The European Crystal Chandelier Store (Image courtesy of Bowery Boogie)
- Woot! W.A.G.E. (Working Artists for the Greater Economy) is throwing a symposium to brainstorm and write policy for getting artists paid by non-profits. [W.A.G.E.]
- Departing Mayor Michael Bloomberg will take his administration’s policies on the road with a new global consulting corporation; he’s recruited more than a dozen aides from the current administration, including Kate Levin, the Department of Cultural Affairs commissioner to advise other cities on how to be like New York [The New York Times]
- Squirrels: Why are they here in our parks, staring at us, seeing right into our hardened city hearts? Escaped pets. [Gizmodo]
- The Boston Globe comes out with its five-month-long report on the Boston Marathon bombings. What results is an engrossing peek into the lives of the Tsarnev brothers, though I say that with reservation; the piece frames the family’s problems as some epic tragedy, with the pressure-cooker bomb being like Chekov’s loaded gun that finally, inevitably goes off. Then there’s a problematic series of sentimental watercolor portraits based on photographs from the suspects’ lives. [Boston Globe]
- Asher Penn: Curator, artist, Sex-publisher, and now entrepreneur! Available Works is the latest website for selling art over the Interwebs; artists, galleries, and “sellers of all kinds” can sell art online, and there’s a social media function to it, too. Sounds like some mix of Saatchi, ArtStack, and even eBay. [Available Works]
- Real estate prices have not peaked, though the climb has officially reached the Lighting District. The Crystal Chandelier store has closed, and the landlord is now charging $18,000/month for the storefront space. What’s next? The Bowery Boogie thinks nightlife. [Bowery Boogie]
- It looks like Holland Cotter got around this year. His year-end roundup spans Shanghai, Venice, Philadelphia, and New York. Detroit gets a mention, with some actual advice: “If it proves that the worst seems about to happen, the art world should get itself out to Detroit en masse and put its communal spirit to good use: Form a human circle around the building and, in one voice, just say no.” We’ll take that suggestion literally. [New York Times]
- Here’s another human circle opportunity, and it’s happening in just a few hours! A group of scholars include Pulitzer Prize winner Edmund Morris, and music critic and arts editor Annalyn Swan, filed a second lawsuit against the New York Public Library to prevent it from ripping out the stacks and replacing them with Internet access. Edmund Morris’s affidavit makes an especially good case for why this is a threat to our intellectual future (he’s a historical writer, and has researched a large portion of his books there). “[I]f the current administration goes ahead with its announced intent to replace the solid stacks with the vacuousness of public space, we will sadly a depository with a greater sense of historical responsibility.” Go to cheer him on today at noon at the 42nd street library, or tomorrow at 11 AM at 60 Centre Street, Room 341. [Save NYPL, via @savenypl]
