“Arts Council England has been forced to cut its budget for 2018-22 by £156m and completely restructure several funding streams following a collapse in Lottery sales.”
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The Taj Mahal Is Getting Its First-Ever Deep Cleaning – With A Mud Bath
“For more than 350 years, monsoon rains in Agra, the bustling city where the monument sits, were enough to wash dirt off the structure’s walls. But pollution has worsened over the last couple of decades, and parts of the marble facade have turned yellow and black. … Cleaning the monument is time-consuming and challenging. To remove discoloration, workers suspended on scaffolding are caking Fuller’s earth – a mud paste that absorbs dirt, grease and animal excrement.”
As Local News Outlets Disappear, Libraries Step Into The Breach
“In some cities, libraries are partnering with established news sources, teaming up in Dallas to train high schoolers in news gathering or hosting a satellite studio in Boston for the public radio station WGBH. In San Antonio, the main library offers space to an independent video news site … In smaller communities starved for local coverage, some libraries are playing a hands-on role, even if it is an expansion of traditional duties.”
Coco Schumann, Jazz Guitarist Who Survived The Holocaust, Dead At 93
“[He] performed alongside Ella Fitzgerald and Marlene Dietrich during a decades-long musical career, but who gave his most consequential performances as an inmate of the Nazi concentration camps where, he said, music saved his life.”
Why Did Instagram Censor This 26-Year-Old Poem?
“‘I want a dyke for president,’ artist Zoe Leonard writes in her 1992 poem. Inspired by the author Eileen Myles’ run for president, and written at the height of the AIDS epidemic, the poem, ‘I want a president,’ has since been shown in museums, galleries, and outdoor installations around the world. More than a quarter-century after it was written, the poem made its way to Instagram – and became the center of a controversy over censorship on social media.”
Sundance 2018: Gay Conversion Therapy Drama Wins Grand Jury Prize
“Directed by Desiree Akhavan and starring Chloë Grace Moretz, the adaptation of Emily M Danforth’s 2012 novel [The Miseducation of Cameron Post] secured admiring reviews … for its compassionate study of Christian teenagers struggling with religious disapproval and the injunction to ‘pray away the gay’.”
Marin Alsop Named Artistic Director Of Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
“‘I’m very honoured to be the first [woman in the post],’ she admitted, ‘but I’m also rather shocked that we can be in this year, in this century, and there can still be ‘firsts’ for women.'”
Dancers Are Quitting English National Ballet, Citing ‘Hostile Work Environment’ And Boss’s Workplace Romance
“English National Ballet has lost a third of its dancers in two years amid claims of verbal abuse and a hostile working environment, with some former dancers claiming they felt pressured to work while injured … Sources said the dancers held Tamara Rojo, the artistic director, responsible for the company’s culture.” Adding to the problems, say some dancers, is Rojo’s relationship with dancer Isaac Hernández.
Indians Rioted Over This Movie Before It Opened – And People Who Saw It Say There’s Nothing Objectionable In It
“Moviegoers streamed out of heavily guarded movie theaters saying they liked the sets, the music and the grand Bollywood style of Padmaavat, a lavish saga about a legendary Hindu queen who may never have existed. But they couldn’t understand why so many people had violently objected to it.”
The Unknown, Gorgeous, Endangered Frescoes Of Rajasthan
“India’s Shekhawati province is in the northeastern Rajasthani desert and more than seven hours by car from Delhi. The region covers almost 5,000 square miles and hosts an estimated 2,000 frescoed buildings built from the 17th to the early 20th century. Many of them are abandoned and most are breathtakingly beautiful. Arguably the world’s largest collection of outdoor painting, Shekhawati is a treasure trove of startling architecture and adornment.”