Former Hollywood film director Anthony Wilkinson – now director of Wimbledon International Music Festival – is looking to raise around £100 million for the concert hall. Wilkinson told the AJ the facility could host ‘the finest music of all genres featuring significant musicians from around the world’. – Architects’ Journal
Author: Douglas McLennan
So Your Books Are Balanced. What Does That Have To Do With Your Mission?
“Fiscal responsibility is good business. But it is immaterial with respect to, and when contrasted with, a nonprofit’s impact. Fiscal responsibility, then, has no place anywhere near a mission statement.” – Clyde Fitch Report
Fewer Students Are Studying English. Does it Matter?
English has lost more students than other subjects. Undergraduate enrollments on English degrees have also fallen: from an all-time high of around 51,000 in 2011/12 to 39,000 last year, although the proportion of English A-level students who go on to study it at university has hovered around 14% for a decade. It makes sense to view the decline of English studies as part of a bigger, international story about the weakening of the humanities, and its counterpoint: the rise in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths). – The Guardian
How Saudi Arabia Is Trying To Change Its Image Through Culture Festivals
The weekends revolve around the concerts, held on Fridays. There are sometimes other notable events, like hot-air balloon rides. Mr. Bocelli performed on the same weekend as a well-known horse race that drew royalty from around the Gulf region. – The New York Times
Choose: Through This Door The World Is Getting Better. Through The Other Door…
This may not feel like a particularly revolutionary time. But, if we look closely, we can see current economic, social, and political forces pulling us in two directions. One direction will accelerate us forward, the other backwards. We will decide our fate by the revolution we embrace. – The Walrus
Why Instagram “Museums” Are Such Hollow Experiences
Photography has long played a crucial role in how we shape the narrative of our lives. Milestones are documented, creating an archive that can be looked back on for years to come. But the value of facilitated photographs—whether a carnival’s fake backdrop of Niagara Falls or giant stilettos at the Happy Place—are a bit more difficult to parse. The photos are blatantly staged and not attached to important life events. – The Walrus
University Suspends Professor For Reading James Baldwin Aloud In Class
Augsburg University in Minnesota suspended a professor for using the N-word during a class discussion about a James Baldwin book in which the word appeared — and for sharing essays on the history of the word with students who complained to him about it. – Inside Higher Ed
The Bluegrass Song About Atonal Music That’s Gone Viral On YouTube
“(Gimme some of that) Ol’ Atonal Music,” by the singer Merle Hazard, details in sunny and endearing tones a love of atonality, while explaining to newbies what that is (music that isn’t in one clear key), and includes the best atonal banjo solo you’ve ever heard (probably the only atonal banjo solo you’ve ever heard). That the solo, and the production values, are so good, is no surprise: The soloist and the recording’s producer is Alison Brown, one of the leading five-string banjo players in the country. Combine that with a crack backup band, Hazard’s sweetly earnest delivery and a John Cage spoof that’s actually funny, and you have a lot of people laughing at their desks. – Washington Post
Why Scientists Are Rethinking The Whole Idea Of Animal Consciousness
This idea that animals are conscious was long unpopular in the West, but it has lately found favor among scientists who study animal cognition. And not just the obvious cases—primates, dogs, elephants, whales, and others. Scientists are now finding evidence of an inner life in alien-seeming creatures that evolved on ever-more-distant limbs of life’s tree. – The Atlantic
Silicon Valley Tech Says It Wants To Save The World. The Reality May Be Quite Different
At some tech companies, faith in the mission is encouraged to the point that it resembles religious belief. Employees are invited to see themselves as proselytizers for the transformation of society, spreading the ideas of a company and its leaders around the world. What happens, though, when the mission doesn’t accord with the behavior of a company or the values of its employees? – The New Republic