According to research conducted at the University of Toronto, study participants who read short-story fiction experienced far less need for “cognitive closure” compared with counterparts who read nonfiction essays. Essentially, they tested as more open-minded, compared with the readers of essays. “Although nonfiction reading allows students to learn the subject matter, it may not always help them in thinking about it,” the authors write.
Tag: 03.15.18
Seven Deadly Sins Of Philanthropy
Whether these transgressions rise to the level of an offense against religious law is a debate best left to theologians. However, examining the worst sins of the philanthropic sector and possible ways to remediate these issues occupies the thoughts of many of those active in the foundation world.
When Does A Piece Of Art Violate A Subject’s Rights?
What is the line between art and commerce? It is an important question, given that art enjoys broader free speech protections than the latter. It’s unlikely a Nike TV spot can successfully claim to be art—but what about a painting with limited edition prints sold through a website? When does that line get crossed?
Why Fewer Galleries Are Opening Than Were Ten Years Ago
A new report from UBS and Art Basel, The Art Market | 2018, found that the rate of galleries opening has fallen dramatically over the past decade. In 2017, just 0.9 galleries opened for every one that shuttered, down from five openings to every closure 10 years prior, a sign the art market could be losing its dynamism as new entrants face increasingly high barriers to entry.
The Arts’ ‘Spillover Effect’
“If we could fully understand the impact of arts and culture on wider society, would this change arts strategies and policies? Jonathan Vickery charts the progression of thinking on the ‘spillover’ effect.”
Unhappiness Isn’t Just Inevitable, It’s Indispensable
“Because the brain grades on a curve, endlessly comparing the present with what came just before, the secret to happiness may be unhappiness. Not unmitigated unhappiness, of course, but the transient chill that lets us feel warmth, the sensation of hunger that makes satiety so welcome, the period of near-despair that catapults us into the astonishing experience of triumph.” Neurobiologist Indira M. Raman explains why the brain requires that contrast.
Why Artists Are Allowed Inside Museums To Copy The Masters
The oldest of these programs is that of the Louvre, which began during the French Revolution in 1793, reportedly just a month after radical Parisians converted the royal palace into a museum. Back then, it was a rule that any artist who wished to enter the museum and copy from the work of the masters would be given an easel to do so—it’s not surprising, then, that among its alumni are familiar names, like Edgar Degas, Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dalí.
Is Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Mass’, Ultimately, Even A Piece Of Music? Maybe Not – And That Doesn’t Matter
“[The work] is hung on a musical frame. But more saliently to most audiences, perhaps, it is religious, it is social, it is political. … Maybe the technical term for it all is simply this: groovy.” Peter Dobrin considers the new recording of Mass, released for the Bernstein centennial, by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra (and a whole lot of others).
Huge Network Trafficking In Fake Native American Art Busted By Federal Investigators
“The investigation was named Operation Al Zuni after Al Zuni Global Jewelry, a well-known business in Gallup, New Mexico, owned by Nashat Khalaf, a Palestinian immigrant and prominent Indian arts dealer. … The Indian Arts and Crafts Board estimated in 2016 that the retail value of the 350,000 pieces of jewelry seized during [a large 2015] raid exceeded $35 million.”
Every Winner Of This Year’s National Book Critics Circle Awards Is A Woman
“Joan Silber took the fiction prize for her novel Improvement. … The nonfiction prize went to Frances FitzGerald for her book The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America, a sweeping history of the Evangelical movement from the Puritan era to the 2016 presidential election. Layli Long Soldier won the poetry prize for her acclaimed collection Whereas. The autobiography prize went to Xiaolu Guo for her book Nine Continents: A Memoir In and Out of China. The prize in criticism went to Carina Chocano for her essay collection You Play the Girl: On Playboy Bunnies, Stepford Wives, Train Wrecks, & Other Mixed Messages. The prize in biography went to Caroline Fraser for her book Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder.”