“Footage released by Orthodox activist group Bozhaya Volya, or God’s Will, showed activists unfurling a banner reading ‘God created the world’ on the building’s façade while others threw leaflets bearing creationist slogans into the lobby of a popular destination for school trips and family outings in the capital. ‘God created kittens!’ read one leaflet visible in the video.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Walker Art Center’s Film Interns Resign, Charging ‘Callous Negligence’
“In a move designed to protest staff and program cuts in Walker Art Center’s film and video division, the department’s three interns resigned Wednesday afternoon … accusing the museum’s management of ‘general disrespect towards a longstanding, talented, and loyal staff’ and ‘callous negligence’ that ‘was felt with particular sting in the Film/Video department’.”
Minnesota Orchestra Cancels More Concerts, Through End Of April
“‘We’ve intentionally not cancelled the rest of the season because we want to send a very clear signal to the public and to our musicians and the union that we really want to negotiate and find a settlement,’ [orchestra CEO Michael] Henson said. Musicians have been locked out since Oct. 1.”
How Can The Minnesota Orchestra Lockout Keep Dragging On Like This?
Frank Almond: “But what I find most amazing is that this is Minneapolis, a city with a supposedly literate, highly-educated, culturally aware populace, and an economy that (while not ideal) is certainly able to sustain (and has sustained) major cultural institutions for decades. … Could anyone have possibly imagined that the MOA Board and arts community would toss it away?”
Fact-Checking In Cold Blood
Ben Yagoda found the notes of the fact-checker who reviewed Capote’s work for The New Yorker, where In Cold Blood was initially serialized.
Why Doesn’t British TV Air Theatre Anymore?
“In early 1965 Granada produced Thomas Middleton’s Women Beware Women for primetime ITV, starring Diana Rigg. … If it’s a shock to think of Jacobean drama on primetime, it’s just one measure of how seriously television in the 1960s took theatre – and how, today, it fails to.”
Antique Chinese Bowl Bought For $3, Sold For $2.2M
“An ancient Chinese bowl that dates from the Northern Song dynasty sold for $2.2 million on Tuesday at a Sotheby’s auction in New York. What makes the sale particularly noteworthy is that the sellers had reportedly purchased the bowl for just $3.”
Elaine Stritch Is Giving Up On New York
The 88-year-old Broadway legend is doing one last show at the Carlyle Hotel, where she has been a longtime resident, and moving home to Michigan. “I’m just sick of the competition in New York, the feeling that I always have to rehearse to keep up my performance. I don’t feel like rehearsing, even though it should be my favorite thing in the world to do.”
Who’s Australia’s Best Orchestra? A Blind-Listening Test
A panel of 15 musicians and critics listened to collected recordings of concert broadcasts from 2012 by the country’s six state orchestras, labeled only A through F. And the winner is …
Iraq War, Ten Years On: The Damage To Art And Antiquities
“Major archaeological sites have been looted or left neglected and a generation has been denied access to museums, nearly all of which have been closed. At a time when Iraq is in desperate need of unity, its illustrious past is being forgotten.”