For a start, they’ve raised the starting age from 11 to 13. And they’ve done away with many of the rigid and arbitrary body standards for which ballet has been notorious — for instance, teen boy students won’t be tossed out for being too short, or girl students for being too buxom. - The Guardian
Given that the Tiffany Network has been home to the most-watched new series for the past nine TV seasons in a row, they've earned the benefit of the doubt to keep greenlighting new scripted projects. The CBS machine is working. - The Wrap (MSN)
Most observers knew that Saul Bellow was no saint, especially after reading his greatest novel, the quasi-autobiographical Herzog. Bellow’s portrait of his protagonist’s wife, a stand-in for his soon-to-be-ex, is very unflattering, but evidence now shows that Bellow himself was far more cruel and violent toward her in real life. - Slate (Yahoo!)
Social media has evolved from text to photo to video to streams of text, photo, and video, and finally, it seems to have reached a kind of settled end state, in which TikTok and Meta are trying to become the same thing: a screen showing hours and hours of video made by people we don’t know....
Among the discrepancies: the treatment of likenesses versus intellectual property. Tellingly, some execs were told an opt-in would be required for both. Others were told the opposite, or weren’t notified of the distinction. OpenAI’s messaging was haphazard to Hollywood. - The Hollywood Reporter
If philosophy formalized reasoning, literature explored its consequences. Stories about artificial beings reveal the hopes and terrors of living with intelligent doubles. Western traditions gave us the myth of Pygmalion, who fell in love with his statue, and Ovid’s tales of moving statues and enchanted beings. - 3 Quarks Daily
Philosophers and political theorists say it promotes selfish individualism and discourages collective action around issues that affect us all. And sociologists add that societies that prize choice too much tend to blame those with only poor or limited options for their own misfortunes. So much for choice as consistently synonymous with freedom. - Aeon
When Charlotte Symphony music director Kwamé Ryan saw the orchestra’s newly-redesigned logo, he thought the CSO should have a musical equivalent — like NBC’s three chimes, Netflix’s “ta-thump” drumstroke, or T-Mobile’s five-note ringtone. So he commissioned Bates, who had “never been so excited to write five seconds of music.” - The Charlotte Observer (Yahoo!)
The Royal Ballet has long offered headphones with audio descriptions so that visually impaired members of the audience can follow the action on stage. Now the entire audience will hear such descriptions, within a groundbreaking work that explores how blindness can redefine our responses to sensation, sound and storytelling. - The Guardian
The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner once said: “A bicycle shed is a building; Lincoln Cathedral is a piece of architecture.” For much of their history, football stadiums used to be more bike shed than cathedral but their time has now spectacularly come. - The Guardian
Nowadays, we can unearth bones, extract DNA, even map ancient migrations, but only in myths can we glimpse the inner lives of our forebears—their fears and longings, their sense of wonder and dread. Linguists have reconstructed dead languages. Why not try to do the same for lost stories? - The New Yorker
Beane was in his hometown — Reading, Pennsylvania — scouting locations for his first feature film when he learned that the Genesius Theatre, where had his first stage experiences while growing up, had both money troubles and a leadership vacancy. Now he’s artistic director, with plans to stabilize the finances and revitalize programming. - Playbill
Theatre in itself is an elite cultural form. There are of course exceptions, many wonderful theatre companies that manage to put on affordable performances for everybody. But the great thing about the cinema is that everyone could – maybe not so much these days – but everyone could buy a ticket. - The Guardian
“Showing in real life that democracy is melting away before our very eyes, I think it’s a powerful symbol that helps express the feelings and the sadness and the horror of Americans." - Washington Post
“The only question is what genres it will take over next, and how quickly it will do so. From talk shows to scripted dramas to, yes, live sports,” — including the NFL — “there are signs that the platform’s ambitions will collide with the traditional TV business sooner rather than later.” - The Hollywood Reporter
“The new numbers validate efforts to make the Loop a social destination and combat high retail and office vacancy rates that have plagued the area since the pandemic … (and) it’s arts and culture programming that’s ‘driving the bus at the moment,’” said Chicago Loop Alliance CEO Michael Edwards. - WBEZ (Chicago)
