eveningstandard--2019-12-16--London gallery and museum memberships 2019: Best annual passes for the Tate, V&A, British Museum

London gallery and museum memberships 2019: Best annual passes for the Tate, V&A, British Museum and more

Looking for the perfect gift for the culture lover in your life? You can't go wrong with a passport to one of London's best arts venues.  Many of the capital's museums and galleries offer great membership packages and gift deals. It's a present that promises to keep on giving all the way through until next year.  These are the best memberships to snap up for a loved one.  This savvy annual membership at £78 per year secures unlimited free entry to every exhibition across the four Tate galleries — that means the St Ives and Liverpool venues too. That's just £7.50 a month! It also grants access to Members Hours, where guests have the opportunity to explore exhibitions during quieter intervals. Other benefits include a discount in the Tate shop and free entry for up to six children aged 16 or under.  Across London and the UK, for more information visit shop.tate.org.uk/membership  FOMO is an unknown concept for Southbank Centre members because they're always first in line for tickets for upcoming gigs, festivals and events, thanks to priority booking. Buying membership for a loved one, which costs £69 (the direct debit option), will also entitle them to free entry to Hayward Gallery exhibitions and 20 per cent off the gift shop, not to mention access to the members lounge on the top floor — an ideal spot for grabbing a pre-show drink.  Annual membership for the Royal Academy of Arts is slightly more expensive that its fellow London galleries at £128, but the rewards that come with it are, in many ways, more exclusive. The devil is in the detail here. Firstly, you’re not a member but in fact a “friend” of the Royal Academy. This relationship guarantees free entry to all exhibitions for you and a guest as well as exclusive first-look previews of shows before they open to the public. Friends of the RA also get extended opening hours and priority booking to all events and discount in the shop, as well as private viewings and invites to special showcases. They can also stay up-to-date with the programme through the RA magazine and weekly email newsletter.  More than two million years of human history is on offer for British Museum members and unlimited free entry means that exhibitions don't cost a penny. Membership, costing £64 for individual gift membership or £86 for joint membership, unlocks a secret programme of events that are not available to the general public, including lectures, tours, parties and out-of-hours experiences. Other benefits include a 10 per cent discount at the venue’s shops, cafes and restaurants as well as three copies a year of the British Museum Magazine.  This £75 membership really is double the fun, mainly because it guarantees unlimited free access for you and a guest for 12 months. There’s also no need to faff with queueing for tickets on arrival — simply turn up and flash your membership card to gain entry to the exhibitions. For those craving more design-related goodies, there are member-only Lates and out of hours access to shows.  London's iconic cultural centre offers something for everyone — from art and cinema to music and beyond. Film fans can enjoy 20 per cent off cinema tickets with a guest, alongside the same discount on selected music and theatre events. The £59 membership package offers member-only events, free access to exhibitions and priority booking. What a win.  For those who prefer to soak up an exhibition more than once, this membership ensures guests can experience it time and time again, with unlimited access for the entire year. There’s something to tickle every fancy too. Fashionistas can soak up both the Mary Quant and Christian Dior exhibitions, while foodies can feast on FOOD: Bigger than the Plate, which explores the politics and pleasure of food. Membership, costing £79 a year, grants exclusive previews and priority booking for evening talks and specially curated member-only showcases. Future generations also benefit from this arrangement, as members can bring up to four children in for free.  As well as getting free entry to all National Gallery exhibitions, those with membership, which starts from £58, can also secure invites to exclusive activities, including member-only preview days, concerts, film screenings, gallery talks, courses and workshops.  This £80 membership really does go a long way. Not only does it give members and a guest free entry to British Library exhibitions, but it also ensures priority booking for events with up for four free tickets on offer each year. Listing guides are regularly sent out to members so they’re always the first to know what the venue has in store. Book lovers can also take a guest into the daytime members room, which has exceptional, Insta-worthy views overlooking the King’s Library.


Daisy Airgun Museum

The small and excellent Daisy Airgun Museum tells the story of America's most iconic manufacturer of air guns, including the famed Red Ryder, the most common first gun for many generations of American children.  The museum is located in the center of Rogers, Arkansas, about a mile south of Daisy's manufacturing facility in the same city. Admission is only two dollars, and exhibits can be thoroughly examined in about an hour. The gift shop offers Daisy airguns at bargain prices, including remanufactured basic models as low of $15.  While powder arms are powered by burning gunpowder, air guns are propelled by compressed air. As the exhibit shows with airguns as old as 1770, air guns have been around for a very long time. Back in the eighteenth century, some airguns were comparable in caliber and kinetic energy to powder guns.  The Daisy story begins in 1882, with the founding of the Plymouth Iron Windmill Company, in Michigan. Making windmills from iron rather than wood was a good idea, but the windmill market was declining. One of the founders made an air gun in his spare time. When another founder gave it a try, he exclaimed "That's a daisy!"—a common expression of praise at the time.  By 1895, the Plymouth Iron Windmill Company had changed its name to Daisy Manufacturing Company and had stopped making windmills. In 1958, the company closed its aging facility in Michigan, and opened a new factory in northwest Arkansas—becoming the leading edge of an economic revival in the region.  The Museum tells the Daisy story from the 19th century to the present, using exemplar guns, vintage advertising, newspaper and magazine articles, and excellent narrative text. There's even a reproduction of the original Daisy.  Daisy made a lot of different items over the years, including toy guns, pop guns, and even powder arms for a short period. During World War II, manufacturers were not allowed to use steel for the domestic market, so Daisy employed its expertise in stamping steel to make artillery canisters, spark plug gaskets for military vehicles, and other war materiel.  But what has made Daisy great has been its air guns. They're not the precision models for Olympic competitors, but rather an affordable and reliable first or second gun for American youth.  Most famous of the Daisy air guns is the lever action Red Ryder. Gene Shepherd's memoir, later made into the movie A Christmas Story, captures the popularity of the Red Ryder after its 1938 introduction (and for decades afterward).  Incidentally, as the exhibits explain, the particular model that Ralphie aspired to in A Christmas Story, didn't exist on the market. Ralphie wanted a Red Ryder an engraved stock containing a compass and sundial. Daisy never made such a gun until 1983, when the company produced a Christmas Story limited edition.  There's a lot more to learn at the Daisy Museum. Did you know that when astronaut Alan Shepherd became the first man to hit a golf ball on the moon, it was a Daisy logo ball?  Moon shots aside, the Daisy story has been at the wholesome core of America's gun culture for 137 years. The Daisy Museum tells the story with pride and love.  After you finish the Daisy Museum, you can drop by the showroom and store of A.G. Russell Knives, also located in Rogers, Arkansas.


greenwichtime--2019-12-13--New museum exhibits and other things to see and do in Greenwich

