Weekend Reading: March 29 Edition

Around Columbus

• Columbus Underground has a new interview out with Anonymous Ensemble principal Eamonn Farrell ahead of our presentation next weekend of the company’s Llontop.
• FYI, the Wex also appears among the nominees in Columbus Monthly’s 2024 Best of Columbus poll in the categories of Best Museum, Best Concert Venue (Mershon Auditorium) and Best Place to Buy Last-Minute Gifts (Wex Store). Just sayin’.
• Local band Closet Mix has a new disc out; members include Ohio State design professor Paul Nini and Wex spouse Keith Novicki.
• Hanif Abdurraqib discussed his hotly anticipated new book and his relationship with his hometown. Abdurraqib programmed a related series of basketball films that will be coming to the Wex in May.
• The Nelsonville Music Fest lineup is out, with Killer Mike headlining the July event.
• Contemporary Theater of Ohio announced its 2024–25 season, which will kick off in September with Big Fish.
• Applications are open now for Ohio State’s Arts and Sciences Summer Exploration program, which offers intensive instruction to middle and high school students.
• Wednesday, St. James Tavern opens a show of work made by artist Laura Jane Evert when she recently, unexpectedly found herself in jail.
• Thursday, CCAD’s Beeler Gallery Project Space will open an exhibition of representational art by artists including CCAD professors Hiroshi Hayakawa and Miriam Baranov.
• Also Thursday, Available Light Theatre launches its new show, Noah Diaz’s You Will Get Sick.
• Looking ahead to next weekend, Urban Arts Space has a Friday poetry reading with Cynthia Amoah, Ajanaé Dawkins, and Roger Robinson.
• Ohio State’s new Theatre, Film and Media Arts building is having a public celebration Saturday,
• Starting Saturday, Franklin Park Conservatory hosts the annual Cherry Blossom Festival.
• Studio 18 hosts an Unusual and Bizarre Art Market Saturday, featuring work by over 20 local artists.
• And collage artists “Wonder” Doug Cuckler and Emily Morgan are having a comedy, poetry, and art showcase Saturday at Wild Cat.

Around the Globe

• The Cannes Film Festival Director’s Fortnight is adopting a new audience award inspired by Chantal Akerman.
• A month ahead of its 2024 event, Toronto’s Hot Docs Festival is experiencing some major shake-ups.
• The Alamo Drafthouse theater chain went up for sale.
• Cate Blanchett has launched a grant program with an all-star jury to fund filmmakers creating shorts from a distinctly personal POV.
• Documentary filmmakers Set Hernandez and Tracy Heather Strain are among the handful of winners of this year’s Catapult Film Fund research grant. Jurors included Ohio’s own Steven Bognar and Strong Island helmer Yance Ford.
• A who’s who of British artists including Mike Leigh, Ken Loach and Tilda Swinton are offering acts of service to raise money for Gaza medical relief.
• The door that saved Rose in ‘Titanic’ sold for six figures at Heritage Auctions.
• Beyoncé’s new album is out—here are Pitchfork’s seven takeaways from Cowboy Carter.
• And here’s info on the movie Westerns Beyoncé looked to for inspiration for her new album, including Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight.
• A study published on Thursday analyzed songs from the last 40 years, and found that lyrics are getting simpler and angrier.
• Fresh Air celebrated the great jazz vocalist Sarah Vaughn on what would’ve been her 100th birthday. 
• Vampire Weekend released a new song inspired by art dealer Mary Boone.
• Haus der Kunst in Munich hired Xue Tan as new chief curator.
• Wednesday, via the monthly online Projections program, you can Zoom with photographers Judy Hochberg and Amy Selwyn.
• A ‘Poorest Quality’ statue of Prince Philip, unclaimed by any artist, was ordered to be removed by Cambridge.
• An Andy Warhol print of Mao Zedong is missing from Orange Coast College vault.
• Two men were sentenced for selling $3 million in Dali and Picasso forgeries.
• The British Museum is suing their former senior curator over alleged thefts.
• In the midst of controversy concerning missing items, Nicholas Cullinan was appointed director of British Museum.
• The Donald Judd Foundation is suing Kim Kardashian after she falsely claimed to own authentic Donald Judd tables.
• A workers strike at the Art Gallery of Ontario forced the museum to close.
• Artists Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst bring AI art to the Whitney Biennial.
• ARTnews checked in with Materials for the Arts, the largest creative reuse program in New York.
• A prominent art and design school in Kyiv sustained severe damage due to a Russian airstrike this past Monday.
• Game-changing sculptor Richard Serra died at 85. A 1973 short film cocreated by Serra, Television Delivers People, made the rounds following news of his passing. Also of note: the artist collaborated with Philip Glass on the 1987 acoustic installation Pink Noise, which was commissioned by Ohio State as a precursor to the Wex’s opening.
• Robert Moskowitz, a painter belonging to a movement all his own, died at 88.
• Mar Dixon, the social media specialist that launched the #askacurator trend, died at 53.
• Daniel A. Moore, founder of the African American Panoramic Experience museum, died at 88.
• Louis Gossett Jr., the first Black performer to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, died at 87.