And this project — Jafar Panahi’s Cannes-winning It Was Just an Accident — was extra-sensitive, since it’s about torture victims hunting down a man they think was their interrogator. - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
Amid widespread budget deficits, several top universities have suspended admissions to their art history graduate programs or cut the size of the cohorts they will admit, along with modifications to other humanities concentrations. - ARTnews
“Some temporary workers at the museum — assigned to roles in security, reception, ticketing, the bookshop, and the coatroom — lost their jobs following a change in service providers at the institution last fall. That raised the ire of the trade union Sudd Cobas, which organized the protest.” - ARTnews
"We are deeply concerned that this acquisition of Warner Bros. by Netflix will have a direct and irreversible negative impact on movie theaters around the world,” Cinema United, the largest trade organization representing exhibitors, said. - The Hollywood Reporter
That lack of recognition has real consequences. Across Europe, most public heritage funding is absorbed by monuments, libraries and museums. Dance, which exists only in the moment of its performance, is rarely included. - Horizon
My entire collection of something like 4,000 volumes, acquired one by one over all those decades, had turned to smoke and ash in the Palisades Fire. The question before me was not just about this particular book, but about whether it made sense, in my late 70s, to begin collecting all over again. - The Atlantic
The estate of the author of Slaughterhouse-Five (one of the banned books) joins three (living) novelists and two anonymous high school students as plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU of Utah, in a complaint challenging the state’s “sensitive material review” law. - Publishers Weekly
Less than 24 hours after the horrifying shooting of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis, merchandise related to the slain U.S. citizen is already proliferating on e-commerce shopping sites, including on Amazon and Etsy. - Fast Company
The bio from a now-private Instagram account belonging to Good describes her as a “Poet and writer and wife and mom and shitty guitar strummer from Colorado; experiencing Minneapolis, MN.” - LitHub
Mind you, this script wasn’t just spit out by a bot after one prompt. The French AI collective Obvious spent two years developing the script with the Théâtre Molière Sorbonne: training the software on the playwright’s structure and themes, then producing new drafts after feedback from scholars and actors. - The New York Times
Walking through Frieze London’s carpeted aisles in October, a long-developed hunch was confirmed emphatically: we are amid a deluge of bad painting. - The Art Newspaper
The company faced several challenges in recent years, including a data breach in 2022 – after the company was acquired by a private investment group in 2021 – that put it in what independent library consultant Marshall Breeding called "a weak financial position." - NPR
“In the re-envisioned Fantasticks, the central romantic pair – traditionally Matt and Luisa – are now Matt and Lewis, reinterpreting the story’s ‘allegory of love, longing, and reconciliation through a gay lens,’ according to producers. The show’s original pair of fathers, who secretly orchestrate the clandestine love affair between their children, are now mothers.” - Deadline
“As this thing became more and more charged, it wasn’t any longer something where I’m under the radar playing this gig. I am actually taking a position by playing at the Kennedy Center now. By not canceling, I’m taking a position, and I don’t want to take that position.” - The Washington Post (MSN)
In his primary career, he ran agencies BBDO Worldwide and Omnicon. As the Met’s general manager, he erased the company’s big deficits and stabilized operations; he also served twice as board chairman. As chair of Lincoln Center, he established peace among feuding resident organizations and set big projects in motion. - The New York Times
Not exactly, no, but science journalist Michael Greshko may have taken a big step toward that goal. No one had yet figured out a workable approach to even attempt reading the famously indecipherable 15th-century codex, but Greshko has demonstrated that a medieval-style cipher using cards and dice is plausible. - Live Science
Charlotte Higgins: “’The goal,’ as one senior employee of the Smithsonian told me, ‘is to reframe the entire culture of the United States from the foundation up.’” - The Guardian
“After a monthslong lull in tensions, the Smithsonian is facing an ultimatum from the White House to comply next week with a demand” to produce a very long list of internal documents for “a comprehensive review of the institution’s content and plans — or risk potential cuts to its budget.” - The New York Times
Across the show floor, the car emerged less as a machine and more as a companion as automakers and tech companies showcased vehicles that can adapt to drivers and passengers in real time — from tracking heart rates and emotions to alerting if a baby or young child is accidentally left in the car. - Fast Company
In an age in which information on the internet is so abundant and so low-quality that it’s essentially noise, job number one is to fight our evolutionary instinct to absorb all available information, and instead filter out unreliable sources and bad data. - The Wall Street Journal
Our consciousness roams, it can be focused on the here and now, or maybe the there and then, but it is always focused on something. Yet the experience of lulls in consciousness content challenges this assumption. - Psyche
Truth and trust are often treated as virtues, but they function as conditions: the prerequisites for coherent societies, functional institutions, and stable international systems. Without them, even the most advanced technologies fail to deliver progress. - Time
Domed screens, with comfortable seats and bar food, are actually the present for some (sports) fans. But the test run was “when the domed screen transformed into a high-resolution recreation of Michelangelo’s fresco paintings in the Sistine Chapel.” - The New York Times
Charlotte Higgins: “’The goal,’ as one senior employee of the Smithsonian told me, ‘is to reframe the entire culture of the United States from the foundation up.’” - The Guardian
“After a monthslong lull in tensions, the Smithsonian is facing an ultimatum from the White House to comply next week with a demand” to produce a very long list of internal documents for “a comprehensive review of the institution’s content and plans — or risk potential cuts to its budget.” - The New York...
