A whole host of new Scrabble words relate to current lifestyle trends including plogging (picking up litter while jogging), sharenting (sharing news and images of one’s children on social media), babymoon (early period of new parenthood), dancecore (type of electronic dance music), zen (state of calm attentiveness), fleek (used in the phrase ‘on fleek’, stylish) and bizjet (small aeroplane used by business people). – Irish Times
Blog
A Few Minutes Alone With “The Last Supper” – Surprisingly Affecting
Phil Kennicott: “I’m lucky to have been given a little extra time at “The Last Supper” and even, for a few minutes, time without other tourists, and the experience is deeply moving. I’m surprised by this because “The Last Supper” is famous for being but a shadow of what Leonardo put on the walls about the same time Columbus sailed for America… Yet there it is, glowing on the wall, far more precise in its communication than anything I expected during a two-week trip looking at art in Italy.” – Washington Post
Survey: People Say They’re More Productive If They Listen To Music While They Work
“In the survey, 52% of respondents said they’re happier when listening to a favorite song (the other 48% were listening to Ed Sheeran), while 58% said that music helps boost their mood at work. That’s an important detail when you consider that, in a separate study, almost half of Americans admitted to crying in the workplace.” – Fast Company
A Seattle Theatre Has Plan To Grow Audience: Give Away All The Tickets
“Frankly, I’m sick and tired of seeing empty seats in our theaters,” says Intiman Theatre’s artistic director Phillip Chavira. “I think we do a disservice in the nonprofit arts: We ask you to participate in this amazing art, but ask you for a fee.” – KUOW
We’re Awash In Conspiracy Theories. It’s Hard Not To Get Addicted To Them
America’s mythology seems to encourage alternate theories. Independent thinking. Distrust of the conventional. Following the bread crumbs. It’s just, well, so bad for us… – The Guardian
Creative Versus Not Creative? Start With The Culture
“Why does it actively hurt to work in some places?” I have asked myself. “And why doesn’t it hurt to work in others?” I wanted to know what the organizations behind the positive spaces were doing that made me feel valued, respected, and like my presence mattered. How have these places reinvented what professionalism means under the confines of the non-profit industrial complex? – HowlRound
Why Anti-Money-Laundering Legislation Has Art Dealers Worried
No, it’s not because they want to launder money. “While these requirements could have significant benefits in terms of helping to curtail money laundering by bringing greater oversight to an often opaque art market, the law could also burden dealers and auction houses with onerous administrative and reporting duties that will be especially challenging for smaller and mid-size galleries.” – Artsy
Bred at The Shed: Three Boundary-Busting Inaugural Commissions
CultureGrrl takes in Reich Richter Pärt; Trisha Donnelly’s untitled, unexplained, and almost unlit installation; and Norma Jeane Baker of Troy. – Lee Rosenbaum
Not as deep as it seems
I had a range of thoughts about Ellen Reid and Roxie Perkins’s opera p r i s m, which won the Pulitzer Prize. And it made me long for the days, decades ago, when artistic music-theater pieces had a much bigger audience. – Greg Sandow
Me, John Kander, and the opera/music theater coup d’état
Here’s some history of a 1980s funding coup pulled off by opera companies, theater companies, and Broadway producers — one that made a huge difference for some great artists who had been caught between the funding silos. – Greg Sandow