The country’s cinema has a redoubtable history (think of Kieślowski and Wajda), famous auteurs at their peak (Paweł Pawlikowski, Agnieszka Holland), and an impressive younger generation. And they’re all facing the culture war being waged by the Law & Justice Party that heads the government. As Pawlikowski puts it, “we have a common enemy, so there’s a sense of common purpose.” – The Guardian
Author: Matthew Westphal
For First Time, Two Women Win Pritzker Prize, Architecture’s Nobel
Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, principals of Grafton Architecture in Dublin, have already racked up some impressive awards in recent years: the World Architecture Festival’s World Building of the Year (for the Università Luigi Bocconi’s school of economics in Milan), the RIBA International Prize (for UTEC in Lima), and this year’s RIBA Royal Gold Medal for Architecture; they also curated the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. – The Guardian
‘If You Give A Mouse A Cookie’ — Beloved Children’s Book Or Cautionary Tale About Welfare Dependency?
If you think that’s a ridiculous question, the woman who wrote this article agrees with you. But it became a question nonetheless, thanks in part to (no surprise here) the American Enterprise Institute. Rebecca Christie explains how this happened and (for those who haven’t read the book) just why it’s ridiculous. – Slate
No Mystery!
When dealing with new communities, staff and board members of nonprofit arts organizations are sometimes puzzled when things they thought would work crash and burn. Often, there is really no mystery. – Doug Borwick
Good news about Mrs. T
I’m overjoyed to report that her condition has improved significantly since yesterday. The internal bleeding has stopped, she is resting comfortably, and her doctors are completely satisfied with her progress to date. – Terry Teachout
Two Veteran Chicago Tribune Reporters Search For Someone To Buy The Paper
Late last year, a one-third share of the Tribune was purchased by Alden Global Capital, an equity firm notorious for buying newspapers and stripping them bare. Contractual issues prevent Alden from acquiring a controlling share until June — so a pair of Tribune investigative reporters is using every tool they have to find some other, more sympathetic buyer. Are they having any success? – The New Yorker
Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s ‘The Gates’, 15 Years Later
Kriston Capps reviews the 26-year-long process of convincing the City of New York to allow the project to happen in Central Park — and allows as how, when it was over, the biggest question was why anyone had ever objected. – CityLab
Two Playwrights Embedded In A Newsroom. They Had To Rewrite Their Play When The Paper Started Laying Off Reporters.
“Janielle Kastner and Brigham Mosley thought they had finished writing their play about journalism when The Dallas Morning News announced layoffs in January 2019. They had spent more than a year and hundreds of hours embedded in the newsroom, interviewing and shadowing the paper’s staff to come up with what Mosley calls ‘a really beautiful, clean play.'” – Dallas Morning News
Despite Ten Years Of Economic Disaster, Athens Has Become A Hotbed Of Live Theatre
Michael Billington: “A decade described as a manageable catastrophe saw an explosion in theatre, even if artists didn’t always get paid. You can see the effects today in that money is tight but ticket prices are low. … Where does one start in such a hyperactive scene?” – The Guardian
The Very Tricky Art Of Making Five-Minute Series Episodes For Snapchat
Quibi has been getting all the press for its plans to make video series expressly to be watched on smartphones. But Snapchat has been doing that for years, creating 95 Snap Originals (as they’re called) so far. It isn’t easy to do; short running times and vertical screens are only the start of the challenges. – New York Magazine