Arts news

• Eight Great Books for Getting Through a Creative Block

  29-09-2020 23:50 via artnews.com
  
  If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, we may receive an affiliate commission.
  In some inevitable moments, every artist, writer, or creator of any form will find themselves staring at an empty canvas, page, or desktop, hitting a complete creative block. You either lack inspiration for what to do next or feel that being an artist, period, is impossible—society doesn’t value it enough! How can you go on? In such moments, stepping awa
  
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• Blocked? Eight Great Books for Igniting Creativity

  29-09-2020 23:50 via artnews.com
  
  If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, we may receive an affiliate commission.
  In some inevitable moments, every artist, writer, or creator of any form will find themselves staring at an empty canvas, page, or desktop, hitting a complete creative block. You either lack inspiration for what to do next or feel that being an artist, period, is impossible—society doesn’t value it enough! How can you go on? In such moments, stepping awa
  
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• October brings the arts to all with virtual concerts, theater productions and more - Emory News Center

  29-09-2020 23:40 via news.emory.edu
  
  October brings the arts to all with virtual concerts, theater productions and more  Emory News Center
  
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• YoungBoy Never Broke Again Arrested on Drug and Firearms Charges

  29-09-2020 22:35 via nytimes.com
  
  A lawyer for the rapper, whose latest album, “Top,” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts this month, said his client is innocent.
  
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• Meetinghouse Arts presents a virtual gallery of fine arts - The Bethel Citizen

  29-09-2020 22:16 via sunjournal.com
  
  Meetinghouse Arts presents a virtual gallery of fine arts  The Bethel Citizen
  
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• The First Photos of Enslaved People Raise Many Questions About the Ethics of Viewing

  29-09-2020 21:38 via nytimes.com
  
  “To Make Their Own Way in the World” convenes a group of scholars of slavery, American history, memory, photography and science to tell a complex story.
  
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• Influential Social Practice Art Fellowship Program Shuts Down Because of Covid-19

  29-09-2020 21:24 via artnews.com
  
  The New York–based nonprofit A Blade of Grass, which has supported the production of socially-engaged artworks through funded fellowships, has announced a significant restructuring of its operations and program as a result of financial challenges precipitated by the pandemic. In a sign of the health crisis’s impact on small arts nonprofits, the organization will end its fellowship program, with the artist fellows named in March 2020 representing the final cohort in the program.
  A Bla
  
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• The Pandemic Logs

  29-09-2020 20:52 via nytimes.com
  
  Snapshots of life at home during the pandemic.
  
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• Slumming It

  29-09-2020 20:52 via artnews.com
  
  In the 1970s, New York looked like a city in decline. The Mayor’s Office had been running a deficit since the 1960s, borrowing to balance the budget, but in the spring of 1975, the banks that had kept the city afloat declined to extend further credit, initiating a fiscal crisis. By October 16, New York was on the verge of bankruptcy, which President Gerald Ford famously refused to alleviate. The Municipal Assistance Corporation, a committee formed several months earlier to manage the city&
  
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• Booker Prize Is Rescheduled to Make Way for Obama’s Memoir

  29-09-2020 20:52 via nytimes.com
  
  During one busy week in November, the former president’s new book is expected to come out, and top prizes from the Booker and the National Book Awards will be announced.
  
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• The Best Camera Lenses for iPhones Will Yield Artful Photographs and Films

  29-09-2020 20:45 via artnews.com
  
  In 2020, five years after a film shot exclusively on iPhones premiered at Sundance (Tangerine, 2015) and the year when Naomi Campbell shot her own self-portrait with an iPhone to grace the cover of Essence magazine, carrying around a clunky DSLR is almost passé. Photographers and videographers aren’t ditching their cameras quite yet, but more and more professionals and hobbyists are using iPhones to create striking, high-quality images and videos. If you don’t have the newest
  
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• The Best Ribbons for Delicate Finishes and Trims

  29-09-2020 20:43 via artnews.com
  
  Tie a bow, weave a pattern, build a wreath. When it comes to ribbons, the creative possibilities are nearly endless. So too, it appears, are the varieties of ribbons, which come in all sorts of widths, finishes, colors, and patterns. Whether you need a temporary embellishment or a permanent trimming, a good ribbon should look attractive and neat while being easy to transform into your wildest designs. Simplify your search with our recommendations below.
  