New museum exhibits and other things to see and do in Greenwich  For the latest events and activities happening in Greenwich, turn to For the record. To have your event included, submit a description, date, time, price and contact information. Photos are welcome. Drop us an email about your latest goings-on at gtcitydesk@scni.com.  Abilis Gardens & Gifts is selling holiday gifts and its greenhouse is filled with holiday wreaths and greenery. It is a must-shop store offering handcrafted candles, bath products, children’s gifts, jewelry, housewares and gifts, with fresh flowers, plants and microgreens in the greenhouse. Prices range from $5 to $40 and proceeds support Abilis’ programs. Abilis Gardens & Gifts provides job training for adults with special needs. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; 10 a.m. to 3p.m. Tuesdays; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays; and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays in December. Abilis Gardens & Gifts is at 50 Glenville St. For more info, visit www.abilis.us or call 203-531-GIFT (4438).  The Cos Cob Library is showcasing the beautiful work of the Common Threads quilters for their biannual show through Saturday. The Community Room and turret is decorated with their creations and they will also be featured hanging from our rafters. Visitors to the library are invited to view the display.  The Byram Shubert Library is hosting an exhibition of the work of two artists — photographer Brent Keeting and painter Marialiisa Pettengi — in a show called “Lyrical Landscapes and Bold Abstractions” through Dec. 28. There will be an artists reception from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday in the Community Room. Refreshments will be served and sponsored by the Friends of the Byram Shubert Library.  The Bruce Museum’s latest exhibition will feature depictions of sea serpents crushing ships, 7-foot-tall giants, a mummified Porsche, and a menagerie of other oddities sure to pique the interest of any visitor interested in the intersection of art and science. The display, called “Collecting Reimagined: A 2D Curiosity Cabinet” will open on Saturday and be on view in the museum’s Bantle Lecture Gallery through March 24. The exhibit was curated by H.S. Miller, the Museum’s Zvi Grunberg Resident Fellow for 2019-20. Miller will also discuss the stories behind some of the exhibition’s more curious objects in a talk, “Tales from the Cabinet,” from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Feb. 12. Admission to the Bruce Museum is free through Jan. 31. For more information, visit brucemuseum.org.  The Greenwich Library will host Sing-a-Long Music Time with Tom Weber from 10:30 to 11:15 a.m. Saturday in the rear of Children’s Room. Tom’s performances are filled with interactive movement, props, singing, dancing, and lots of energetic fun! His repertoire includes original songs as well as traditional favorites. Tom’s music is intended to get children moving, singing, feeling confident and having fun.  Join Greenwich Audubon Center on the second Saturday of the month as it supports people who are sensory-sensitive and would like to enjoy learning about nature in a quiet and soothing space. This program is part of the Audubon For All initiative, which offers accessible and inclusive programs to support people with intellectual and physical challenges. During the Sensory-Sensitive Saturday sessions, Audubon provides relaxing nature films, natural artifacts with interesting textures, books, and pictures. Staff naturalists are present to support learning about nature in this soothing environment. Event will be from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday at Audubon at 613 Riversville Road. All are welcome for the free event. RSVP is required with Accessibility Coordinator Caroline Bailey at Caroline.Bailey@audubon.org or 203-900-3349. The next session will be Jan. 11.  First Congregational Church of Greenwich will presents its 43rd annual performance of Part I of Handel’s Messiah, the Christmas portion and concluding with the Hallelujah chorus, at 4 p.m. Saturday. The First Church Festival Chorus will be accompanied by the First Church Chamber Orchestra. While community participation is central, the performance will be anchored by professional soloists, including soprano Rise Renea Harman, mezzo soprano Sarah Bleasdale, tenor Daniel Young, and bass Constantine Novotny. For more information, contact Craig Symons at craigs@fccog.org. The performance is open to the public and a free-will offering will be received, with suggested $20 donation.  Join yoga instructor Brittani Kelly (BK) for Nature Yoga sessions on Sundays at the Greenwich Audubon Center at 613 Riversville Road. Discover healthy living for people and wildlife together — these unique sessions will bring attention to what is happening in nature around us and the health of the environment, while developing techniques in yoga and wellness. Bring a yoga mat if you have one; mats will be available to borrow. The class from 10 to 11 a.m. is intended for adults, teens, and kids ages 12 and up, with all levels of experience and abilities are welcome. Admission is $10 per session. The class from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. is for families and is intended for all ages, experiences levels, and abilities. Admission is $5 for children and $10 for adults.  The Bruce Museum, 1 Museum Drive, host Family Gallery Tours from 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on Sundays. The tours are geared for kids ages 6-10. Free with regular admission, and no registration is required. Visit brucemuseum.org for more info.  Each year, Greenwich Audubon Center participates in this annual tradition to monitor winter bird populations throughout North America. Teams of birders head out on Sunday to count as many individual birds as possible in a given count area within 24 hours. The count in this area is known as the “Greenwich-Stamford Count Circle.” All of the data compiled is submitted to ornithologists who conduct vital research on the health of our winter bird populations. There are two ways to participate. Join a count team, which will be assigned to different areas within the count circle and at Greenwich Audubon Center, and then go out and count birds by foot and car. Some teams will begin counting before dawn to count owls and will continue until 5 p.m. Or you can participate in the Christmas Bird Count at home by counting birds at your backyard feeders. Simply complete the checklist provided by Audubon and submit it by 5 p.m. Sunday. All participants are invited to gather at Greenwich Audubon Center at 5 p.m. to compile results and enjoy a complimentary dinner. For those interested in participating at Greenwich Audubon Center, contact Ted Gilman at tgilman@audubon.org or 203-930-1353. For those interested in joining a team in your neighborhood or conducting a feeder-watch, contact Cynthia Ehlinger at cynthia.ehlinger@gmail.com or 203-219-1963.  Weekly open duplicate Bridge games are held at 12:15 p.m. Mondays at the Greenwich YWCA. The games are sanctioned by the American Contract Bridge League, with masterpoint awards to top finishers. The card fee to play one session is $12. For more information, contact Steve Becker at 203-637-8927.  Registered nurse Roberta Brown, from integrative medicine, will present a lecture on“Self Care: Sound Healing Meditation” in Greenwich Hospital’s Noble Conference Center from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Monday. Explore mindful self-care practices to quite the mind, calm the nervous system and restore the body. Experience a relaxing guided meditation, accompanied by the healing sounds of Tibetan singing bowls. Dress comfortably; bring a yoga mat if possible. Chairs will be provided. To register, call 888-305-9253 or visit greenwichhospital.org/events. Free.  A drop-in conversation series for English Language Learners called “Time to Talk: A Conversation Series for English Language Learners” will be held from 6:30 to 8: p.m. Dec. 17 in the Byram Shubert Library Community Room. Come to improve your communications skills, learn more about American culture and feel more comfortable in the community. Peer-to-peer conversations offer an opportunity to practice casual language in a less formal environment than a classroom. Volunteers facilitate conversations on everyday topics such as doctors visits, grocery shopping, and finding housing or work. This series is open to all adults. Beginners welcome. As the library will be closed, entrance will be downstairs at the program room.  Bruce Beginnings is a program for children ages 2.5 to 5 with an adult at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Tuesdays at the Bruce Museum. Explore the museum collections and exhibitions through picture books and hands-on activities. This program takes place on the museum’s free admission day and space is limited. See the visitor service desk upon arrival to secure a spot. Topics change weekly. Visit brucemuseum.org for more info.  The Perfectly Polite Bridge Group has Duplicate Bridge games at the Greenwich YMCA on Wednesdays from 9:45 a.m. to noon for Relaxed Duplicate Bridge and from 12:45 to 2:45 p.m. for Relaxed Duplicate Bridge / Conventions. The cost is $10 for members and $12 for nonmembers. You do not need a partner to play. Only prepaid players are guaranteed a seat. There is also a Beginner Game/Class with relaxed play and discussion from 3 to 5 p.m. Seating is limited. If you are not on the email list, call Frank Crocker at 203-524-8032 to register.  The Greenwich Retired Men’s Association offers a free program every Wednesday at the First Presbyterian Church, 1 W. Putnam Ave., that is open to the public; no reservations required. Social break starts at 10:40 a.m., followed by speaker at 11 a.m. For info, visit www.greenwichrma.org or contact info@greenwichrma.org. Future speakers include Pam Kuhn & The Angel Choir will perform for the RMA Family Holiday Celebration on Dec 18. No meetings will be held on Dec. 25 and Jan. 1. Speakers return on Jan. 8 with Patricia Sesto, director of environmental affairs for the Town of Greenwich, on “How Can Greenwich Handle Rising Sea Levels.”  Tai Chi is a relaxing exercise that can loosen joints, improve balance and teach graceful movements to music. Fun and no pressure classes are held at 8 a.m. Wednesdays and at 9 a.m. Thursdays in the auditorium at the First Congregational Church Auditorium on Sound Beach Avenue in Old Greenwich, opposite Binney Park. The cost is $10 per one-hour session. Newcomers welcome. For info, call Joe at 203-504-4678.  The Greenwich Conservatory Ballet will present the must-see holiday classic, “The Nutcracker.” at the Westport Country Playhouse. The performances will feature Conservatory students and guest from The Rock School of PA, ABT JKO School, NY Dance Theatre and the European School of Ballet. Charming, family-friendly, an ideal holiday performing arts event. Shows are at 4 p.m. Dec. 22 and at 12:30 and 3:30 p.m. Dec. 23.  Santa and his live reindeer — Dasher, Dancer and Prancer — have returned for the 11th annual Greenwich Reindeer Festival & Santa’s Village at Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses, 437 North St., this holiday season. The town tradition continues through Dec. 24. Visitors can have their photo taken with Santa, meet the reindeer and enjoy Santa’s Village, train and carousel rides at the “North Pole on North Street.” Parking is free. Hours for photos with Santa are noon to 6 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays. Closed on Sundays. The reindeer will depart on Dec. 22, but Santa will remain for photos Christmas Eve from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more details, visit www.Greenwichreindeerfestival.com.  The Art Society of Old Greenwich will hold its 2019 Holiday Art Show and Sale at the Gertrude White Gallery at the YWCA of Greenwich, through Dec. 27. This festive show offers fine artworks created by ASOG’s member artists. All artworks, in a variety of media, are available for purchase. The YWCA is located at 259 E. Putnam Ave. For gallery hours, call 203-869-6501.  The Greenwich Art Society is presenting “Glaser and the Grid,” a solo exhibition by Scott Glaser from the artist’s personal collection, through Jan. 3 at its gallery at 299 Greenwich Ave., second floor. The grid system is the common thread in Glaser’s work, from cityscapes created from men’s suit fabric, portrait mosaics made completely from Band-Aid-like bandages, neo-pointillist drawings, photorealist paintings or mixed media pieces. The artwork will be on view from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays. All works can be purchased by contacting the Greenwich Art society at 203-629-1533 or greenwichartsociety@verizon.net. For info, visit www.greenwichartsociety.org.  Start the New Year with a proper focus on your spiritual health. Enroll in a 15-week introductory class on the core beliefs of the Christian faith as found in the Bible. All are welcome — whether curious about Christianity or lifelong believers. Join First Luthern Church at 38 Field Point Road on Monday nights from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The class begins on Jan. 6. There is no cost, and no obligation to join the church. All materials will be provided. Contact Pastor Scamman at 203.962.8700 or by email at escamman@gmail.com to register.  The Greenwich Library will host an interactive workshop from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Jan. 6 to help high school seniors and college students ages 18 to 23 kickstart their job or internship search. Titled “From College to Career,” the workshop will focus on helping students gain the essential skills they need to get their foot in the door. Participants will leave with a working resume, a LinkedIn page, a professional headshot, tips on what to wear (and what not to wear) when interviewing, and networking skills they can use throughout college and beyond. A registration packet with info on what to wear for the headshot and what to bring to prepare a resume will be sent to everyone who signs up in advance. Participants will be entered in a drawing for a chance to win gift certificates to Amazon and Garden Catering. This program will take place in The Flinn Gallery and is co-sponsored by the Greenwich Alliance for Education and Greenwich Library. Registration is required at GreenwichLibrary.org.  The Greenwich Historical Society at 47 Strickland Road, Cos Cob, is presenting an exhibition on the immigrant experience called “An American Story: Finding Home in Fairfield County” through Jan. 6. The exhibit includes stories of the grit and resilience of immigrants and refugees, including 12 who found home in Greenwich. The stories illuminated in this exhibition reach across the world from five continents, shining a light on the ways that refugees and asylum seekers find hope and persevere in the face of challenges for creating new lives in Fairfield County. It is presented in partnership with the Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants. For more information, visit greenwichhistory.org.  This program at the Bruce Museum provides a welcoming and engaging museum experience for toddlers, ages 10 to 24 months, and their caregivers through hands-on play and exploration. Bruce Beginnings Jr. sessions are inspired by the museum’s collections and exhibits. It is held from 9:45 to 10:45 a.m. on the second Thursday of each month, next time on Jan. 9. This program is free with general admission but space is limited. See the visitor service desk upon arrival to secure a spot.  The Greenwich Symphony Orchestra will be in concert on Jan. 11 and Jan. 12 will featue Verdi, Overture to La Battaglia di Legnano; Schumann, Piano Concerto with Benjamin Hochman on piano; and Korngold, Symphony, Op. 40, with Benjamin Hochman on piano. The concerts on Feb. 22 and Feb. 23 will feature Beethoven, Symphony No. 3 (Eroica); and Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 5 (Emperor), with John O’Conor on piano. The concerts on April 18 and April 19 will feature Hindemith, Concert Music for Strings and Brass; Herbert, Concerto No. 2 for Cello, with Daniel Miller on cello; and Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique. Concerts are at the Greenwich High School Performing Arts Center, 10 Hillside Road, at 8 p.m. on Saturdays and 4 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets are $40 per person, $10 for students. For more information, call 203-869-2664 or visit www.greenwichsymphony.org.  The Flinn Gallery at the Greenwich Library has reopened after being closed for several months while construction was going on outside its walls. The exhibit, “In Plain Sight, Library Art Collection,” is made up of works that belong to the library’s permanent collection and will be on display through Jan. 30. Many pieces on display have been hanging in various locations, often behind closed doors. Barbara Richards is the curator and sleuth who has gathered and arranged this collection. The gallery’s hours are 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. Closed Mondays. Visit flinngallery.com or call 203.622.7947 for more information.  Family Centers will welcome New York Times columnists and Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn as the latest speakers in its popular Titans Series. The breakfast event to benefit the Greenwich-based nonprofit will be at 7:30 a.m. Feb. 11 at the Stamford Sheraton at 700 E. Main St. This husband-and-wife duo were the first married couple to win a Pulitzer in journalism and have written a series of best-selling books together. Their latest book, “Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope,” will be released in early 2020 and all attendees will get a copy. Tickets start at $125, and proceeds will support Family Centers’ network of health, education and human service programs. For more information, visit www.familycenters.org.  For its 100th Anniversary Gala, the League of Women Voters of Connecticut will honor Indra K. Nooyi, a Greenwich resident and former chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, and Juanita T. James, president and CEO of the Fairfield County Community Foundation. Nooyi will receive the Outstanding Woman in Business award and James will be recognized with the Outstanding Woman in Philanthropy award. The gala will take place Feb. 22 at the Italian Center in Stamford. For more information, visit www.lwvct.org.  The St. Lawrence Society will hold its 29th annual Charity Golf Tournament on May 11. Enjoy a perfect day of golf, food and fun. Get your foursomes together and join the fun. Cost is $175 for everything: the luncheon, cart, golf, cocktail hour and dinner. For cocktails and dinner only, it’s $100. Starts at 11:30 a.m. at E. Gaynor Brennan Golf Course, with a 12:45 p.m. shotgun start, scramble format. Golf is followed by cocktail hour, antipasti and a prime rib dinner back at the Club. To RSVP, visit www.stlawrencesociety.com/events or call 203-618-9036.


