“There are plenty of self-serving, self-aggrandizing, morally objectionable reasons for why people participate in public shaming. Nevertheless, the concept of moral self-defence reminds us that our self-respect, our social identities, and our status in our communities are vital.” - Psyche

In a world increasingly defined by distance, between citizen and state, between policy and experience, between law and justice, Rammohun Roy offers a reminder that good government is not only a matter of laws or statistics. It is a matter of presence.  - Aeon

We need to work, because survival demands it, and we need to rest, because work is tiring, but are those two possibilities really exhaustive? - Liberties Journal

It is no longer enough for universities to say that their programmes allow you to explore some of the most fundamental questions of existence. Now the questions are of a decidedly more bottom-line sort: how will philosophy help you buy a house or build your pension pot? - Aeon

The aim is cognitive clarity via fewer inputs, distilled choices, and settings centred around presence and focus. While design minimalism emphasizes appearance and object count, psychological minimalism directs attention and reduces cognitive friction. - Psyche

A different dark vision of society has emerged. Suddenly, we seem to be living in the age of Epstein. We tell ourselves that by understanding his rise to power we might understand the world. - The New Yorker

A speculative blog post about 2028's AI-choked economy just vaporized $200 billion in market value. When your dystopian fiction gets confused for a Goldman Sachs report, you've either written brilliantly or traders need better reading comprehension. — Literary Hub

Rachida Dati, a member of ex-President Sarkozy’s right-wing party Les Républicains (she was once his Justice Minister), is running to succeed outgoing mayor Anne Hidalgo. The new Culture Minister is Catherine Pégard, another former Sarkozy aide who was President Macron’s chief cultural advisor and president of the Palace of Versailles. - Deadline

The study surveyed 1,500 tweens, teens and young adults, ages 10-24, finding that these groups want to see boys and men on TV and in movies “moving away from isolation and other masculine stereotypes” and “towards vulnerability and connection.” - The Hollywood Reporter

“Nearly half of all Nova Scotia Museum sites closed. The elimination of a fund supporting local publishers. A 100% cut to funding for programs that put writers and artists in schools. Nova Scotia’s arts and culture sector was hit hard by cuts announced (late) yesterday by the provincial government.” - Halifax Examiner

There’s an important caveat that my colleagues and I have recently begun to explore in our research: Positive views of creative work often shift once people learn that AI was involved. - The Conversation

A group called Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian has taken photos of every wall text in the Institution’s museums before they were changed. Other organizations are scouring websites, signage, datasets and documents, treating them with the care of conservators as they resist the Trump administration’s efforts to recast the past. - The Washington Post...

“We're not spending a dollar on this acquisition. They're essentially folding into KERA,” said station CEO Nico Leone. “We feel really good about our ability to run it both as a stand-alone business, so it can succeed on its own.” NPR will continue to distribute the program nationally. - KERA (Dallas)

Her opera La Ville morte was set to premiere just when World War I broke out; she never returned to it and only a piano-vocal score survived. Composer David Conte and director Neal Goren arranged the work for singers and chamber ensemble, and a recording has now been released. - San Francisco Classical Voice

The broadcaster’s decision to end its long relationship with Lebrecht — the widely-read, controversial critic and blogger who has hosted several interview programs on Radio 3 over the years — comes after Wang made public a message from Lebrecht which she described as “derogatory misogynistic bullying.” - The Guardian

In the decades since its founding concerts, the Portland-based professional vocal ensemble has gone on to become the premier exponent and explorer of the musical traditions of Byzantium and other early Christian music, and Lingas one of its leading scholars. - Oregon Arts Watch

National arts award ceremonies like the Junos are part of a cultural system that help define who belongs, who succeeds and what counts as “Canadian” in the first place. - The Conversation

“Playing to him is transformative in every way. His imagination is boundless; he will produce startling, unexpected images – or point out connections, musical or extramusical – that illuminate his meaning.” - The Guardian

He was at the Portrait Gallery as an educator but also as co-founder of Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian, a group that last year spent thousands of hours documenting every corner of the Smithsonian, to track any changes made as Trump administration officials assert control over the content of the museums. - Washington Post

Forget the petrified citizens – new 3D renderings show Pompeii as the thriving metropolis it was before Vesuvius crashed the party. Because apparently we needed CGI to remind us that ancient Romans actually lived there. — Aeon

