“The single most important element seems to be the ability to inspire awe. In 2010, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania examined the New York Times’s list of most shared articles and deduced that readers sought an ’emotion of self-transcendence, a feeling of admiration and elevation even in the face of something greater than the self’. Physics, and astrophysics in particular, seem well suited to this, but only a rare group of individuals has the ability, or the inclination, to bring about transcendence.”
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Indianapolis Museum Of Art – The Old Museum Versus The New Museum
For some, museum director Charles Venable is “a visionary who is facing the IMA’s fiscal challenges with a new focus on making the museum relevant to more people, including families, couples and millennials looking for experiences. But to critics, Venable is the man who has turned the IMA into a members-only club, de-emphasizing art and accessibility in favor of flowers, food and fun.”
Groundbreaking Poet John Ashbery, 90
“Ashbery’s early work was mostly known in avant-garde circles, but his arrival as a major figure in American literature was signaled in 1976, when he became the only writer to win the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award in the same year, for his collection “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror.” The title poem of the volume is a 15-page meditation on the painting of the same name by Parmigianino, the Italian Renaissance artist.”
Tech Giants Recruit “Brand Name” Teachers
“Their ranks are growing as public schools increasingly adopt all manner of laptops, tablets, math teaching sites, quiz apps and parent-teacher messaging apps. The corporate courtship of these teachers brings with it profound new conflict-of-interest issues for the nation’s public schools.”
Inside Houston’s Flooded Alley Theatre – “The Worst Possible Thing”
What starts off as a sensation of the nose and throat soon turns into a full-body experience — a dizzying mixture of rotting wood, rotting paper, infested carpet, swamp-soaked chairs, sewage, bacteria and humidity. The lobby had been entirely submerged in slimy, green-blue-black water since Sunday, allowing the walls and ceilings to soften and melt. Pinch your nose and you can still smell the rot through your mouth. “As a managing director, you always think of the worst possible thing that can happen,” Gladden says. “This is the worst possible thing.”
UK Lottery Sales Have Fallen Precipitously. Uh-Oh For Arts Funding?
Income for National Lottery Good Causes had grown consistently for years up until last year, when Lottery sales income fell by 8.8% and returns to good causes by 14.4%. This resulted in £227.4m for ACE, which was £40.9m less than 2015/16 and £21.6m lower than originally forecast.
How Individuality Gets Subsumed Into Mobs
“In Group Psychology, Freud asks why crowds make a ‘barbarian’ of the ‘cultivated individual’. Why are the inhibitions enforced by social life so readily overwhelmed by all that is ‘cruel, brutal and destructive’ when we join together with others? And why does the crowd need a strong leader, a hero to whom it willingly submits? The crowd – which is, after all, just an evanescent massing of humanity, a gathering that will quickly disperse once its task is finished – is oddly ‘obedient to authority’. It might appear anarchic, but at bottom it’s conservative and tradition-bound.”
Wild And Free? The Endless Rules And Bureaucracy Of Burning Man
“As with permanent cities, the construction and maintenance of this municipal infrastructure requires an elaborate regulatory apparatus—and for the greater good, the regs must be enforced. When you imagine Burning Man, you might picture naked people riding bikes and making out and setting things on fire—and, indeed, that’s exactly what you’ll see if you attend. But, for a psychedelic, safety-third debauch, Burning Man has an awful lot of rules.”
Why Philosophers Have A Tough Time With The Concept Of Imagination
“Perhaps the reason why philosophers have been conflicted about the imagination is that they haven’t grasped how limitations need to be tailored to circumstances. When we are writing fiction, or playing games of pretend, or making art, arguably we do our best imagining by setting the boundaries widely or removing the shackles entirely. In contrast, when we employ imagination in the context of scientific or technological discovery, or any other real-world problem-solving, we must allow our imaginations to be framed by the situation at hand.”
America’s Best Classical Theatre Festival? It’s In A Tiny Village In Wisconsin
Terry Teachout: “Surprisingly few people outside Wisconsin know of APT’s existence, yet it is America’s finest classical theater festival, unrivaled for the unfailing excellence of its productions. Nowhere else—not even in New York or Chicago—will you see such plays done more stylishly or excitingly.”