“Boosters don’t describe real things so much as what they hope will become real things, often presenting growth as inevitable and betting on optimism as a viable economic strategy. Perhaps unsurprisingly, boosterism has played a major role in American history. … The harsh truth is, boosterism sometimes works.” - Quartz

Evolutionary anthropologist Thomas Morgan: “People can be coercive, but unlike other species, we also create hierarchies of prestige – voluntary arrangements that allocate labor and decision-making power according to expertise.” - The Conversation

In his massive The Open Society and Its Enemies—published just before his return to Europe in 1945—Popper in effect identifies Plato not just as the father of western philosophy, but also the father of the forces that had wrought the gulags and the gas chambers. - The American Scholar

"The sector is responding to AI as if it were a tool to be adopted responsibly within existing organisational life, often through skills development, guidance, and policy, rather than an environmental shift that invalidates many of its default ways of deciding, governing, and acting." - Tammy Lee (LinkedIn)

Our survey reveals that Gen Z’s relationship with AI is more pragmatic than personal. While headlines suggest young people treat chatbots as confidants and companions, the data tell a different story. - Harvard Business Review

The AI's "all outperformed the average human. However, when they measured the average performance of the top 50 percent of human participants, it exceeded all tested models. The gap widened further when they took the average of the top 25 percent and top 10 percent of humans." - Singularity Hub

One is that the center needs major upgrades. That is true. The other is that those upgrades require full closure of the entire campus for multiple years. That is suspect. - The Conversation

While a list of all those who've lost their positions is not yet available, multiple arts and culture reporters have confirmed the layoffs. - The Violin Channel

After last year’s Eaton Fire tore through town, incinerating community infrastructure and scattering residents across the region, the importance of such places has grown dramatically — not only as centers of gathering, but as sites of refuge, planning and healing.  - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

Australia’s arts and cultural sector still has much to learn in terms of fiduciary duties and duty of care, risk and crisis management, communication and response, and navigating the difference between censorship and cultural safety. - ArtsHub

Since Prop. 28, the Art and Music in Schools Act, passed in late 2022, California has struggled to locate enough qualified arts teachers to place in every school in the state. The five-year, $11.3 million Arts Education Accelerator Fund will develop teacher training, credentialing and apprenticeship programs to help fill the gap. - EdSource...

It certainly seems possible that the 1971 building, designed by architect Edward Durrell Stone, could be partially or completely erased. And with it, the center’s basic function, as a venue for the arts, along with its history, its distinguished legacy and its last remaining audience. - Washington Post (MSN)

What distinguishes Streets of Minneapolis is not just its fidelity to the tradition of the protest song, but its mode of circulation as a rapid response in the digital age. - The Conversation

Dudamel is the outgoing music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Hindoyan is the incoming music director of Los Angeles Opera; they have known each other since their youth in Venezuela. “His advice was,” said Hindoyan, “L.A. will follow your imagination ... push boundaries. L.A. will follow.” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)

Elfriede Jelinek, winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize for Literature, and composer Olga Neuwirth, who received the 2022 Grawemeyer Award, have created Monster’s Paradise — now premiering at the Hamburg Opera — with an Ubu-like President-King who looks very familiar and gets eaten by the monster Gorgonzilla. (Yes, there are also zombies and vampires.)...

The specific outrages Lincoln recounts—lynchings, burnings, mob executions—belong to his era. But his insight is structural. The deepest danger of mob law, Lincoln explains, lies not in the immediate violence but in the example it sets. - The New Republic

The orchestra’s board chair and executive director told musicians and staff that they would remain employed, that the Kennedy Center would maintain its funding of the NSO, and that the Center is contractually obligated to find the orchestra a new venue. But where and when? - The Washington Post (MSN)

Our analysis reveals that women and female bands sustained a dramatic fall in winners compared to last year. They received less than a quarter of all Grammys (23%), a 14 percentage point drop from last year’s high of 37% and the lowest level since 2022. - The Conversation

