“Yesterday, in a unanimous vote, the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority (OETA), a PBS affiliate, elected to cut ties with its thirty-year independent charitable fundraising partner, the OETA Foundation. … Their relationship has soured in a public enough fashion that the foundation believed it could take its case to court, suing OETA, its birth parent, over control of the foundation.” — Nonprofit Quarterly
Author: Matthew Westphal
NYC’s Defunct Gotham Chamber Opera Comes Back From The Dead (Sort Of)
“[GCO’s] founder, Neal Goren, is back in business — thanks to an unusual collaboration between his new company, Catapult Opera, and Peak Performances at Montclair State University, which will present four of Catapult’s productions.” — The New York Times
Hartford Stage Names New Artistic Director: Melia Bensussen
“Raised in Mexico City, widely traveled, and based in the Boston area since the 1980s, Bensussen is just the sixth artistic director in Hartford Stage’s 55-year history. She is the first woman to hold the position,” in which she succeeds Tony-winning director Darko Trasnjak. — Hartford Courant
Mary Kay Stearns, One Of TV’s Very First Sitcom Stars, Dead At 93
Mary Kay and Johnny, starring Stearns and her husband (who wrote the scripts) as a couple not unlike themselves (prefiguring such series as I Love Lucy), told comic tales of a banker and his wife — and, once Mary Kay became pregnant, their child. — The New York Times
US Is Now Out Of UNESCO For Second Time
As of New Year’s Day, the United States, along with Israel, officially left the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. The trigger for this withdrawal, which was announced 15 months ago, was UNESCO giving World Heritage Site status to the ancient West Bank city of Hebron — as a Palestinian city. (The Reagan administration withdrew the US from the organization in 1984; George W. Bush brought the country back in in 2002.) — The Architect’s Newspaper
Bolsonaro Eliminates Brazil’s Culture Ministry
“Just days into his tenure …, [new president Jair Bolsonaro] has folded it into the newly created ministry of citizenship, a portfolio that now includes social policy, sports, and culture.” And the chief of this new ministry has several controversies following him from the outgoing administration of Michel Temer. — Artnet
Scotland Wants To Display Stone From Great Pyramid; Egypt Says, Prove It’s Not Looted
“The casing stone is from the Great Pyramid of Giza and will be exhibited at the [National Museum of Scotland] for the first time since it came to Edinburgh in 1872. … However, Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities have said they will demand the stone is returned to Egypt if the museum cannot provide documentation that it was legally imported into the country.” — The Scotsman
Is It Possible To Teach Creative Writing With Value-Neutral Language?
Helen Betya Rubinstein: “I am convinced that we can teach creative writing without the language of failure or success, criticism or praise. … Even praise, like any other drug, will eventually poison art. Like criticism, it makes us forget what art is for.” — Literary Hub
Recent Listening: Dave McKenna In Madison
Dave McKenna In Madison (Arbors)
McKenna (1930-2008) breathes life into this album, recorded in the early 1990s at Farley’s House of Pianos in Madison, Wisconsin and only recently released. — Doug Ramsey
This Florida Mall Aims To Become An Art Destination
“A few malls have art, a very few have good art, but almost none have the button-pushers and immersive installations that the Aventura Mall features. Artists on view include pioneers or buzzy contemporary players like Louise Bourgeois, Wendell Castle, Lawrence Weiner, Julian Opie, and Daniel Arsham.” — Architectural Digest