslop, noted that the combined festivals attract 4.5 million attendees and contribute £313 million to the Scottish economy.”
Beijing’s Palace Museum Will Build Big New Outpost In Hong Kong
“The 30,500 sq. m museum will be funded with a $450m donation from the Hong Kong Jockey Club, the city’s biggest private charity. The Hong Kong outpost will likely have a contemporary style as it will be designed by Rocco Yim, the Hong Kong architect who designed the new Hong Kong government complex.”