newyorker--2019-02-28--Termite Art and the Modern Museum

Termite Art and the Modern Museum

Douglas, Arizona, was once a smelter town, processing copper mined nearby in Bisbee, Courtland, and Nacozari de García. The painter and critic Manny Farber, who was born in 1917 and died a little more than a decade ago, grew up there, eight blocks from the Mexican border, and his life was marked by an abiding interest in borders and burrowing things: centipedes, tapeworms, termites. In 1962, he published “White Elephant Art vs. Termite Art,” in Film Culture. “A peculiar fact about termite-tapeworm-fungus-moss art is that it goes always forward eating its own boundaries, and, likely as not, leaves nothing in its path other than the signs of eager, industrious, unkempt activity,” he wrote.  White-elephant art, on the other hand, was “masterpiece art, reminiscent of the enameled tobacco humidors and wooden lawn ponies bought at white elephant auctions decades ago.” Ever suspicious of grand gestures, message films, and stuff that smacked of “giltculture,” Farber championed small, stolen moments and improvised gestures, which he tended to find in collective productions that left lots of room for surprise. He valued craftsmen like Anthony Mann over auteurs like Truffaut or Antonioni, although he reserved the right to change his mind, and did so often. Hard as he was to nail down, he liked most the artists and filmmakers who were “involved in a kind of squandering-beaverish endeavor that isn’t anywhere or for anything.” Farber never came out and said so, but this opposition seems linked to left-wing debates from the nineteen-thirties, and Farber’s disdain for the left-leaning artists who had Barton Finked their way to Hollywood when the call came. Working as a carpenter, on and off, for much of his life, he took care not to rely on his art or his writing for money. The job gave him the freedom to rail against those who did.  Carpentry also gave Farber the freedom to follow his personal interests, from Abstract Expressionist works to representational paintings; from appreciations of tough-guy American filmmakers (Samuel Fuller, Raoul Walsh) to celebrations of Europeans (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Chantal Akerman); from New York to the University of California San Diego, where, in the seventies, he helped assemble a top-notch department of visual arts. One of Farber’s first hires, Jean-Pierre Gorin, had been Jean-Luc Godard’s partner in the Dziga Vertov Group of leftist filmmakers. Gorin and Farber became close, and Gorin made a feature-length film called “Routine Pleasures,” from 1986, that cuts between Farber’s studio and a team of train buffs, in Del Mar, California, who are building a landscape for their model railroad to move through—which just might be the ultimate termite endeavor.  Projected onto a gallery wall, “Routine Pleasures,” is one of the first things you see in “One Day at a Time: Manny Farber and Termite Art,” an exhibit running at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, until March 11th. Should you choose to sit for a while, there are five chairs to pick from, all made by the artist and architect Roy McMakin, a former student of Farber’s who salvaged two wooden chairs from a thrift shop and made these immaculate copies by hand. The original chairs have been hung on a wall perpendicular from the projection—an inversion that might be too easy, or too on the nose. Still, McMakin’s affection for his former teacher comes through.  By all accounts, Farber was a powerhouse teacher. In the classroom, he’d screen films backward or without sound, freeze the frame, ask his students to see what they were seeing in purely pictorial terms. In a catalogue essay that accompanies the show, Helen Molesworth, who sat in on Farber’s lectures in the eighties, describes his screening of Martin Scorsese’s “Mean Streets.” “He showed the opening scene several times—once straight through, once without sound, and once while he spoke,” she writes. She goes on, “When Farber talked, he talked about how Robert De Niro moved like a dancer, and asked us to watch carefully as De Niro moved his body through the streets, to see how the character seemed to inhabit his physical frame, how a low hum of criminality was embodied in those lilting footsteps—the compactness of his hips over his knees—all this, just before he put a cherry bomb in a mailbox on a street corner in downtown New York and scampered away, his entire body looking like a shit-eating grin.”  This is lovely, and also a little bit sly, because Molesworth—who assembled “One Day at a Time,” then lost her job as MOCA’s curator before it went up, but saw the show through, nonetheless—has set off a few cherry bombs of her own. At MOCA, she feuded with the museum’s director, Philippe Vergne, over a survey, from 2017, of the work of the American minimalist Carl Andre. (In 1985, Andre was charged with the murder of his wife, the Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta. Acquitted in 1988, he was shunned by the art world for years, until a retrospective at Dia, in 2014, where Vergne was then the director.) At around the same time, Molesworth declined to work on a solo show by Mark Grotjahn, a blue-chip Los Angeles artist who sits on MOCA’s board. Grotjahn was also supposed to be the honoree at MOCA’s 2018 fund-raising gala; in January of last year, he declined, citing a lack of diversity. (The three previous honorees—Jeff Koons, Ed Ruscha, and John Baldessari—had also been straight white men.) But Grotjahn’s change of heart came too late, as save-the-date cards had already gone out. The gala was cancelled in February. MOCA was in turmoil. Molesworth was fired in March. Two months later, in May, Vergne announced his resignation.  It didn’t go unnoticed in the art world that, within four months, at the height of the #MeToo moment, four women who had stood at the helm of major cultural institutions—Laura Raicovich, at the Queens Museum; Maria Inés Rodríguez, at the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux; Beatrix Ruf, at Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum; and Molesworth—all lost their jobs. Molesworth, who had come to MOCA after serving as the chief curator at the I.C.A., in Boston, and the Wexner Center, in Columbus, Ohio, had spent her career questioning her place inside the museum. “The Western institution I have dedicated my life to, with its familiar humanist offerings of knowledge and patrimony in the name of empathy and education, is one of the greatest holdouts of the colonial enterprise,” she wrote, last year, in Artforum. “I don’t think there’s any way for MOCA to not be a white space,” she said in a lecture at U.C.L.A., just before the dustup with Grotjahn. “The DNA is too deep. We don’t have anyone of color on our board.” In her three years at MOCA, Molesworth curated ambitious, important shows by artists of diverse backgrounds: the first retrospective of Kerry James Marshall’s work, a major retrospective of works by Anna Maria Maiolino. She was better with interesting, out-of-the-way artists than she was with the big names, with the board, and with potential donors—and that brings us back to Farber, the straight white male who has been enlisted, in this case, to serve as Molesworth’s Trojan horse in a show that raises the same questions that she has raised in public.  There are twenty-three late paintings by Farber, all of them still-lifes made between 1975 and 2000. They include works from his oil-on-paper “Stationery” series, in which everyday objects (erasers, scissors, paper clips, bottles of liquid paper) skitter toward the edges of the frame; works from the “Auteur” series, which make glancing references to films by Altman and Fassbinder while zooming in on the bric-a-brac (candy bars, notebooks) that film critics fiddle with in screening rooms. Farber painted on tables, and you see his pictorial plane from above, at an angle that’s tilted slightly. In the absence of fixed-point perspective, your eye moves freely across the canvas. The results are demotic, de-centered, democratic—and also cartoonish and just shy of kitsch. They’re not to everyone’s taste, though Farber, a proud man, was sure of their value. Asked about the relationship between his painting and film criticism, Farber said, “The brutal fact is that they’re exactly the same thing.” You see some of that here: like his arguments, the paintings are full of jostling, circling, scuffling things. Taken together, they give the feeling that Farber described when he held Kurosawa’s “Ikiru” up as a perfect example of termite art—a sense of “buglike immersion in a small area without point or aim, and, over all, concentration of nailing down one moment without glamorizing it, but forgetting this accomplishment as soon as it has been passed; the feeling that all is expendable, that it can be chopped up and flung down in a different arrangement without ruin.”  Farber is a Trojan horse in another way, too, because Molesworth has used him to sneak a number of termite-like artists into the show: Nancy Shaver, who collects textiles and objects that are as likely to end up in her antique shop in Hudson, New York, as they are in galleries; Beverly Buchanan, who built bumpity, shrunken-down shotgun shacks, cook shacks, and sharecropper cabins out of wood and foam core; Dike Blair, whose mournful gouaches of ashtrays, alarm clocks, and empty airport armchairs read like an essay on negative space. There are flashier works, including Josiah McElheny’s “An End to Modernity,” from 2005, a super-sized, nickel-plated, aluminum attempt to depict the known universe, which looks like a Lobmeyr light fixture, with the galaxies rendered in hand-blown glass and electric lights doubling as quasars. It’s enormous and glitzy, which makes it a bit of a stretch for the show; but, despite its size, the sculpture’s chandelier-like qualities make it feel indoorsy and intimate. Becky Suss’s “Bathroom,” from 2016, a meticulous re-creation, in oil, of the bathroom that her grandparents shared on Long Island, is more intimate still. Catherine Opie’s photographs of Elizabeth Taylor’s curtains, closet, and kitchen—taken in 2010 and 2011, the year that Taylor died—are elegiac and stately, and deeply revealing of Taylor’s interior life. There are two beautiful domestic paintings by Patricia Patterson, Farber’s partner and eventual wife, who moved with him to California, co-wrote his later essays, and lived with him, happily, until his death. In all, there are thirty-four artists, plus Jason Simon, who programmed a series (films by Danny Lyon, Michael Snow, Joyce Wieland, and others) to go with the show.  Molesworth has said that, out of all of the exhibitions that she’s organized, this is her most personal. It’s powerful, too, in a quiet, cumulative way, because the domestic sphere that she’s focussed on here is so close to the heart. But there’s more to it than that. In Molesworth’s hands, which we feel as heavily as those of the artists she’s gathered, the show becomes an argument cast in the form of a question: What is the proper place for minor-key, handmade, pictorial works that ignore, dance around, or deplore the spectacle side of today’s garish, moneyed art world? Or, how can today’s museums be more than mechanisms that validate prices set by the galleries and auction houses?  During her “heady college days,” Molesworth writes in her catalog essay, “I, like so many others, developed a crush on the twentieth century’s call for art to broker an arrangement with life. . . . Now, I find my attraction to the everyday to be a form of defense against what I perceive to be the near total eclipse of criticism by the market values of art as an asset class, the demand for museums to produce blockbuster shows, and the apotheosis of profit as the primary marker of cultural value that I see embodied in the frictionless finish fetish of Jeff Koons, the narcissistic grandiosity of Damien Hirst, or the production of charm without affect by Takashi Murakami.”  These strong words play out in striking and unexpected ways as you walk through the galleries. Charles Ray’s “Tractor,” from 2005, is a life-size, aluminum reconstruction of a broken-down tractor that Ray came across in California’s San Fernando Valley. Ray towed the thing to his studio, took it apart, and had ten of his assistants sculpt each part in clay. He made molds and cast them, and the results are startling. Some of the parts look machine-tooled. Others have clearly been sculpted by hand, retaining the mark of their individual, anonymous makers. Still, the machine comes together. It works. Is this sculpture, which looks like a super-sized Monopoly token, really an example of termite art? Is it an example of the Fordist, assembly-line practices that Molesworth abhors when it comes to someone like Jeff Koons—a perfect piece of white-elephant art? The answers seem to be yes, and that tractor’s still stuck in my mind, a few months after I first walked through the show. It seems to embody the pitfalls and contradictions that come with critiquing the institution from within, and also the ways that an object can cut through critique and simply broadcast its thingness.  “By the way,” Gorin says, in an exchange with Molesworth about Manny Farber that’s included in the catalog, “he said he hated ‘White Elephant Art vs. Termite Art.’ I think he hated it in part because people tried to tether him to it. He knew the article was fundamentally flawed, and what’s flawed about it is the ‘versus.’ ” Molesworth agrees. “Of course!” she writes. “The essay is structurally flawed by a false antinomy, an either/or scenario doomed to generate opinions rather than dialogue. Anyway, who wants to have an argument that only has two sides?” More than any debt they owe to Farber, that kind of willingness to wander, beaver-like, into the thickets, in search of nothing in particular—or nothing at all—is what the best artists here have in common. It’s not the stuff of which art-world blockbusters are made at the moment, and that probably goes some way toward explaining why Molesworth’s tenure at MOCA couldn’t last. And yet this tricky, important farewell show suggests the ways that museums must change, and are changing already. No one, not Farber or anyone else, said it was going to be easy.