A Tulane anthropologist was clearing out underbrush when she came upon a stone slab inscribed with Latin text. She called an archaeologist colleague, who investigated and learned that it was a first-century tombstone for a sailor in the Roman navy and had been missing from an Italian museum for decades. - Smithsonian Magazine
“The business made a loss from operations of $41.8m in the year ending 29 December 2024 and a total net loss before taxes of $48.1m. This followed a reported loss of more than $30m in 2023. In the (first half of) this year, the (newspaper) made a further $17.3m loss from operations.” - Press Gazette (UK)
The British conductor is the first person ever to win Gramophone’s Artist of the Year award twice. The Record of the Year prize went to the Pygmalion/Raphaël Pichon release of Bach’s Mass in B minor. Awards were made in 17 additional categories. - The Guardian
Members of the orchestra’s volunteer chorus received an email from management notifying them of the “difficult but necessary development” just hours before a performance last Friday. Bruffy also leads the Grammy-winning professional choir the Kansas City Chorale, which is making no comment on the matter. - The Kansas City Star
If philosophy formalized reasoning, literature explored its consequences. Stories about artificial beings reveal the hopes and terrors of living with intelligent doubles. Western traditions gave us the myth of Pygmalion, who fell in love with his statue, and Ovid’s tales of moving statues and enchanted beings. - 3 Quarks Daily
Philosophers and political theorists say it promotes selfish individualism and discourages collective action around issues that affect us all. And sociologists add that societies that prize choice too much tend to blame those with only poor or limited options for their own misfortunes. So much for choice as consistently synonymous with freedom. - Aeon
These systems may appear neutral, but they are far from it. The most popular models privilege dominant epistemologies (typically Western and institutional) while marginalising alternative ways of knowing, especially those encoded in oral traditions, embodied practice and the languages considered ‘low-resource’ in the computing world. - Aeon
In the past (autism became a diagnostic category only in 1943), the ‘idiot savant’ was a paradox, who confounded categorisation because there was no unified way of comprehending how such exceptional musical and numerical skills might co-exist alongside their polar opposite: profound disability. - Aeon
The idea of a permanent underclass has recently been embraced in part as an online joke and in part out of a sincere fear about how A.I. automation will upend the labor market and create a new norm of inequality. - The New Yorker
The thing is, “music classes require ukuleles, recorders, and sheet music for every student. Visual arts classes require painting supplies –– easels, paper, paint brushes, paint. Dance classes require mirrors and bars.” How’s the $35 arts tax doing? - Oregon ArtsWatch
“The new numbers validate efforts to make the Loop a social destination and combat high retail and office vacancy rates that have plagued the area since the pandemic … (and) it’s arts and culture programming that’s ‘driving the bus at the moment,’” said Chicago Loop Alliance CEO Michael Edwards. - WBEZ (Chicago)
“The goal is to create a unified strategy and list of priorities to present with the Legislature to support the arts, culture, and humanities going forward,” CACO Senior Advisor Sue Hildick told Oregon ArtsWatch. - Oregon Arts Watch
The protests, known collectively as Fall of Freedom, will take place on the weekend of Nov. 21. Organizers, including the visual artist Dread Scott and the playwright Lynn Nottage, describe the effort as “an urgent call to the arts community to unite in defiance of authoritarian forces sweeping the nation.”
As the current administration repeals the right to culture, we, everyday people, must work to keep it. Exercise it to the fullest extent. Dine at local and immigrant-owned restaurants. Read books written in English or in translation. Recommend Hollywood and indie movies. Speak out, share ideas. - Hyperallergic
Fonda announced on October 1 that she would revive the Committee for the First Amendment, an anti-censorship group originally formed in 1947 whose members included her father, actor Henry Fonda. - Hyperallergic
Unfortunately, it’s not for all artists. There will be 2,000 stipends available, with applications opening in September of 2026 and qualified applicants (who may work in visual arts, performing arts, literature, film or architecture) selected at random. The payment will be €325 (currently $377) per week, roughly $19,600 per year. - ARTnews
When Charlotte Symphony music director Kwamé Ryan saw the orchestra’s newly-redesigned logo, he thought the CSO should have a musical equivalent — like NBC’s three chimes, Netflix’s “ta-thump” drumstroke, or T-Mobile’s five-note ringtone. So he commissioned Bates, who had “never been so excited to write five seconds of music.” - The Charlotte Observer (Yahoo!)