“The National Weather Museum and Science Center in Norman, Oklahoma, the only US museum dedicated to weather artifacts, said late last month that it is at risk of closing. The nonprofit, launched in the early 2000s, has relied completely on donations, grants, and partnerships for funding, and receives no federal funding.” - ARTnews
After a string of fresh lawsuits and a landmark settlement in 2025, the new year promises to bring a wave of rulings that could define how U.S. copyright law applies to generative AI. - Reuters
“A bipartisan spending package released Monday by House Speaker Mike Johnson includes $32 million for operating expenses at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts through Sept. 30, 2027.” - AP
“As this thing became more and more charged, it wasn’t any longer something where I’m under the radar playing this gig. I am actually taking a position by playing at the Kennedy Center now. By not canceling, I’m taking a position, and I don’t want to take that position.” - The Washington Post (MSN)
Zhang Wanting spent an entire semester practicing standing on one foot on a three-inch chair handle while lifting her other leg backward and leaning forward with an arched back. And that was maybe the easiest of the tricks she had to learn just with the chair, leaving aside all the other skills necessary. -...
“I suppose a composer imagines a certain piece of music for certain instruments; he has a sound picture and wants the things that instrument can do. But that doesn’t negate the situation where you make a new sound picture, perhaps with the same materials. - Early Music America
The 17-time Grammy-winning banjoist said, "Performing there has become charged and political, at an institution where the focus should be on the music. I look forward to playing with the NSO another time in the future when we can together share and celebrate art." - San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)
“Twenty years ago, (Beth) Morrison had nothing in the bank. Just ambition, a belief in opera as theater and a high-flown goal to ‘change this art form.’ Still, she founded Beth Morrison Projects. Since then, she has worked nearly around the clock to shepherd dozens of new operas into existence.” - The New York Times
The orchestra alleges that Hwang, who was sexually assaulted by a senior player in the orchestra in 2017 and 2018, breached an NDA she signed following the incident. - The Violin Channel
Amid widespread budget deficits, several top universities have suspended admissions to their art history graduate programs or cut the size of the cohorts they will admit, along with modifications to other humanities concentrations. - ARTnews
“Some temporary workers at the museum — assigned to roles in security, reception, ticketing, the bookshop, and the coatroom — lost their jobs following a change in service providers at the institution last fall. That raised the ire of the trade union Sudd Cobas, which organized the protest.” - ARTnews
Walking through Frieze London’s carpeted aisles in October, a long-developed hunch was confirmed emphatically: we are amid a deluge of bad painting. - The Art Newspaper
If nothing else, the new year will likely reveal whether the art world’s pivot to the Gulf, and auction houses’ deepening emphasis on luxury categories, were good choices. - ARTnews
As social divisions grow, they are becoming important forms of social infrastructure where people can encounter different perspectives. In many cases, their roles are also expanding as museums help the public engage with the pressing questions of our time. - The Conversation
As part of what they say are cost-saving measures, the federal government of Belgium and regional government of Flanders plan to move the entire collection of Antwerp’s Museum of Contemporary Art to a similar institution in Ghent — which reportedly doesn’t have enough room for the additional artworks. - The Guardian
My entire collection of something like 4,000 volumes, acquired one by one over all those decades, had turned to smoke and ash in the Palisades Fire. The question before me was not just about this particular book, but about whether it made sense, in my late 70s, to begin collecting all over again. -...