Tricia Tuttle discovers that running a major film festival means navigating more landmines than a war correspondent. Her crime? Apparently failing to muzzle artists fast enough for Berlin's taste. Nothing says 'artistic freedom' quite like institutional panic. — Hyperallergic

Announcement of the closure, which is effective June 30, comes two months after DePaul University laid off 114 full-time and part-time staff. Administrators cited financial troubles due to a significant drop in international graduate student enrollment, increased demand for financial aid and the rising costs of benefits. - WBEZ (Chicago)

Charlotte Meyer’s grandfather, who had a sharp eye, picked them up inexpensively back when etchings weren’t highly valued, and they remained in her family’s safe for decades. When she had time during the COVID lockdowns, she found the works and later took them to the nearby Rembrandt House in Amsterdam, where they were authenticated. -...

This shift to the West Coast has long been driven by the region’s many art schools, including the ArtCenter, California Institute of the Arts, Otis College of Art and Design and the art department at the University of California, Los Angeles. - The Art Newspaper

During my own editing stint, I came to understand writers as prisoners of their own minds, pressed up against the bars of the words they have already committed to the page. Writers suffer from a cognitive impairment that limits their ability to see flaws in their prose. - The Atlantic

House Resolution 7661 transforms grassroots library battles into national policy, giving censors sweeping powers to purge school and public collections. Democracy's reading rooms become political battlegrounds as cultural wars scale up. — Literary Hub

Literary writers have other demands to satisfy. In general, readers come to their books seeking not an escape from reality but perspective on it. Romance novels can provide this, just as literary novels can have happy endings, but they’re still beholden to the fantasy that’s part of the genre. - The Atlantic

If the review sections of newspapers are closing down, there’s a sense that this moment could make room for a meatier, weirder kind of criticism. - Columbia Journalism Review

At a St. Petersburg bookstore, Lauren Peace, an enterprise equity reporter at the Tampa Bay Times, moderates conversations about a selected story among its author and community members. The idea is not just to discuss the story’s substance, but to give readers a behind-the-scenes look at the reporting process and decision-making. - Nieman Lab

A correspondent tries a method designed by professors of cognition to mirror language-learning in the real world. The tasks basically simulate how we would cope if dropped into a foreign country with an unknown language, simply using our innate skills to start making sense of the mysterious sounds made by everyone around us. -...

Rob Bonta’s cold water on the Paramount-WBD fireworks comes a week after the CA Department of Justice opened a probe into any deal to take over WB — be it Netflix or Ellison’s team. - Deadline

The prominence of movies featuring nonprofessionals is no surprise: directors may make movies what they are, but actors are what viewers see, and these movies, with their casting of nonprofessionals, offer flavors of performance that differ drastically from what can be achieved with a uniformly skilled cast of professionals. - The New Yorker

Wearing a pink dress and cardigan, Kaley told the jury that she started watching YouTube videos at age 6 and made an Instagram account at age 9. She and her attorneys said she uploaded more than 200 YouTube videos before she turned 10—and had created 15 Instagram accounts before she turned 15. - Wall...

Wesley Morris: “Why wouldn’t I have wanted this? A six-episode show that’s exemplary as romance, as physical intimacy, as banter, as athlete psychology, as conversation, confession and comedy, as just good television that involves a few of my favorite things: sex, sports, men, ... So why? Let’s start with wariness.” - The New York Times

Netflix said that it would not raise its offer to counter a higher bid made earlier this week by Mr. Ellison’s company, Paramount Skydance, saying in a statement that “the deal is no longer financially attractive.” - The New York Times

There’s a phrase that’s used around the Magic Kingdom to describe this phenomenon: “the Josh Effect.” D’Amaro — tall, slender and silver-haired — has a politician’s ability to make anyone he encounters feel seen and heard.  - Variety

“The night before we started filming, I was sleeping and, literally, the ghost of Ann Lee was over my bed with angels around and she said: ‘Go forth!’ Celia Rowlson-Hall laughs at herself for revealing this. “Was that my imagination allowing myself to go forth? Maybe, probably.” - The Guardian

The theatre presenting the controversial Falun Gong-associated troupe in the Gold Coast had to be evacuated; the venues where the group will perform in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide have received threats as well. Both Shen Yun and management at the theatres say they’re undaunted — and that ticket sales have picked up. - The...

