“[The handover] will end a decade-long struggle to retrieve the missing Brod papers which, according to Israel’s National Library, were stolen 10 years ago in Tel Aviv. The documents, letters and memoirs re-emerged in 2013, when two Israelis approached the German Literary Archives in Marbach, and private collectors, with a huge collection of unpublished documents belonging to Brod.” – Yahoo! (AFP)
Blog
The Man Who Used Culture To Transform Medellín’s Most Dangerous Slum Says He Can Do The Same With Paris’s Poor Suburbs
“Thirty years ago, Medellín was the most violent, the most dangerous city in the world. Nobody wanted to go there, not even Colombians,” says Daniel Carvalho, the urban planner who launched street-art and hip-hop programs to make the notorious Comuna 13 district attractive to visitors and locals (and keep give young people something to do other than joining gangs). Now officials from Paris are consulting him on similar ideas for the French capital’s poorest banlieues. – The Observer (UK)
Making Opera With Homeless People In England’s Rust Belt
“A charity which helps tackle homelessness and mental health issues has been hailed for changing people’s lives. Streetwise Opera runs musical groups in [the North Yorkshire city of] Middlesbrough, giving the singers confidence to move on with their lives.” (video) – BBC
Iran Sentences British Council Cultural Employee To Ten Years In Prison For Alleged Spying
Aras Amiri, a 33-year-old art student with Iranian nationality and British residence, worked for the British Council (roughly the equivalent of the Alliance Française or Goethe Institut). An Iranian official speaking on state television “claimed that she had confessed to working with Britain’s foreign intelligence agency on ‘cultural infiltration’ projects.” – Artforum
Mumbai’s Royal Opera House (Yes, It Has One), Restored To Splendor And Use As An Arts Venue
The theatre, completed in 1916, was built by British and Parsi businessmen and presented Western and Indian music and spoken theatre until the 1930s, when it became a cinema. The arrival of cable TV and VCRs killed its business, and it shut and went derelict until its owners, a former maharaja and maharani, had it restored in 2017. Once again, it hosts both Indian and Western classical music and dance as well as spoken theatre. – The Hindu BusinessLine (India)
Funding Cuts Force UK Theatres To Earn More Of Their Budgets
The most recent annual survey data from NPOs found they continued to make more of their own income through ticket sales and other activity in 2017/18, with earned income representing 55% of total revenue and generating £889.6 million. This represented a 4.8% increase on the previous year. – The Stage
A NY City Ballet Star Returns – Unannounced And Under A Cloud
Brian Siebert: “In short, this rushed, business-as-usual reintroduction of Amar Ramasar won’t do, though I understand the company’s desire to downplay it.” – The New York Times
Turning On Ourselves: Indictment Of Humanities In Higher Ed Can Be Ugly, Unfair
“It’s one thing to own the ugly feelings with which one is understandably and unjustly riddled after years of hanging on by the fingernails while applying for job after job, only to be ghosted by the search committees who pronounce judgment. But it’s quite another to wield those feelings as a weapon against people who are also marginalized.” – Chronicle of Higher Education
Have Music Copyright Suits Gotten Out Of Hand?
There’s been a surge in copyright claims ever since Marvin Gaye’s family sued Robin Thicke over the single Blurred Lines in 2015. “The odds of getting sued in this day and age are so high, we’re going to get to a point where nobody can write anything – because everything will be derivative of something else. – BBC
The Pop-Up Instagrammable Experience: Is It Art?
“This is a sign of the times. Artists are understanding what audiences or the sponsors are drawn to and are looking for. They are looking for it to go viral or become an icon of that moment.” – Toronto Star