Richard Lawson: “If the reason for my hesitancy to go to a restaurant or, when New York theaters are open, go see a movie is safety, then is it a bit, I don’t know, morally compromised to review a movie that is coming out, thus offering a tacit encouragement for people to go watch the thing, out where it’s still dangerous?” – Vanity Fair
Author: Matthew Westphal
Was Last Summer’s ‘South Pacific’ At The Aspen Festival Racist?
A number of students playing in it thought so — and they felt dismissed, stonewalled, and sometimes threatened when they brought their concerns to festival management. (One student, not long after meeting with administrators, got a message from his private teacher saying, “You need to apologize for the sake of your career.”) – Van
The Nonprofit That Sends Books To Young Prisoners — And Pushes To Abolish Prisons
“We do not think we should exist, because we do not believe prisons should exist,” says a member of Liberation Library, founded in 2015 in Chicago and serving incarcerated young people in Illinois, “but as long as they do, we will continue sending books to young people inside.” – Vogue
Applause Is The Crucial Thing We Lack In Performances Without An Audience
“So reflexive is applause, it can be easy to forget how powerful it is, what makes it important enough to fake” in performances and sports events without live audiences. “Applause is a marvel of atonal expressiveness. A spontaneous projection of unity. And much like the art it responds to, we are worse off without it; it’ one of those things we do to make us less afraid of each other.” – The Washington Post
Bill Arnett, Dead At 81, Brought Unknown Southern Black Artists To The World’s Attention
Among the artists whose works he bought, exhibited, and donated to museums (and to some of whom he paid regular stipends) were Thornton Dial Sr., Lonnie Holley, Bessie Harvey, Mose Tolliver, and the quilters of Gee’s Bend, Alabama — and he would compare their art to that of Rauschenberg, Johns and de Kooning. His efforts did not go without criticism, though, including accusations of white paternalism and enthusiasm to the point of pushiness. – The New York Times
What Came Out Of The First-Ever ‘Opera Hack’? This
“Just over a year ago, San Diego Opera gathered 40 opera industry artists and cutting-edge technology designers from around the country for a first-of-its-kind Opera Hack weekend, with the goal of finding 21st century ways to modernize the 400-year-old art form. On Wednesday, the public finally got a look at the three ideas that earned the green light to move forward.” – The San Diego Union-Tribune
Old Dutch Master Painting Stolen For Third Time In 32 Years
Frans Hals’s Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer (1626) was taken by robbers from a small museum south of Utrecht in 1988 and was not recovered for three years; it was pilfered again in 2011 and was missing for six months. At around 3:30 Wednesday morning, thieves got it again. Amsterdam-based Arthur Brand, the world’s only star art detective, says it was likely “stolen to order.” – BBC
Major Broadway Theater Operator Sues Insurers For Coronavirus Payments
“Jujamcyn Theaters, the operator of five Broadway houses, has sued its insurers for denying it millions of dollars that the theater company says it deserves as payment for the losses suffered during the monthslong coronavirus pandemic shutdown.” – The New York Times
Bolsonaro Gov’t Is Dismantling South America’s Largest Film And TV Archive
The Cinemateca Brasileira in São Paulo houses more than 250,000 rolls of film and employed some of the continent’s best film-restoration technicians. Over the 19 months since Bolsonaro abolished Brazil’s Ministry of Culture, his government has fired the technical staff, stopped paying other employees and then fired them as well, terminated the contract with the foundation that managed the archive, and left it without security, air conditioning, or fire protection. – Artforum
Sales Of America’s All-Time Bestselling Book Are Down, But Reading Of That Book Is Up
“More Americans are buying Bibles they read less — if ever — and reading Bibles they didn’t buy because they’re dipping into verses here and there online …, according to the findings in the 10th annual State of the Bible study from the American Bible Society and the Barna Group. And the report’s co-author … points optimistically to soaring use of digital apps and audio Bibles.” – Publishers Weekly