“The study finds a news landscape on YouTube in which established news organizations and independent news creators thrive side by side – and consequently, one where established news organizations no longer have full control over the news Americans watch.” – Pew Research Center
Blog
V&A Museum In London To Lay Off 10% Of Staff
“The Victoria and Albert Museum is planning to make 103 retail and visitor experience staff redundant – approximately 10% of its overall workforce – with job losses in other departments set to follow. Staff were briefed on Tuesday about a process to reduce costs by £10m annually … ‘in order to secure the V&A’s survival’.” – The Guardian
Scientist Discovers Drawing Hidden Beneath Paint In ‘Mona Lisa’
“The faint traces of a charcoal underdrawing, visible thanks to multispectral analysis, are evidence of the spolvero technique, in which the artist pricks tiny holes along the outlines of the drawing and uses charcoal dust to transfer the cartoon to canvas. The discovery, published by scientist Pascal Cotte in the Journal of Cultural Heritage, was more than 15 years in the making.” – Artnet
Performance Venues, Museums, Libraries Closed Again In Montreal And Quebec City
“As of 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, performance venues in Greater Montreal, Quebec City and Chaudière-Appalaches – regions now considered ‘red zones’ for the coronavirus – must close to audiences for 28 days as part of wide-ranging new measures announced by the provincial government on Monday [amidst a second wave of infections].” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)
Singer-Songwriter-Actor Mac Davis Dead At 78
“Davis became known as the songwriter behind the Elvis Presley hits ‘In the Ghetto,’ ‘A Little Less Conversation’ and ‘Memories’ before reaching No. 1 himself on the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Baby, Don’t Get Hooked on Me’ in 1971. He soon parlayed his pop success into a [larger] career … with his own NBC variety series, The Mac Davis Show, from 1974-76, followed by … a brief span as a leading man in feature films, [starting with] the 1979 football drama North Dallas Forty.” – Variety
The Latest Music Piracy: Stream-Ripping
Called stream-ripping, it accounts for 80% of copyright infringement among the biggest piracy sites, according to a recent report by the PRS. Stream-ripping websites make money from advertisers, touting a mix of legitimate products, scams and pornography. Over the past three years, the use of it has increased by 1,390%, says the report. – BBC
The Met Opera Shutdown – Time For A Needed Reset
“If this devastating shutdown forces the Met to grapple with its role in American society and to shift the overwhelmingly traditional template of its programming, then there will have been an important upside to the crisis. The prestigious, gilded Met has hardly been a trailblazer in this regard, but it could set an example for other American opera companies and orchestras to use this time to think about — and rethink — their offerings.” – The New York Times
Carrie Mae Weems Wields Art Against COVID
There is no time for being artsy or coy, one might argue, when so many people are dying. This project also reveals a certain degree of modesty on Weems’ part — almost no one who drives past the billboards will know that an artist is responsible, as her name only appears in small letters at the bottom of each frame. – Dallas Morning News
The Writer-Diplomat Tradition
The writer-diplomat tradition, though largely ignored in the history of letters, has been critical to the development of many European and Latin American writers. Eight poets with diplomatic experience, including Octavio Paz and Czeslaw Milosz, have won the Nobel Prize for Literature. – Robert Fay
What Theatre Can Learn From Role-Play Games
“We believe that theatre artists could learn something from the collaborative storytelling techniques employed in tabletop role-playing games. As professional dramaturgs and gamers ourselves, it’s easy to see that theatre and TTRPGs share obvious points of overlap.” – Howlround