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• The Best Poppy Liquid Extract and Oil for Your Drying Needs

  29-09-2020 20:41 via artnews.com
  
  Of the many drying oils you can keep in your arsenal, poppy oil is an excellent, versatile choice. Extracted from poppy seed, this slick medium can improve the performance of oil paint by increasing its flow, enhancing its glossiness, and adjusting viscosity to an ideal consistency. This pale, semi-drying oil does take longer to dry than linseed oil, but it is also less susceptible to yellowing. This makes it particularly well suited for use with pale colors or whites. Whether you’re inter
  
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• The Best Pipe Cleaners for Crafting

  29-09-2020 20:39 via artnews.com
  
  Pipe cleaners, as their name makes clear, were originally developed to clean tobacco pipes. Consisting of a wire core covered by short bristles, these long and flexible tools can reach narrow, unseen areas with ease. But their creative potential was quickly identified by artists, who have used pipe cleaners to sculpt and weave all kinds of fascinating works. Today pipe cleaners come in myriad colors, finishes, and sizes and are an especially popular material for all-ages crafting. Our recommenda
  
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• The Best Metallic Acrylic Paint for Glittery Effects

  29-09-2020 20:36 via artnews.com
  
  If you’re looking for a paint to impart an all-over metallic effect or one that can just add a light-catching detail here and there, metallic acrylics may be the way to go. But it’s hard enough to find an acrylic paint with a flawless consistency, let alone one with a beautifully balanced metallic sheen. Many look too glittery; others too dull. To find that perfect space between the two extremes is an art that few companies have mastered. Fortunately, we’ve located some excelle
  
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• The Best Marbled Papers for Scrapbooking, Sculpting, and More

  29-09-2020 20:35 via artnews.com
  
  Decorated with dense, intricate patterns, marbled papers are some of the most alluring papers to use in your art. These colorful sheets were traditionally prepared by hand: An artisan used a stylus to comb through or rake pigments floated on a solution, then transferred the pattern to paper. The results, wavy and flowing, were often used for bookbinding. Today the centuries-old art form has been adapted for quick manufacture, with many papers simply printed with marbled designs. But if you&rsquo
  
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• New Study Reveals Potentially Groundbreaking Drawing Hidden Beneath ‘Mona Lisa’

  29-09-2020 20:34 via artnews.com
  
  A new study on the Mona Lisa has revealed evidence of a charcoal underdrawing, suggesting for the first time that Leonardo da Vinci used a preparatory sketch to create the famous portrait.
  The underdrawing, detected by multispectral analysis, was likely created using the spolvero technique, a method for transferring a sketch to canvas in which holes are pricked along the outline of an image and dusted with charcoal.
  The study was conducted over a 15-year period by scientist Pascal Cotte, who pub
  
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• ‘I Even Missed the Smell’: What It’s Like to Be Back at the Theater

  29-09-2020 20:29 via nytimes.com
  
  Ten voices from around the world reflect on performing in — and ushering and seeing — some of the first live shows since March.
  