The British conductor is the first person ever to win Gramophone’s Artist of the Year award twice. The Record of the Year prize went to the Pygmalion/Raphaël Pichon release of Bach’s Mass in B minor. Awards were made in 17 additional categories. - The Guardian
Members of the orchestra’s volunteer chorus received an email from management notifying them of the “difficult but necessary development” just hours before a performance last Friday. Bruffy also leads the Grammy-winning professional choir the Kansas City Chorale, which is making no comment on the matter. - The Kansas City Star
The Mason Bates/Gene Scheer opera, whose ticket sales improved for each performance of this fall’s run (the last two selling out, despite widely divergent reviews), is being brought back for four performances this February. Only one other time in its modern history has the company added shows mid-season. - Playbill
I believe that Agentic AI, which dynamically employs complex reasoning and adaptation, has the potential to revolutionize how fans interact with and discover music. - Music Business Worldwide
The musicians’ union and management reached agreement (pending a ratification vote) on a new contract on October 5, bringing to an end a ten-day walkout that was the first strike in the VSO’s 107-year history. - CBC
The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner once said: “A bicycle shed is a building; Lincoln Cathedral is a piece of architecture.” For much of their history, football stadiums used to be more bike shed than cathedral but their time has now spectacularly come. - The Guardian
“Showing in real life that democracy is melting away before our very eyes, I think it’s a powerful symbol that helps express the feelings and the sadness and the horror of Americans." - Washington Post
A Tulane anthropologist was clearing out underbrush when she came upon a stone slab inscribed with Latin text. She called an archaeologist colleague, who investigated and learned that it was a first-century tombstone for a sailor in the Roman navy and had been missing from an Italian museum for decades. - Smithsonian Magazine
"I have yet to meet someone who really believes that there will be less digital or AI in the world 10 years from now than there is today. It’s not a question of if, but when." - ARTnews
Using augmented reality (AR), the artists intervened in the gallery’s 19th-century paintings—generic and imagined landscapes, portraits of affluent settlers and grandiose historical scenes—digitally superimposing cosmological figures, pow-wow dancers and suffocating layers of ivy. - The Art Newspaper
This fall alone, the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the UC Irvine Orange County Museum of Art have exhibitions curated by students ranging from high-schoolers to grade-schoolers. Professional staff assisted, but they put the kids through their paces. - The New York Times
Most observers knew that Saul Bellow was no saint, especially after reading his greatest novel, the quasi-autobiographical Herzog. Bellow’s portrait of his protagonist’s wife, a stand-in for his soon-to-be-ex, is very unflattering, but evidence now shows that Bellow himself was far more cruel and violent toward her in real life. - Slate (Yahoo!)
Nowadays, we can unearth bones, extract DNA, even map ancient migrations, but only in myths can we glimpse the inner lives of our forebears—their fears and longings, their sense of wonder and dread. Linguists have reconstructed dead languages. Why not try to do the same for lost stories? - The New Yorker
“The business made a loss from operations of $41.8m in the year ending 29 December 2024 and a total net loss before taxes of $48.1m. This followed a reported loss of more than $30m in 2023. In the (first half of) this year, the (newspaper) made a further $17.3m loss from operations.” - Press Gazette...
A recent study published by the Urban Libraries Council explores the idea that libraries can draw people to city centers that have been suffering from the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. - Bloomberg
“In 2006, when I came home all enthusiastic about his work, he still had no UK publisher. ... The view in London was that he was too difficult; no publisher could take the risk.” (The ill-chosen question was at the Edinburgh Book Festival five years later.) - The Guardian
For many ordinary readers, the idea of entering a fictional world constantly teetering on the edge of a revelation that is always imminent but concealed, in which words pace ceaselessly around reference, and whose favored tool is the long, unstopped sentence, one that takes, say, four hundred pages to... - The New Yorker
Given that the Tiffany Network has been home to the most-watched new series for the past nine TV seasons in a row, they've earned the benefit of the doubt to keep greenlighting new scripted projects. The CBS machine is working. - The Wrap (MSN)
Social media has evolved from text to photo to video to streams of text, photo, and video, and finally, it seems to have reached a kind of settled end state, in which TikTok and Meta are trying to become the same thing: a screen showing hours and hours of video made by people we...
