Blog

A Day In The Life Of A Ballet Dancer: Behind The Scenes With English National Ballet’s Francesca Velicu

“Rising star Velicu, who was born in Bucharest, is certainly one to keep your eye on. Earlier this year, she picked up an Olivier Award, named the winner of Outstanding Achievement in Dance for her performance in Pina Bausch’s Le Sacre du Printemps. She joined the English National Ballet in 2016 and was quickly promoted to First Artist the following year. … We caught up with her in rehearsals to find out more about what it takes to become a ballet dancer, and how she spends each day.” (video)

Uffizi Gallery Has A New ‘Raphael And Michelangelo Room’

“Room 41 is part of the rearrangement of the Uffizi collection that has been defining [director Eike] Schmidt’s vision for the museum. Next month, the museum’s three paintings by Leonardo will be installed in a nearby room. Together, these artists capture ‘a magic moment in the first decade of the 16th century when Florence was the cultural and artistic center of the world,’ Mr. Schmidt said.” Elisabetta Povoledo pays a visit.

Australia’s Largest Contemporary Art Museum To Be Built In Melbourne

“With an estimated A$1bn dollars flowing into Australia’s second largest city through cultural tourism each year, Melbourne has long-been described as the country’s cultural capital. … In a move that should cement Melbourne’s place at the top, the Victorian State Government has now announced a partnership with the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) — one of the world’s most-visited art museums — to build Australia’s largest contemporary art gallery, NGV Contemporary, in the city’s revitalised arts precinct.”

Can Art Get Us To Understand And Care About Climate Change?

“There’s no evolutionary reason for us to be able to comprehend the scale of [climate change]. The museum has to create space for strong feelings and recognize that [those feelings] are a primary pathway into climate engagement. We saw that with [Weil’s] exhibition. Visitors described themselves as feeling emotions including awe and an intense sense of responsibility.”

Why Are European Leaders Suddenly Quoting Dostoyevsky?

French President Emmanuel Macron cited Dostoyevsky’s speech about Pushkin—in which the writer makes a dramatic appeal for Russian universalism—in a press conference with Vladimir Putin in Saint Petersburg on May 24. Then, on Tuesday, the prime minister of Italy’s new populist government, Giuseppe Conte, paraphrased—or perhaps mis-paraphrased—the same Dostoyevsky speech in his first address before the Italian Senate.

The Toxic Problem Of Super Fandom

To be a member of a fandom is to take a property and embrace it like a vise. You consume it, you talk about it with fellow fans, maybe you go to conventions, maybe you write fanfic or draw fanart, and no matter what — and this is the most crucial part — you pray that, if there’s more of it, it’ll be as good as the best of what’s come before. There are polite fans who say it quietly and don’t get mad when their needs aren’t met. But, by their very nature, such fans are always going to be drowned out by the ones who, like Bobby Axelrod, declare to the world, These are my needs. What’s remarkable and dangerous is the fact that, in the past 20 years, Hollywood started feeding them. They started getting what they wanted, and they’ve never looked back.