The evolution of cooperation has been of interest to biologists, philosophers and anthropologists for centuries. If natural selection favours self-interest, why would we cooperate at an apparent cost to ourselves? - Aeon

If we could stop bickering about which creatures do or don’t deserve to be called smart, an emerging movement of scientists and philosophers argue that we might discover fundamental elements of intelligence that are common to all life. - Noema

Only recently has the human collective begun accepting the fact it is itself mortal. We now appreciate that events unfolded for aeons before us and that our species can disappear, never to return. One day, the cosmos will persist without human witness, nor any inherent tendency to manifest things we cherish. - Aeon

“The first half of the 20th century … was ‘extraordinarily social.’ Shared spaces—libraries, theaters, and playgrounds—were rapidly built across the U.S. People were gathering regularly in public, and participating in clubs and organizations with their peers.” Then things changed, drastically, and not because of cell phones. - The Atlantic (Yahoo)

“Radner’s particular charisma came from this blend of bigheartedness and fearlessness. She always went for it.” - The Atlantic

“This unifying means of speaking is as likely to create division between insiders and outsiders as it is to foster workplace cohesion.”  - Salon

“How crazy is it to think that we’re going to celebrate Christ at Christmas with a big traditional production, to celebrate what we are all celebrating in the world during Christmastime, which is the birth of Christ?” Mr. Grenell said at the Conservative Political Action Conference. - The New York Times

The glass-domed plaza between the Philadelphia arts center's venues was intended to be a welcoming public space. Yet it tends to be desolate during the day, despite years of efforts to liven it up. The design of the new café there doesn't help, but the space still has potential. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

AI is a category of general-purpose tools with myriad beneficial uses. Requiring developers to license the materials needed to create this technology threatens the development of more innovative and inclusive AI models, as well as important uses of AI as a tool for expression and scientific research.  - Electronic Frontier Foundation

Gina Duncan was the first person of color to lead the academy, which operates several stages and a cinema, and has an annual operating budget of $56 million. She had previously served as BAM’s first vice president of film and strategic programming but had not held the top job at an arts institution. -...

 “We can’t stand the fact that the sticker price is so high despite the fact that nobody pays it.” This pricing strategy took hold in the early 1980s. - The Atlantic

With each day bringing new troubles and concerns, how should we proceed? Ideally, with boldness, though that quality seems to be in short supply, especially in the arts world. What a far cry from 2016 when, within hours of the shock Election Day result, Toni Morrison’s quote that “this is precisely the time when...

All of these songs have really strong sentiments, but they aren’t quite the same as expressing your unique thoughts and feelings for your intended yourself. But if, like my 10CC-loving friend, you lack the skill, AI could help you craft something a bit more specific for your intended. - The Conversation

Some 151 million people attended nearly 55,000 Live Nation events in 2024, an increase of 4% year-on-year, the events and ticketing company said in its full-year earnings report on Thursday (February 20). - Music Business Worldwide

Seeing the seams is part of live performance’s charm—it asks the audience to actively participate in the suspension of reality, as opposed to having it ready-made for them. Broadcast opera retains some of that immediacy, but without the magic of a live performance, it’s harder to forgive its failings. - The Atlantic

“He made his ESO debut in 2006 and has conducted more than 35 performances with the orchestra and Edmonton Opera since then.” - CTV

Next season the company will experiment with scheduling consecutive performances of the same opera with different casts, this to save money by not moving sets in and out of the theater. There will be more performances of the most popular repertory staples and fewer performances of contemporary works on weekends. - AP

"(Starting in) the late twentieth century, a family of technologies moved from the fringes of novelty attraction and the avant-­garde to the heart of mainstream culture. … The main character in this story is a device named for its ability to fabricate music artificially, producing sounds that are, by definition, synthetic." - Literary Hub

“R-Evolution” by sculptor Marco Cochrane had been scheduled to open the evening of Feb. 6 at a public party in the square, but the event was postponed and the installation ultimately canceled due to “unforeseen engineering complexities on site” — to wit, the statue is too damn heavy. - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

