“The shuttering of Hampshire College … feels different, not so much another liberal arts domino falling as the symbolic end of a whole tradition of progressive education in the US.” - New York Review Of Books

"From elephants to enterprise software — is there a better metaphor for the last half-century of radical change in San Mateo County? But mostly we should mark this anniversary so we don’t forget perhaps the most bonkers destination in Bay Area history.” - San Francisco Chronicle

Oops. The Walker Art Center is not happy: "Cardamom is slated to shutter within the next 60 to 90 days. The museum is now seeking proposals for a replacement restaurant.” - ArtNews

Make the United Kingdom truly good again - with culture. - The Guardian (UK)

Yes, you need to watch The Sorrow and the Pity, and you need to do it right now. Why? Because “Ophuls’s film is illuminating precisely because its lessons about complicity apply to evil and corruption of all kinds.” - The Atlantic

The results after doing so were eye-opening even to them: among a totally random population, levels of creativity for the people watching the experimental films were immediately higher compared to those watching YouTube videos, which didn’t move much at all. So was openness to seeing the world in new ways. - The Hollywood Reporter

Yikes: “Everything from phones and laptops, to VR headsets and gaming handhelds have seen price increases due to the RAM shortage.” - The Verge

"If you have a granola group, seed society, cherry circle, or risotto ring, and a lawyer league owns a trademark on one of them, they might just airdrop cease-and-desist letters like leaflets over a city in World War II.” - Slate

High costs, murky admissions practices, uneven academic standards and fears about free speech on campuses, the committee said, are among the reasons for widening discontent over higher education’s worthiness. - The New York Times

Richard Grenell, told me to “get rid of everything” in the permanent collection because we needed all new art for the reopening. Although I had slow-walked this demand for several weeks by pretending I was waiting on another colleague for updates, I now had only two hours to tie up loose ends. - The Atlantic

"A key question is what will happen to ... the 'ideologically burdened' Hungarian Academy of Arts, an institution given significant funding powers by (Orbán's party) that is seen as having been an instrument of the government’s conservative agenda. More broadly, members of the art scene hope to see increased institutional autonomy." - The Art...

Now, thanks to new A.I. tools, anyone can write code. Soon, bad actors could use those same tools to find out what’s wrong with code. The détente is over. - The New York Times

OK: “The beauty of the less-than-an-hour show is that it ends before 10. You can get a drink or even dinner or hustle home.” - Washington Post (Yahoo)

Yes, and then there’s this: “Pinterest said ‘opera aesthetics' - a trend which it said encapsulated ‘dramatic, opulent and theatrical styles’ - was one of its fastest growing trends, with a 55% increase in interest in opera-themed dresses on its app over the past year.” - BBC

At Rambert, Helen Shute has led partnerships with The Royal Ballet and Manchester International Festival expanding Rambert’s international reach and developing new initiatives, including Rambert2, a new ensemble for early career dancers. - Opera Now

The jury’s clean sweep, finding monopolization on every claim, gives the states significantly more leverage in the remedy phase than a mixed verdict would have. - Music Business Worldwide

There’s more that connects metal and classical music than sets them apart. A love of volume, turning the noise up to 11? From Black Sabbath to Stravinsky, check. A worship of virtuosity, of speed, technique and orgiastic instrumental excess, from Vivaldi to Van Halen? Absolutely. - The Guardian

“The Louisville Orchestra has received a $3.2 million from the Kentucky General Assembly to continue its statewide In Harmony Tour through 2028. (The tour is) a music education and performance program that has brought live music to more than 57,000 people across 50 counties in the Commonwealth.” - Louisville Courier Journal (MSN)

There’s a “national wave of new children’s museums, expansions of existing institutions and a broadened lineup of programming aimed at young visitors.” - The New York Times

“Transparency, porousness — all the buzzwords of architecture today are antithetical to security. It’s a paradox implicit to museum design today.” - The New York Times

The Commission of Fine Arts, which is filled with Mr. Trump’s appointees, has an advisory role on the design of the project, but no enforcement power. It asked the administration to return with updated drawings before a final vote on the project. - The New York Times

On the fact that there’s less exhibition space than in the previous building: “What is this with bigness? What kind of a hang-up is this? You don’t have to be big. It has the right scale. … Small museums are beautiful, big museums tend to be really difficult.” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)

"On Saturday, V&A East will open its doors in Stratford, east London, showcasing stunning fabrics, photos and black British music. … While the V&A complies with all legal minimum-wage requirements, … campaigners say some of the lowest-paid staff and contractors in London are not in receipt of the living wage.” - The Guardian

Trump’s push to build the giant arch — more than quadrupling its size from original plans — has alienated early proponents of the project, classical architects and veterans groups who say it will diminish nearby Arlington Cemetery. - The New York Times

One winner: “The people banning books are never the good guys in history, and it’s up to us in this room and beyond — as readers, as book lovers — to fight back.” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)

“The hard work of writing is, for people like me, a critical aspect of the whole effort, bringing one's self to the task of communicating effectively and clearly.” - Wired

“In an open letter, the ‘resigning’ authors explain that they refuse 'to allow our ideas and our work’ to become the property of the ultraconservative billionaire , who has taken control of the Hachette Livre group, Grasset's parent company, in 2023.” - Euronews

And, frankly, it’s a labor issue: “The more time an editor has to edit a particular book, the more care they can put into it.” - LitHub