Among the discrepancies: the treatment of likenesses versus intellectual property. Tellingly, some execs were told an opt-in would be required for both. Others were told the opposite, or weren’t notified of the distinction. OpenAI’s messaging was haphazard to Hollywood. - The Hollywood Reporter
“The only question is what genres it will take over next, and how quickly it will do so. From talk shows to scripted dramas to, yes, live sports,” — including the NFL — “there are signs that the platform’s ambitions will collide with the traditional TV business sooner rather than later.” - The Hollywood...
“The decline ... was led by a sharp drop in reality TV production, which recorded its second-worst quarter in the last 15 years. Any effects of the massive expansion of the California film and TV tax credit, which became law on July 1, have yet to show up in the production data.” - Variety
Amid all the headlines about falling ratings, production cutbacks and monetary losses, it's easy to forget that late-night TV programs have historically occupied a singular space in pop culture that viewers couldn't easily find anywhere else. - NPR
For a start, they’ve raised the starting age from 11 to 13. And they’ve done away with many of the rigid and arbitrary body standards for which ballet has been notorious — for instance, teen boy students won’t be tossed out for being too short, or girl students for being too buxom. - The...
The Royal Ballet has long offered headphones with audio descriptions so that visually impaired members of the audience can follow the action on stage. Now the entire audience will hear such descriptions, within a groundbreaking work that explores how blindness can redefine our responses to sensation, sound and storytelling. - The Guardian
They decided only an hour beforehand to dance the performance but not show up at the red carpet or gala dinner — because they “wanted (their) absence to be felt.” They maintain that management’s offers in contract negotiations “fall far short” of other U.S. companies' contracts, despite NYCB’s greater “financial stability.” - The Cut...
The closure of Tampa Bay classical companies during the COVID-19 pandemic spurred co-founder Heather Ossola’s desire to fill the void. “I really felt like I had something to offer and give the Tampa Bay area a company they deserve,” she says. “And I had some experience working as a ballet mistress.” - 83 Degrees...
Limón adapted the 1920 play for his company in 1956, and the company’s current artistic director decided it was time for a revival: “The original story is about … a felon who becomes a tyrannical leader. I didn’t feel the imagination had to go far to draw a contemporary parallel.” - The New York...
They did the evening’s performance — fulfilling their contract obligations, as they pointedly mentioned — but skipped the red-carpet photo ops and left vacant their places alongside wealthy patrons at the dinner tables. The quasi-strike comes amid contract negotiations, with dancers insisting that their pay reflect New York’s soaring cost of living. - Page...
Beane was in his hometown — Reading, Pennsylvania — scouting locations for his first feature film when he learned that the Genesius Theatre, where had his first stage experiences while growing up, had both money troubles and a leadership vacancy. Now he’s artistic director, with plans to stabilize the finances and revitalize programming. -...
Theatre in itself is an elite cultural form. There are of course exceptions, many wonderful theatre companies that manage to put on affordable performances for everybody. But the great thing about the cinema is that everyone could – maybe not so much these days – but everyone could buy a ticket. - The Guardian
“The warning came as … growing numbers of (union) members made complaints about infringements of their copyright and misuse of their personal data in AI material. … Last week (Equity) confirmed its was supporting a Scottish actor who believes her image was used in the creation of ‘AI actor’ Tilly Norwood.” - The Guardian
Notably, the tally of $4.042 million comes outside of the holiday season, when shows typically see their highest grosses and slightly bests Hamilton’s previous high of $4.041 million, which was set in 2018 in the Christmas week. - The Hollywood Reporter
Young actors who trained at drama school during the pandemic are struggling to project their voices and lack range because they were denied the crucial “experience of full vocal and physical presence” within a theatre, the co-artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) has said. - The Guardian
The musicians' most recent contract expired August 31, 2025. Since then, the union has been trying to achieve a new contract that includes increased wages, increased healthcare contributions, and employment and income security. - Playbill
Active as a concert singer as well as in opera, she was for some years a mainstay at the Met, Covent Garden, Salzburg, Glyndebourne, and especially the Netherlands Opera. She was known for Mozart, Verdi, and Puccini as well as a landmark portrayal of the title role in Janáček’s Jenůfa. - Moto Perpetuo