Since the latest wildfires, interest in natural buildings has spiked, particularly after a widely-shared photo showed a backyard SuperAdobe that emerged from the Eaton fire intact. Well-designed adobes resist earthquakes as well as fires, and they’re quicker and less expensive to build than conventional modern homes. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)

Foreign institutions and collectors are returning artifacts with deep spiritual meaning for Cambodians. Where and how to display them remain open questions. - The New York Times

“After a year of discussions, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and M+, a contemporary art museum in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon arts district, have formalized an agreement that could soon see them share shows, research, and donor development resources.” - ARTnews

An exhibition at the Prado in Madrid has gathered together panels of the altarpiece Doménikos Theotokópoulos painted for the Monastery of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo. The central panel belongs to the Art Institute of Chicago; the others are at the monastery or in private collections. - Artnet

Police seized 71 paintings, including fake Rembrandts, Picassos, Warhols, and Banksys, some completed and others half-finished, along with a plethora of painting materials, forged certificates of authenticity, and bogus catalogues. Authorities say evidence suggests that an art restorer is at the center of the racket. - The Guardian

Debates about the value and function of literary criticism today are, it seems to me, both constant and evergreen—always seeming new, urgent, specific to some particular contemporary crisis, but also far more continuous and universal than you’d think. - The Point

I have made a beautiful book, but to complete my book biz journey, I will go on the road again, a box of books in the trunk of my car, and drive from bookstore to bookstore, seeing old friends and making new ones. - LitHub

“House File 274 would repeal a section of the Iowa Code that addresses obscenity exemptions for public libraries and educational institutions, while Senate File 347 aims to control the selection and purchase of books and materials with alleged sexual content and proposes steep fines for sharing such work with minors.” - Publishers Weekly

"Police in Kashmir have raided dozens of bookstores and seized more than 650 books as part of crackdowns on dissent in the Indian-administered region. Most of the titles were written by Abul A’la Maududi, a prominent 20th-century Islamic scholar who founded Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamic organisation banned in Kashmir." - The Guardian

This report represents the first time the Australian book industry has been granted a detailed level of insight into recreational readers and also offers ideas on how to motivate more Australians to read. - ArtsHub

Trump has already hit language very strongly, and not just because of his own idiosyncratic manner of speech. As the Times has noted, his administration has developed a confounding but effective bizarro-world stylebook, in which phrases like “free speech” are deployed to quash exactly that. - New York Magazine (MSN)

While some politicians no doubt celebrated the disappearance of pesky journalists, others are lamenting their absence, because municipalities must now work harder and spend more to keep people informed. - The Walrus

Since taking over as chairman, FCC Chair Brendan Carr has revived bias complaints against CBS, ABC and NBC over their 2024 presidential campaign coverage after the Biden administration dismissed them. - Los Angeles Times

The Academy Awards’ marquee category for international cinema, best international film, has been continually criticized as unjust, outdated and subject to political interference. - Seattle Times

“The Broccoli family’s feud with Amazon MGM Studios over the (property) appears to have reached a resolution. Barbara Broccoli and her stepbrother Michael Wilson, who have long controlled the 007 franchise, (have) reached an agreement to hand over creative control to a joint venture with the studio.” - The Wall Street Journal (MSN)

The movie industry has gotten much more careful in the past few decades about authenticity (Emilia Pérez notwithstanding). Yet screenwriters won't write out foreign-language dialogue, or phonetically spell dialects or regional accents, in the formal screenplay itself, and there are good reasons for that. - The Conversation

Exhibition giant Cinemark reported record fourth-quarter revenue of $814 million, up 27 percent year-over-year and 3 percent above the pre-COVID pandemic fourth quarter of 2019. - The Hollywood Reporter

“The new school, which became official at the start of 2025, now hosts a commercial dance department as well as a concert dance department, and students have the opportunity to earn their BFA in dance with a concentration in ballet, jazz, modern dance, or — for the first time — hip hop.” - Dance...

