— by a sizable margin, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. “The voting process [for the Great American Read] wasn’t terribly scientific … but there are themes among the final 10: They’re largely geared at young readers, nine of the top-voted authors are white, and seven are women. Half are Americans, and the only living writers among them are [J.K.] Rowling and [Diana] Gabaldon.”
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Intact 2,400-Year-Old Shipwreck, World’s Oldest, Found In Black Sea
“The 75-foot-long ship … appears similar to merchant vessels depicted on ancient Greek vases. A small piece of the wreck was raised and radiocarbon dated to around the fifth century B.C., a time when Greek city-states were frequently trading between the Mediterranean and their colonies along the Black Sea coast.”
Florida Cut Its Arts Funding By 90%. Here’s How Arts Groups In Tampa Bay Are Coping
No major organizations have shut down, though programming has been seriously cut back, as Andrew Meacham reports. Local governments are chipping in what little they can, and philanthropists have stepped up as a stopgap, but long-term survival is a real question.
Painter Harold Gregor Dead At 89
“Gregor first gained national renown in the 1970s within the Photorealism and Abstract Expressionism movements, and his landscapes regularly feature vibrant colors and skewed perspectives. He often broke down his body of work into five categories: ‘Illinois flatscapes,’ ‘Illinois landscapes,’ ‘Illinois colorscapes,’ ‘trail paintings,’ and ‘vibrascapes.'”
Police Resume Search For ‘World’s Most Wanted’ Painting, A Caravaggio Stolen 49 Years Ago
The Nativity with San Lorenzo and San Francesco was cut from its frame in a Palermo church in 1969, and its theft is number two on the FBI’s list of unsolved art crimes. Now the Italian carabinieri have announced that they believe the painting is still intact and somewhere in Eastern Europe.
Melbourne International Arts Festival Breaks Box Office Record
“More than 100,000 people bought tickets to events during the 19-day festival, with the average “core audience” member attending three or four shows.” Total box office revenue was more than A$3.5 million.
New York City Allocates $198 Million To Culture Spending – Largest Ever
977 cultural organizations throughout New York City will benefit from the $43.9 million in grants. In 2014, the DCLA provided $31.3 million for cultural programs — 2019 represents a 40% increase.
Ancient Greek Sculptures Were Gaudily Colored. So Why Do We Think They’re Supposed To Be White?
“It’s like the best-kept secret that’s not even a secret. Saying you’ve seen these sculptures when you’ve seen only the white marble is comparable to somebody coming from the beach and saying they’ve seen a whale because there was a skeleton on the beach.”
Woman Rustles Candy During Mahler Performance, Fight Ensues
As Andris Nelsons, an eminent Latvian conductor, coaxed the quiet notes from the string section of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, a woman in the balcony rustled a bag of gum, the Sydsvenskan newspaper reported. A young man sitting next to her glared a few times and then lost his patience. He snatched the bag from her and threw it onto the floor.
Why Do We Tend To Particularly Distrust Experts?
The US has had a long history of mistrust in highly educated professionals, but we seem to have shifted to a situation in which expertise has become both a disqualification and a reason for attack.