At 15 feet tall, the statue of President Trump, mounted on its 7,000-pound pedestal, is about the height of a two-story building — a giant effigy cast in bronze and finished with a thick layer of gold leaf. - The New York Times

New security buildings in the grounds of the British Museum would look "too flashy" and resemble "a shop and wine bar", opponents to the plans have said. - BBC

The two men couldn’t have been more different. Titian was a painter while Michelangelo, though renowned both as a painter and a sculptor, saw himself exclusively as the latter. They lived hundreds of miles apart—the former in Venice, the latter in Florence and Rome—and inhabited vastly different aesthetic universes. - The Wall Street Journal

The decision, it said, reflects “the recommendations of an interdisciplinary task force of museum trustees and staff, which examined the process and rollout of the rebrand, and commissioned surveys of museum staff, trustees, members, and the Philadelphia-area public.” - ARTnews

It orders “no further removal and/or destruction” of the site “until further order of the court.” That would appear to cover other parts of the memorial that include mentions of slavery and civil rights, including a stone wall with the names of nine enslaved people who served Washington’s household. - The New York Times

Somehow, modernist aping of Indigenous models got told as a story of increasing originality, while Indigenous adaptation of Western models was seen in terms of decreasing authenticity. The logic was clear enough: The proper job of Western art was forever to point to the future; that of Indigenous art was forever to repeat the...

“Judge Biery’s decision … is much more than dry judicial reasoning. It’s a passionate, erudite, at times mischievous piece of prose. … In fewer than 500 words, Judge Biery marshals literature, history, folk wisdom and Scripture to challenge the theory of executive power that has defined Trump’s second presidency.” - The New York Times

Test score data presents averages. Many girls struggle to read, and many boys excel at it. But overall, boys are about three-quarters of a year behind girls in reading in fourth grade, and roughly a year behind in 12th grade. - The New York Times

Winning legal copyright battles may force tech companies to curb their blatant piracy. But copyright alone can’t halt AI’s advance. - AI Humanist

“Executive Editor Matt Murray … said the Post will shutter its sports desk, while keeping some sports writers who will write feature stories. It will likewise close its Books section and suspend the signature podcast Post Reports. The international desk will shrink dramatically,” as will the Metro desk. - NPR

“Good poets exploit that musicality the same way good rappers do, favoring one word over another for the way it interacts with the words around it. But poets, unlike rappers, are not generally performers, and it shows when they recite their work for an audience.” - The New York Times

You will not find any submissions of his languishing in the LRB slush pile. Instead he posts on BookTok and BookTube, the social media planes concerned with reading, where millions of viewers watch videos about books. - New Statesman

He ended up spending much of his time before the Judiciary subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights pushing back against accusations from Republican senators that the streamer is politically biased. - NBC

It all started with a joke on a movie marquee: “To defeat your enemy, you must know them. ‘Melania’ starts Friday.” - Seattle Times

It’s going to “leverage the iconic IP across music, film and global distribution platforms,” as one would expect. On the music side, this means “integrating Peanuts characters and storylines into the company’s music, video and live event offerings;” the film/TV side intends to “broaden the franchise’s reach” worldwide. - Variety

"Jason Lust, a former senior executive … who helped shepherd some of The Jim Henson Company's most successful modern movies and TV series, … filed the lawsuit last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court, asserting breach of contract. The complaint … seeks at least $7.5 million in damages.” - TheWrap (MSN)

“Both proposed transactions raise significant issues that impact stakeholders across the media sector, including our members,” the DGA’s statement read. - Deadline

A sow in opera gloves would have been a decent gag in itself, but it soon became clear that the character was destined for greater things. - The New York Times

Amidst ongoing lawsuits between Flatley, creator of the Irish step-dancing spectacle, and Switzer Consulting, whom he contracted to manage the show’s touring operations, Switzer announced on Tuesday morning that it was canceling the Thursday event in Dublin, leading Flatley to rush to court for an emergency injunction. - Press Association (UK) (Yahoo!)

