“City Council has put money for the arts back into the administration’s revised COVID-19-ravaged 2021 budget, including full restoration of the subsidy for the African American Museum in Philadelphia. But the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, the city’s key funding apparatus for arts support, has been restored to only about one-third its pre-COVID-19 level of $3 million.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
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Another Bungled Art Restoration In Spain
First there was the world-famous fiasco “Beast Jesus,” then there was St. George painted to look like a toy. Now an early copy of Murillo’s Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables has been wrecked because a collector tried to have it fixed up for only €1,200 by a furniture restorer, and there are calls in Spain for the entire field of art restoration to be regulated. – The Guardian
Time To Rethink The Arts
One problem is that our arts palaces lock in comparably palatial costs. In this grave new world, bigness, in fact, is actually a bug, not a feature. Producing in mega-venues like Portland5 or the Hult Center is so expensive that they discourage artistic risk as well as affordable tickets. The unviability of the centralized, large-scale approach will be exacerbated by the new virus-imposed restrictions coming down the pike if this crisis proves to be more than a one-time aberration. – Oregon Arts Watch
Kurt Cobain’s Guitar Sold For $6 Million
At $6.01m after fees, the guitar is the most expensive ever sold at auction, Julien’s Auctions said. Bidding in Los Angeles opened at $1m and was won by Rode Microphones founder Peter Freedman. – BBC
The Summer Of Drive-In Culture
Up and down the country, drive-ins are opening as canny entrepreneurs see a business opportunity. It’s going out but staying in at the same time, and only a cynic (that’ll be me) would suggest it combines the worst of both. Cinemas, concert halls, theatres, galleries and standup gigs are closed, festivals abandoned. And yet we yearn for live art and entertainment. Hence recent drive-in gigs at an airport in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and at a car park in Bratislava, Slovakia. Across the world, people are leaving lockdown, getting into their cars and chasing down what passes for live culture at this difficult time while still socially distancing. – The Guardian
At What Point Did Humans Become Creative?
At some point, from around 40,000 years ago in Europe, we see evidence of these behaviourally modern humans in a sudden flourishing of cultural artifacts in the archaeological record. So what caused anatomically modern Homo sapiens to turn into behaviourally modern people? – Aeon
Was The Fall Of The Roman Empire Due To Plagues?
By its nature, Roman civilisation seemed to unlock the pestilential potential of the landscape. The expansion of agriculture brought civilisation deeper into habitats friendly with the mosquito. Deforestation facilitated the pooling of water and turned the forbidding forest into fields where mosquitos more easily multiplied… The Romans were environmental engineers extraordinaire. – New Statesman
BlogBacks: John Ravenal & Alan Wallach (& me) on the Confederate Sculptures Fracas
I knew that my contrarian suggestions about what to do with the controversial sculptures of Confederate leaders on Richmond’s Monument Avenue would provoke some pushback, but I hoped for the constructive critiques that I’ve come to expect from my knowledgeable, insightful readers. That’s exactly what I got. – Lee Rosenbaum
Before 1834 The Word “Scientist” Didn’t Exist
The word “scientist” first appeared in March 1834, while Darwin was surveying the Falkland Islands on overland expeditions from the HMS Beagle, being no scientist but an explorer, adventurer, observer, and diarist. The word began as a passing joke in The Quarterly Review. The wit who coined it was the English philosopher and Anglican clergyman William Whewell, and the context was a positive, though excruciatingly patronizing, review of a best seller of popular science by the mathematician and physicist Mary Somerville. – New York Review of Books
When Public Assets Become Private – Why We Should Care
Only a public agent can speak in our name. So mass privatisation doesn’t simply shift decision-making away from public institutions to unaccountable, private entities; it also undermines shared civic responsibility and the very existence of collective political will. – Aeon