npr--2019-01-17--McJesus Sculpture To Be Pulled From Israeli Museum After Violent Protests

'McJesus' Sculpture To Be Pulled From Israeli Museum After Violent Protests  Less than a week after hundreds of Christian protesters descended on the Haifa Museum of Art, clashing with police in a demonstration against a controversial sculpture, the Israeli city's mayor says the object of their outrage is getting withdrawn. Einat Kalisch-Rotem announced Wednesday that McJesus, a work of art depicting a crucified Ronald McDonald, "will be removed and returned as soon as possible."  "Without any connection, we believe in freedom of speech as a cornerstone of democracy," she wrote on Twitter, according to a translation by The Times of Israel.  "We regret the distress experienced by the Christian community in Haifa, and the physical injury and violence that followed," Kalisch-Rotem added, referring to the bloodshed that left three police officers injured last Friday. "We thank the heads of the Christian churches and priests in Haifa for the dialogue and desire to bridge, the effort to reach a solution, and to prevent violence."  The sculpture, created by Finnish artist Jani Leinonen, has stood on display since August as part of the museum's Sacred Goods exhibition. There it stood largely without incident for some five months, with its luridly colorful fast-food mascot nailed to the cross, slumped in an attitude recalling Jesus Christ.  Elsewhere in the exhibition were plastic action figures of Jesus, packaged to look like Ken dolls, and a print of the Christian messiah with arms outstretched — only this time holding up shopping bags.  "In the contemporary context, the artists participating in the exhibition employ religious symbols to criticize the encroachment of the consumer culture on our lives in general, and on the religious sphere in particular," the exhibition's organizers explained on the museum website. "The artists also criticize the way religions use consumer values and practices in order to prosper in the contemporary reality."  Many among Israel's Arab Christian minority didn't appreciate Leinonen's nod to their religious iconography, however. And last Friday, their simmering discontent erupted into violence, as protesters sought to storm the museum, allegedly tossing stones and even a couple of firebombs before being dispersed, according to Haifa law enforcement.  Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev, too, recently called for the sculpture's removal, though her request was reportedly rebuffed by the country's deputy attorney general.  It was already scheduled to be returned to the Finnish museum that the Israeli curators had loaned it from, but Kalisch-Rotem suggested that the process will now be expedited "in agreement with church leaders."  Ironically, the news is likely to cheer not just the Christian protesters, but the very artist whose work they were protesting. Leinonen himself had demanded that McJesus be taken down — though for very different reasons.  "I joined the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, that upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity," he told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.  "Israel overtly uses culture as a form of propaganda to whitewash or justify its regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid over the Palestinian people," he continued. "Therefore I do not wish to be part of this exhibition and I asked the museum to take my artwork off the exhibition."  He explained that he had asked for his piece's removal even before the violent protests, and when he heard of them, he repeated his demand: "I insist my work will be taken off the exhibition instantly."  Now, it appears he's finally getting his wish — but not everyone was pleased with the decision.  Kalisch-Rotem's announcement represents a "capitulation to violence and severe damage to artistic freedom of expression," Dan Yakir, chief counsel for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, told the Israeli publication Haaretz. "The mayor, like the culture minister, is not authorized to decide what is or isn't displayed at the city museum."


npr--2019-07-22--At Whitney Museum Biennial 8 Artists Withdraw In Protest Of Link To Tear Gas Sales

At Whitney Museum Biennial, 8 Artists Withdraw In Protest Of Link To Tear Gas Sales  More artists are telling the Whitney Museum for American Art they are withdrawing from the museum's high-profile Biennial contemporary art showcase currently underway in New York.  "It was a really easy decision," says artist Nicholas Galanin, who spoke by phone from Alaska, where he lives. Along with three other artists, he told the Whitney on Friday that he wanted his multimedia work pulled from the show.  Over the weekend, Galanin and the others were joined by four more artists and collectives. Many in the art world expect other artists in the show to follow suit during the coming week.  The artists are protesting the vice chair of the Whitney's board, Warren B. Kanders, over his ownership of military supply companies that sell tear gas and bullets, which the artists allege to have been used against migrants on the U.S. southern border and against unarmed civilian protesters in Gaza.  One of the pieces in the Biennial show, a short video entitled "Triple-Chaser," lays out a case against Kanders, with the help of gruesome footage of a Palestinian protester getting shot. It was made by a London collective called Forensic Architecture, along with Praxis Films, a company run by filmmaker Laura Poitras.  Forensic Architecture is among the artists requesting that their work be removed from the Whitney Biennial.  "We might just end up with a Biennial of empty rooms," says Zachary Small, senior writer for the art news website Hyperallergic. "That would be an amazing statement about who is funding culture."  Art critic Blake Gopnik, a contributor to the New York Times, agrees.  "The artists who withdrew from the Biennial actually made the best work of art in the Biennial. This is an excellent work of political art," he said, referring to the artists' defection.  Other critics have pointed out these artists have benefited from the exposure and notoriety, and that it seems awfully convenient that they waited to withdraw their art until after the reviews were in. Thousands of people have seen their work and the show will close relatively soon, on Sept. 22.  "But look, we're talking about these issues," Gopnik says. "It's raising our awareness of the contradictions involved and the subtleties and ambiguities — and that's what art is good at doing."  Two visitors who went to the Whitney Biennial on Sunday, Rachel Weber and her friend Coral Bourgeois, said that usually when they go to museums, it's for inspiration — not to reflect upon how the money behind them may have come from the tools of war.  "This really brought it home," Weber said, as Bourgeois chimed in her agreement. "That this is what the Whitney is."  In a statement, Whitney president Adam D. Weinberg said "the Whitney respects the opinions of all the artists it exhibits and stands by their right to express themselves freely. While the Whitney is saddened by this decision, we will of course comply with the artists' request."  As of Sunday, none of the art had been taken down and it's unclear what will happen with the artists' fees.  Nicholas Galanin says he was paid $1,500 for his pieces in the show. But he said that did not cover the costs of traveling to the opening from Alaska, where he lives, and then putting himself up in New York.  Those costs, he said, the Whitney did not pay for. But Galanin said he'll happily return his fee to the Whitney if the museum wants it in return for taking his work down.


