The great Brazilian modernist, best-known for the futuristic government buildings in Brasilia, had recently turned 103 when he drew the first sketch for what’s now called the Niemeyer Sphere. When he died almost a year later, he hadn’t finalized the design, but there were enough sketches and specifications to complete it. - The Guardian
When in 2010, Durham University got back the Folio which had been stolen in 1998, the book’s leather cover, boards and end papers were gone, as were an engraving, a eulogy by Ben Jonson, and the final page of Cymbeline. The volume has never been repaired, and there are good reasons why. - BBC (Yahoo!)
Michael Silverblatt, the longtime host of the KCRW radio show "Bookworm" — known for interviews of authors so in depth that they sometimes left his subjects astounded at his breadth of knowledge of their work — has died. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)
A comprehensive review of national data shows a steady decline in arts subject enrolments at senior secondary level and a parallel contraction of creative arts degree courses in higher education since 2018. - Limelight
Despite years of Eat-the-Rich–type discourse, we seem to struggle with how money and power operate without falling into either conspiratorial exaggeration (the fantasy of Satan-worshipping elites ritualistically drinking baby blood is centuries old) or fawning admiration for the taste and sophistication of the rich and famous. - The American Scholar
In Kramer/Fauci, director Daniel Fish stages a transcript of the 1993 C-SPAN debate between Larry Kramer, the legendarily combative writer and AIDS activist, and the more mild-mannered Dr. Anthony Fauci, then the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. - The New York Times
When we speak of dignity, worth, or the respect owed to persons, we are not engaging in idle abstraction. These concepts do real work. They justify constraints on what the powerful may do to the vulnerable. - 3 Quarks Daily
People have relished music for so long that we have evidence, from forty thousand years ago, of humans making a flute-like instrument out of a vulture bone. We feel that even wordless music reflects our moods. - The New Yorker
In the past thirty or so years, the academy has replaced the church as the center of the liberal moral imagination, providing the sense of a community bound by ethics, a firmament of texts and knowledge that should inform action, and a meeting space for like-minded people. - The New Yorker
Train Dreams, Clint Bentley’s feature about an isolated logger in the early-20th-century Pacific Northwest, led the film categories with three wins. In the television categories, Adolescence, a British crime drama about a 13-year-old boy accused of stabbing a classmate to death, took four of the six prizes. - The Hollywood Reporter
“When curators withhold information about the works and the artists, they are reinforcing their own curatorial approach, which is a contradiction. Decontextualizing and dehistoricizing is practically a colonialist act.” - Hyperallergic
It’s hard to imagine creativity without divergent thinking. How are you being exploratory? How are you being adventurous? A theme and variations is a very overt demonstration of that process, because the whole idea is to generate novel versions of the same source. - The New York Times
Postmodernism began as a critique of modernism's exhausted promises. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, many designers no longer treated modernism as radical or socially redemptive. Urban renewal projects accelerated the demolition of historic neighborhoods, and landmark preservation battles raised urgent questions about what the United States valued and, ultimately, protected. - Arch Daily
“I’m not, um, young,” she says. “And I do have help. I don’t go in without somebody there who can help to translate and who understands my movement. But my favorite thing is to make things.” - The New York Times
Devyani Saltzman was named director of arts and participation in February 2024; she was one of seven senior leaders installed after the Barbican replaced the managing director model. News of her departure comes about a month after the arrival of new CEO Abigail Pogson, and Saltzman is not being replaced. - The Guardian
“After the loss of its musical director, the cancelation of multiple concerts and a dispute locking it out of what was touted to be its permanent performance space, the San Antonio Philharmonic has scrapped the remainder of its season, according to an email sent to its musicians.” - San Antonio Current
Basically, it means the CSO shows more scheduled performances than other orchestras in the comprehensive concert listings on the classical-music website Bachtrack. However, both Bachtrack’s editors and CSO management say that it’s not as simple as that description sounds. - Chicago Tribune
“Warner Bros Discovery Inc. has agreed to temporarily reopen sale negotiations with rival Hollywood studio Paramount Skydance Corp., setting the stage for a potential second bidding war with Netflix Inc.” - Bloomberg (Yahoo!)