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• The Best Paper Airplane Books for Learning an Age-Old Craft

  29-09-2020 20:26 via artnews.com
  
  If there’s one paper craft that every person has likely attempted at least once, it’s the craft of folding a paper plane. From gliders to darts, these lightweight soarers have been around for millennia, captivating not only children but also adults from Leonardo da Vinci to Jack Northrop, the cofounder of Lockheed Corporation. In addition to illustrating aerodynamic design and theory, these folded aircraft, whether simple or highly complex, can be just plain fun to make. Plus, they s
  
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• The Best Origami Kits for Beginners of All Ages

  29-09-2020 20:18 via artnews.com
  
  Origami, which literally means “folded paper” in Japanese, is a timeless art form that is also incredibly accessible. People of all ages can pick up a sheet of paper and manipulate it into essentially any subject, although there is a canon of traditional forms that has been established over centuries. It’s a highly portable art that’s perfect to practice while traveling or waiting for an appointment. Whether you’re looking to pick up origami as a casual pastime or a
  
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• One Collector’s Passion for Pre-Cinema Objects Will Go to Academy Museum, Illuminating Early Film History

  29-09-2020 20:00 via artnews.com
  
  Decades before the Lumière brothers projected their first film in Paris, artists and inventors the world over were tinkering with technologies meant to captivate audiences through cinematic storytelling. These days, those pre-cinema machines are the subject of passionate collecting, and few collections come near the quality (and quantity) of the one created by Richard Balzer.
  Until his death three years ago, Balzer, a Boston-based organizational consultant, spent more than 40 years accumu
  
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• A Passionate Collector’s Pre-Cinema Objects Will Go to Academy Museum, Illuminating Early Film History

  29-09-2020 20:00 via artnews.com
  
  Decades before the Lumière brothers projected their first film in Paris, artists and inventors the world over were tinkering with technologies meant to captivate audiences through cinematic storytelling. These days, those pre-cinema machines are the subject of passionate collecting, and few collections come near the quality (and quantity) of the one created by Richard Balzer.
  Until his death three years ago, Balzer, a Boston-based organizational consultant, spent more than 40 years accumu
  
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• Review: ‘Miranda’ Poses a Musical Mystery in Virtual Reality

  29-09-2020 19:39 via nytimes.com
  
  Airships float by, avatars sing and the audience is the jury in this visually enticing but overstuffed steampunk experiment.
  
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• The Best One-Hole Punches for Function and Decoration

  29-09-2020 19:30 via artnews.com
  
  While found today on desks in all kinds of offices from the corporate to the creative, the humble hole punch was originally invented to be used on the go. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the earliest patent for a paper punch, from 1885, was issued for a gizmo that conductors could use on railroad trains. This handheld device featured two spring-loaded metal clamps, one with a sharp cutting surface for piercing tickets. Notably, this conductor’s punch doesn’t look that different from 21st-cen
  
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• The Best Luminous Markers for Glowing Work

  29-09-2020 19:16 via artnews.com
  
  Sometimes you just want your art to shine—literally. To achieve effects that are visible in the dark, pick up a luminous marker, which is generally as easy to use as a standard marker, and add glowing effects to drawings or messages without any extra mess. It’s important that you read the descriptions of each product, as some markers can simply be charged under sunlight to glow, while others are activated by UV light (also called a black light). Markers also come in a range of sizes
  
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• Searching for the Real Abraham Lincoln

  29-09-2020 19:13 via nytimes.com
  
  David S. Reynolds’s “Abe” seeks to understand Lincoln by placing him in the context of his times.
  
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• The Best Bookbinding Screws for Fastening Pages Together

  29-09-2020 19:12 via artnews.com
  
  Bookbinding screws are among the fastest and most accessible ways to hold papers together. More generally known as screw posts or Chicago binding posts, these little fasteners consist of two parts: a post with a smooth, hollow shaft and a shorter cap with threads. Using them is a breeze: All you do is punch a hole in the papers, slip the smooth post through, and screw the cap into the post. The only tool you need for this straightforward process is a screwdriver. Whether you want to bind photobo
  
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• The Best Glow-In-The-Dark Paint for Striking Effects

  29-09-2020 19:10 via artnews.com
  
  Glow-in-the-dark paint is a fun medium to use, whether for adding a surprise element to your artwork, creating festive messages, or just plain experimentation. Like regular paints, these come in all kinds of colors and can be applied with a paintbrush or even your fingers. When looking for the right product for your needs, you should consider the glow strength as well as duration; some might glow for only a few minutes, while higher-quality ones can remain luminous for hours after just a few min
  
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• 10 Classical Concerts to Stream in October

  29-09-2020 19:08 via nytimes.com
  
  Highlights this month include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Nathalie Joachim and Jeremy Denk.
  