npr--2019-08-25--Firearms Museum Focuses On Gun Safety History And Culture

Firearms Museum Focuses On Gun Safety, History And Culture

The Cody Firearms Museum in Wyoming recently reopened after an extensive renovation that included bringing a more educational approach to guns and gun culture. **Kamila Kudelska/Wyoming Public Radio** ****hide caption****  ****toggle caption****  Kamila Kudelska/Wyoming Public Radio  The Cody Firearms Museum in Wyoming recently reopened after an extensive renovation that included bringing a more educational approach to guns and gun culture.  Kamila Kudelska/Wyoming Public Radio  Tucked away in the northwest corner of Wyoming is one of the largest gun collections in the world: The Cody Firearms Museum. But it's recently gotten a makeover, moving away away from being a monument to guns and toward being an educational space on gun safety, history and culture.  The museum is located at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West alongside four other museums and near the east entrance to Yellowstone National Park. So often, people just happen upon it. That was the case for Kim Cato and her family, visiting from Idaho.  "We were not planning to go in here," Cato said.  Cato said that's because of her own previous experience with the museum.  "I was here as a child and my dad dragged me through it and it was just rows and rows of guns and it was just not exciting."  But now, the recently renovated museum seemed more intriguing. So Cato and her husband Kevin, their 12-year-old son, Tyson, and 15-year-old daughter, Jillian, took a tour with Ashley Hlebinsky, the curator.  **People and technology**  "So we're actually going to start right here," said Hlebinsky, as she led the family to the mission statement plastered in big letters on a wall at the entrance of the museum. "A lot of times when you talk about firearms history, you think about the history of technology, but it's also a history of people, and with that history of people it can be good, bad and indifferent."  In an effort to address the good, the bad, and the indifferent, the first gallery is focused on basic firearm safety, especially where kids are involved. There's an interactive table and the first thing you see, "Do you know what to do if they [children] are out in the real world and they encounter a real firearm?"  We had an experience where a child climbed over a fence and handed my son a gun.  Kim Cato, Cody Firearms Museum visitor  Under the question, a set of rules are mounted at a height designed to be read by children. They include: Stop. Don't touch the firearm. Get an adult or a law enforcement officer. Cato found these guidelines really helpful.  "We had an experience where a child climbed over a fence and handed my son a gun," Cato said. "And didn't you try to shoot it?"  "No, I didn't even touch it," replied Tyson.  Cato was surprised because she had heard a different story when it happened a couple of years ago. It turned out some of the details were murky. Nothing bad happened but it was scary for the family.  "Tyson, are you aware of these rules now?" Cato asked.  Rather than being a monument to guns, the Cody Firearms Museum explores the history of guns as well as gun safety and the cost of war. **Kamila Kudelska/Wyoming Public Radio** ****hide caption****  ****toggle caption****  Kamila Kudelska/Wyoming Public Radio  Rather than being a monument to guns, the Cody Firearms Museum explores the history of guns as well as gun safety and the cost of war.  Kamila Kudelska/Wyoming Public Radio  Tyson replied in affirmative. This is the kind of conversation the museum is trying to foster. Even if visitors walk in with nearly no idea about firearms, the museum's administrators hope that at least they can learn how to handle hard situations that firearms may present.  Next, Hlebinsky took the Catos to the Cost of War exhibit.  "As we're walking into this gallery, really the first thing you encounter is this big graphic," Hlebinsky said. "And some of the images you see when you walk into the gallery are the gravestones at the Arlington Cemetery and children affected by war."  The Catos also learned about Audie Murphy, the World War II veteran and actor who broke a taboo of the time by talking about his experience with what we would now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. And the family learned that during the Civil War, some arms were produced by enslaved people.  **Multiple viewpoints**  The renovation tries to address the diverse audiences expected to visit. Hlebinsky said the museum offers different lenses through which people can learn about firearms, such as shooting sports, the technological evolution of firearms, and military history.  Some of the Cody Firearms Museum exhibits focus on the design and mechanics of guns. **Kamila Kudelska/Wyoming Public Radio** ****hide caption****  ****toggle caption****  Kamila Kudelska/Wyoming Public Radio  Some of the Cody Firearms Museum exhibits focus on the design and mechanics of guns.  Kamila Kudelska/Wyoming Public Radio  Museum leaders say they also don't want to ignore the current conversations around the misuse of firearms, specifically in mass shootings. The Catos ended their tour in front of a big black and white mural, produced by the artist known as JR in partnership with _Time Magazine_.  Fifteen-year-old Jillian Cato described the mural this way: "It's a big group of people. Many of them have signs. It seems to be a huge debate. One side is anti-gun and the other side is pro-guns rights."  The mural is derived from a video featuring images of Americans on all sides of the debate. Hlebinsky said as a museum curator, she can't tell people what they should think about firearms. But she hopes the information spurs conversations among visitors.  As the Cato family looked at the mural, the father, Kevin said they aren't really gun enthusiasts.  "I'm not into killing things. There's no reason to have a gun unless you're going to try to kill something," he said. "I have really enjoyed this, though, and I'm going to do more research on the history of guns and how they are going to affect warfare."  That's the goal of the new Cody Firearms Museum. Not to win people over as gun enthusiasts, but to help them learn and think about gun culture.


pamelagellerreport--2019-10-16--British Museum exhibit explores the influence of Muslim culture on the West

Does this exhibit explain how the Islamic influence on Western art was severely limited by the fact that Sharia forbids representation of the human form? Or would that reflect negatively upon Islam and Sharia, and so is forbidden to be stated? Will the British Museum host an exhibition on how Western art influenced the Islamic world, a topic about which there is a great deal that could be said, ranging from the cultural appropriation of Byzantine church architecture to the stylistic similarities of Shi’ite iconography to Western art? The answer to both questions is “of course not.” This is just another example of the British intelligentsia’s ongoing efforts to compel Britons to be ashamed of their own culture and heritage, and to think of Islamic culture as antecedent and superior to their own. It’s just more of Britain’s ongoing cultural suicide.  “Exploring the influence of Muslim culture on the West,” by Gavin O’Toole, Al Jazeera, October 13, 2019:  London, United Kingdom – A 19th-century painting of a harem by European artist Antoine-Ignace Melling has been animated, subverting the depictions of the women within, from passive subjects of erotic fantasy to drab creatures engaged in jerky, repetitive movements reminiscent of a cuckoo clock.  This is contemporary Turkish artist Inci Eviner’s reimagining of a “classic” portrayal of an Ottoman harem and its message is serious. Art from the Middle East is outgrowing its “Orientalist” straitjacket.  Her work is part of a major exhibition in London’s British Museum called Inspired by the East, that explores the significant – yet often unacknowledged – influence of Eastern culture on the West.  “Discover centuries of art inspired by the Islamic world,” the museum promises visitors.  Co-curator Julia Tugwell said there has been a resurgence of interest in Orientalist work after it fell out of fashion for years, and she hopes the exhibition can help to reduce barriers thrown up by politics.  “People might forget that there has been an exchange between East and West for centuries, much longer than we think and while, of course, some of that has been warfare, a lot of it has been diplomatic relations and artistic exchange.  “Looking at this through an artistic medium and showing how there has been this interest in the ‘other’ from both directions over the years shows that there has been an ongoing dialogue.”  Organised in collaboration with the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, the exhibition traces Western fascination with the Eastern and Muslim world since the medieval era….  Catherine Futter of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, who contributed to the exhibition’s catalogue, said Islamic influence in European design endures.  “We still see Islamic arches and patterns incorporated into architecture and perhaps we see them so often they seem part of our currency and we have forgotten their sources – whereas in the 19th century they would have seemed far more unusual.  “One of the things that is exciting about this exhibition is that it is highlighting that important contribution to art, culture, science and technology made by the Islamic world.”…  Egyptian-British artist Iythar, who lives in London, said the exhibition could not have come at a better time amid rising anti-Muslim sentiment.  “This is very important and should have been done sooner because it helps people see the positive impact Islam has had in the world – not just in art but culture in general.  “Many people only choose to listen to what they hear in the media and don’t know anything about Islam, so when they go to an exhibition like this and appreciate the benefits of the Islamic culture, it fosters tolerance.”


slate--2019-05-01--How Art Museums Must Transform to Thrive in a PostHilma af Klint World

