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William Link, co-creator of 'Columbo' and 'Murder, She Wrote,' dies at 87
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- William Link, a prolific screenwriter who created classics of American television like Columbo and Murder, She Wrote, doing so in a writing partnership with a friend from junior high school that lasted nearly 40 years, died Dec. 27 in Los Angeles. He was 87. His wife, Margery Nelson, confirmed the death, at a hospital. Links stories about unkempt detectives and persistent private eyes shaped the mystery and crime-drama television genre. With his partner, Richard Levinson, he also created shows like Mannix, Jericho and Blackes Magic. Murder, She Wrote starred Angela Lansbury as a mystery writer who solves crimes in the fictional Maine town of Cabot Cove. Network executives were initially skeptical of the idea of a female protagonist who wears reading glasses. But after they were sold ... More

How pop and jazz wrapped up the past in 16 boxed sets
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Reissues and deluxe editions of albums by PJ Harvey, Lil Peep, Charles Mingus and others provide fresh looks at familiar works, and the creative processes that birthed them. Alive with isolated, collagelike layers and exuberant ad-libs (Now, the tambourine!), Raw Like Sushi, Swedish pop artist and rapper Neneh Cherrys cult classic debut album, is a remixers dream. This 30th-anniversary set contains a vibrant remastered version of the original LP, along with two entire discs of imaginative remixes: Massive Attack transforms the synth ballad Manchild into a snaking, meditative groove, while early hip-hop producer Arthur Baker reworks two different extended club mixes of Cherrys ebullient hit Buffalo Stance, furthering its eternal cool. Cream Eric Clapton on guitar, Jack Bruce on bass and Ginger ... More

Adam Wallacavage opens solo exhibit of new work
PHILADELPHIA, PA.- HOTBED is presenting, After Forever, a solo exhibition of surreal sculptures by renowned artist, Adam Wallacavage, and curated by James Oliver. The iterative installation will evolve every week with new sculptures introduced every Friday of the exhibition. After Forever will present work in an immersive fantastical environment from two ongoing series, Octopus Chandeliers and Kitsch Collaborations. After Forever uncovers the intricacies of Wallacavages practice and gives a closer look into the artists unrestrained techniques. The exhibition will be open to the public from December 18, 2020 through March 6, 2021. The Octopus Chandeliers are a study in form, function and whimsy; candy-colored bulbous octopi with puckered tentacles. Mixing Art Nouveau, Surrealism and a lifetime fascination with the sea, Wallacavages ... More

Without tourism, life in a Tuscan village slides back in time
CASTELLINA IN CHIANTI (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- For decades, the rolling hills of Chianti in Tuscany have been a holiday destination for tourists from all over the world. Nearly year-round, visitors take on the regions winding roads in their rental cars, admiring the landscape laboriously sculpted by farmers, where vineyards blend into olive groves, and forests of oak trees give way to cypress-lined drives. For me, this is home. I remember strolling through the streets as a young girl in the summers, surrounded by northern European visitors. My first job was at a local tourism office, where I helped travelers with their assorted accents look for paper maps of the area. Hotels filled up quickly in those days. More than 114,000 tourists passed through my village in 2019, and the number was even higher in previous years. But the pandemic which ... More

Lynn Tomaszewski appointed Chief Academic Officer at Moore College of Art & Design
PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Lynn Tomaszewski has been appointed chief academic officer/academic dean at Moore College of Art & Design, the first and only historically all-womens art and design school in the nation. In her new role, Tomaszewski will work in partnership with the entire campus community to move the College into the next significant and promising new phase of the institutions history, and contribute to the inspiring work of establishing Moore as one of the best art and design colleges in the country. She will oversee development of new curricula, new programs and new organizational structures, cultivating a vibrant and holistic student experience. She will also play a significant role in BFA recruitment and enrollment efforts, will help to identify compelling funding initiatives and will take an active role in Moores alumni ... More

Crescent City Auction Gallery announces Winter Estates Auction, Jan. 16-17
NEW ORLEANS, LA.- A bronze sculpture by Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington (American, 1876-1973), a 155-piece set of Tiffany sterling flatware in the Harlequin pattern, and a French Empire style figural mantel clock and pair of four-light candelabra are just a few top lots in Crescent City Auction Gallerys live and online Important Winter Estates Auction slated for January 16th-17th. The gallery, at 1330 St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans, will be open for exhibitions beginning Thursday, January 7th, from 10-5 Central time, by appointment only (excluding Sunday). A live Saturday preview will be held January 9th, from 9am to 1pm, also by appointment only. Start times both auction days are 10 am Central time. The sale will be headlined by items from the Estate of John C. McNeese, New Orleans, LA; property deaccessioned from the private ... More

