About 28% of the donors to the public TV stations who got thank you calls gave to the same charity within the next year. And 28% of the donors who didn’t get the calls did as well. Likewise, about 31% of the donors to the national nonprofit gave to that group again, whether or not someone called to thank them for their first donation. – The Conversation
Tag: 11.25.19
How A Stolen Native American Artifact Ended Up For Sale In Paris
There is a loophole, in which it’s illegal to traffic certain cultural items within the United States, but exporting them is not prohibited. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which was enacted in 1990, requires repatriation of sacred or culturally significant items to their respective tribes or lineal descendants. It also instituted procedures for when said items are inadvertently discovered in excavations on federal lands. However, NAGPRA does not apply internationally. – Hyperallergic
Why Museum Workers Across America Are Unionizing
The New Museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, and the Frye Art Museum in Seattle have all formed unions this year. And the tide doesn’t seem to be slowing: On November 22, a group of workers from Los Angeles’s Museum of Contemporary Art across multiple departments—exhibitions, education, communications, and audio-visual—followed suit. – Artnet
Heirs Of Nobel-Winning Author Naguib Mahfouz Have Been Fighting His Publisher For Years
The daughters of the author, the most internationally famous Arabic-language writer in modern history, have repeatedly sued the American University in Cairo Press for what they claim are large-scale copyright violations and failure to negotiate a new licensing agreement following Mahfouz’s death in 2006. – Literary Hub
Study: Art Therapy Helps Fight Symptoms Of Dementia
“After the six-week intervention, we found the rhythm of salivary cortisol across the day to be improved. We also found the intervention improved some aspects of well-being. We think if both these physiological and psychological benefits could be sustained for long periods, it could help to improve quality of life.” – Hyperallergic
Translated Fiction Is Finding Bigger Audiences
Since 2012, when it first became common to see people reading Karl Ove Knausgaard and Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet on the tube, sales of translated fiction have steadily increased. Overall sales in the UK were up last year by 5.5%, with more than 2.6m books sold, while sales of translated literary fiction shot up by 20%. – The Guardian
The One-Man Publisher Who’s Found An Audience For Forgotten Classics
Rick Schober has published roughly four books per year, relying on “a loyal following” that shares his passion for rediscovered literary fiction and nonfiction of an offbeat and experimental variety. That loyal following translates into funding via a crowdfunding model. Those who fund the books each get a copy if they donate an amount totaling the book’s cover price or more, and books are sold via Amazon and B&N.com primarily but are also carried by some independent bookstores, “especially in the Boston area,” Schober said. The press is no moneymaker, but, he quipped, “it’s a small-gains hobby.” – Publishers Weekly
How The Art World Morphed Into The Art Industry
Consider that, in 1988, the Artnet Price Database tracked only 18 auction houses and about 8,300 artists. Over the next 24 years, those figures skyrocketed: By 2012, there were 632 auction houses and 90,275 artists. But, like any mature industry, it is now entering a period of consolidation after decades of expansion. Last year, Artnet recorded only 534 houses (a drop of around 16 percent from the high-water mark) and 71,621 artists (down 25 percent from the peak). Still, the scale and contours of today’s art world would have been largely inconceivable to dealers, auction-house professionals, and collectors 30 years ago. – Artnet
This Year’s Evening Standard Theatre Award Winners
Andrew Scott was awarded for his role in Noel Coward’s Present Laughter at the Old Vic, while Maggie Smith took the trophy for one-woman play A German Life at the Bridge. Lynn Nottage’s Sweat was named Best Play, following a successful run at the Donmar and in the West End. – London Evening Standard
Bad Form: Company That Commissioned “Fearless Girl” Sculpture On Wall Street Sues Artist, Others Making Replicas
The financial services firm that purchased the original, State Street Global Advisors, is calling them unauthorized copies and waging an aggressive legal campaign against them. Critics say the fight proves that the company’s embrace of the Fearless Girl was always less about promoting female empowerment than it was about promoting itself. – The New York Times