This week the construction of Cloud Arch, a Junya Ishigami-designed steel archway planned for George Street, was deferred until after the tramline is finished. Originally dubbed “the most significant artwork built in Australia in decades” by Sydney’s lord mayor, Clover Moore, the council blamed cost blowouts and obstruction by the light rail contractor Acciona. – The Guardian
Author: Douglas McLennan
Canadian Libraries Say Publishers Are Making It More Difficult For Them To Share
The Canadian Urban Library Council says “the big five” publishers like Hachette, Penguin Random House and MacMillan have long restricted library access to electronic materials, but in the past two years the problem has grown worse. – CBC
A New Theatrical Rights Giant
The new business, Concord Theatricals, merges the catalogues of four publishing and licensing organisations, which it claims makes it “the most substantial licensing house in the world”. – The Stage
LA County Museum Of Art Is Falling Behind On Its New Building
Not only must it continue to amass money toward the $650 million project, but it also must pack up its collection to prepare for construction. And it faces lingering questions about whether an increasingly uncertain economy will hurt fundraising in 2019, whether the museum’s long-in-progress environmental impact report will further delay the project, and how much competition, if any, it will face from construction campaigns at other museums, including the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures next door. – Los Angeles Times
An Argument For Collecting As Many Books As Possible
An antilibrary is a powerful reminder of your limitations — the vast quantity of things you don’t know, half-know, or will one day realize you’re wrong about. By living with that reminder daily you can nudge yourself toward the kind of intellectual humility that improves decision-making and drives learning. – Fast Company
A Great Year For Sports Architecture
Stadiums and other sports venues have become more opulent. They not only have to be functional, they more and more serve as marquee symbols on the skyline. Here are ten of the best in 2018. – Dezeen
In Defense Of A Good Hate
“So let me clarify: we have forgotten how to hate well. We have forgotten how to hate rigorously and virtuously. This is, I believe, because we have forgotten how to distinguish between hate’s negative and positive iterations. In the former camp is racial hatred, religious hatred, and other forms of intense, frothing, violent dislike inflamed by malformed ideological doctrines and blind prejudices. The latter, more productive, form of hating is conceived as a form of rigorous, ruthless critique.” – The Walrus
America’s Oldest University Museum Is Also One Of Its Fastest-Growing
About 36,000 additional three-dimension objects belonging to the art gallery are already on display at the West Campus at its recently opened Wurtele Study Center. This is all on top of a $135m renovation of the main building that opened in 2012, doubling the museum’s size through the imaginative reuse of two adjacent existing buildings. Few if any museums in America have undergone a more dramatic transformation, and for the better. – The Art Newspaper
Prominent Artists Protest Appointment At France’s National Arts Academy: Too Conservative?
The artists Mai-Thu Perret and Lili Reynaud-Dewar, along with the curator Chus Martinez, signed the petition statement published on the Mediapart news website in early November, saying that Jean De Loisy is “near retirement… and the symbol of a hegemony”, adding: “We ask that our voices are heard, denouncing the hold that conservative [views] still exert on the cultural policy of France today, despite a desire for renewal.” – The Art Newspaper
Lawsuit Over “Fortnite” Video Game Dance Moves Could Be A Rabbit Hole
At what point does a social dance become so normalized, that no one flinches to see it? Because individual movements can’t be copyrighted, it’s not like they have an expiry date (like music) when they slip into the public domain. With today’s rapidly evolving technology, where things are easily sharable and monetizable, it might be time to revamp the Copyright Office’s laws for individual dance moves. – Dance Magazine