The company danced at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in the 1990s but hasn't been back since. But starting next month, following a $5.3 million renovation, Richmond Ballet will be performing its Moving Art series of classical and contemporary work at the VMFA's Leslie Cheek Theater. - WRIC (Richmond, VA)

"'You are welcome,' beams a neon sign above the biscuity brick entrance. Theatres, like vampires, gravitate to dark spaces, but inside the impression is of light: high ceilings, generous windows, terraces overlooking the Olympic Park. … There’s even a window behind the auditorium, so technicians don’t beaver in the shadows." - The Standard (London)

Thirty-four dancers performed The Nelken Line, a piece by choreographer Pina Bausch that pays homage to the seasons. It's been performed widely since Bausch created it in 1982. There's even a tutorial. In the piece, dancers walk in a single-file line and make synchronized movements. - NPR

She weighed just 60 pounds (27.3 kilograms) – about the same size as a 9-year-old. Last month her parents, an Australian couple in their mid-40s, were sentenced to prison in Perth’s District Court of Western Australia for neglecting their only child, even as they ferried her to and from piano and ballet lessons. -...

The advisory circle, formed in 2018, was intended to make Canada's oldest ballet company "a more equitable, diverse and inclusive organization," the ballet's website says. But that goal was at odds with the advisory circle's experience with the ballet's management and board of directors, said Morrison, the advisory circle's co-founder. - CBC

Operation Mincemeat, about a plot to convince the Nazis that the Allies were about to invade Greece instead of Sicily, recently arrived on Broadway after winning an Olivier in London. The creators say that, in development, they had to cut some actually true details so improbable that viewers wouldn’t accept them. - Variety

“Broadway has seen more foot traffic and bigger audiences in the first month since the curtain went up on the congestion pricing era — though it’s too early for some to say whether the Manhattan tolls played a starring or a cameo role in such success.“ - amNY

"They constitute an unusual cohort, bucking the bad news of the American theater by having made it past emerging to emerged. Granted, pretty much all of them did so with the help of other industries. … These nontheater jobs are how playwrights make real money and get health insurance." - The New York Times

During apartheid, in addition to being Athol Fugard's leading actor, he co-wrote and co-starred in the seminal plays Sizwe Bandi Is Dead and The Island. Since majority rule began in 1994, Kani has written what's now a trilogy looking at the triumphs and troubles of post-apartheid South Africa. - The Washington Post (MSN)

A Minneapolis theater organization says it will decline federal funding in order to preserve its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. - Bring Me the News

But Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 dealt Kharkiv’s puppetry a heavy blow, as much of the city’s population of 1.4 million evacuated in the face of the Russian onslaught. The puppet theater closed its doors. Yet, as it turned out, not for long. - Christian Science Monitor

“(Hadi Matar,) the New Jersey man on trial (for) the 2022 stabbing of author Salman Rushdie, declined to testify in his defense Thursday as his lawyers rested their case without calling any witnesses. … Earlier Thursday, prosecutors called a forensics expert as their final witness, wrapping up seven days of testimony.” - AP

Over a 50-year career, the Malian writer-director did much to establish sub-Saharan African film as an internationally recognized industry in terms of art as well as commerce. He was the first Black African filmmaker to win a feature film award at Cannes: a Special Jury Prize in 1987 for Yeelen. - AP

"(A Federal judge) ordered Watson and his company to pay over $36 million in restitution and nearly $60 million in forfeiture … for his involvement in a fraud scheme in which he conspired to impersonate a YouTube executive and repeatedly lied to investors about the now-defunct media company’s finances." - Courthouse News Service

"'You become the lie,' (Lisa) Schiff said. … By the time it all came crashing down in 2023, she had stolen some $6.4 million. ... But out of all her transgressions, she seemed most ashamed of the glamour that gilded her crimes. 'I was miserable in that helicopter.'" - The New York Times

"Bochner was one of the key artists associated with the Conceptualist movement during the 1960s and ’70s. In legendary pieces that hardly looked much like art at all, he offered measurements, numbers, words, and others’ photocopied drawings within galleries. There was often little to admire, and that was intentional." - ARTnews

Zander has been educating musicians and audiences about classical music for five decades. During his master class, Zander interacts with both the audience and aspiring cellists who have signed up to seek guidance from Zander. - WBUR