Last spring, a group of black middle school students had an ugly encounter with a few museum patrons and a guard. “Critics rightfully pounced, and the museum moved swiftly to contain the damage. … It might have ended there. But in this city still scarred by court-ordered desegregation and the turbulent busing of minority students to white suburbs in the 1970s, the museum — which welcomes 1.2 million visitors each year — took it as a wakeup call.” – Yahoo! (AP)
Category: AUDIENCE
Does Putting Students Into Reading Levels Discourage Reading?
“Quantifiable measurements give students, teachers and administrators the confidence and assurance of “progress”: There is a sense of comfort in advancing from one designated level to the next. But reading is not a science. When we place significant value on quantifiable measures, we also might be pushing readers away from an intrinsic love of reading — and ignoring the great complexity of literature that is simply immeasurable.” – Washington Post
Netflix Goes Around Theatre Chains, Rents Broadway Theatre For Scorsese Movie Run
Stymied by the big theater chains, the streamer has booked Broadway’s Belasco Theatre for its November 1 opening of Martin Scorsese’s epic “The Irishman” for one of several New York theatrical dates. – IndieWire
Why Hasn’t A Lauren Gunderson Play Been On Broadway Yet?
It’s a little weird – well, one might call it something other than weird, but it also is weird – that Lauren Gunderson, the most produced playwright in the U.S. aside from Shakespeare, hasn’t been on Broadway. As a matter of fact, she’s rarely produced in NY at all. So: “Is New York City ready for the rest of America’s favorite playwright?” – Slate
Lighting Projection Design Is Changing More Than Broadway And Big Regional Theatres
Projection design is that cool part of theatre where – poof! – an entire kingdom can freeze over, as in the Broadway and touring versions of Frozen, or where, in Anastasia, “a stage-spanning LED wall displays landscapes that move in tandem with [a] train.” And it’s more portable than a huge, multi-part set, too. – Los Angeles Times
Nancy Drew Is Still Alive At 90, And Also Still 16 Years Old
How, why, and why is Nancy so hard to adapt to the screen? “Never out of print, she has appeared in more than 250 books and counting, in movies, on television shows, in CD-ROM games. She has been reinvented, in ways that fans have not always embraced, for seemingly every era.” (And she’s being reinvented now, again, for a new series.) – The New York Times
The New Museum That’s Expressly Designed For Selfies
People love museum selfies, and here’s the logical conclusion of that love: A museum designed expressly for uploading cute artsy self-portraits to Instagram. The museum in Vienna “joins a number of establishments across the world targeting heavy users of social media.” – BBC
The Three Ages Of Podcasting
“What started as a quiet digital backwater is now increasingly growing in prominence, drawing the attention of audiences and moneyed interests alike. … And the story of how we go here can be told via two major turning points: The first was everything that happened before and after 2014. The second turning point is happening right now.” – Vulture
The World’s Largest Collection Of Contemporary South African Art Belongs To — Nando’s (Yes, The Grilled Chicken Chain)
With more than 22,000 works hanging in the chain’s roughly 1,300 restaurants, Nando’s is arguably the best place in the world to check out work by contemporary South African artists. And the chain’s Creative Block program, run with the Spiers Art Trust, may be the largest corporate art initiative anywhere. – The Art Newspaper
Listening Clubs Bring Audiences Of NPR’s Spanish-Language Podcast Together In Real Life
Radio Ambulante has a Facebook group with thousands of members in more than 19 countries. Editors there decided, “Let’s go back to the first place and do this but offline. We don’t want to have Facebook in between you and other listeners.” So they’ve organized listening clubs (the podcast equivalent of book clubs) for people to meet in person, listen to Radio Ambulante, and discuss what they’ve heard. – Nieman Lab