Nina Stoller-Lindsey tries another angle in defense of the NEA: “At first glance, eradicating this cultural hub may seem to have little to do with the military – but giving soldiers access to the arts is one of the most effective ways we can help them both prepare and recover from the demands of their duty. In eliminating this agency, Trump would be doing a huge disservice to them and to the veterans he promised to support.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
1,600-Year-Old Frescoes In Rome’s Catacombs Unveiled
“Restorers on Tuesday put the finishing touches on a seven-year restoration of two underground burial rooms at the Catacombs of Domitilla, which revealed long-hidden frescoes commissioned some 1600 years ago by the city’s bakers.”
Why Male Nudes In Ancient Greek Art Are Meagerly Endowed
Actually, not all such depictions sported miniature manhoods. But most of the surviving ones do – and that was a deliberate choice, based on both aesthetic and philosophical ideals. Kerry Sullivan explains. (And no, the likenesses weren’t necessarily meant to be realistic.)
To Trim Multi-Million Operating Deficit, Australian Ballet To Do Co-Productions For First Time
“The Australian Ballet has begun sharing the costs of some productions with companies overseas in an attempt to rein in an operating deficit which blew out by $2.5 million in 2016.”
No, Wait – Australian Ballet Has Multi-Million Surplus
“The nation’s richest performing arts company posted a $4.1 million surplus from its 2016 program of 158 main-stage performances and numerous other activities, with a new production celebrating the life of dancer Nijinsky emerging as the season’s hit.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 05.30.17
A new lens on ‘excellence’
Arts initiatives that seek social change often face an identity crisis: They are driven by passion, purpose, meaning, and making, but they are generally described and evaluated by more traditional measures. Worse than the challenge … read more
AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published 2017-05-30
Paul Desmond, Gone 40 Years
Several Rifftides readers have sent messages reminding me that Paul Desmond died 40 years ago today. Thanks to all of them. I hadn’t forgotten. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-05-30
How We’re Creating Games That Change People’s Minds, And Even Their Real-Life Actions
Lindsay Grace: “In American University’s Game Lab and Studio, which I direct, we’re creating a wide range of persuasive games to test various strategies of persuasion and to gauge players’ responses. We have developed games to highlight the problems with using delivery drones, encourage cultural understanding and assess understanding of mathematics. And we’re expanding the realm beyond education and health.”
An Unknown Play By Edith Wharton (!) Emerges
As Rebecca Mead reports, the manuscript of The Shadow of a Doubt wasn’t hidden in a trove of papers in some remote attic; it was right there in a collection of theater manuscripts at a well-known research library.
This Artist Was Ancient Greece’s Greatest Painter Of Vases (And We Don’t Even Know His – Or Her – Name)
James Romm writes about the “Berlin Painter” – “an artist whose name, nationality, and even gender remain unknown, but whose distinctive and confident illustration in the red-figure style stands out as clearly as any signature.”
What Shakespeare Can Teach Us About Language And Cognition
“A cognitive scientist looking at [scholar Stephen] Booth’s explanation of Shakespearean effects would spot many concepts from her own discipline. Those include priming – when, after hearing a word, we tend more readily to recognize words that are related to it; expectation – the influence of higher-level reasoning on word recognition; and depth of processing – how varying levels of attention affect the extent of our engagement with a statement. (Shallow processing explains our predisposition to miss the problem of whether a man should be allowed to marry his widow’s sister.)”