“The company’s ownership and leadership teams are in flux after allegations of institutional racism went viral on social media, and the remaining decision makers vowed to review everything from human resources protocol to material used in shows and artwork on their walls.” In a multi-article package, the Chicago Tribune examines the current state of the institution, considers the search for new owners, looks at the diversity promises the company made this past summer, and spoke with numerous BIPOC Second City alumni. – Yahoo! (Chicago Tribune)
Author: Matthew Westphal
Comedian Norm Crosby, Master Of Malapropism, Dead At 93
He was marketing shoes in Boston when he decided to try his hand at comedy, and he ultimately spent nearly fifty years in clubs and on television entertaining people with his (deliberate) misuse of vocabulary. For example: “He’s got a certain inner flux that excretes from this man, there’s an aura of marination that radiates out of him.” – The Hollywood Reporter
Should Britain’s Politicians Quit Bothering To Pretend They Stay Out Of Decisions On Who Gets Arts Funding?
“Indeed, a case can be made for greater government intervention in much of our cultural landscape. … Like it or not, public funding must come with public accountability. But defending the government’s right to interfere in the arts and museums becomes much harder when government funding keeps declining. Minority shareholders don’t get to tell a chief executive how to run their business.” – The Art Newspaper
UK’s Culture Secretary Questions Continued Existence Of BBC And Other Public Channels
In an essay for The Telegraph, Oliver Dowden asks, “Is [the BBC] keeping the British public’s confidence when it comes to its impartiality, and does it truly represent the nation?” and writes that a panel he is convening will be “asking really profound questions about the role these broadcasters have to play in the digital age – and indeed whether we need them at all.” – The Telegraph (UK)
There’s One Place In The World Where A Major Art Fair Just Opened Normally
That’s South Korea, where the novel coronavirus is largely under control and Art Busan has now begun in the country’s second city. The fair didn’t begin on schedule (it was postponed from its usual date in May), but it is happening as other Asian fairs (such as the new Art SG in Singapore) are still being cancelled. – ARTnews
The Viral Video That Captures America Just Now Is A Snowball Fight In 1897 France
“The footage was captured in Lyon, in 1897, by the Lumière brothers, who were among the world’s first filmmakers. It was originally black and white, of course, and herky-jerky because of the low frame rate. But this snowball fight has recently been colorized and smoothed, and the result is shockingly modern. The video shows 52 seconds of joyful carnage: a gaggle of antiquated French people hucking compacted snow at one another’s faces with terrifying ferocity.” – The New York Times Magazine
The First Mughal Emperor Wrote One Of History’s Great Autobiographies
“Profoundly honest and unusually articulate, at once emotionally compelling and profoundly revealing, the Babur Nama is in many ways an oddly modern text, almost Proustian in its self-awareness. It presents the uncensored fullness of the man, a human life perfectly pinned to the page in simple, direct and unpretentious prose.” – Literary Hub
Historical Interpreter At A Heritage Site Is One Of The Most Challenging Acting Jobs Around
These are the people you see in period dress portraying anyone from a Tudor monarch to an aristocrat’s cook “The work is underpinned by rigorous research, often drawing on primary-source material. The results, [one interpreter] says, have a different depth than a guidebook, or an audio guide.” – The Stage
Choreographers Now Making Dance With A.I. And Robotics
“At the forefront of this growing field is Sydney Skybetter, a former dancer and a professor of what he calls choreographics at Brown University, where his students approach dance in a way that is heavily computational. … By the end of the 20th century, motion capture, wearable tech and virtual reality had arrived on the scene. Then came A.I.” – The New York Times
A Brief History Of The Ballpoint Pen (It’s Older Than You Think)
“Its evolution is, in many ways, an example of a game-changing design waiting until outside factors – in this case the rise of plastics and mass-production infrastructure, and a brilliant marketeer – allowed it to achieve its full potential.” – BBC