Daria L. Wallach, a retired financier and the chair of the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation’s board of directors, and her husband are the donors. - The New York Times

“The Ukrainian Ministry of Culture slammed Serhiy Kryvokon and Natalia Matsak’s performance as ‘promoting the cultural product of the aggressor state’. The National Opera of Ukraine cancelled Kryvokon’s next scheduled performance – as well as his exemption from compulsory military service and permission to travel.” - The Spectator

The choreographer had the idea for The Naked King, based on the old fable “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and premiering this week at New York City Ballet, after watching one of last year’s “No Kings” protests. - The New York Times

“Before I started my dancing, I wasn’t really close to my culture. I was really into the Western stuff. … Then as I got into dancing, I kind of learned how beautiful my culture is and how important and meaningful it is to me.” - The New York Times

Sokhoeun Sok came to the US in 2005 to teach traditional Khmer dance and is now a naturalized citizen. For now, she “is focusing on what she can control: each bend of the wrist, extension of the arm and kick of the heel” executed by her students. - The New York Times

"Encouraging audience enthusiasm while upholding basic theater etiquette has become a tricky balance, but attracting fans itching to sing along is also a badge of popularity. … Where people draw the line on what’s “too crazy” may be the animating question of our time.” - The Washington Post (Yahoo!)

“The Unquiet series, organized by Sara Candela, a poet, is part of a larger movement in which artists, writers and theater groups across the country are creating work in response to the Trump administration’s attacks on arts and their communities.” - The Guardian

The company’s board said that there will be a third-party investigation into social media allegations that founder/artistic director Charles Askenaizer engaged in aggressive behavior during rehearsals. Last week, in solidarity with the accuser, four actors dropped out of Askenaizer’s now-postponed staging of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. - Chicago Tribune

Brandon Weinbrenner, currently the associate artistic director at the Alley Theatre in Houston, will succeed Vincent Lancisi, who is stepping down at the end of the season from the troupe that he founded 35 years ago. - The Baltimore Sun (MSN)

“Since the gargantuan success of Hamilton, … Broadway productions have leaned in to liberal identity politics as their state ideology, favoring ‘message musicals’ (like the women’s suffrage show Suffs) and casting stunts (an all-female 1776) that marry liberal identity politics with the genre’s emotional sincerity.” - The Paris Review

“The worst moment has a name here — le flop. It's the part everyone dreads, when you can feel your red nose begin to droop as the dead air fills the room. But it's also where the real work begins.” - NPR

Libby Howes came to New York in 1975 and fell in with The Wooster Group. Her work there thrilled viewers, and Helen Shaw was blown away just by old film of Howes performing. But in 1981, after a psychotic break, she disappeared. Shaw investigated what became of her. - The New York Times

The accusations were made in 2024 podcast from Tortoise Media and a New York magazine article early in 2025; several media adaptations of Gaiman’s books were consequently dropped. His new statement calls the allegations a “smear campaign” and says that the evidence he has to refute them has been dismissed or ignored. - Variety

King launched the Off-Broadway company in 1970 to produce work by Black playwrights and give employment to Black theatermakers. Playwrights Ntozake Shange, Charles Fuller, and David Henry Hwang launched their careers there; NFT gave early boosts to performers Denzel Washington, Phylicia Rashad, Debbie Allen, Morgan Freeman, Chadwick Boseman, and Samuel L. Jackson. - AP

“When Mr. Wilson landed the role of Lamont, he was only in his mid-20s, a theater veteran but a newcomer to the screen. The show was a hit” — and Wilson, playing the straight man to Redd Foxx’s cantankerous star, was also a hit. - The New York Times

“Though Big Hollywood roles didn't follow Home Alone's success, O'Hara would find her groove with the crew of improv pros brought together by Guest for a series of mockumentaries that began with 1996's Waiting for Guffman.” - CBC

“Lemon was arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles, where he had been covering the Grammy Awards, his attorney said. It is unclear what charge or charges Lemon is facing in the Jan. 18 protest. The arrest came after a magistrate judge last week rejected prosecutors’ initial bid to charge the journalist.” - AP