Bruce Museum receives grant from Connecticut Humanities COVID Relief Fund
GREENWICH, CONN.- The Bruce Museum has received a grant of $45,456 from Connecticut Humanities (CTH), the states affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities and counterpart to the states Office of the Arts. The allocation is part of a relief package to 50 Connecticut museums and other nonprofit humanities organizations totaling $1.5 million, approved by the CTHs Board of Directors on December 21, 2020. CTHs COVID Relief Fund for Museums helps non-profit museums and other 501c3 non-profit humanities organizations with full-time staff and annual operating budgets of at least $450,000 recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Grants range from $22,727.25 to $45,456.00. Dr. Jason Mancini, Executive Director at Connecticut Humanities, stated, Like performing arts venues, museums ... More

Pandemic rains on Spain's glittering Epiphany parades
(AFP).- For children, it's the most wonderful time of the year, when Spaniards turn out to welcome the gift-laden Three Kings. But this year's glittering parades have been torpedoed by the pandemic. In Spain, it's not Father Christmas nor Christmas Eve that beguiles the children, but Melchior, Caspar and Balthasar who arrive bearing gifts on the night of January 5. Every year, millions flock to the streets across Spain to watch fairytale parades welcome the royal visitors with music, dancing and bucketloads of sweets that are hurled into the excited crowds. But with all outdoor gatherings banned to slow the spread of the virus this year, officials across the country have been scrambling for creative ways to keep the magic of "Reyes" alive. In Barcelona, organisers had been working on a detailed plan since the summer, fearing even back ... More

Lee Breuer, adventurous theater director, dies at 83
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The director Lee Breuer, who over an influential half-century in New Yorks downtown theater scene blended genres in productions of extravagant experimentalism, often with Mabou Mines, the avant-garde troupe he helped to found, died Sunday at his home in Brooklyn Heights, New York. He was 83. His wife and artistic partner, actress Maude Mitchell, confirmed his death. A tenacious outsider who refused his sole Tony Award nomination for his biggest hit and only Broadway show, the Sophocles adaptation The Gospel at Colonus Breuer flourished in the scrappier realm of off-off-Broadway, even as the scale of his works and ambitions took him to larger stages, including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Delacorte Theater in Central Park and the ComÃ©die-FranÃ§aise in Paris. How much of the game do you have to play, and how much can you play against the ... More

She's starring opposite Tom Hanks. She'd never heard of him.
BERLIN (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- When director Paul Greengrass was gearing up to make his new film, News of the World, about a Civil War veteran in 1870s Texas who escorts an orphaned girl to her relatives across the state, he was anticipating one major challenge. This is the first film I made with a child actor at the heart of it, he said recently by phone. The casting would be difficult on multiple levels, he realized. Although the character is on-screen for much of the movie, she has only a few lines of dialogue. Tom Hanks had already signed on as the lead, so she would have to go toe to toe with a superstar, Greengrass said. It was a very, very hard ask. One of the first children he saw during the casting in 2019, however, was Helena Zengel, a then 11-year-old from Berlin with a tomboyish energy and platinum hair. She was the only ... More

Eager bidders add to their collections at Holabird's 5-day Holiday sale
RENO, NEV.- A portfolio of five aquatint etchings by the Chilean artist SebastiÃ n Matta sold for $3,750, a pictorial letter-sheet from 1856 illustrating all the major types of gold mining done in California by 1855 brought $3,500, a monumental 12-volume railroad survey report published from 1855-1860 compiled to find the best rail route to the Pacific coast realized $3,125, and a pair of Chinese publishing company stock certificates from the 1920s fetched $2,125 at a five-day Holiday Auction held December 17th-21st by Holabird Western Americana Collections, LLC. The auction was held live in the Holabird gallery at 3355 Airway Drive (Ste. 308) in Reno, as well as online via iCollector.com, LiveAuctioneers.com, Invaluable.com and Auctionzip.com. The sale was packed with hundreds of lots of mining collectibles, philatelic material, ... More