The actor who brought so much manic energy to Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Rocky Horror), Wadsworth the butler (Clue), and Pennywise the clown (Stephen King’s It) talks about his career, his recovery, and his mother (on whom Curry based Dr. Frank-N-Furter’s exit from the refrigerator with the bloody axe). - The Guardian
That much will certainly be made clear in a massive Richter retrospective opening this month at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris. Comprising some 250 objects, it is the largest survey of his work to date, exceeding MoMA’s landmark Richter show in 2002. - ARTnews
“(She and her husband, Dan,) through their distribution company, New Yorker Films, and such prominent Manhattan theaters as … Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, were a prolific force behind the transformation of movies in the 1960s and ‘70s from popular entertainment to an art form regarded with the seriousness of literature or painting.” - AP
The Oscar-winning director and actor with the most iconic American screen presence since Gary Cooper is now brawling with his castmates, getting sued by his crewmembers and, in recent months, giving paid keynote speeches at bakery and veterinarian conventions. - The Hollywood Reporter
Griffin was “an influential poet, playwright and prolific feminist author who pioneered a unique form of creative nonfiction, blending propulsive, poetic prose with history, memoir and myth.” - The New York Times
The Music Center seeks an inspiring and strategic individual to lead its cultural programming division, TMC Arts. Reporting directly to the president & CEO..
Riverside Theatre is seeking a Chief Financial Officer / Chief Operating Officer to help lead the organization through a period of growth and transformation.
Northwestern University’s MS in Leadership for Creative Enterprises (MSLCE) program develops leaders across Entertainment, Media and the Arts. Earn your Master’s in One Year.
Texas Ballet Theater seeks a strategic, relationship-driven Director of Development to lead fundraising and donor engagement as the company launches a $40 million capital campaign.
At least, at the University of Minnesota: “Students come to our courses not only for practical career training but to fulfill their love of reading, passion for writing, and hunger to reflect on essential questions about who we are as individuals and communities.” - Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“My hope is that the administration continues to recognize how important artists and culture workers are to telling the story of Chicago and to making Chicago the kind of beautiful, vibrant place that we’re all fighting for.” - Chicago Sun-Times
“Monuments are supposed to be collective tributes to shared ideals. Like Confederate statues, would function as the opposite — broadcasting a one-way message.” - Aesthetic Insecurity
“A student-run radio station trains kids to do all sorts of things. It’s the engineering, it’s the on air, it’s the music, it’s the running it, the managing of it. And it’s all gone now.” - Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Destroying the Vaillancourt Fountain, its supporters say, would be erasing history and modern architecture, and counter to the city’s reputation for being weird.” But wow, has the city neglected it for years. (The city says it just sort of aged out. Yup.) - The New York Times
One artist wrote that the private university's censorship of other artists’ work, mostly about immigrants, “is a loss for the students and for the art community, and it signals that the gallery, under current conditions, can no longer function as a place for art.” - Hyperallergic
Keaton was the star of Annie Hall, for which she won an Oscar, and many other Woody Allen movies; she was also an Oscar nominee for Reds, Marvin’s Room, and Something’s Gotta Give. And then there were her iconic roles in the Godfather movies. - The Hollywood Reporter
The Music Center seeks an inspiring and strategic individual to lead its cultural programming division, TMC Arts. Reporting directly to the president & CEO..
“Often described as postmodern, Krasznahorkai is known for his long, winding sentences, dystopian and melancholic themes, and the kind of relentless intensity that has led critics to compare him to Gogol, Melville and Kafka. Satantango, was famously adapted into a seven-hour film by director Béla Tarr.” - The Guardian
Countless casual classical listeners will tell you they hate the “new stuff.” When asked for an example, they’ll cite some highly dissonant music written between 40 and 80 years ago — in a “modern” style which hasn’t been dominant in contemporary classical music (in North America, at least) for decades. - The New York...
“It is the first major museum in D.C. to shutter because of the shutdown. The Smithsonian Institution, which runs an array of museums in D.C. and beyond, is using its own funds to remain open at least through Monday.” - ARTnews
Portland is very clearly not “hell,” and just as clearly not a war zone. But also: "Although the number of events and the amount of ticket sales have not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels, they have increased significantly ... and are now getting close to pre-2020 levels.” - Oregon ArtsWatch