“Among the world’s most admired and influential filmmakers, … with subjects ranging from a suburban high school to a horse race track, his work was aired on public television, screened at retrospectives, spotlighted in festivals, praised by critics and fellow directors and preserved by the Library of Congress.” - AP
“(The) Oscar-winning actor … disappeared into an astonishing range of roles — lawmen and outlaws, Southern-fried alcoholics and Manhattan boardroom sharks, a hotheaded veteran and a cool-tempered mob consigliere — and emerged as one of the most respected screen talents of his generation.” - The Washington Post (MSN)
Despite years of Eat-the-Rich–type discourse, we seem to struggle with how money and power operate without falling into either conspiratorial exaggeration (the fantasy of Satan-worshipping elites ritualistically drinking baby blood is centuries old) or fawning admiration for the taste and sophistication of the rich and famous. - The American Scholar
When we speak of dignity, worth, or the respect owed to persons, we are not engaging in idle abstraction. These concepts do real work. They justify constraints on what the powerful may do to the vulnerable. - 3 Quarks Daily
In the past thirty or so years, the academy has replaced the church as the center of the liberal moral imagination, providing the sense of a community bound by ethics, a firmament of texts and knowledge that should inform action, and a meeting space for like-minded people. - The New Yorker
Rod Dreher emerged from the conservative blogosphere in the 2000s and won fans with his daily stream of testy opinions and unguarded anecdotal writing. He seems almost allergic to ideological consistency, has long had readers on the left as well as the right, and sometimes changes his mind over the course of a single paragraph. - The Atlantic
It might never improve enough. “Even in the most ambitious view where AI technology is feasibly able to generate worlds that are as responsive and interesting to explore as a video game that runs locally … there’s a lot more that goes into making a video game.”- The Verge (Archive Today)
A comprehensive review of national data shows a steady decline in arts subject enrolments at senior secondary level and a parallel contraction of creative arts degree courses in higher education since 2018. - Limelight
Devyani Saltzman was named director of arts and participation in February 2024; she was one of seven senior leaders installed after the Barbican replaced the managing director model. News of her departure comes about a month after the arrival of new CEO Abigail Pogson, and Saltzman is not being replaced. - The Guardian
“Concerns were recently raised by UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLIF), a voluntary group of solicitors, about references to ‘Palestine’ in displays covering the ancient Levant and Egypt, which risked ‘obscuring the history of Israel and the Jewish people.’” - The Guardian (UK)
The festival head said, "Artists should not be expected to comment on all broader debates about a festival’s previous or current practices over which they have no control. Nor should they be expected to speak on every political issue raised to them unless they want to.” - The Guardian (UK)
Ask Los Angeles. “My favorite part was how the plaza was filled with people marveling at very talented graffiti artists making Foot Locker-branded murals in the shadow of the Graffiti Ghost Towers that our leaders say we have to clean up because they're too offensive to tourists.” - Torched LA
People have relished music for so long that we have evidence, from forty thousand years ago, of humans making a flute-like instrument out of a vulture bone. We feel that even wordless music reflects our moods. - The New Yorker
It’s hard to imagine creativity without divergent thinking. How are you being exploratory? How are you being adventurous? A theme and variations is a very overt demonstration of that process, because the whole idea is to generate novel versions of the same source. - The New York Times
“After the loss of its musical director, the cancelation of multiple concerts and a dispute locking it out of what was touted to be its permanent performance space, the San Antonio Philharmonic has scrapped the remainder of its season, according to an email sent to its musicians.” - San Antonio Current
Basically, it means the CSO shows more scheduled performances than other orchestras in the comprehensive concert listings on the classical-music website Bachtrack. However, both Bachtrack’s editors and CSO management say that it’s not as simple as that description sounds. - Chicago Tribune
Olivia Newton John and John Denver might be mostly known for the mildness of their music, but at one point they were two of Nashville’s untouchables. - Slate
The great Brazilian modernist, best-known for the futuristic government buildings in Brasilia, had recently turned 103 when he drew the first sketch for what’s now called the Niemeyer Sphere. When he died almost a year later, he hadn’t finalized the design, but there were enough sketches and specifications to complete it. - The Guardian
“When curators withhold information about the works and the artists, they are reinforcing their own curatorial approach, which is a contradiction. Decontextualizing and dehistoricizing is practically a colonialist act.” - Hyperallergic
Postmodernism began as a critique of modernism's exhausted promises. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, many designers no longer treated modernism as radical or socially redemptive. Urban renewal projects accelerated the demolition of historic neighborhoods, and landmark preservation battles raised urgent questions about what the United States valued and, ultimately, protected. - Arch Daily
When officials at the Louvre in Paris suspected a couple of tour guides of reusing tickets in late 2024, they did not expect to learn that a broad scamming network had cost the museum nearly $12 million over a decade. - The New York Times
When museums pivot from contemplation to consumption, even revolutionary icons get commodified. Tate's Kahlo experience trades artistic liberation for lifestyle branding—because apparently unibrows sell better with appetizers. – The Conversation
When your art hits too close to home, apparently even universities develop sudden institutional amnesia about academic freedom. Victor Quiñonez's immigrant-focused work got the silent treatment—no notice, no discussion, just gone. — Hyperallergic
When in 2010, Durham University got back the Folio which had been stolen in 1998, the book’s leather cover, boards and end papers were gone, as were an engraving, a eulogy by Ben Jonson, and the final page of Cymbeline. The volume has never been repaired, and there are good reasons why. - BBC...
