Today, nature is valued as a signifier of sustainability, resilience, and good quality of life not only in European and American cities, but also in new “smart” cities across Asia and the Middle East, and in “megacities” of the Global South. – Public Books
Tag: 07.03.19
Maryland Governor Says He Won’t Release Funding For Baltimore Symphony
“With regards to the BSO, they are way out of touch with where they need to be fiscally. The governor had no alternative. He is going to come in and trim and make sure the important stuff gets funded.” – Baltimore Sun
Does Landmarking Buildings Help Or Hurt A Neighborhood?
It’s a growing question. Locking important buildings up often helps to save the architecture. But it can also kill the uses inside the building, gentrify neighborhoods, and can fail to actually keep buildings viable. Here’s how the debate is breaking down. – Pacific Standard
Why Wealthy Art Collectors Are Turning Away From Abstract Art
The art that is doing well in the market provides a place of escape from society. Right now, that’s an escape to rules and boundaries and to easily digestible culture. But the inverse is also true: when there is greater social stability, even ennui, as there was in mid-century America, the preferred art becomes that which allows for a flight into messiness and multiple interpretations. Crucially, however, this current turn toward the figurative and its stabilities seems to be particular to the rich, to those who are actually buying the art. It has not always been so. – The Baffler
Los Angeles Is Losing Its Dance Studios As Rents Rise
Several L.A. dance spaces have faced displacement in recent months, posting pleas to save their studios on crowdsourcing sites like GoFundMe as rising rents create the same pressures that have threatened to push artists out of their longtime studios and theater companies off their home stages across the city. – Los Angeles Times
How Aaron Copland Created An American Sound For Classical Music
“He was a man of the left, though of no political party, gay, but neither closeted nor out, Jewish, but agnostic, unless you count music as a religion. On this July 4th weekend, WNYC’s Sara Fishko tells his story.” (audio and transcript) – WNYC (New York City)
Alaska May Become The Only U.S. State Without An Arts Agency
“When $444 million in line-item budget vetoes were announced Friday, the [Alaska State Council on the Arts] was given notice it would have two weeks to shut down, said Benjamin Brown of Juneau, who has been chairman of the council since 2007. If the $2.8 million veto is not overridden by legislators, it would make Alaska the only state or territory in the United States without a state arts agency.” – Anchorage Daily News
Chicago’s Beloved ‘Bean’ Is Vandalized
Late in the evening of July 1, say Chicago police, seven people tagged with white spray paint the Anish Kapoor sculpture Cloud Gate in Millennium Park. The tags were cleaned off by 10:30 the following morning, and suspects were captured and charged. – Chicago Tribune
Arte Johnson, Comedian Remembered For ‘Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In’, Dead At 90
“Mr. Johnson had appeared in New York theater productions and on television shows including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone and The Andy Griffith Show before his breakthrough in Laugh-In, where he received three Emmy nominations and won one, in 1969. His pratfalls, outlandish accents and ad-libbed double-entendres made him a mainstay of the fast-paced and irreverent comedy show, which premiered on NBC in January 1968 and ran for six seasons.” (“Verr-rry intereshting.”) – The Washington Post
A Plea For Reality: Should Bots Have To Declare Their “Fake” Identities?
On July 1st, California became the first state in the nation to try to reduce the power of bots by requiring that they reveal their “artificial identity” when they are used to sell a product or influence a voter. – The New Yorker