Last year, the headache for this world music festival was that performers were either denied UK visas or found the process of trying to get them too tortuous to deal with. This year, organizers say, in addition to that problem, artists are afraid they’ll get to the EU but won’t be allowed to cross the Channel. – The Guardian
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A Crowdsourced Archive To ‘Provide The Foundation’ For Rebuilding Aleppo
The project, called Aleppo Built Heritage Documentation and based in Berlin, “[has] assembled the largest repository of information on Syrian heritage outside the country — more than 200,000 photographs, as well as archaeological reports, maps, plans, drawings and oral testimonies.” – The Art Newspaper
Philippe Vergne, Pushed Out Of Directorship Of LA MOCA, Lands New Job
The 53-year-old curator, who left Los Angeles after the controversy over his firing of chief curator Helen Molesworth (among other troubles), will be director of the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art in Porto, Portugal’s second city. His predecessor there left last September after another controversy, this one over a Robert Mapplethorpe show. – ARTnews
An Author Reflects On The Agony Of Second-Book Syndrome
Hannah Beckerman: “Six years and many thousands of unpublished words later, my second novel is finally about to hit bookshops. Except that it’s not really my second novel. It is, in truth, my fifth. Because for the past six years, I’ve suffered from that widespread and yet rarely acknowledged creative affliction: second novel syndrome.” – Irish Times
Art Institute Of Seattle Faces Closure
That’s unless someone buys the troubled institution. “According to a Seattle Times report from last October, in 2017 a faith-based nonprofit called Dream Center Foundation bought the Art Institutes franchise, as well as South University and Argosy University. The company then started closing Art Institutes all around the country. Of 31 total AIs, only 18 remain. Going into this fall, the Times reports, the Seattle campus had laid off all but 3 full-time professors.” – The Stranger
A Closer Look At Netflix’s Business Model
Netflix is not in the business of selling individual movies to many different customers. Instead, it’s in the business of selling many different movies to individual customers—in bundles. Bundled subscriptions allow Netflix to practice a different kind of price discrimination from the movie studios. The company doesn’t have to figure out how much a consumer values any individual movie on the service. The bundle does that for them—very profitably. – Harvard Business Review
Red Fish, Blue Fish, Racist Fish? A Dr. Seuss Debate Breaks Out
That tension between Seuss and Seuss-free classrooms is emblematic of a bigger debate playing out across the country — should we continue to teach classic books that may be problematic, or eschew them in favor of works that more positively represent people of color? – NPR
Should Historical Art And Artifacts Be Returned To The Country Where They Were Created? (A Four-Way Debate)
Author Tiffany Jenkins (Keeping Their Marbles) argues no; Africanist Marie Rodet argues yes, “as part of a reparation process”; anthropology museum director Nicholas Thomas says, in so many words, “It depends”; diplomatic historian Ioannis Stefanidis illustrates just how complicated the question can get with the example of the very-well-traveled “Horses of Saint Mark.” – History Today
Departures: André Previn And Ira Gitler
In interviews, I found Previn bemused by the difficulty that critics, and sometimes his fellow musicians, encountered when they tried to strike a balance in considering his variegated musical personas.
Gitler was an invaluable chronicler of the crucial years when jazz made the transition from the swing era into bebop and a model of clarity. – Doug Ramsey
Recent Listening: The Bill Mays Trio Is Back
Bill Mays Trio Live At COTA
Pianist Mays recently reassembled his trio for a concert and their first CD release in more than ten years. Mays, bassist Martin Wind and drummer Matt Wilson came together in a live performance at last Fall’s COTA (Celebration Of The Arts) festival in the Poconos. – Doug Ramsey