Author: Matthew Westphal

Americans Twice As Likely To Vote For Candidates Who Support Doubling Spending On Arts: Study

According to the 2018 Americans for the Arts report, “40% of Americans believe that the White House is not spending enough on nonprofit arts organizations. A majority of Americans (53%) also approve of doubling the federal government’s funding to these organizations and generally financing the arts (65%).” — Hyperallergic

Accountant Whose Theft Destroyed Literary Agency Gets Only Two Years In Prison

“Darin Webb, the bookkeeper who stole more than $3.4 million over eight years from venerable New York literary agency Donadio & Olson, was sentenced to two years in prison on Monday, less than half the 51-63 month term the government had recommended.” The judge’s reason? That Webb didn’t steal the money for himself. — Publishers Weekly

Mosaics And Paintings In Bethlehem’s Church Of The Nativity Restored For First Time In Centuries

“Over the past 15 months, experts have cleaned and repaired surviving fragments of the 12th-century masterworks, preserving 1,345 square feet (125 square metres) of what was once 21,528 square feet (2,000 square metres) of glittering gold and glass. The rest has been eaten away by wear, humidity, wars and earthquakes.” — Yahoo! (AFP)

Directors Of Major Arts Orgs Talk About Introducing Major Changes (And Dealing With People Who Hate Changes)

Indhu Rubasingham (who’s spent this year dealing with people campaigning the change of her theatre’s name from Tricycle to Kiln), Vicky Featherstone (Royal Court Theatre), Richard Eyre (he succeeded Peter Hall at the National Theatre), and Charles Saumarez Smith (ex-director of Royal Academy, national gallery, and National Portrait Gallery) discuss handling changes in direction and the challenges of succeeding a popular leader. — The Guardian

Alice Walker Under Fire For Recommending In NY Times Book Seen As Anti-Semitic

For the Times Book Review‘s “By the Book” feature, Walker cited among the books on her nightstand David Icke’s And the Truth Shall Set You Free, which allegedly cites The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Leading the criticism of Walker was Tablet magazine’s Yair Rosenberg: “The book is an unhinged antisemitic conspiracy tract written by one of Britain’s most notorious antisemites.” — The Guardian

Easter Island’s Mayor Says That Giant Statue Might Really Be Better Off In British Museum

“Pedro Edmunds Paoa said Easter Island had a ‘thousand’ of its iconic statues, known as the Moai, ‘both buried, ignored and discarded’, and lacked the means to maintain them. “Those thousand are falling apart because they are made of a volcanic stone, because of the wind and the rain are. We need global technology for their conservation.” — Reuters