“The locals, accused of pilfering ancient artifacts from the surrounding desert, were charged with violating the federal Archaeological Resources Protection Act and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Authorities recovered more than 40,000 artifacts, some dating to 6,000 B.C., Smithsonian Magazine reported. The federal sting — dubbed Operation Cerberus by authorities — would prove to be the match igniting long-simmering tensions across the region.”
Blog
Cuban Artists Crowdfund For A “People’s” Biennale
“The democratically minded #00Bienal will be “the Havana Biennial for everyone”, says the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, one of the main organisers of the event. The aim is to provide a platform for artists who do not have the visibility or official status to participate in a government-sponsored biennial. Street, Outsider, performance, digital and conceptual artists and photographers are all invited to submit proposals.”
Inside The Hollywood Power Structure That Tolerated Harassment
“It is impossible to say how many women might have been spared Mr. Weinstein’s alleged sexual aggression had more agents responded with the impulse to act. At C.A.A., at least eight agents had heard about Mr. Weinstein’s behavior, largely from actresses they represented, but several former senior C.A.A. agents said they were unaware of it or any formal agency response.”
Will The Gulf States’ Extravagant Cultural Projects Change The Story Of Art History?
“The museum, which opened in November, fits with a wider cultural movement in the Gulf. Over the past decade, the region has begun a sort of cultural arms race, one that counters its image as a wealthy desert with little culture or history. I.M. Pei’s Museum of Islamic Art opened in 2008 in Doha, and when it is completed in a year or so, Jean Nouvel’s desert-rose design for the National Museum of Qatar may even surpass his vision for the Louvre.”
Pittsburgh Public Theatre Names A New Artistic Director
Marya Sea Kaminski will leave her job as associate artistic director of Seattle Repertory Theatre to become the sixth artistic director in Pittsburgh Public Theater’s 44-season history, succeeding the retiring Ted Pappas.
Study: Jail Degrades Prisoners’ Critical Thinking Skills
A just-published study finds significant declines in several key areas of cognitive functioning among teenage boys who are doing time. Given that most prisoners eventually return to society, and ex-cons with poor reasoning ability and/or impulse control are unlikely to go straight, this could have widespread negative effects.
The Silent Killer: What Does Harassment In The Theatre Look Like?
“After we solicited stories about harassment from the field last month, more than 100 theatre artists from around the country sent us emails or spoke to us over the phone and in person about their experiences. It is not only women who are the targets of harassment; men and gender-nonconforming individuals also had firsthand experiences to share. Most requested anonymity, citing an industry that, compared to Hollywood, is much smaller and more localized.”
The Director And The Pharaoh: How Thomas Hoving Created The Museum Blockbuster
“The first blockbuster museum show to be so labeled, a traveling loan of funerary objects [under the title ‘Treasures of Tutankhamun’] that brought in 8 million visitors nationwide and filled Egypt’s coffers with gift-shop profits, was unprecedented. It was an ancient-art exhibit that was also a pop-culture moment … [And] no one did more to bring Tut to the States, or indeed to bring museums into the larger world of marketing and commerce, than the Metropolitan Museum’s director, Thomas P.F. Hoving.”
California Sued Over Failure To Teach Kids To Read
The suit, announced in a statement, is the first in the United States to seek recognition of the constitutional right to literacy, the lawyers said. It alleges that the state failed to intervene when students achieved low proficiency rates in reading and fell behind at the three schools, which are among the lowest performing in the state.
Emile Zola, Photographer
“Émile Zola is best known as the 19th century French author of celebrated works including Thérèse Raquin, Nana and Germinal. Now, the leader of the Naturalist literary movement is being recognised as a talented and experimental photographer with the auction of a rarely seen personal collection of pictures.”