The next couple weeks will be wild over here. Kyle V. Hiller has transitioned into an editorial advisory role for the next six weeks as we finish our hiring and onboarding process for our new associate editor, and get them onboard in October. You'll be seeing a variety of event roundup stories from a selection of BSR writers! It'll be a fun chance for them to stretch their curation wings and share their voices with you.
Friends Drive update
Meanwhile, great news on the fundraising front. Last week, we met our initial goal for the Fringe Coverage Friends Drive, supporting our Fringe Festival reviews. We're going to keep the campaign open through its planned finish date of August 31, because these gifts can now support other aspects of our September coverage, including fall preview stories. Learn more about the campaign and make your gift here. We would love to keep this summer momentum going at this critical transitional time for our organization. Then, look out in October for bigger fundraising news from us.
Readcation report
I enjoyed my summer break, but I missed BSR and the art scene that fuels me every day. I want to recommend one of my vacay books to you: Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us. It's all about the burgeoning field of neuroaesthetics (i.e. the brain science on how and why we perceive beauty and art and how it affects us). It dives into the way arts are transforming fields as diverse as trauma recovery, hospice care, education, longevity, and lots more. The arts change our brains in fascinating and vital ways. At BSR, we're proud to be part of this human project!
This week's stories
This week, we're previewing the fourth annual Philly Bookstore Crawl. I thought I knew Philly's indie bookstore scene, but a look at the lineup for this event shows me how much there still is to explore. And Pamela J. Forsythe reviews Workshop of the World at the PMA, which highlights artists who pushed back against the industrial forces of the 19th and early 20th centuries (a lot of the themes resonate today as artists face the age of AI).
I'll be with you tomorrow, featuring Melissa Strong's profile of BalletX star Ashley Simpson and a Weekly Roundup by Walt Maguire.
Alaina Johns
BSR editor-in-chief