The estate of the author of Slaughterhouse-Five (one of the banned books) joins three (living) novelists and two anonymous high school students as plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU of Utah, in a complaint challenging the state’s “sensitive material review” law. - Publishers Weekly
The company faced several challenges in recent years, including a data breach in 2022 – after the company was acquired by a private investment group in 2021 – that put it in what independent library consultant Marshall Breeding called "a weak financial position." - NPR
Not exactly, no, but science journalist Michael Greshko may have taken a big step toward that goal. No one had yet figured out a workable approach to even attempt reading the famously indecipherable 15th-century codex, but Greshko has demonstrated that a medieval-style cipher using cards and dice is plausible. - Live Science
How, in 1894, just when literary interest in Sappho was reviving, Belgian-French author Pierre Louÿs (yes, he was a friend of Oscar’s) invented an ancient Greek poetess called Bilitis, composed erotic poetry he attributed to her (he claimed only to have translated it), and created a classic of lesbian literature. - Aeon
And this project — Jafar Panahi’s Cannes-winning It Was Just an Accident — was extra-sensitive, since it’s about torture victims hunting down a man they think was their interrogator. - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
"We are deeply concerned that this acquisition of Warner Bros. by Netflix will have a direct and irreversible negative impact on movie theaters around the world,” Cinema United, the largest trade organization representing exhibitors, said. - The Hollywood Reporter
Effectively, in only three years, the Warner Bros. Discovery merger has validated nearly all the concerns that critics of “market first” policymaking have warned about for years. Once it had a dominant market share, the company started providing less and charging more. - The Conversation
Universal Music India, a division of Universal Music Group, will acquire a 30% equity interest in the Mumbai-based movie studio. In the deal, announced Monday, the companies will work together on forthcoming films, series, music and emerging formats. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)
Since Congress defunded public TV and radio months ago, an estimated $100 million has been raised from foundations and, notably, from record numbers of listeners angry about the cuts — so-called “rage giving.” That leaves only $435 million to go to replace the funding promised to stations just last year. - Inside Radio
“Warner Bros. Discovery’s leadership has repeatedly rebuffed Skydance-owned Paramount’s overtures — and urged shareholders just weeks ago to support selling its streaming and studio business to Netflix for $72 billion. Paramount, meanwhile, has made efforts to sweeten its $77.9 billion hostile bid for the entire company.” - TechCrunch
That lack of recognition has real consequences. Across Europe, most public heritage funding is absorbed by monuments, libraries and museums. Dance, which exists only in the moment of its performance, is rarely included. - Horizon
“A former Richmond Ballet student is suing the performance organization for $11.5 million, alleging sexual, emotional and psychological abuse at the hands of staff members during her eight years (there). The 85-page complaint … is the third lawsuit filed by a former student … in the past five years.” - WTVR (Richmond)
“Georgian dance is an art of outrageous virtuosity and athleticism, often meant to indicate prowess at war and in the hunt. The dances are characterized by fiery leaps, sudden drops to the knees, swordplay, spinning jumps and men dancing on the tips of their toes.” - The New York Times
One study found that people who danced frequently (more than once a week) had a 76 percent lower risk of dementia than those who did so rarely. - Washington Post
“The New York Times invited cast members of American Street Dancer to demonstrate the fundamentals of Detroit Jit, Chicago Footwork and Philly GQ.” - The New York Times
“The strength required by dance admits vulnerability, and proves that fluidity, not rigidity — movement, progress, exchange — is beauty. It is a courtship of athleticism and physicality from which one emerges revitalized, lofted, ecstatic.” - The New York Times
Mind you, this script wasn’t just spit out by a bot after one prompt. The French AI collective Obvious spent two years developing the script with the Théâtre Molière Sorbonne: training the software on the playwright’s structure and themes, then producing new drafts after feedback from scholars and actors. - The New York Times
“In the re-envisioned Fantasticks, the central romantic pair – traditionally Matt and Luisa – are now Matt and Lewis, reinterpreting the story’s ‘allegory of love, longing, and reconciliation through a gay lens,’ according to producers. The show’s original pair of fathers, who secretly orchestrate the clandestine love affair between their children, are now mothers.” -...
“If I step back and think about what unites the shows, it’s probably they’re all trying to be joy-forward experiences and shows where the audience is acknowledged,” says Alex Timbers, now 47. - AP News
Sandy Shinner, 75, will step down in May from the widely-admired Off-Loop company, which she has run for 13 years. She will remain a member of the group’s ensemble. - Chicago Tribune (Yahoo!)
