Good morning. Here are this week's highlights:
Asheville’s Arts District Devastated by Flooding from Hurricane HeleneAsheville's River Arts District, home to galleries, studios, and performance spaces, was severely impacted by flooding caused by Hurricane Helene. Artists and businesses are grappling with significant losses as they work to rebuild the city’s vibrant cultural hub. Read more on Hyperallergic.
Manchester Climate-Protesting Art Vandals...
Good Morning: A While back the NEA asked several arts "practitioners" to write essays in response to the Endowment's latest arts participation study which came out last year. We've featured a couple of them so far -- National Book Foundation director Ruth Dickey's musings on declines in reading -- less than half of American adults report reading even one...
Good morning: Even in the time of Big Data, you might be surprised to hear how difficult it can be to get good statistical data on the arts. Like how many tickets were bought to symphony orchestra concerts last year. Or how are the music or theatre or museum sectors doing as businesses. Journalists have difficulty getting accurate recent...
Good morning: French president Macron's idea to promote culture among young people was to offer students between 15 and 18 money to pay for culture. It's expensive, costing the government €260m per year. And a study came out reporting that 70 percent of the culture young people bought is mangas and comic books. Perhaps not the culture Macron sought...
Good morning: Drugs intended to treat diabetes have had the remarkable side effect of helping people to lose weight. Everyone wants them. But it turns out these GLP-1 drugs also impact other cravings, like smoking or gambling or alcohol. Some even suggest it might help blunt addiction to social media. So are our strong reactions to stimuli merely chemical?...
Good morning: Here are today's ArtsJournal highlights:
LiveNation Builds "Temporary" Music Venue in Toronto for 50,000 FansLiveNation is constructing a massive "temporary" venue at Downsview Airport in Toronto, designed to accommodate up to 50,000 concertgoers. The move responds to the growing number of stadium-level artists touring today. This venue offers a unique solution to the rising demand for large performance...
Good morning: More than 43 percent of all websites on the internet run WordPress (AJ is one of them). The basic WP has always been free, and a whole ecosystem of developers has grown up around the platform. But in the past few years Wordpress has been beating the bushes to earn revenue, starting to charge for plugins that...
Good morning: We collected 132 stories this week. That's a lot to sort through, so here are some highlights. Jump down to see all the stories we posted.
Man Smashes Ai Weiwei Art at Show Opening in RomeA man vandalized a sculpture by Ai Weiwei at an art show in Rome, smashing the piece during the exhibition’s opening. The footage...
Good morning: It's no secret that humor sells, or at least that's what the research says. But interestingly, the use of humor in ads declined to about 33 percent in 2022 in the wake of COVID. More recently, however, humorous ads accounted for three-quarters of major ad awards, and 70 percent of Super Bowl ads this year featured humor....
Dood morning: Here are today's highlights:
World’s First Museum of AI Art to Open in Los Angeles Refik Anadol, a pioneer in AI-generated artwork, will open the world’s first museum dedicated to AI art in downtown Los Angeles. This museum, called Dataland, will be located across from Disney Concert Hall. Read more in Los Angeles Times.
Newspaper to Revive London’s Legendary...
Good morning: One of the biggest changes in the past 20 years in culture has been the evolution of the relationships between artists and audiences. Fan culture has more power than ever, and with some pop culture franchises, fans are not shy about rewarding or shaming creators with each new project. So where's the balance in who owns artistic...
If you've read ArtsJournal for very long, you know I have a fascination with stories that explore how creativity works. This story from the magazine Psyche reports on a study that focused on the kinds of details people notice in the things around them. We all of us, of course, take in way more information than we can process....
Good morning: Here are today's highlights:
Man Smashes Ai Weiwei Art at Rome Show OpeningA visitor at Ai Weiwei’s Rome exhibition vandalized one of the artist’s sculptures during the opening, sparking widespread debate about art vandalism. CCTV footage of the incident was later shared on Ai Weiwei's Instagram, stirring further discussions on social media. Read more on Reuters.
The Huntington Botanical...
Good morning. How can you believe anything anymore? AI has taken away the "proof" of a video. And seeing (or hearing) is definitely not believing anymore. Sociologists call it "deep doubt," and being unable to truly believe in anything is destabilizing, not just personally, but for the wider culture. Ars Technica's Benj Edwards explores the phenomenon. Meanwhile, here are...
It was a busy week -- Universal Music Group said it was all in on streaming as the future, but admitted the traditional model doesn't pencil out. The New York Philharmonic musicians get a big raise. Hollywood box office is in meltdown. And the Argentine tango is enjoying some surprising reinvention. Here are a few more highlights from the...
