“Despite its echoes of Paris’s architectural past, Frank Gehry’s latest museum project – the Fondation Louis Vuitton, opening this fall in the Bois de Boulogne – is like nothing the city has seen before … Paul Goldberger looks at the genesis of LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault’s partnership with Gehry, and the triumphant result.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Day I Broke Into James Baldwin’s House On The French Riviera
“I had been told that it was derelict and vacant; that after Baldwin’s death in 1987 there had been legal disputes about who in fact owned the eighteenth-century Provençal building (Baldwin thought he did). The rusty padlock on the austere gates and the broken buzzer confirmed that the house was unoccupied. I glanced furtively around to check that no one was watching and prepared to scale the wall.”
If We Can’t Censor Our Summer Reading List, We’ll Have No List At All, Says School Board
“The Cape Henlopen [Delaware] School Board nuked its entire summer reading list to keep kids from reading The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Emily M Danforth’s acclaimed YA novel about a gay teenager coming of age in Montana.”
Radio Disney Gives Up On Over-The-Air Transmission
After finding out that only 18% of its listeners tune in via AM or FM radio, the network’s execs have decided to sell all but one of its 24 U.S. stations. (Radio Disney will keep its L.A.-based flagship station, which will produce and distribute the national digital and satellite feed.)
Does The World Need Another Classical Music Nonprofit? (Well, It Needs This One)
“[The American Music Project’s] goal is simple: to broaden the exposure of American classical composers to the public at large. But does the world really need another classical music nonprofit? AMP’s founder Johnson clearly thinks so, and his reasons for feeling this way are compelling.”
The Two Things Students Really Want From Teachers
William Deresiewicz: Not, as people commonly believe, to entertain them in class and hand out easy A’s. That’s what they retreat to, once they see that nothing better is on offer. … They don’t want fun and games; they want the real thing.”
So What’s In The New Met Opera Labor Agreement? A Few Surprises
“The unions representing the orchestra and chorus recognized the financial fragility of the opera house and agreed to their first pay cut in decades, while management abandoned its toughest demands and agreed to make significant reductions of its own, with independent oversight.” (emphasis added)
At The World Hip Hop Dance Championships
“Hip-hop dance is not going global – it’s been global for years … The global reach was evident not only in the winners of the major world dance crew competitions” – groups fro Japan, Canada and the Philippines – “but also by the fact that a dominant team, New Zealand’s the Royal Family, was so popular that it had a special performance Saturday night.” (includes video)
Court Approves Corcoran Gallery Merger
D.C. Superior Court Judge Robert Okun: “This court finds it painful to issue an order that effectively dissolves the Corcoran as an independent entity. But this court would find it even more painful to deny the relief requested and allow the Corcoran to face its likely demise – the likely dissolution of the college, the closing of the gallery, and the dispersal of the gallery’s entire collection.”
Beyond The Merger: Five Additional Points From The Corcoran Ruling
“Hidden within the ruling are several other important findings” – among them that the D.C. attorney general isn’t finished with the Corcoran just yet.