The art world’s merriest prankster; the guy who duct-taped a banana to a gallery wall, called it “Comedian,” and saw it get eaten, sold for $6.2 million, and then eaten again — he says “My work has always been serious. The problem is people often stop at the joke.” – The Guardian

Two credible allegations of sex with teenage girls would by themselves be enough to get Flynn cancelled today, especially since both complainants said that he forced himself on them. Unfortunately, that’s not how it played out in 1942 and ‘43 for Hollywood’s biggest star. – Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)

If we look at the meanings incorporated into different objects during the early medieval period, we see that the Bayeux tapestry is a visual form of the scop, an early medieval storyteller who told tales of heroes and great deeds, helping to preserve the oral tradition of the early English peoples. – The Conversation

This doesn’t sound like a very nice life, does it? It’s an existence in which you’re micromanaged and surveilled, given almost no freedom or privacy, and put under constant pressure while, at the same time, being seen as incompetent and lazy.  – The New Yorker

These same dons disdained Britain’s provincial universities—known pejoratively as Redbrick—as well as academics in the U.S., whom they scorned for going about their business with “woefully unnecessary seriousness.” A don, by contrast, was effortlessly successful. – The Wall Street Journal

That would be the 120-foot scroll of architectural tracing paper on which Jack Kerouac typed — single-spaced — his original draft of On the Road. He produced the whole megillah in three very caffeinated weeks. – AP

According to the VPD, a caller reported seeing a person’s feet sticking out from behind a counter and believed medical assistance was needed. – Vancouver City News

After years of extensive renovation and structural upgrades, the LDS Church will open its signature temple April 5 to the public — Mormons and non-Mormons alike – for six months of unprecedented tours. – CNN

Attacks on Bauhaus by Alternative for Germany, also known as AfD, come as Saxony-Anhalt in eastern Germany is about to vote in an election that could see a far-right party take control of one of the country’s states for the first time since World War II. – AP

“Public television stations are not only broadcasters. They are physical infrastructure inside FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System — one of the pathways that pushes AMBER Alerts, severe-weather warnings, and evacuation orders to the phone in your pocket.” And if rural communities lose their public stations, those alerts disappear. – The Hollywood Reporter

“The kinds of writing that players encounter in games comes as a direct result of the medium’s competing needs and origins.” – Washington Post

What will happen to the stage where Elvis’s swiveling pelvis was kept demurely out of frame, where the Beatles made their American debut, where Jackie Mason may or may not have flipped the bird at the host, where Topo Gigio found inexplicable fame? – Curbed

 The bargaining committee said it’s far apart from management with regard to compensation, repetitive stress injuries and gaining a voice in the orchestra’s artistic direction. – Ideastream

“Across the country’s five largest cities, Chicago was the only one to cut the funding for its local arts agency during its most recent budget cycle. And while its spending dwarfs that of the larger Los Angeles, and trails only behind New York per capita, the pressure is mounting to do more.” – WBEZ (Chicago)

“In the quarter-century since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the horror of that day has inspired novels, films, television shows, paintings and sculpture. But the most enduring artistic response has been … Come From Away, about a small town with a big airport where nearly 7,000 travelers were diverted.” – The New York Times

That subject is the Welsh nobleman Owain Glyndŵr, who led a major rebellion against the English in the 15th century. Despite his fame, Sheen says, Glyndŵr’s story wasn’t taught in Welsh schools and nobody had ever staged it on a large scale before. – The Guardian

“The anonymous homeowner was planning to build a new terrace in his garden when he found … a trove of 700 Viking Age silver objects and fragments. … The hoard contains numerous silver bars, as well as bracelets, 47 whole coins and fragments, a small Thor’s hammer, and various cut silver objects.” – ARTnews

“Since joining the Joffrey in 2013, (Greg) Cameron has brought financial stability to the organization, eliminating a budget deficit and establishing its first-ever endowment, which has grown to approximately $30 million. During his tenure, the operating budget more than doubled from $13 million to about $33 million.” – WBEZ (Chicago)

Those years seemed to be productive and were certainly profitable: she became the highest-priced living female artist, famous all over the world. At the same time, she stopped seeing visitors, fired longtime assistants and was reportedly bedridden. How, and with whom, was she producing her late work? – The New York Times

“Administration officials ‘cannot in good conscience continue to support the Smithsonian under current leadership,’” said a letter from a key policy director and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. “citing artifact loans, procurement assistance and discretionary grants as examples of federal support that could be at risk.” – The Washington Post (Yahoo!)

Tom Service asks a question the classical world mostly avoids: what does it mean to call the Berlin Philharmonic the best orchestra in the world, and how has the label survived a half-century of conductors, politics and technology? (The Guardian) The answer isn’t in the playing. It’s in who confers the title and why it sticks.

Reputation, it turns out, is a poor predictor of survival. Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences announced its closure Tuesday and got a rescue deal Wednesday (Philadelphia Inquirer) — 200 years of standing bought it exactly one news cycle. Georgia Ensemble Theatre, after 34 years, got no rescue and no announcement; the board simply went quiet (ArtsATL). A Louisville high school’s cancelled Ragtime drew a million views and Broadway’s attention before it got the district’s (Playbill). What decides who gets saved isn’t age or quality, it seems to be whether anyone with money or a megaphone is watching.

Boston Ballet had someone watching: an anonymous patron just wrote a $10 million check (People). Edinburgh’s arts groups will get their pay from tourists, through a visitor levy worth up to £50 million a year (The Stage) — the city finally billing the crowds for the culture that draws them.

Also: at 25, Adult Swim TV channel is thriving while the rest of cable dies, and even its own people can’t explain why (TheWrap).

All of our stories below.

“It feels like a wicked joke that Cartoon Network’s late-night programming block — already an aberration when it launched in cable’s heyday in 2001 — is somehow thriving, … even as the rest of cable slowly slides into oblivion. Even the folks behind Adult Swim don’t really understand it.” – TheWrap (Yahoo!)

The twin towers were a product of their time, the mid-1960s, and what has replaced them is still, sadly, in too many ways a product of that same time. We have learned a lot about building cities since the World Trade Center went up, and we did not put nearly enough of that knowledge to use. – The New York Times