“The question of whether children should be encouraged to break out the grease paint has been pressing on parents and dance teachers alike. … Many are wondering whether it’s really appropriate to encourage preteens to master winged eyeliner before they’ve earned their pen licence.” Other teachers, however, have their reasons for requiring it. -...

On New Year’s Day 1889, a young Paiute man named Wovoka had a vision in which God taught him a ceremony. The Ghost Dance blended traditional teachings, earlier ritual dances, and Christian theology, promising peace and reunion with the dead, and it spread like brushfire through the Great Basin and Plains. - National Geographic

Until now, each Golden Lion has been won by a pathbreaking individual, from Merce Cunningham to Pina Bausch to William Forsythe to Sylvie Guillem to Lucinda Childs to Twyla Tharp. The 2026 Golden Lion has gone to Bangarra Dance Theatre, Australia’s pioneering indigenous dance company. - Limelight (Australia)

“When the mood and choreography strike, Kansas City Ballet Artistic Director Devon Carney invites a few folks to perform on stage as supernumeraries. That’s a fancy term for extras—usually peasants—who mill around and have deeply animated conversations with their supernumerary neighbors.” - KC Studio

“(I wanted to) just start slow, with some Shakespeare that wasn’t the play,” said the Tony-winning actor, who’ll be starring in an all-male staging at the RSC this fall, “just to get my mouth around the language, the rhythm, and then sort of break out into exploring the role in the play.” - Deadline

It is this connection with the bard’s work that has inspired Shakespeare’s Globe to launch its first climate playwriting prize for 2026, which it says will harness the skills of storytellers and artists to “inspire societal shifts towards a restorative relationship with nature”. - The Guardian

“The audience interaction is central to Every Brilliant Thing, … about a man processing his mother’s attempted suicide and his own depression. … It’s an exciting prospect, (Radcliffe) tells me, in large part because the play’s dependence on audience volunteers gives him a way to shed his sense of being a big name.” - Vulture (MSN)

Wicked, one of the highest earners on Broadway, saw the biggest drop due to the storm, as the musical fell $408,223 from the prior week. - The Hollywood Reporter

“The theatre did not confirm within which departments redundancies and cuts to job roles took place, though its most recent accounts reference ‘staff changes in the development team and wider organisation’. Revelations regarding staff reduction come a year into artistic director and joint chief executive Nadia Fall’s tenure.” - Arts Professional (UK)

The first critical edition of the Elizabethan playwright’s work in 125 years has expanded his canon from three plays — The Spanish Tragedy, Soliman and Perseda, and Cornelia — to eight, including Arden of Faversham (previously thought to be partly by Shakespeare) and portions of history plays Henry VI Part 1 and Edward III....

He was among the first Americans to study Balinese shadow theater and then perform it back home, which he did for his entire career. He expanded his practice to include collaborating in stagings of Shakespeare and Octavio Solis as well as producing his own elaborate myth- or history-based extravaganzas. - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

“Rena Bransten Gallery was known as one of the pioneering contemporary art programs in San Francisco. She helped the gallery develop a long tradition of presenting female artists, artists of color and LGBTQ creatives, particularly known for presenting emerging artists alongside more established names.” - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

They allege Judy Baca personally benefited from a $5-million Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant to expand “The Great Wall,” sold the project’s archives to the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art at a large profit to herself, and has blurred the line between her nonprofit and for-profit endeavors. - Los Angeles Times

“A few months ago, I stepped off the stage after my final bow with @abtofficial, closing one chapter and unknowingly preparing for the next,” she wrote. “Not too long after that, I had hip replacement surgery.” - The Cut

After a dozen years as Random House, where she was executive editor and then editor-in-chief/publisher, she was fired in a corporate restructuring. When she launched Penguin Press eight days later, more than two dozen writers went with her. The list of prominent authors she has shepherded is astonishing. - The New York Times

While on a guest residency at NYU, she discovered the ARP 2500 synthesizer, which would be her tool for three decades before she turned to acoustic composition in the 2000s. As one colleague put it, she “taught us the radical power of slowness, of patience, and attention stretched to the threshold of perception.” -...