When Donald Judd, the artist who came to the West Texas desert village and attracted other artists there, died in 1994, he left his foundation with $400 in the bank and Marfa faced doom. Then Crowley, a Houston attorney and developer, and his gallerist wife came to town and pumped a lot of money into it, buying properties, building businesses and bringing in new and prosperous residents. But over the last few years, as Crowley’s plans have gotten bigger and more commercial, many Marfans think that this man who owns the whole town has started messing it up for everyone else. – Texas Monthly
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Michou, ‘Blue Prince Of Montmartre’ And Paris Nightlife Legend, Dead At 88
Never seen wearing any color but blue and never drinking water when champagne was available, the impresario born Michel Catty introduced the modern drag show to France in the 1950s with the tiny cabaret Chez Michou, where he and his “Michettes” became a Parisian institution. – Yahoo! (AFP)
Copy Of Columbus’s First Letter From The New World, Stolen In Venice, Is Recovered In Delaware
Sometime between 1985 and 1988, a thief took a five-century-old Latin copy of Christopher Columbus’s first letter to King Ferdinand from Venice’s Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana and replaced it with a forgery. Art detectives in Delaware tracked it down; authorities won’t reveal where it was found or how it was seized. – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Smithsonian’s Hoped-For London Outpost Cut Back To A Two-Year V&A Show
The original plan, announced in 2015, was for a Smithsonian museum in the planned Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park; by the next year, it had been reduced to a partnership with London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, and in 2018 an agreement was signed for a permanent presence at the V&A East in the QEOP. Now the Smithsonian’s new chief, Lonnie Bunch, has decided downgraded that permanence to a two-year co-curated exhibition when the V&A East opens in 2023. – The Washington Post
For First Time, Graphic Novel Wins Newbery Medal; Caldecott Medal Goes To Picture Book About Great African-Americans
The Newbery, for best children’s book, went to Jerry Kraft’s New Kid, the story of a 12-year-old who’s one of the few nonwhite students at a fancy private school. Taking the Caldecott, for best picture book for children, was The Undefeated, with illustrations by Kadir Nelson and text by Kwame Alexander. – The New York Times
Joyce DiDonato, Nicola Benedetti, Jennifer Higdon, Caroline Shaw: Classical Grammy Awards 2020
The Dudamel/L.A. Phil recording of Andrew Norman’s Sustain took Best Orchestral Performance, with Caroline Shaw’s Orange by the Attacca Quartet winning Best Chamber/Small Ensemble Performance and the Houston Chamber Choir’s all-Duruflé disc receiving Best Choral Performance honors. Best Opera Recording was the Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s release of Tobias Picker’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, Joyce DiDonato’s Songplay took Best Classical Solo Vocal Album, Nicola Benedetti’s rendition of Wynton Marsalis’s Violin Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra won Best Classical Instrumental Solo, and the Best Contemporary Classical Composition was Jennifer Higdon’s Harp Concerto. – Classical Music (UK)
10,000 Photos Of Alvin Ailey Company Are Now Online
The digitized collection includes 8,288 black-and-white negatives, 2,106 color slides and transparencies, and 339 black-and-white prints depicting the repertory of Alvin Ailey, choreographers, and iconic solo performers the company is known for. Acquired in 2013, the collection is jointly owned by the National Museum of African American History and Culture and Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation. – Hyperallergic
Outcry Over “American Dirt” Shows What’s Wrong With The American Publishing Business
The clumsy, ill-conceived rollout of “American Dirt” illustrates how broken the system is, how myopic it is to hype one book at the expense of others and how unethical it is to allow a gatekeeper like Oprah’s Book Club to wield such power. Imagine a publishing industry that dispensed with hit-making, that used the millions of dollars poured into “American Dirt” to invest more into promoting a greater number and panoply of authors. – The New York Times
Where Broadway’s Super-Fans Are: BroadwayCon
Some arrived in full character for the event, where attendees can meet and take photos with the stars of their favorite shows. Passes range from $80 for one day to $1,000 for a full weekend platinum pass with extra perks. – The New York Times
Boycott Brexit Commemorative Medal Over Lack Of Oxford Comma?
“The ‘Brexit’ 50p coin is missing an Oxford comma, and should be boycotted by all literate people,” wrote the novelist Philip Pullman on Twitter, while Times Literary Supplement editor Stig Abell wrote that, while it was “not perhaps the only objection” to the Brexit-celebrating coin, “the lack of a comma after ‘prosperity’ is killing me”. – The Guardian