“Shepard would astonishingly make his mark as an avant-garde playwright on the downtown scene with only a few months of networking and no production to his name. … ‘New York was like that in the Sixties,’ he said later. ‘You could write a one-act play and start doing it the next day.’” - Literary...
Julie Halston, who’s playing Parker in mid-January: "Theater is my church and in its noblest form, theater is a service. It is a place to learn, to connect with others, and to experience joy as a performer and an audience member.” - The New York Times
Less than 24 hours after the horrifying shooting of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis, merchandise related to the slain U.S. citizen is already proliferating on e-commerce shopping sites, including on Amazon and Etsy. - Fast Company
The bio from a now-private Instagram account belonging to Good describes her as a “Poet and writer and wife and mom and shitty guitar strummer from Colorado; experiencing Minneapolis, MN.” - LitHub
In his primary career, he ran agencies BBDO Worldwide and Omnicon. As the Met’s general manager, he erased the company’s big deficits and stabilized operations; he also served twice as board chairman. As chair of Lincoln Center, he established peace among feuding resident organizations and set big projects in motion. - The New York...
Pugnacious, fearless and disdainful of academia’s more pretentious mores, Professor Carey was a paradoxical figure in the British literary establishment for more than half a century. - The New York Times
“The first lawsuit accusing Perry of leveraging his power to sexually assault aspiring male actors in his orbit was filed in June. Another lawsuit was filed Dec. 26, with the entertainment mogul characterizing claims from both of the accusers as a shakedown. But his legal troubles may just be beginning.” - The Hollywood Reporter
For opera singers, the challenges are unique. I’m going to have to figure out how to deal with giving up a life’s work that has asked for my whole heart all the time. - The New York Times
Earn your Master’s in One Year. Northwestern University’s MS in Leadership for Creative Enterprises (MSLCE) program develops leaders across Entertainment, Media and the Arts.
“As this thing became more and more charged, it wasn’t any longer something where I’m under the radar playing this gig. I am actually taking a position by playing at the Kennedy Center now. By not canceling, I’m taking a position, and I don’t want to take that position.” - The Washington Post (MSN)
In his primary career, he ran agencies BBDO Worldwide and Omnicon. As the Met’s general manager, he erased the company’s big deficits and stabilized operations; he also served twice as board chairman. As chair of Lincoln Center, he established peace among feuding resident organizations and set big projects in motion. - The New York...
Charlotte Higgins: “’The goal,’ as one senior employee of the Smithsonian told me, ‘is to reframe the entire culture of the United States from the foundation up.’” - The Guardian
“Tarr became internationally in the ‘90s and ‘00s as his films” — among them Sátántangó and Werckmeister Harmonies — “were shown more widely, partly because of their inordinate length and partly because of what appeared to be his definitive expression of middle-European black-and-white miserablism.” Yet he insisted his movies were comedies. - The Guardian
Domed screens, with comfortable seats and bar food, are actually the present for some (sports) fans. But the test run was “when the domed screen transformed into a high-resolution recreation of Michelangelo’s fresco paintings in the Sistine Chapel.” - The New York Times
“Resistance was easy. Uncomplicated, too. Like so many who have grown skeptical of AI, I value my life. I don’t want AI-generated music taking a moment of it away from me.” - Washington Post (MSN)
In disguised artist Róis’s 2025 Irish-language album, she merged “experimental, electronic production with traditional singing ... drew inspiration from ancient mourning practices." - BBC
“Singers are tested by every performance, year after year. We are trained to make it look easy. It is never easy. We live through sacrifice, isolation and self-doubt. ... Constant travel (if you’re lucky), fatigue and stress take an emotional and physical toll.” - The New York Times
Led by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Democrats on the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee say they’ve obtained documents suggesting that the Center is being operated as a “slush fund and private club for Trump’s friends and political allies”, resulting in millions of lost income and a departure from its statutory mission. - The...
“This would be a more effective way to attract young people, and it also happens to be true. When literature was considered transgressive, moralists couldn’t get people to stop buying and reading dangerous books. Now that books are considered virtuous and edifying, moralists can’t persuade anyone to pick one up.” - The Atlantic (MSN)
The Vondelkerk, a 154-year-old Gothic Revival church which had been deconsecrated and run as a concert and events venue in recent years, ignited shortly after midnight. The flames were fanned by strong winds, and the tower and roof of the building collapsed. - The Telegraph (UK)
