How The Scots Language (Aye, It’s A Language) Has Survived Against Enormous Odds

While many people (including more than a few Scottish ones) see the tongue of Robert Burns and Trainspotting as just a thickly accented dialect of English, Scots actually developed independently. (There was no medieval influence from Norman French, for one thing, since William the Conqueror never crossed the border.) But with Scotland having been united with the much larger, richer, more culturally assertive England for several centuries now, Scots came close to being subsumed into English entirely. Yet it has survived, and now it’s even gaining speakers.

How Did Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker End Up Becoming A Broadway Choreographer?

“Though [she] won’t say much about her plans for [next year’s revival of] West Side Story just yet, she did admit that it’s not a project she would have ever thought she’d be doing. But her rewarding experience directing the large-scale Così fan tutte at the Paris Opéra last year — another project she never thought she’d do — plus the chance to work with Ivo van Hove and explore a key work in the history of musical theater convinced her to say yes when van Hove asked her to choreograph.”

England’s Arts Funding Body To Consider Micro-Grants

In Arts Council England’s first-ever “live online review of the year,” a questioner asked executives (via Twitter) if there could be a relatively red-tape-free way for artists to apply for amounts as small as £500. (ACE has two programs that make grants from £2,000 up to £15,000.) CEO Darren Henley replied, “We don’t know the answer yet, but it’s something we will go away and think about.”

The Color Pink Has A Dark Past

When it comes to interior design, the color pink has been particularly controversial. After some psychologists were able to show that certain shades of pink reduced aggression, it was famously used in prison cells to limit aggression in inmates. Yet pink toes a shaky line. Is it a benign means of subtle manipulation? A tool to humiliate? An outgrowth of gender stereotyping? Or some combination of the three?

The Healing Powers Of An Orchestra For Those With Mental Illness

Hospitals and psychiatric institutes have long employed music therapists in treating patients. While many doctors agree that it can be an effective form of therapy, it’s difficult to explain, qualify and quantify results. But that’s changing. With advances in neuroscience and noninvasive brain scanning, there’s increasing interest in the scientific community in exploring the ways music and the arts affect the human brain. This is leading to new enthusiasm in exploring music’s capacity to heal.

Sorry, ‘Little Women’ Is Simply Not A Feminist Novel

The second half of the book in particular — originally published, and still sold in Britain, under the separate title Good Wives — “is, for the most part, incredibly dull; most of it is left out of film interpretations. And yet,” argues Hillary Kelly, “it needs to be reckoned with if we’re going to assess what it means for young girls to read Little Women today. … It is obsessed with wifely duty — deferential to patriarchy and dismissive of female ambition of any variety other than the maternal. … It’s downright strange that intelligent women would call a book that disposes of its protagonists’ dreams in order to settle them into lives darning socks ‘required reading’ for young girls today.”

Bronx Museum Of The Arts To Open Manhattan Satellite

“The new site will be a hub for participants in the institution’s flagship emerging artist program, Artist in the Marketplace (AIM), which provides professional development resources — such as art law education, help with financial planning, and writing workshops — to emerging artists in New York City.” The 4,800-square-foot space is on the second floor of a former manufacturing site in Tribeca.