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• The Best Craft Glue for Forging Strong Bonds Between Varied Materials

  29-09-2020 19:07 via artnews.com
  
  Craft glue, traditionally an adhesive that can be used on many materials, is an essential product to have on hand. It’s important to know the properties of what you’re working with, though, as some craft glues are not particularly strong, dry too quickly, or dry with an ugly yellow sheen. At the very least, a good craft glue should be easy to work with and leave no trace, so your projects look as streamlined and undisturbed as possible. Our picks below will help you discover all the
  
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• The Best Archival Storage Boxes for Photos and Art Will Keep Your Works In Great Condition

  29-09-2020 19:01 via artnews.com
  
  Chances are, you have an old shoebox or bin lying around your home or studio, chock-full of photographs, sketches, or other keepsakes. A shoebox is a fine storage solution, but not one that will preserve its contents for many lifetimes. If you’d like your artworks and collectibles to have the greatest chance of lasting for generations, it’s vital that you keep them in an archival container. These boxes are made in a variety of materials, but they should absolutely be acid-free to kee
  
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• The Best Mulberry Paper Sheets for Delicate Creations and Decorations

  29-09-2020 18:51 via artnews.com
  
  Mulberry trees are the unsung heroes of silk fabric, as their leaves make up the diet of silkworms. But the bark of the tree gives us another gift. It’s used to make traditional Thai mulberry paper, or saa paper, which is valued for its delicate look and surprising sturdiness, not to mention its sustainability: The tree naturally sheds its bark once a year. Textured with sweeping arabesques of long fibers, mulberry paper makes for beautiful gift boxes and wrapping paper as well as more int
  
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• The Best Gesso Brushes for Smooth Strokes

  29-09-2020 18:48 via artnews.com
  
  Gesso and varnish brushes are typically big and have relatively short bristles that can spread large amounts of material over your canvas with strength and efficiency. It’s important to find a good-quality gesso brush that won’t leave behind bristles or texture the canvas surface too much. We’ve picked our favorite gesso brushes to help you make a good choice; peruse our reviews below.
  
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• The Best Blank Postcards for Handwritten Notes and Small-Scale Artworks

  29-09-2020 18:45 via artnews.com
  
  In the day and age of instant emails and the constant pull of social media, it’s still a treat to receive a postcard in the mail. And if you’re going to go through the trouble of sending a note to your loved ones via snail mail, why not make it as personal as you can? With precut and lined blank postcards ready for your personal embellishments, you can send each of your recipients a note that is truly one-of-a-kind. Ahead, find the five blank postcard options that we like best.
  
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• The Best Cardstock for Painting, Drawing, and More

  29-09-2020 18:31 via artnews.com
  
  Sometimes you need a heavier paper than what you can find in your inkjet printer. Perhaps you plan to make a drawing with high-pigment markers and don’t want the risk of bleed-through; or maybe you want to craft a sign that won’t blow around in the wind. Or perhaps you’re on the hunt for a fun arts and crafts project to embark on with your children. No matter what the reason, cardstock is a great alternative to paper on many an occasion. From rainbow tones to bright white class
  
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• In 1971, Both the USPS and The Term “Mail Art” Were Born

  29-09-2020 18:28 via artnews.com
  
  The first widely circulated use of the term “mail art” in print occurred in the title of an exhibition catalogue: Mail art—Communication à distance—Concept. This publication was released in November of 1971: the same year that mail processing in America was transformed by the founding of the quasi-corporate United States Postal Service. The exhibition took place on the other side of the Atlantic, as part of the seventh Biennale de Paris, and was the brainchild of a
  
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• Sufjan Stevens’s Cry of Despair and Prayer for Redemption

  29-09-2020 18:16 via nytimes.com
  
  The singer and songwriter’s new album, “The Ascension,” addresses a convergence of crises with synth-heavy songs filled with counterpoint and no easy resolutions.
  
