Can we stop calling it the “Man Booker” after the Man Group pulls out? Yes, but, well, we may be part of the problem: “Relations between Man Group and Booker organisers had been strained for some time, with a company source suggesting they felt underappreciated.” – BBC
Blog
The Fight Over Repatriating African Skulls From European Museums
And not just skulls, but also entire skeletons: “For centuries, African bones have lay in boxes all across Europe, placed under microscopes or displayed in some attempt to better understand the role of humans through scientific endeavours.” – VICE Canada
Author Angie Thomas Says Books Can Help Spark Social Change
But not if the books don’t get published – and, says the author of the wildly popular novel The Hate U Give (which also became a popular 2018 movie), that’s one of the publishing industry’s challenges. – The Guardian (UK)
An Actor From Mexico Has Been Denied Visas To Come To The U.S. For Oscars Publicity
Director Alfonso Cuarón and Netflix sent letters to assure authorities that actor Jorge Antonio Guerrero Martínez, who played Fermín in the movie Roma, wasn’t going to the U.S. to work but rather to give interviews – but the letters went unread. “I tried giving it to the consul. They grabbed the paper and literally just returned my passport through the teller window. … If they don’t want to read it, then it’s going to be very difficult.” – Los Angeles Times
Question: A New Weekly AJ Highlights Newsletter?
I’d like to ask for your help. Our weekly ArtsJournal newsletter lists all the stories we collect each week on the website. It’s a long list – about 140 stories each week. We’re wondering if it’s a bit unwieldy? And we are wondering if we ought to begin offering a new weekly newsletter that boils it down a bit and offers highlights from the stories we’ve collected. That’s where we’re asking for your help. Could you take this short – promise, only four questions – survey to help us see if there’s interest in the idea? Thanks.
[Take the Survey]
– Doug McLennan, Editor
Using Dance To Provoke Conversation [AUDIO]
Choreographer Donald Byrd, artistic director of Seattle’s Spectrum Dance Company, creates dances that spark discussions about the magnificence, and the problems, of African Americans in a racist country. – PRI
Can Happiness Be Measured (By Economists)?
Some are trying. One, who has written a book called Happiness, thinks that “happiness should become the goal of policy and the progress of national happiness should be measured and analyzed.” – LitHub
Lamia al-Gailani Werr, Archaeologist Who Helped Rescue Iraqi Art, Has Died At 80
Werr, an expert on Mesopotamian stone seals, helped assess the damage to the Iraqi National Museum and its art, and also helped “catalog the objects that remained, found storage facilities for them and acted as an intermediary between the museum staff and occupying forces.” – The New York Times
The Newseum Is About To Be Homeless
It was a bad – even terrible – week for journalism, with layoffs left and right and center. Then Johns Hopkins bought the D.C. building that houses the Newseum. – NPR
That Shredded Banksy Will Rotate Through Galleries In A German Museum
Despite the fact that the shredding didn’t work as planned, the buyer agreed to purchase it – and now it’s going to the Stuttgart Staatsgalerie. But “Banksy being Banksy, it would not do for the work to simply hang on the wall where anyone can see it! … The museum plans to continually move the location of the Banksy work throughout the Old Masters and Modern masterworks collection.” – Hyperallergic