“The museum may be the among the best-known examples of the now fashionable transformation of derelict factories into dynamic cultural space. Since its inception, the Tate Modern has never rested on its laurels, continuing to redefine itself as an institution of outreach, self-reflection and learning. The museum’s evolution over time provides a potential blueprint for how London, and indeed any city, can provide spaces that encourage its inhabitants to be collectively present. You cannot experience the Tate Modern through Facebook or a tweet; you must show up, with an open mind, surrounded by your fellow visitors.”
Tag: 07.18.17
Small Foundation Offers Major Award To Arts Journalists
“The Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation made a splash in the world of art criticism and journalism this week, announcing a new annual prize that offers American art writers who write for general audiences (rather than academic readers) a $50,000 unrestricted grant in recognition of their work. The grant matches the highest awards given by the Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation, which range from $15,000 to $50,000, and is five times the sum awarded to Pulitzer Prize winners.”
How Indigenous Australian Artists Are Shaking Off Stereotypes Of Their Work
Things have started to shift on the dot-painting stereotype in the decade or so. There has been “a push to have urban, Indigenous artists accepted. As a result, the art market’s understanding of Indigenous art has expanded to include urban artists who work in many different mediums.”
Finally – For The First Time In Decades, Rock n Roll Is NOT Americans’ Favorite Music
“In Nielsen’s latest mid-year music report, hip-hop/R&B had the largest share of overall consumption, capturing 25.1 percent of the total volume in album sales and online streaming. It’s a watershed moment for the black-dominated genre. Former longtime volume leader rock — a genre created by African Americans then co-opted by white artists — dropped to second with 23 percent of the total volume.”
Jane Austen Is The First Woman Writer To Be Featured On The British Pound
At the unveiling Tuesday of the new “tenner” at Winchester Cathedral in southern England, Bank of England governor Mark Carney said the new note celebrates the “universal appeal” of Austen’s work.
What the Research Really Suggests About That Facebook Chatbot Therapist
Woebot (that’s what it’s called) “seems intriguing. The idea is to help you understand and monitor your moods using a combination of natural language processing and therapeutic expertise. Sounds good, right? Using A.I. via social media to significantly reduce psychological problems like anxiety and depression would be quite a breakthrough. But there are some major hurdles to overcome.”
Netflix Now Has 100 Million Subscribers
“Netflix shares rose more than 10% in after-hours trading in New York after announcing its second-quarter results. The firm said it added about 5.2 million members during the quarter, mostly from overseas. International members now account for about half of its subscriber total.”
$25 Admission To A Museum Special Exhibition? How Much Is Too Much?
That’s what LA’s Broad Museum will charge. “One has to note that these are the same museums that regularly raise outside sums of money to pay for big building projects, even as they make no real effort to address ticket prices. While commending the Broads for displaying their collection for free (setting aside that it is largely blue chip and predictable), we can still say that it looks peculiar for them to spend $140 million on a building and then charge $25 for a show. The same goes for SFMOMA and its current admissions fees.”
Sherman Alexie Ends Book Tour For His Memoir Due To Depression (And His Mother’s Ghost)
“I don’t believe in the afterlife as a reality, but I believe in the afterlife as metaphor, and my mother, from the afterlife, is metaphorically kicking my ass. … I have been sobbing many times a day during this book tour. I have sobbed in private and I have sobbed onstage.” (One commenter called it “the most poetic cancelling of a book tour in history.”)
If We Keep Telling Students That Wholly Free Speech Will Traumatize Them, They’ll Probably Feel Traumatized (So Stop It)
Jesse Singal: “There’s an intriguing area of behavioral science known as mind-set research, and one of its tenets is that the relationship between stress and humans’ response to it is partially mediated by how people expect stress to affect them. … If you tell students over and over and over that certain variants of free speech – variants which are ugly, but which are aired every moment of every day on talk radio – are traumatizing them, it really could do harm. And there’s no reason to go down this road, because there’s no evidence that the mere presence of a conservative speaker on campus is harming students in some deep psychological or physiological way.”