Tag: 09.18.20

What Does It Take To Make A Good Movie About American Slavery?

“Films about slavery have an uphill battle to climb with critics, historians and audience members. There is a responsibility lurking behind each reel: A dialogue should be sparked; perspectives should be shifted. It’s an incredibly tall order for any piece of art. … What makes a good slave movie? Or, perhaps, more importantly, what makes a bad one? For the experts — researchers, teachers, writers, actors — the answer lies somewhere between holding on to the past and pushing the narrative forward.” – The Washington Post

The Benefits Of Reading Aloud

“A growing body of research suggests that we may be missing out by reading only with the voices inside our minds. The ancient art of reading aloud has a number of benefits for adults, from helping improve our memories and understand complex texts, to strengthening emotional bonds between people. And far from being a rare or bygone activity, it is still surprisingly common in modern life.” – BBC

How Local Museum Audiences Are Different From The Tourists

“The local audience is really the central audience. It’s an audience that has grown up with the institution and comes to you again and again. They have a much closer connection because they enjoy and notice constant changes within the institution. Their level of expectation is higher,” than, for example, a tourist who comes once every few years. – Artnet

The First Drive-In Book Festival

“The book lovers of Appledore, a picturesque fishing village on the north Devon coast, are a resourceful, determined lot. When their library faced closure 14 years ago, they helped save it by launching a literary festival, which grew and developed year by year into one of the most popular cultural events in the south-west of England. And when the 2020 Appledore book festival was threatened with cancellation because of the COVID crisis, they came up with the bold idea of holding a coronavirus-secure drive-in event, believed to be the first in the UK.” – The Guardian

Luxembourg’s National Library Uses a Cool Scrabble-Type Signage System

Individual letters or parts of letters are printed on each face of a cube, so cubes can be placed in rows to form words, or cubes with letter fragments can be stacked to create letters at a large scale. They’re then placed on blank wayfinding infrastructure that has a small lip to hold them up. The resulting system is similar to a beautifully considered mega game of Scrabble, and can easily be adapted to meet the needs of the community it serves. – Fast Company

The Conservation Challenge Of A Piece Of Fruit

Honestly, how is the Guggenheim supposed to conserve something like a banana duct-taped to a wall? Ah: The artwork contains no actual banana. “Comedian, as sold, does not include a banana or tape. What one buys is a ‘certificate of authenticity,’ a surprisingly detailed, 14-page list of instructions, with diagrams, on how the banana should be installed and displayed.” – The New York Times

A Treasure Trove Of Rare Stolen Books Has Been Found Under A House In Rural Romania

The $3.2 million cache came from a 2017 heist at a London warehouse, one of books so rare and with such niche interest that “one source, in Smithsonian, said that ‘a wealthy collector known as ‘The Astronomer’ may have hired the thieves to steal the books for him.'” Turns out it was an organized crime group in Romania. – LitHub