The Arts Should Damn Well Demand, And Receive, Government Funding

“Historically, we haven’t looked for government funding until, like the Los Angeles Opera in 2009, our backs were against the wall. It’s easier and faster to ask for money from our friends, and the success rate is higher. … We owe it to those donors who have gotten us this far to knock on government doors the way we knocked on theirs. And we owe it to the next generation to ensure that art doesn’t become truly elitist.”

We’re All Cyborgs Now – But What Happens When Our Data Dies?

“It’s not just that everything we once committed to memory we now store externally on devices that crash or become obsolete or are rendered temporarily inaccessible due to lack of coverage. And it’s not that we spend a lot of time storing, organizing, pruning and maintaining our access to it all. It’s that we’re collectively engaged in a mass conversion of what we used to call, variously, records, accounts, entries, archives, registers, collections, keepsakes, catalogs, testimonies and memories into, simply, data.”

London’s National Gallery Assistants Stage Work Actions

“Used to standing quietly in the shadows while the spotlight shines on a Leonardo or Caravaggio or Velázquez, the National Gallery’s warders – or assistants, as they are known these days – do not tend to draw attention to themselves. But, at the moment, that is exactly what they are doing. Last week’s two-hour stoppage, which saw between 30 and 40 assistants walk off the job, forced the temporary closure of around 35 rooms, though not the blockbuster Leonardo exhibition.”

Mapping The World Of Art

“My-ArtMap is a social network exclusively for the art and art market. Like the Art World, it is populated by art professionals, including auction houses, galleries, museums and art collectors. The site just exited beta, shortly after acquiring many new members from Spain, Italy and Germany. It is heavily focused on Europe, at least for the time being.”

Why Book Festivals Are Important

“The great juggle for a festival organiser is not so much personal safety versus freedom of speech. It’s: What is your relationship with any government, because the act of writing is essentially dissident. That’s what distinguishes literature, and the public act of a literary festival, from buying a Guggenheim museum or a symphony orchestra: it’s not just something rich people do. It’s a place for extending the conversation, and you have to subscribe to the idea that people can contradict you.”

The Interactive Textbook – Science Directly To You

“The first interactive marine science textbook for the iPad is called Cachalot (French for “sperm whale”). It’s a free, app-based book that covers the latest science of marine megafauna like whales, dolphins and seals with expert-contributed text, images and open-access studies. Through a digital publication system called FLOW, the book also offers students note-taking tools, Twitter integration, Wolfram|Alpha search and even National Geographic “critter cam” videos.”