How Art Museums Must Transform to Thrive in a Post–Hilma af Klint World

Earlier this month, as the Guggenheim Museum’s exhibition of the formerly little-known Swedish painter Hilma af Klint drew to an end, art world power broker Thelma Golden posted an unusually emotional Instagram caption. “For these past months the Guggenheim has felt like church,” she wrote. “All about spirit and soul. I have loved every visit.” Many of her peers, who had also posted about their last pilgrimage to the show, shared similarly jubilant impressions.  This message by the director of the Studio Museum made explicit what the museum world already understands: The Hilma af Klint show marks an important moment for a cultural industry struggling with hypercommercial forces, ethical crises, and an urgent pressure to diversify at every level.* Audiences are clearly hungry for provocative, unusual, eye-opening aesthetic experiences that draw them away from their screens and into communal aesthetic experiences. How will museums respond to an environment that rewards the right kind of curatorial risk? Which institutions will take the lead in this new era?  Hilma af Klint imagined a new visual and mystical universe as early as 1906, before many of the recognized pioneers of the avant-garde (“the male trinity of Kandinsky, Malevitch and Mondrian,” as the New York Times’ Roberta Smith put it). She devised a manifesto for living with a group of women called the Five, transforming visions from medium séances into “paintings for the future.” She produced more than 200 paintings, along with notes, drawings, and diagrams, mostly in secret, demanding that her work not be shown until 20 years after her death. The images were to be displayed, ideally, in a divine temple; they found their home in the Guggenheim, Frank Lloyd Wright’s spiral-shaped altar.  The exhibition’s unexpected critical and commercial success has rarely been seen in the art world. It brought 600,000 visitors to the museum, becoming the Guggenheim’s most popular show since the museum opened 60 years ago; 30,000 catalogs were sold (more than Kandinsky’s 2009 record-breaking book sales at the museum); the Guggenheim recorded a 34 percent increase in memberships. “When I saw the show I was just surprised at how strongly I reacted to the work, especially when you walk up the ramp and see these large, fragile paintings,” explained Eugenie Tsai, senior curator at the Brooklyn Museum. “Part of the draw is the fact that they’re not representational. The abstract language is poetic and it’s very soothing but also points out to the existence of a larger reality. It doesn’t speak the same language of the contemporary visual overload.”  Nevertheless, the exhibition was adopted by the platform of contemporary visual overload, Instagram, with almost 39,000 hashtagged posts from the af Klint show showing the singularly organic forms and cool pastel tones. On the gram, af Klint provoked reactions that ranged from queer pride (“Artsygaylove,” with two women kissing in front of a painting) to the New Age–y (“Feeling all sorts of spiritual,” posted a young woman posing scantily dressed in front of her pink-and-yellow poster). In an era obsessed with feminine liberation and spirituality, it transformed the artist into a cult of her own.  As the once male, Western-centric history of art is expanded and rewritten to include those it traditionally pushed out, female artists are experiencing revivals and being praised for their pioneering visions. Institutions that have recently chosen to showcase radical women have been rewarded with massive recognition—and dollars. The success of af Klint can be viewed as a successor to Marina Abramovic, who drew crowds to MoMA in 2010, and Yayoi Kusama, who at 90 is breaking museum attendance records around the world with her polka dots and infinity mirror rooms. Many other underrecognized artists outside the white, male-centric narrative, such as the black sculptor Betye Saar and the Lebanese painter and poet Etel Adnan, have received late and sudden fame after decades of struggle.  “There may now be a greater openness to women and to the belief they can tell the truth,” said said Tsai, whose Brooklyn Museum has seen recent hits like Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving and the female-heavy Soul of a Nation.* She compared af Klint to Kahlo and to the rising sculptor Simone Leigh, whose show now follows af Klint’s at the Guggenheim, as “incredibly powerful artists who have so much to say, but whose voices had been ignored or stifled.”  “I wonder if Hilma was an unexpected blockbuster,” continued Tsai. “To me this show was an affirmation of the importance of the museum; it took on a life of its own. Everything was in alignment: the art, the architecture, the moment. Exhibitions don’t happen in a vacuum; they reflect a collective state of mind, a hunger for something transcendent.”  Now several museums are getting ready to exhibit more work by lesser-known artists from previously marginalized groups, such as MoMA, which is totally revamping its collection and curatorial purpose for the first time in its history. As women such as Joan Mitchell, Suzanne Lacy, and others get their own exhibitions, the lessons of Hilma af Klint are clear. Transforming museums and galleries into malls hasn’t proved to be a successful strategy and has failed to inspire the public, sparking activist backlashes instead. In our era of awakening, audiences want to see themselves represented in culture. They want to connect with great stories, which institutions should continue to tell.  “I think this shows us that we have narrowed the field of ‘blockbuster’ artists to a very small number of men,” said the critic and curator Helen Molesworth, citing Warhol, Basquiat, and Picasso. “But there are other great artists that capture the imagination of the public.” Some risk-averse museums will continue leaning on those “blockbuster” artists, to their detriment. (Please, not another Old Masters or Bill Viola show!) But when institutions expand their own perspectives, take bold risks, and bring in a wider range of voices, they connect with deeper social movements and with visitors—sometimes more of them than an institution ever expected.


tass--2019-01-29--Russian Museum confirms recovered paintings authenticity

Russian Museum confirms recovered painting’s authenticity

### Arkhip Kuindzhi’s painting "Ai-Petri. Crimea"  © Russia's Interior Ministry/TASS  ST. PETERSBURG, January 29. /TASS/. Experts from the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, who came to Moscow to inspect Arkhip Kuindzhi’s painting "Ai- Petri. Crimea," have confirmed its authenticity, the museum’s press service told TASS on Tuesday.  The painting, which comes from the Russian Museum’s collection and had been brought to Moscow for an exhibition of the artist’s masterpieces, was stolen from the State Tretyakov Gallery on January 27 but was recovered the next day.  "The Russian Museum’s experts have confirmed the painting’s authenticity. It received minor damage, there are small scratches, but its overall condition is satisfactory," a spokesperson said.  The media reported earlier, citing head of the Russian Culture Ministry’s Museum Department Vladislav Kononov, that experts from the Tretyakov Gallery - the chief curator and researchers - had inspected the painting and found some "tiny scuffs."  ## Museum theft  The painting titled "Ai-Petri. Crimea" by Arkhip Kuindzhi was stolen from the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow on January 27. The suspect, Denis Chuprikov, was detained in hot pursuit in the Zarechye settlement, Moscow Region. He said he had hidden the paining at a construction site in the Odintsovo District where it was eventually recovered. Police sources pointed out that the suspect was on bail in connection with a drug passion case. According to preliminary information, the crime was committed for financial gain. Investigators are working to establish the suspect’s possible accomplices.  Security measures at the State Tretyakov Gallery were stepped up following the incident. Kononov said there were plans to install digital sensors on all paintings in the gallery.  Kuindzhi’s 39 by 53 cm painting in oil on canvas and paper dates back to the 1890s. It comes from the collection of the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg and was brought to Moscow for an exhibition of the artist’s masterpieces.  In other media


thedailybeast--2019-02-07--If You Love Dogs This New York City Museum Is for You

If You Love Dogs, This New York City Museum Is for You

There’s a ceramic bulldog in a constable’s cap. There are two basset hounds, painted mid-hunt. At the AKC (American Kennel Club) Museum of the Dog, back in New York City after a 32-year-long run in St. Louis, there are simulations, sculptures, and skeletons—all of dogs.  The museum, which opens to the public on Feb. 8, is at AKC headquarters, 101 Park Avenue, a building steps from Grand Central Station. Its goal, roughly, is the preservation and interpretation of art of the dog to “enhance the human/canine relationship.”  A projection of a dog paced the lobby’s ceiling. Alan Fausel, the Executive Director of AKC cultural resources, was my guide; he is an art historian specializing in dog portraiture (what else?) and a contributor to PBS’ Antiques Roadshow.  The first floor is largely a display of paintings dating from the 1800s: snarling mastiffs, aristocratic canines in gilded frames; dogs who had clearly traveled in posher circles than I could dream. One notable piece is by Queen Victoria’s favorite painter, the famed Sir Edwin Landseer. My favorite was Christine Merrill’s portrait of Millie, First Pet of the Bushes. Beside the frame hangs a letter signed by Barbara Bush (“Best wishes for a wonderful opening!”).  “Reimagine” is the foremost effort here, though. Figurines from disparate cultures–Asian, Mexican, English–are showcased in a multi-floor glass display. We stopped for a moment at a 2,000-year-old paw print and a 30 million-year-old dog fossil (its name: hesperocyon).  Similar institutions attempt the same goal, Fausel said, but “only the American Kennel Club has the collection to pull it off.”  With enthusiasm, he demonstrated each interactive element of the museum. There’s a “Find Your Match" kiosk which matches your image to an AKC-registered dog breed. I got a Maltese: Charming, Playful, Gentle (a mostly inaccurate description of me). There is a “Meet the Breeds” touch screen board where visitors can explore different breed’s histories and traits. Visitors can even train a virtual Labrador, reminding you of your long-dead Nintendog.  The Museum of the Dog is yet another niche museum, like the pop-up Museum of Ice Cream launched here in 2016, where visitors wade through pools of rainbow sprinkles in a pastel room. Sugar Factory’s Candy Museum is coming soon and promises the world’s largest gummy bear. The entrance fee is steep, the crowds dense and young. (Does that thought make you anxious too?)  Such venues, as Sam Eichner argued in The Daily Beast, tend to prize the taking of good Instagram pictures above much else. Like them, the Museum of the Dog undeniably has strands of “Big Fun” in its DNA. Dogs are, traditionally, slam dunk crowd-pleasers. The interactive elements have the option to “share” the experience on social media.  And yet. The space isn’t consciously engineered for selfies. The walls are a clean white and the layout is fairly conventional. I can’t imagine its Insta feed will be up for any Webby Awards (The Museum of Ice Cream snagged one in 2018). More important, there’s the impression that the visitor can, and y'know, should learn something.  And I did. For example: 19th-century dog collars were spiked to protect the canine’s neck while boar hunting. Victorian children were led in wooden carriages by mastiffs for a delightful if not problematic jaunt.  The place is not lacking in whimsy. There are Chihuahuas holding Frisbees and dogs doing taxes. But a history of dogs is a history of owners. How was the pet a product of the era? When, I wonder, did they become something that demanded memorializing. These are not just snapshots of dogs, but snapshots of moments in time.  A painting of a pug looked particularly odd, all long legs and pointed snout. “This is a pug from around the 1800’s who doesn’t look like any alive today,” said Fausel. “Preserving this [painting] is preserving a historical record.”


theguardianuk--2019-03-23--How will British museums survive if they subject every donor to an ethical audit Mark Lawson

How will British museums survive if they subject every donor to an ethical audit? | Mark Lawson