“About 422 new indie bookshops opened in 2025, according to the American Booksellers Association, a 31% rise from 2024.” What the heck? - The Guardian (UK)

“Web novels have become a massive and highly profitable industry in China, and many titles have been adapted into blockbuster movies and TV series in recent years” - and they may be reinforcing authoritarian regimes today. - Wired

David Ellison of Paramount gave his pitch last week to theatre owners, saying that he would commit Paramount to a 45-day theatrical window. “‘Long live the movies,’ Ellison said.” - Boston Globe (AP)

“Screenmaxxing is big business for an imperiled theatrical exhibition industry. … PLF screens seem to be an effective way to lure them out of the house, and charge a little (or a lot) extra for the assurance that they’re seeing a version of the movie that goes above and beyond.” - The Guardian (UK)

Bizarrely, Netflix would up in a much stronger place: “The company did not say how it plans to spend the $2.8-billion US termination fee it received after losing the Warner Bros. movie studio, including HBO, and lifted its earnings per share.” - CBC

The Mother Mary gang has been finding out over the past couple of years. - Variety

“Audiences clearly crave these stories – but why? Isn’t a movie more impressive if it’s so well rehearsed that it seems real? Isn’t it better that an actor’s pained scream sounds authentic because they’re an elite professional, not because they stubbed their toe?” - The Guardian (UK)

“Headline Newds, a new series of web videos, ... is made up of bite-size (segments) in which the climate emergency is broken down and raunchily explained to us by a variety of OnlyFans models.” Now, isn’t this better than throwing soup at paintings in art museums? - The Guardian

“Experts say the issue is awareness, not admiration. Performances are sometimes staged in unsuitable settings or paired with incorrect costumes — choices that, however unintentional, erode the dance’s sacred meaning.” - Cambodianess

“The owner of the shuttered Boulder dance studio, Frequency Dance, turned herself in Thursday afternoon at the Boulder County Jail after being indicted on accusations of staging two break-ins and getting more than $567,000 in fraudulent insurance payouts.” - Daily Camera (Boulder)

“Dancers danced at the company’s new North Broad Street building for the first time. Even as construction workers continued their own choreography of spackling and power-driving screws, company dancers could be seen in a large, glassy, sunlight-filled studio working out movements for an upcoming run of Romeo and Juliet.” - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, to use the full name, has been popular all over the country and overseas for decades. Now some venues worry that what little government funding they get will be cancelled if they present a drag troupe, even one that’s been around for 50 years. - The Irish Times

The Artistic Health and Wellness Student Center, which opened in September, is a $4.7 million expansion of the school, the training ground for New York City Ballet. - The New York Times

This season, the Martha Graham Dance Company celebrates 100 years, and for better and worse, her early works are back in fashion. - The New York Times

“As migrants faced uncertainty, displacement and made frequent attempts to cross into the United Kingdom, a robust arts community began to take shape inside the Good Chance Theatre. Residents staged stand-up comedy, music, storytelling, kung fu, circus acts and theater performances.” - Sahan Journal

“Despite so much practice, television still manages to get a few things wrong, specifically the process, the product and the people. (It occasionally manages to nail the excitement.)” - The New York Times

Founded in 2017 in Philadelphia, the Circadium School of Contemporary Circus became the first and only accredited and licensed circus school in the U.S. With that accreditation, Circadium’s founder had hoped to become eligible for federal funding for student financial aid — a hope that finally died this year. - Billy Penn (Philadelphia)

Theatres facing financial difficulty can only prosper by “programming their way out of it”, according to the Young Vic artistic director, Nadia Fall, who has announces her new slate of shows, including an anti-Trump musical version of Thelma & Louise. - The Guardian

The country’s live theater is vibrant (Exhibit A: Maybe Happy Ending); producers and local authorities want it to catch on abroad the way K-pop and TV drama have, and language is the biggest barrier. Now they’ve developed AI-powered glasses which listen for cue words and match subtitles to dialogue. - The New York Times

It’s unclear what will happen to the 116-year-old, 1,400-seat Merle Reskin Theatre. It has landmark status, however, and won’t be demolished. - Chicago Sun-Times

“Baye, a stalwart of France’s domestic cinema, starred in about 80 films and took home the best actress César, France’s equivalent of the Oscars, four times, including three years running from 1981 to 1983.” - The Guardian (UK)

The multiple prize-winning author: “I guess it’s kind of ‘all or none.’ Either everyone is illegal except Native people, or no one is illegal. I don’t think anybody is illegal in the first place. I don’t believe in borders.” - El País English

The actor who plays Santos - the abrasive, competitive, smart young resident on The Pitt - is also a dab hand at karaoke, a longtime Broadway and national touring company singer, and a person who posts Instagram Stories defending the theatre from weird Pitt fans. - Vulture

“A newly discovered 17th-century map sheds new light on the Bard’s London life, pinpointing for the first time the exact location of the only home Shakespeare bought in the city, and where he may have worked on his final plays.” - AP

He spent a quarter-century at The Washington Post, including as Moscow bureau chief during the Brezhnev era; he then served as president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. As CEO of NPR from 1998 to 2008, he played a central role in landing the transformative $150 million donation from Joan Kroc. - The Washington Post...

His new movie, Outcome — which he directed- co-wrote, and co-stars in — “is difficult to watch without drawing parallels to Hill’s odd and unexpected arc, as well as to the real-life controversies that could have sunk his career.” - The Hollywood Reporter