“More Americans are buying Bibles they read less — if ever — and reading Bibles they didn’t buy because they’re dipping into verses here and there online …, according to the findings in the 10th annual State of the Bible study from the American Bible Society and the Barna Group. And the report’s co-author … points optimistically to soaring use of digital apps and audio Bibles.” – Publishers Weekly
Blog
Finally: Arts Organizations Have Some Fun
One of the primary benefits of this pandemic is that artists and arts organizations were all forced to experiment – even though they didn’t feel ready. This wide-spread spirit of experimentation is itself an achievement. I don’t care that it took a collective “spaghetti at the wall” approach; we really needed a shakeup. – Hannah Grannemann
TV Misses Movie Ads. But Do The Movies Need TV Any More?
TV needs the movies. But as the pandemic has forced the closure of countless movie theaters, new questions have surfaced about how much the movies will need TV. – Variety
Illegal Gold Hunters Obliterate 2,000-Year-Old Archaeological Site
“When a team of archaeologists deep in the deserts of Sudan arrived at the ancient site of Jabal Maragha last month, they thought they were lost. The site had vanished. But they hadn’t made a mistake. In fact, gold-hunters with giant diggers had destroyed almost all sign of the two millennia-old site.” – Yahoo! (AFP)
A Cultural History Of Chairs
In the centuries prior to western industrialisation, stools or benches were common household furnishings, but chairs were special-occasion objects, usually the exclusive property of the wealthy and powerful. The era of mass manufacturing in the 19th century, and the rapid social and economic changes that came with it, brought chairs into daily life for the first time. Industrial jobs, with their repetitive tasks, required a seated posture, and the high demand for chairs that this created in turn made them available and affordable to middle-class people in Europe and the US. – The Guardian
This Ballet Company Is Canceling ‘Nutcracker’ But Not Its Fall Season
The Richmond Ballet is foregoing its annual cashflow lifeline because the piece simply involves too many people to be done safely while the pandemic continues. But the company’s Studio Series will begin performances on Sept. 15, with maximum audience reduced from 250 to 70 and both viewers and dancers wearing masks. – Richmond Times-Dispatch
What If Museums Aren’t Up For Reform?
What if adaptation is not what is needed? What if we are asking the wrong questions? We are asking how to integrate our structures: staff, collections, exhibition schedules, board membership. What if the most important questions cannot be asked of others, but only of ourselves? – Hyperallergic
‘I Do Not Envy Ms. Berg Her Position’ — New Director Of Jewish Museum Berlin Begins An All-Too-Sensitive Job
After thirty years at the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam, Hetty Berg is taking the helm of an institution which is, thanks to history, both highly visible and loaded with baggage. The museum’s situation is even more fraught than usual now because of two thorny issues in Germany: the return of anti-Semitism and the BDS movement, a controversy over which cost Berg’s predecessor his job. – The New York Times
A Need For Boldness In Rethinking The Arts
We should be deeply skeptical of Trumpian fantasies of business-as-usual on the horizon. There is evidence that the pandemic, when it comes to attending live entertainment events, is changing consumer habits. The lockdown is strengthening two old choke holds on live theater’s existence — convenience and price point. – ArtsFuse
Drop Local Content Quotas For Australian TV Networks And Industry Will Be Wrecked, Say Producers
Current licensing rules for free-to-air commercial TV broadcasters in Australia require a set number of hours of original, locally produced drama, nonfiction/news and children’s programming each year. Those broadcasters are lobbying the conservative national government to eliminate those rules entirely, but even their “fallback” position, accepting a “simplified” quota system, would see spending on Australian programming fall by half and the loss of up to 4,600 jobs, says Screen Producers Australia. – The Guardian