Consumers of culture will have been aware of the name “Sackler” above the frame of rooms and galleries in artistic institutions around the world. I remember once briefly wondering, when ducking under such an arch, how they had made the money that permitted such extensive philanthropy.  Now everyone knows. The photographer Nan Goldin has advertised demonstrations outside the [Metropolitan](https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/nan-goldin-s -anti-opioid-activist-group-storms-new-york-museums) Museum of Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York and [threatened](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/feb/16/nan-goldin- sackler-gift-oxycontin-national-portrait-gallery) to withdraw a planned exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London, in protest at the institutions receiving donations from the Sacklers.  The objection is that the wealth of those members of the Sackler family being targeted by the protests derives from a stake in OxyContin, a strong opioid painkiller that has [been implicated](https://www.theguardian.com/us- news/2019/mar/21/sackler-family-500-cities-counties-and-tribes-sue-oxycontin- maker) in thousands of deaths from addiction or overdose. Following this scrutiny, the Sacklers have withdrawn a £1m handout that was held up in the NPG’s ethics committee, which decides whether the promised dosh is “in conflict with the objectives and values of the gallery”. The Tate galleries soon [announced ](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/mar/21/tate- art-galleries-will-no-longer-accept-donations-from-the-sackler-family)that they would no longer take Sackler cash.  There has been a discernible glee at the institutions having become purer, if also poorer, similar to the smack of satisfaction in literary circles when the Man Group hedge fund recently decided to [drop its sponsorship](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jan/27/booker-prize- trustees-search-for-new-sponsor-after-funding-dropped) of the Booker prize, possibly due to frequent criticism from writers uneasy about the collision of books and book-keeping.  As OxyContin is literally so toxic, it can be seen as an extreme test-case. But just as the controversy over the conduct of Harvey Weinstein led to hunts for similar alleged offenders, the Sacklers will surely not be the last philanthropists to face sacking.  And, in the quick and vicious audit of the source of gallery and museum donations and sponsorship, it will be easy to find unethical specks on the hands that wrote the philanthropic cheques.  What would count as an acceptable way of having become rich enough to have some spare to dish out to the arts? Sponsorship by BP and Nestlé has been questioned because of environmental or ethical concerns about the nature of the patrons’ business. Airlines, which have consistently been generous to the arts, are now on the wrong side of history, as, in a post-crash era queasy about capitalism, are most makers of money.  Watching what has happened to the Sacklers, I began to fear for Sir Lloyd Dorfman, one of the most generous cultural benefactors in Britain. His private subsidising of the Royal Opera House, Royal Academy and National Theatre has been so extensive that the NT even [renamed an auditorium](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2010/oct/28/national-theatre- dorfman-donation) the Dorfman.  The original source of the fortune was foreign exchange dealing. There is no suggestion that Dorfman’s success in this field ever involved impropriety, but legality and decency might not be enough to prevent his largesse being queried.  The new puritans among the producers and consumers of arts do not rely on financial audit or legal due diligence but on a subjective sniff test. It would be surprising if their delicate moral nostrils entirely approved of someone becoming super-rich by swapping one currency for another.  The big concern is how holes in the coffers left by a donor-wash will be filled. The Old Vic theatre in London, for instance, has received several payouts from the Sacklers and, receiving no direct state funding, would surely struggle if forced to close off that source.  And if the funding of buildings and exhibitions is subject to ethical scrutiny, then why not their content as well?  The “objectives and values” of the various national and royal artistic institutions, policed by their ethics committees, seem unlikely to include paedophilia, incest, rape, fraud, racism or fascism and yet you do not have to lose much shoe leather in their halls to come across a creative figure who has been implicated in one or more of those sins.  The usual defence of continuing to tolerate the work of a controversial creative is that great artists are rarely great people, and, on the issue of arts patronage, the equally sensible position is that all money is to some extent dirty, especially when microscopically examined from a perspective inherently suspicious of riches and defining philanthropy as, an accusation made against the Sacklers, “reputation laundering”.  Nan Goldin held a ‘die-in’ at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in February, in protest against its funding by members of the Sackler family. Photograph: Yana Paskova/The Guardian  It seems unlikely that many contemporary winners of Nobel prizes are actively enthusiastic about dynamite and armaments, the cash from which set up the foundation that now honours titans of thinking. It must be particularly odd for recipients of the peace prize to reflect on where the money came from, yet laureates presumably take the view that the somewhat bloodied money can now be put to purer use. This attitude is understandable and might offer a model for the response of artists and gallery-goers haunted by the provenance of the wonga that allows the institutions to put on the shows.  At the end of this process of ethical cleansing looms the spectre of a museum that, after returning exhibits to the owners from whom they were looted by colonising collectors, and sending to the storerooms works by artists whose behaviour offends the morals of today, stands completely empty. And, above the doors of those barren galleries, the wood is chipped and discoloured from the emergency removal of the names of those donors whose wealth or values risk gathering pickets outside exhibitions.  If, unsurprisingly, the Sacklers now take their money elsewhere and are followed out of the boardroom doors by other philanthropists concerned that their bank accounts will be found to lack sufficient moral underpinning, then it will be our cultural institutions – and, as a consequence of their funding poverty, artists and gallery-goers – that suffer a pain from which, in a state that increasingly encourages the arts to seek private funding, there will be no easy relief.  • Mark Lawson is a writer and broadcaster


thedailyecho--2019-09-03--Deliveroo comes to Eastleigh and creates 50 new jobs

EASTLEIGH residents can enjoy even more takeaway options with the arrival of a new delivery service to the town.  Delivery company Deliveroo has launched this week in Eastleigh.  The app and website lets residents order food from a range of restaurants and takeaways near to then.  It will work with independent restaurants like The Hog Shack and as well as high street chains including KFC, Prezzo and Frankie & Bennys.  To celebrate the launch, Deliveroo is giving away hundreds of free doughnuts around the town centre this Saturday.  The company is also giving customers 30% off orders for the next four weeks.  MP for Eastleigh, Mims Davies said: "The launch of Deliveroo in Eastleigh is a positive boost for the town and a great opportunity for our local restaurants looking to expand their offer and it will create more flexible local jobs.  "Customers will be able to enjoy a convenient treat or quick meal from their favourite high street restaurants from the comfort of their own home which will make life easier for many busy local families. I am sure many people will be looking forward to making their first order."  More than 50 jobs will be created in Eastleigh over the first year, with the majority of these being Deliveroo riders, who aim to deliver food, which will be cooked, fresh to order and delivered from the restaurant kitchen to the customers in under 30 mins.  Harrison Foster, Regional Director in the UK, "Launching in Eastleigh is a key milestone for Deliveroo. Eastleigh has a thriving foodie community and a wide range of restaurants, so we’re excited to connect them. We look forward to working with our new restaurant partners to reach a new customer base and expand their businesses. Deliveroo will also create work for 50 local riders and are thrilled to offer a flexible role to the community.”  Customers have the option to schedule orders via the Deliveroo app up to one day in advance or receive food as soon as possible between 5pm and 11pm on weekdays and 11.30am and 11pm on weekends.


thedailyecho--2019-03-12--Banking firm to create 150 new jobs in Southampton

A BANKING firm is to open a new office in Southampton creating 150 jobs in the city.  On line bank Starling has chosen the city for its first office outside of London, citing the area's wealth of tech talent as one reason for the move.  The bank could not give the exact location of the offices but confirmed it would be in the city centre and would be open by the summer..  The new offices will house up to 50 software engineers and 100 customer service staff. Most of these jobs will be new hires.  Starling, which was founded five years ago, has 500,000 current account customers and 30,000 business customers.  It is one of a host of digital-only challenger banks that have sprung up in recent years aiming to take market share from traditional lenders. Much of its business is done via mobile phone apps.  The bank was attracted to Southampton because of its "growing and skilled jobs market, reputation as a burgeoning tech hub, transport links and easy access to London".  Southampton was recently identified a "super cluster" technology hotspot by CBRE, a property advisory group, for its high employment of technology professionals.  Chief executive Anne Boden said: "We are growing so fast that we are rapidly running out of space in our London offices.  "What really attracts us to Southampton is its entrepreneurial spirit and its level of tech talent.  "We're looking for new people - engineers as well as customer service team members - to join us in Southampton now and will be expanding the office quickly."  Starling was awarded £100 million last month from the Royal Bank of Scotland competition remedies fund that aims to break the high street giants' grip on the banking sector.  Ms Boden said Starling was looking to increase its number of business customers, aiming at sole traders, start-ups and SMEs (small to medium enterprises).  "We want to build a business bank and much of the work needed to do that will happen in Southampton," she said.  Starling arrival was welcomed by the city's business leaders.  Mark Baulch, head of policy & representation at Hampshire Chamber of Commerce, said; "This is a very positive piece of news following most of the decisions and changes being made by the banking industry recently. This number of high quality jobs being created in the city will also be very warmly received by the retail and hospitality sectors as it brings additional people with disposable income into the catchment area.  "It is also very pleasing to see the banks’ reasons for choosing Southampton, which justify the investment that we have seen recently and hope to see in the future."  Sandeep Sesodia, chair of the chamber's Commerce Southampton Business Strategy Group added: "Given the continuing changes in the banking sector and the way that customers bank, this is a very welcome and modern banking alternative. It will drive the economy, boost employment and give businesses a new option. For Southampton this is a massive confidence booster."  Southampton Itchen MP Royston Smith said: "This is testament to the national reputation we have as a key hub on the south coast for business and our internationally renowned universities. The creation of up to 150 new jobs is welcome news and I wish them well with their launch.”


abcnews--2019-10-18--California unemployment rate falls to record low of 4%

California's economy kept humming in September, dropping the unemployment rate to a record low 4% statewide and under 2% in San Francisco and some of its neighboring counties, a level that economists once thought impossible.  "That is almost unthinkable," said Sung Won Sohn, professor of economics at Loyola Marymount University. "It flies in the face of economic theory."  However, the explosive job growth has done little to close the gap in wages, making California — and San Francisco in particular — one of the most unequal places in the country as high-wage earners push up prices for everyone else.  From 1980 to 2015, the top earners in San Francisco saw their wages jump 120% while the lowest earners saw their wages increase just 20%, according to an analysis published last week by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.  Corey Cantu makes $16 an hour tending an artisanal cookie kiosk in downtown San Francisco and pays $850 a month for a bedroom "the size of a closet" in a condominium he shares with four others in the city.  "I see a lot of people in designer clothing and can tell (the economy) is booming for them but it's not booming for me," Cantu said. "It feels like we're disposable as employees working (for) minimum wage."  Across California, unemployment fell to 4% last month, the lowest on record under a methodology the state has been using since 1976. California's economic growth is now in its 115th consecutive month, breaking the previous record of 113 months set in the 1960s.  The job growth is not limited to the diverse and complex economies of Silicon Valley. Fresno and Kern counties, located in the heart of California's agricultural region in the Central Valley, have historically had double-digit unemployment rates for most of the past 40 years. In September, Fresno's unemployment rate was 5.3% while Kern's was 6%.  Meanwhile, homeless populations in California continue to grow in the strong economy.  Over the past two years, homeless populations have jumped 17% in San Francisco. Last month, Los Angeles County reported a 12% year-to-year increase in its homeless population.  "Why are there so many homeless people if this economy is booming? That's crazy!" said Ernest Lew, an estate planning attorney, when told about the report.  Lew said he is doing well because a lot of his clients work at Google, Facebook and other tech companies.  "This economy is booming for some people, but a lot more people are hurting," Lew said as he walked is dog in the financial district.  While the economy is booming, trouble could be looming. The United States' ongoing trade war with China has slowed shipping activities in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.  Plus, the inland communities of Riverside, San Bernardino and Ontario — which include warehouses and trucking companies — have lost jobs since their peak of December 2018, according to an analysis by Sohn at Loyola Marymount University.  "At some point it's very simple: If you don't have bodies, you can't grow," Sohn said.


