“The Minister of Culture, Tourism, and Antiquities, Abdul Amir Al-Hamdani, … intends to visit Washington ‘to recover 5,500 artefacts from the Hobby Lobby company and 10,000 clay figurines from Cornell University as well as artefacts from the University of Pennsylvania’.” – Middle East Monitor
Tag: 05.29.19
Lessons From The Naomi Wolf Affair: When Generalists Get The Expertise Wrong
“When is a writer erudite, a renaissance person, a polymath—and when are they merely trespassing superficially into areas of knowledge they haven’t mastered, imposing their own prejudices or yanking cherry-picked tidbits out of context?” – The New Republic
Has Arts Criticism Become Too Political?
Andrew Doyle makes the argument: “The best critics are able to appreciate a piece of work on its own terms, whereas the worst seem to believe that success should be measured on the basis of how closely the artist reflects their own ideological perspective.” – spiked
‘The Most Exciting New Private Museum In America’ — Sebastian Smee On Glenstone
“Glenstone is a 21st-century version of the Frick, the Phillips Collection or the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. And it’s the equivalent, among its contemporaries, of such celebrated art sanctuaries as Naoshima in Japan and Louisiana in Denmark. … Even as you sigh and breathe more deeply at Glenstone, you can’t help but feel that the people who set all this up — a billionaire couple who live on the property — have designs on you. And part of you — or part of me, anyway — wants to resist.” – The Washington Post
Hermitage Museum Considers Opening Saudi Satellite
“The State Hermitage Museum [in St. Petersburg] has held talks with Saudi officials to explore the possibility of opening a satellite in the Gulf state. The meeting took place earlier this year during Hermitage Day in Oman, part of the Russian museum’s practice of taking short-term exhibitions and lectures to locations around the world as a form of soft power.” – The Art Newspaper
Can Ballet Teach Schoolkids About Prejudice? Well, They’re Trying It In Scotland
“After a successful pilot that saw [Scottish Ballet] work with nine schools in Glasgow and Perth, the Safe to Be Me project will be rolled out to primary schools across Scotland in 2019. So far, the initiative has delivered 40 workshops, reaching nearly 2000 pupils and helping children aged 9 to 11 understand and talk about racism, homophobia, bigotry, ableism and transphobia.” – The Herald (Scotland)
Facebook Is Commissioning Art To Mitigate Its Fraying Image
Facebook currently employs 25 curators and administrators to run its artist-in-residency program and its Analog Research Lab. (The company also has a designer-in-residency program run by the same team.) – Artnet
How Does Fame Fade Away?
There is not a definitive reason why famous people and media lose their popularity. One theory is that as new content arrives, it simply pushes out older material. Another possible contributing factor is that when people of a certain generation begin to die, the market for their work eventually dies with them. – PRI
Last Month A Tiny Italian Village Put Itself Up For Sale. It Turned Out To Be A Hoax
Esino Lario wasn’t even struggling – it had attracted resources through events and volunteering schemes, and its population of 745 had dropped only slightly since the turn of the century. – The Guardian
Think You’ve Found A Rembrandt In The Attic? Think Again
It’s an alluring fantasy – you’ve found art that is possibly worth a lot of money. But The stories of authenticity quickly unravel in today’s internet-connected world. – Washington Post