Marta Becket, Dancer Who Built An Opera And Ballet Theatre In Death Valley, Dead At 92

Wow: “It was there, amid the alkali flats, whistling winds and triple-digit heat of the Mojave Desert, that Ms. Becket and her husband resettled and built the Amargosa Opera House, where she performed her ballets and pantomimes for the next 40 years. Ms. Becket turned the Amargosa into a cultural institution in a desolate area, an attraction to tourists, ranchers, farmers and even prostitutes from a local bordello.”

The World Has Gotten Exponentially Scarier, So Take Refuge In Abstract Art

It’s simply a relief: “Freed from the world, all you sense is your body moving through water and all you hear is the sound of your pulse inside your head. Contemplating abstract sculpture, you enter a relationship bereft of language, of story and of illustration; you have to simply measure yourself against the object and admire its intrusion.”

Ten Percent Of UK Teachers Polled Say Arts Education Has Been Cut In Their Schools

“The Guardian Teacher Network polled more than 1,000 teachers, with 80% claiming their schools had been making general cutbacks or were planning to. Nine percent of respondents reported that their schools had already scrapped art, music or drama, with a fifth claiming that one or more of these subjects had been given reduced timetable space.”