birminghammail--2019-09-20--National Lottery employee confessed 25million ticket fraud to friends court told

National Lottery employee 'confessed £2.5million ticket fraud to friends', court told

A former Camelot employee who is said to have conspired with an alleged conman to fake a multimillion- pound-winning Lottery ticket told friends about the fraud before killing himself, a court heard.  Edward Putman, 54, is on trial for fraud by false representation at St Albans Crown Court after allegedly claiming an outstanding jackpot of £2.5 million with a counterfeit ticket in 2009.  He is said to have conspired with friend Giles Knibbs - who worked in the securities department at Lottery operator Camelot between 2004 and 2010 - to submit a damaged fake ticket to take the jackpot just before the 180-day limit to claim prizes was due to expire.  The court heard Mr Knibbs told friends he had "conned" the Lottery, and that he had done so with Putman.  John Coleyshaw said his friend Mr Knibbs told him about the plan in 2015.  Jurors have already heard Mr Knibbs felt aggrieved he did not receive his fair share of the prize from Putman, and confronted the defendant in June 2015.  Mr Knibbs was subsequently arrested for burglary, blackmail and criminal damage after Putman complained to police, and he killed himself in October that year.  Mr Coleyshaw told the court that on an evening in September 2015, Mr Knibbs told him it looked like he was "going down for 10 to 15 years for blackmail".  The court has been told Mr Knibbs had been working late one night during his time at Camelot when he saw a document being printed which contained details of big wins which had not yet been claimed.  Mr Coleyshaw said it was correct when prosecutor James Keeley said that after Mr Knibbs told Putman about this, the two men - Putman and Mr Knibbs - had "agreed to run a scam".  Mr Keeley said: "A scam where Eddie would collect one of the winning Lottery prizes and they would split the money between them."  Mr Coleyshaw told jurors about receiving a phone call from Mr Knibbs in which he asked if he could drop off letters at his house.  When he got home that night, there was an envelope on the door mat containing a suicide note, the court heard.  Another friend, Andrew Sales, who had met Mr Knibbs while working at Camelot, also told jurors he had revealed the alleged fraud to him.  Mr Keeley brought up a phone call from January 2015 between Mr Knibbs and Mr Sales.  "He said to you he was in a really dark place," the prosecutor said, adding: "He said that Eddie owes him money."  Mr Sales replied: "He said that, yes."  Mr Knibbs is said to have told Mr Sales that Putman was "rubbing his nose in it" by not paying him, and said he seemed to have "plenty of money".  The court heard that in early October, Mr Knibbs confessed to Mr Sales about the Lottery ticket.  He told Mr Sales he had "gone in with Eddie and he had forged a Lottery ticket" and after forging the ticket Putman claimed a win of £2.5 million, jurors heard.  Speaking to Mr Sales, the prosecutor said: "Your belief was that it would be impossible to do such a thing."  He replied: "That was my belief, yes."  The court heard Mr Sales said to Mr Knibbs: "Don't be stupid. You can't forge a Lottery ticket."  Mr Sales received an envelope from Mr Knibbs containing what the prosecutor described as a "goodbye letter".  Another friend, John Whittaker, told the jury that Mr Knibbs also told him about the alleged lottery ticket fraud before his death.  Prosecutor Mr Keeley said that Mr Knibbs told Mr Whittaker that when he worked for Camelot he found a way to influence a lottery win and that he and another man were going to "split the prize".  Mr Whittaker said this was correct, and that he urged him to contact the police or seek legal advice.  The jury also heard about a note that Mr Knibbs left for his partner Olivier Orphelin, in which he said Putman will "lie about everything".  The jury heard Mr Knibbs said Putman may appear "sincere, concerned and even sympathetic", but said he could assure his partner that he is none of these.  Jurors have already heard the "genuine" winning ticket, which was bought in Worcester, has never been discovered.  The court was told Mr Knibbs claimed Putman went to 29 different shops as the clock ticked down to claim the cash, each providing a different ticket, before the right number was found.  Mr Keeley said the defendant eventually submitted the correct code at a shop in High Wycombe on August 28, 2009.  The prosecutor said: "He was lying. He did not hold the winning ticket, but a forgery created by Mr Knibbs.  "The real winning ticket may still be out there, for the real winner has never been identified."  Evidence suggested Mr Knibbs was paid an initial £280,000 from Putman for his part in the alleged ruse, followed by much smaller increments totalling £50,000, Mr Keeley said.  The police investigation was initially opened in 2015 after Mr Knibbs's suicide, but closed when Camelot was unable to locate the alleged forgery.  The case was then reopened in 2017 when the ticket was eventually located by a Camelot employee.  Putman was first arrested for fraud in October 2015.  He initially answered "no comment", but gave a prepared statement in September 2018 in which he said he was "a genuine winner", Mr Keeley said.  The trial is listed to last for two weeks.


abcnews--2019-12-10--Employees fired after Tennessee juvenile detention escape

Four employees at a Tennessee juvenile detention center where four teenagers escaped on Nov. 30 are being fired, according to Nashville's juvenile court administrator.  The court is conducting "an exhaustive review" of both the escape and its contract with Youth Opportunity, the company that manages the facility, administrator Kathryn Sinback said on Tuesday.  An earlier report by the private contractor outlined a series of policy violations that led to the escape. Employees allowed the youths out of their cells after bedtime and then left them unsupervised. Once they were left alone, the teens got onto an elevator that was improperly left open, then tricked the operator into sending them to an unsecured floor. Finally, staff did not immediately call 911, according to the report.  One of the teenagers was still at large as of Tuesday while the other three had been recaptured.  All four of the employees were previously suspended. Sinback said she did not know the effective date of the their terminations.


aljazeera--2019-02-16--Young and unemployed in Nigeria

Young and unemployed in Nigeria

Africa's most populous nation and largest economy has a youth unemployment problem. In Nigeria, nearly a quarter of the population is out of work and 20 percent is underemployed.  For young people aged 15 to 35, the figures are grim: 55.4 percent of them are without work. Creating jobs has been one of the key issues discussed throughout this year's election campaign.  Being young in Nigeria is "very challenging", explains Andrew Nevin, advisory partner and chief economist at PwC Nigeria.  "Graduates from university have a great deal of difficulty in getting established. People that didn't go to university who should be getting vocational training are not getting it. They're not getting into formal employment. Given the scale of Nigeria, it's a challenge not just for Nigeria, but for Africa and the whole world."  There are systemic problems behind unemployment, Nevin points out.  "Oil over the last 30 years in this country has meant people have taken their eye off other industries, there's a lack of diversification that we have. The good news is that everyone recognises it, and they recognise it's a crisis ... People are discussing youth unemployment, the need for youth to be employed to have something gainful to do."  "Structural problems remain here, the government hasn't tackled issues around the exchange rate policy or the oil subsidy ... so all of these issues are holding back investment and growth in Nigeria."  In order for Nigeria to grow faster, "The country needs more investment," according to Nevin. "The most important thing is we need the private sector to grow in the next decade 10-15 times larger to really make a dent in unemployment and poverty in Nigeria. And that means every sector ... the biggest sector that needs to grow in Nigeria is real estate. Everyone needs a place to live and we have a deficit of 17 million homes, and the great thing about real estate is that it employs a lot of people, particularly carpenters, plumbers, labourers - so it really absorbs that young population."  "Africans are going to continue to be poor unless Africans trade with Africans and increase the value added. We're very strong proponents of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) ... it's obvious that if we're just exporting raw materials to Europe or Asia, that we're going to continue to be in poverty in Africa. So I think people have recognised that, and I think the speed at which the AfCFTA agreement has come together is really astonishing. It illustrates there's a sense of a pan-Africanism that's coming, and the leaders of that recognise that unless Africa trades with Africa and unless Africa invests in Africa, we're going to continue to be poor."  Also on this episode of Counting the Cost:  Airbus A380: Production of the world's largest passenger jet is to end as a result of falling orders. Aircraft manufacturer Airbus has announced plans to stop making the A380 in two years' time, threatening thousands of jobs, as Natacha Butler reports from Toulouse.  "The A380 is a superb plane - it's technologically brilliant, but it's an expensive plane both, to build and also to fly because it uses a lot of fuel," according to David Bailey, professor of industrial strategy at Aston University in Birmingham.  "We've seen a growth in mid-range planes which are much cheaper to fly, so airlines have tended to prefer those instead."  "The A380 isn't selling as much and it's not profitable ... the plane will be in service for many years to come on big-trunk routes like major hubs in the Middle East, but going forward they're not looking to expand their fleets and they won't be looking to replace them ... so we'll still see them for many years, but simply not on the scale that Airbus had imagined when they invested very very heavily in developing this enormous aeroplane," says Bailey.  Turkey's ghost estates: Unfinished houses, empty high rises and row upon row of homes fit for royalty have all become symbols of Turkey's struggling economy. Construction has been the turbine behind the country's growth, but high inflation and a devalued currency are threatening to make the industry go from boom to bust, as Stefanie Dekker reports from Mudurnu.  Thailand fishing: Thailand is one of the world's largest exporters of fish. But its industry has faced accusations of human trafficking and abuse. Two very different movies at Berlin's film festival are highlighting the problem in an attempt to make us think more about the food we eat, as Nadim Baba reports from Berlin.  Venezuela oil: The United States's decision to sanction Venezuela's oil assets two weeks ago was a move designed to keep oil revenues out of President Nicolas Maduro's hands. But he's been fighting back by stepping up efforts to keep state-run oil company PDVSA and its subsidiaries out of his rivals hands, as Lucia Newman reports from Caracas.


aljazeera--2019-04-08--Iraqi youth fight unemployment with startups

Rising unemployment in Iraq is provoking growing demands - particularly by young people - for government action.  The International Monetary Fund says youth unemployment is more than double the government's official rate of 20 percent.  The jobless often blame corruption and mismanagement while government leaders say the problem stems from years of conflict.  A solution to unemployment is The Station, established last year by young Iraqis to assist startup companies.  The Station is privately funded by local and international non-government organisations and offers office space for rent and access to experts to provide business guidance.  But many jobless Iraqis say it is still not enough to help tackle growing unemployment around the country.