What seemed preposterous in a 1962 novel—story-writing machines—is now Silicon Valley gospel. As AI churns out narratives, we're left wondering: who's really telling the story, and does anyone care about the difference? — 3 Quarks Daily
Federal cultural funding now comes with ideological strings attached, as museums and libraries discover their grant applications must suddenly harmonize with presidential vision statements. Creative freedom, meet creative financing. — Artnet
We now live alongside AI systems that converse knowledgeably and persuasively—deploying claims about the world, explanations, advice, encouragement, apologies, and promises—while bearing no vulnerability for what they say. - The Atlantic
Winston Graham of Poldark, Virginia Woolf, Daphne du Maurier, and many other writers drew - and continue to draw - inspiration from the moors, cliffs, rugged coastline, and mines of the rural county. - BBC
At least three. “The Western Music Association describes the award as recognizing a person who writes ‘with imaginative power and beauty of thought, with the ability to enable audiences to develop a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the Western lifestyle through performance.’” - Oregon ArtsWatch
Train Dreams, Clint Bentley’s feature about an isolated logger in the early-20th-century Pacific Northwest, led the film categories with three wins. In the television categories, Adolescence, a British crime drama about a 13-year-old boy accused of stabbing a classmate to death, took four of the six prizes. - The Hollywood Reporter
“Warner Bros Discovery Inc. has agreed to temporarily reopen sale negotiations with rival Hollywood studio Paramount Skydance Corp., setting the stage for a potential second bidding war with Netflix Inc.” - Bloomberg (Yahoo!)
“The ‘dynamics of this novel are about otherness in various ways, and that otherness is in Heathcliff.’ Onscreen, however, Heathcliff has largely been played by white actors.” - The New York Times
“Paramount Skydance’s latest offer — No. 9 since last year — includes a premium ‘ticking fee’ for WBD shareholders of about $650 million for every quarter that the Paramount-WBD nuptials are not completed by Dec. 31, 2026.” - Variety
“When you read a book, you live inside it — you're intellectually and emotionally invested, because you create its world in your mind.” But a movie? You’re just visiting. - NPR
Not that we’re judging your trips to the cottage, but, for instance, "Tkaronto patiently and beautifully expresses that longing for connection through fleeting, thorny and bittersweet romantic interlude.” - The Guardian (UK)
“I’m not, um, young,” she says. “And I do have help. I don’t go in without somebody there who can help to translate and who understands my movement. But my favorite thing is to make things.” - The New York Times
Nothing is “nutty” in the Olympics now. Ski ballet was a demonstration sport in 1988 and 1992, but "unlike the other two freestyle disciplines, aerials and moguls, ski ballet didn’t graduate to full Olympic medal status.” - The New York Times
“Because information about lion dancing in English is scarce, Chan led a group of Kei Lun Martial Arts members on a research trip to China in 2000. They studied with skilled craftspeople in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.” - The New York Times
In 2023, principal Taylor Stanley asked management if they’d permit a male-identifying dancer to play Carabosse; they said no. This year, they said no again. So Stanley went over their heads to choreographer Peter Martins, who’s fine with it. Now Stanley is making quite a meal of the role. - The New York Times
Or, how France’s Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry (who’s actually Canadian) ended up paired at all, then became the gold medalists despite having been together only since March. - AP
Antonio Najarro, former director of the Ballet Nacional de España and choreographer of several medal-winning routines in ice dancing: “It seemed very difficult to me. Flamenco is so rooted in the earth that doing it on ice felt almost crazy. But curiosity got the better of me.” - El País in English (Spain)
In Kramer/Fauci, director Daniel Fish stages a transcript of the 1993 C-SPAN debate between Larry Kramer, the legendarily combative writer and AIDS activist, and the more mild-mannered Dr. Anthony Fauci, then the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. - The New York Times
It hasn’t been easy: some artists are scared to come to the theater, as are many audience members, and some shows have had to be cancelled. (Alex Pretti was shot two blocks from one theater on a two-show Saturday.) Yet performances are happening when and where they can — including, sometimes, in clandestine locations....
