“[He] was perfectly cast. Large, broad, and jovial-seeming, a Santa of the buffet table, … the happy stout man showed that you could eat well without being frightened of eating incorrectly. … The role that Beard invented and played was vital in creating a new idea of what American cooking was.” – The New Yorker
Blog
This Year’s National Book Award Nominees
Publishers submitted a total of 1,692 books for this year’s National Book Awards: 388 in Fiction, 609 in Nonfiction, 254 in Poetry, 130 in Translated Literature, and 311 in Young People’s Literature. – National Book Awards
Of Curtain Speeches, Raising Support And Being Human
“In all cases, as nonprofits, for Pete’s sake, just do something measurably impactful without resorting to counting the number of butts in seats, how many jobs you provided, and your economic impact on the community at large. If you do, people will get it and support you. If you don’t, you’ll lead the Irrelevance Day Parade.” – 501c3 Guru
How Black Artists Are Investing In The Next Generation
Artists who have benefited either directly or indirectly from the Studio Museum’s famous residency program—as well as from an art market that is no longer undervaluing their work as much as it has in the past—are building spaces of their own to strengthen the infrastructure available to artists of color. – Artnet
Break Zoom (Theatrically)
Even “live” is up for debate or redefinition. Does “live” mean in person, breathing the same air? Or does it mean, like, live TV news, that it’s happening now, simultaneously? We’re also learning to define online spaces. Are you and I in the same space now? We’re in the same Zoom room. – Howlround
The Man Who Would Replace LACMA
“Peter Zumthor, who despises monuments, finds himself responsible for a building intended to anchor a diffuse and sporadically planned city, where the forests catch fire every fall. A year ago, when I visited him in Haldenstein, an ancient village in the low Alps where he lives and has his atelier, it seemed to him as if the project might, at the final moment, fail, and ruin his good name. He was despondent, familiarly so. “Maybe it happens, maybe it won’t,” he told me. “I always get burned.” – The New Yorker
This Year’s MacArthur “Genius” Award Winners
Known colloquially as the “genius” grant (to the annoyance of the foundation, which sees “genius” as a much different concept than creativity), this year’s fellows include writers, performing artists, scientists and academics. There is a wide range of specialties encompassed in the list. – The New York Times
The Power Books Wielded In The Middle Ages
The written word wielded power in part because of the rarity of the skills required to comprehend it, let alone compose in it. In the later Middle Ages, books were produced in increasing quantities for increasingly diverse audiences, but even then, as earlier, in Christendom, literacy was always the reserve of the few. – Lapham’s Quarterly
Tokyo’s Transparent Public Toilets Were Designed By A Pritzker Prize Winner
“Yes, these colorful, see-through stalls turn opaque when occupied. When not, you can literally see right through them. … The architect behind these one-of-a-kind Tokyo toilets is Shigeru Ban, winner of none other than the Pritzker Prize, the world’s most prestigious architectural prize. And when you take a deeper look into the work of the architects behind these transparent restrooms, the source of such creativity becomes more than obvious.” – Metropolis (Tokyo)
Why Conservatives Should Support Aid For The Arts
Arts audiences are passionate and, especially in turbulent times, hunger for the fulfillment that a transcendent performance can bring. Even skeptics of government funding for the arts should support making those experiences possible again. As no less a conservative than Winston Churchill once said, “The arts are essential to any complete national life. The State owes it to itself to sustain and encourage them.” – Washington Post