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• The Best Bookends for Storing and Displaying Your Tomes

  29-09-2020 18:09 via artnews.com
  
  When it comes to your bookshelves, bookends are often a must. Whether you’re trying to keep your novels in line or attempting to tame your textbooks, bookends are a simple solution to prevent your volumes from falling over or slipping off their shelves. While their function may be the same, bookends run the gamut in terms of style and material. Ahead, find the five bookend sets that we find most noteworthy.
  
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• The Best Blank Cards and Envelopes for Crafting and Special Occasions

  29-09-2020 18:06 via artnews.com
  
  There’s nothing like making a greeting card that’s truly your own. Why buy a cheesy supermarket card for your best friend’s birthday or Father’s Day when you can create one yourself? Whether you’re looking for a postcard type or a fold-over style, a rainbow of colors or earth tones or white, you’ll find what you need among the blank cards and envelopes we recommend below.
  
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• Commentary: Five ways to enjoy arts and entertainment during COVID-19 pandemic - The Slate Online

  29-09-2020 18:05 via theslateonline.com
  
  Commentary: Five ways to enjoy arts and entertainment during COVID-19 pandemic  The Slate Online
  
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• National Portrait Gallery Show to Bring First Ladies into Focus

  29-09-2020 18:00 via nytimes.com
  
  A new exhibition, “Every Eye Is Upon Me: First Ladies of the United States,” will gather portraits and other artistic representations of first ladies.
  
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• This Year, the Fall for Dance Festival Is Digital

  29-09-2020 17:59 via nytimes.com
  
  The festival will focus on New York City artists, with premieres by Jamar Roberts, Christopher Wheeldon, Camille A. Brown and Dormeshia, and Kyle Abraham.
  
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• How Richard Nixon Became an Accidental Archivist

  29-09-2020 17:50 via nytimes.com
  
  When the son of David Frost went looking for missing tapes of his father’s interview show, he found many of them in an unlikely place.
  
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• Is Diana Markosian's Project a Soap Opera or Real Life? It's Both

  29-09-2020 17:27 via nytimes.com
  
  Stretching the limits of documentary photography, Diana Markosian’s autofictional “Santa Barbara” is the most authentic project of her career.
  
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• Arts Center Killingworth joins Madison’s autumn festival - Middletown Press

  29-09-2020 16:01 via middletownpress.com
  
  Arts Center Killingworth joins Madison’s autumn festival  Middletown Press
  
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• Seth Meyers Takes a Break With ‘Strange Adventures’ and Monty Python

  29-09-2020 16:00 via nytimes.com
  
  The “Late Night” host fills out his list of favorite things with Rhea Seehorn of “Better Call Saul” and the singer-songwriter John Prine.
  
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• Phoenix Arts Leaders Talk About the 2020-21 Season in the Age of COVID - Phoenix New Times

  29-09-2020 16:00 via phoenixnewtimes.com
  
  Phoenix Arts Leaders Talk About the 2020-21 Season in the Age of COVID  Phoenix New Times
  
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• Kenosha Academy of Performing Arts debuts the LEAP Project - Kenosha News

  29-09-2020 16:00 via kenoshanews.com
  Kenosha Academy of Performing Arts debuts the LEAP Project  Kenosha News
  
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• For the Met Opera, the Pandemic Could Be a Necessary Reset

  29-09-2020 16:00 via nytimes.com
  
  The company seems to be using a long break as a reboot, with more vital, representative programming coming soon.
  
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• Asheville City Council, Buncombe County board candidates weigh in on arts policy - Mountain Xpress

  29-09-2020 16:00 via mountainx.com
  
  Asheville City Council, Buncombe County board candidates weigh in on arts policy  Mountain Xpress
  
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