Some have lost an arm, others their legs, yet others their eyesight or voice. They’ve spent a year rehearsing a parody of Virgil’s Aeneid. One company member describes the work as both “rehabilitation and socialization.” - Deutsche Welle
Playwright Ray Lawler’s most famous work, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1955), was a turning point in Australian theatre history. In the 1970s, Lawler wrote two prequel plays – Kid Stakes and Other Times – to form The Doll Trilogy. Melbourne’s small-but-ambitious Red Stitch is staging them together for the first time since 1985. - ArtsHub (Australia)
“I was studying this issue of conspiracy theories and what makes people susceptible to a conspiracy theory. There’s a real terror of (not conforming) in our culture, and we will gladly believe somebody else’s nonsense if it means we don’t stick out from the group.” - WBEZ (Chicago)
“These content creators are not just copycats; they are attempting and sometimes mastering the complicated dance moves and distinctive performances of shows they may never see live, let alone be cast in. Sharing the result with the world, they are making TikTok a theater of their own.” - The New York Times
Michael Silverblatt, the longtime host of the KCRW radio show "Bookworm" — known for interviews of authors so in depth that they sometimes left his subjects astounded at his breadth of knowledge of their work — has died. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)
“Among the world’s most admired and influential filmmakers, … with subjects ranging from a suburban high school to a horse race track, his work was aired on public television, screened at retrospectives, spotlighted in festivals, praised by critics and fellow directors and preserved by the Library of Congress.” - AP
“(The) Oscar-winning actor … disappeared into an astonishing range of roles — lawmen and outlaws, Southern-fried alcoholics and Manhattan boardroom sharks, a hotheaded veteran and a cool-tempered mob consigliere — and emerged as one of the most respected screen talents of his generation.” - The Washington Post (MSN)
“She became the only black woman ever to win the Nobel prize in literature. But the facts remain: she is difficult to read. She is difficult to teach. Notwithstanding the voluminous train of profiles, reviews and scholarly analysis … she is difficult to write about.” - The Guardian (UK)
“Keep a diary, get a camera, learn to print your own photos. Don’t put it all in your phone, because everything in your phone belongs to someone else. And if you want to write a secret to someone, send a letter.” - The Guardian (UK)
“A Dutch novelist, travel writer and journalist, (he) was lauded for his insights into European history and culture and often tipped as a possible winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.” - AP
Quantum Theatre seeks a visionary Artistic Director to build on an experimental legacy, shape ambitious programming, and lead Quantum into its next era of impact.
The next Chief Advancement Officer will lead the organization’s fundraising, institutional marketing, and external engagement efforts during a significant period of institutional growth and evolution.
The Executive Director serves as chief executive of the Louisville Orchestra and, with the Music Director and Board of Directors, is responsible for its success.
Managing Director opportunity at NYTB, leading growth, operations, partnerships, governance, and teams, delivering expansion, innovation, and compliance across the dance community.
The Columbia Museum of Art (CMA), in Columbia, South Carolina, an AAM-accredited institution, seeks an Executive Director to build upon its 75-year legacy.
Seattle Theatre Group (STG) is seeking an experienced, innovative Chief Marketing and Communications Officer (CMCO). The CMCO is a vital member of STG's senior leadership.
“Concerns were recently raised by UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLIF), a voluntary group of solicitors, about references to ‘Palestine’ in displays covering the ancient Levant and Egypt, which risked ‘obscuring the history of Israel and the Jewish people.’” - The Guardian (UK)
The murals are all part of Elon Musk’s effort to blame Democrats for crime - and they’re appearing on buildings across the United States. - Chicago Sun-Times
“Keep a diary, get a camera, learn to print your own photos. Don’t put it all in your phone, because everything in your phone belongs to someone else. And if you want to write a secret to someone, send a letter.” - The Guardian (UK)
“Victor Quiñonez, the artist behind the exhibition, said he learned about the university’s decision when students messaged him on social media to say the windows of the gallery in Denton, northwest of Dallas, had been covered and the door locked.” - The New York Times
The AI-supported “findings supported scholars who had suggested that both versions were studio paintings – produced in the artist’s workshop but not necessarily by him,” but surprised some art historians, who now wonder whether an original exists somewhere. - The Guardian (UK)
Tabouret: “It’s not very French to change stuff, so I thought that interesting as well as brave and fresh. They specifically wanted figurative painting, which also isn’t very French.” But church authorities eventually gave her a lot of artistic freedom. - The Guardian (UK)
“Every night, I would sit in my room listening to recordings of Bach, then Horowitz and Ashkenazy, pretending to play along. It was pure escape, pure fantasy. I could hide inside the music. ... The Chaconne specifically was like an ancient key that slid into my heart.” - The Guardian (UK)
“Do you know what’s more tubular than snowboarding? Giant tubes of paint descending from the ceiling! More sweeping than curling? A beautiful recital of a poem by a man in a long coat! More thrilling than a hockey brawl? A dance-off between two competing clusters of contemporary dancers!” - Vulture
“I was left with a feeling of tremendous shame. Even after gathering the courage to speak up, I was ashamed that I was a victim, ashamed that I was unable to stop it. Ashamed that even after finally speaking up, I was disregarded, ignored, discarded.” - Toronto Star
“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
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.)...
