Encouraging a culture of travel

The tourist drove the car into one of Florence's main squares (Image: Muncipality of Florence) SUBSCRIBE Invalid email We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info The tourist drove a bright red Ferrari Spider into the Piazza della Signoria, Florence’s famous pedestrianised square. He was apprehended by police in the Italian city. Related articles Best Jet2 deals in March 2023: 50% off hotels and more Travel horror as passenger declined the seat he 'deserved' on plane The driver had been seen driving along the nearby Via dei Gondi street. Local officials described his driving as “nonsensical”. The Piazza della Signoria is shaped like a W and is usually packed with tourists heading to the Uffizi Gallery. Police fined the man 470 euros … [Read more...] about Tourist fined £412 for driving Ferrari into Italian city square

Many international visitors to this week’s Art Basel Hong Kong will finally get a chance to see the museum M+ , located just across Victoria Harbor from the fair’s home in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center. The museum was completed in 2021 , when local quarantine restrictions were still in force. “It’s the first time collectors will get to see what we’ve been working on,” said Ulanda Blair, a curator of moving image at M+. The museum has partnered with Art Basel to present a moving-image work on its facade by Pipilotti Rist, “Hand Me Your Trust.” Inside, a large show of Yayoi Kusama’s work, on view until May 14, may be a big draw, given Ms. Kusama’s superstar status among art lovers. But a smaller show, “Subject to Shadowban,” reveals a key strand of the museum’s DNA. “We’re a museum built in the 21st century, and we’re focused on digital culture,” Ms. Blair said. The exhibition looks at who controls what we see on the internet and how that shapes us. … [Read more...] about A Different Kind of Museum in Hong Kong

HONG KONG — The art scene here was largely closed off to the world for three years, but the city’s self-imposed pandemic isolation has been an unexpected boon to the local art scene. There has been soul-searching, and freshness injected with the addition of some radical (for this city) young newcomers. At No. 3 Staunton Street in the city’s SoHo district, the roughly 1,300 square-foot ground floor was once used as a parking space for a Ferrari. Now it has a new purpose, as a gallery space for a new venture — the Young Soy Gallery . “Young Soy” is Cantonese slang for ugly, and the “ugly” gallery is determined to shake up the conservative local art scene. The gallery’s strong mission statement, or manifesto , is to be inclusive, unconventional in their approach, and to cultivate artists with potential to claim a position in art history. They see the artists whose work they show as “philosophers, educators, rebels, visionaries, perhaps even degenerates.” As Hong Kong continues … [Read more...] about Hong Kong’s New Kids on the Block

To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android . I heard about the gay beach the way I hear about all the good gay things: Through a lover, an ex-lover, my ex-lover’s new love. A warm mouth pressed against my ear on the dance floor, a dropped pin, an Instagram D.M. The murmurs were about a queer nude beach nestled along the coast of Oaxaca. It took a full day and a half to get there, flying first into Mexico City and then catching a shorter flight toward the Pacific. When I landed, I got into a taxi with a few other folks heading to the beach. The driver looked at me sideways. “Esta es tu primera vez?” “Sí,” I replied. “Por qué Zipolite?” I hadn’t quite figured that part out yet, not enough to explain it. I shrugged. He shook his head and drove with his knees so he could use both hands to pantomime hordes of tourists attacking the dry countryside. Behind his miming, the windshield of the car was cracked in … [Read more...] about Want to Love Your Body? Try Swimming Naked.

The urgency of returning to normal after three years of the coronavirus pandemic is felt especially keenly in Hong Kong, given the strict quarantine and other restrictions for travelers that made it difficult for visitors — and locals — to come and go. Now, even the mask mandate has been lifted . Art Basel Hong Kong , taking place Thursday to Saturday at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, will have its fullest presentation since 2019, with 177 dealers in total, which is 47 more than last year. “My goal is to bring Hong Kong back and to reinforce its role as a cultural capital,” said Angelle Siyang-Le, the director of the fair. Ms. Siyang-Le, who is based in Hong Kong, is new to her position, having previously worked for Art Basel as head of gallery relations for Asia. “People can now travel easily, as opposed to what we call the ‘closet years,’” she said. In 2020, the fair went entirely digital, and then in the next two years it was staged in … [Read more...] about Art Basel Hong Kong Has Its Grand Reopening

Wayne Couzens (Image: PA Images) SUBSCRIBE Invalid email We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info A series of fresh claims of “monster” misogyny issues have surfaced against Humberside officers as the victims shared their horrifying experiences. The claims came after the Louise Casey review found that the Met police was institutionally sexist, racist, and homophobic, and said women were being failed because of a misogynistic culture. Related articles Plans to raise UK state pension age to 68 delayed by MPs 'Beautiful and healthy' girl dies after being rushed to hospital The Casey report found the Metropolitan Police force badly failed women and questions are now being asked whether the rot spreads beyond London. One of the … [Read more...] about ‘Monster’ misogyny issues raised in Humberside police amid fresh claims of sexual abuse

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 18 PITTSBURGH (AP) — Scattered in crates, dirty and difficult to read, the gospel music of composer Charles Henry Pace sat packed away, unorganized — and unrealized — for more than 20 years. Frances Pace Barnes, the pioneering music publisher’s daughter who remembers how he could turn a hum it into a song, knew the crates held pieces of her family’s past. But she was not expecting those decaying printing plates and papers to reveal an important part of gospel music history. “I didn’t know it was going to be a legacy,” said Pace Barnes. As it turns out, her father was one of the first African American gospel music composers in the United States, and the owner of one of the country’s first independent, Black gospel music publishing companies. Today, the University of Pittsburgh is restoring … [Read more...] about Pioneer of gospel music rediscovered in Pittsburgh archives

Queen Mary bought tiara that was 'smuggled' to UK says expert SUBSCRIBE Invalid email We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info King Charles III and his wife Queen Camilla will be crowned side by side at Westminster Abbey on May 6. 2,000 guests are expected to attend the service and watch the moment the new monarch is officially coronated. Planning for the Coronation has been underway for months, with much being speculated about the details of the once-in-a-lifetime event. While changes will be made to reflect a more modern monarch and society, many elements will hark back to the past, echoing royal history and its figures. A particular aspect will honour a previous Queen Consort and her “one great hobby” that had a great influence on royal life today. … [Read more...] about How Queen Mary’s ‘one great hobby’ will be honoured during Coronation

The Denver Museum of Nature & Science has ended one of the last vestiges of the COVID-19-era restrictions that were put in place three years ago in an effort to stop the spread of the virus. As of Monday, members of the museum are no longer required to reserve advance, timed tickets to gain entry to the general admission exhibits (advanced tickets are still recommended for the Infinity Theater, the Gates Planetarium and surcharged exhibitions like the current “Bugs” ), according to a member newsletter distributed this week. Prior to the pandemic, members of most Denver cultural facilities, like the museum, the Denver Zoo and the Denver Botanic Gardens, could show up whenever they wanted. To help control crowds during social-distancing restrictions, however, most of these institutions required members to reserve timed tickets — typically at no charge — so as to limit the crowds. A spokesperson for the museum didn’t return an email seeking comment, but both the zoo and … [Read more...] about Denver Museum of Nature & Science ends COVID-era reservation policy for members