ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

Stories

A Labor Economist Looks At Opera And Says It Isn’t Dying (But Its Business Model Might Be)

Christos Makridis of Arizona State University: “I found the public’s demand for meaningful, live cultural experiences — including opera — remains strong. … (But) few opera companies have embraced strategies the rest of the entertainment industry regularly uses: audience data analysis, experimentation with digital content and streaming, engagement through online platforms rather than brochures.” - The Conversation

San Francisco Ballet And “Anticipatory Obedience”

Trot out the national anthem, the flag or a John Philip Sousa march, they believe, and it’s like a free exclamation mark to whatever point they’re trying to make: “Ha! See? The stars and stripes are on my side!” - San Francisco Chronicle

There’s More Footage Of The Jewelry Robbery At The Louvre — And It Looks Pretty Bad

“The two perpetrators can be seen wearing balaclavas and using disc cutters to slice open display cases. The theft takes place under the watch of staff members who were not able to intervene.” - Artnet

Women-Centered Fantasy Is Fueling The Publishing Industry

Women are rewriting the rules of sword-and-sorcery, trading testosterone-fueled quests for romance-driven adventures. Publishers are discovering that dragons plus dating equals dollars—who knew female readers wanted both magic and meaningful relationships? — The Conversation

Philly Art Museum’s Rebrand Needs a Rebrand (And Might Get It)

Nothing says "we nailed it" quite like forming a task force to fix your fresh new identity while quietly showing your chief marketing officer the door. Sometimes the most authentic brand move is admitting you got it spectacularly wrong. — Hyperallergic

Trump Takes Aim at New Deal Murals

Because nothing says 'making America great again' like erasing the last time we actually invested in artists. Depression-era public art programs apparently too woke for 2025. Grandma Moses weeps. — Hyperallergic

A Look At Opera’s Sexiest Tune, With Its Reigning Singer

Mezzo Aigul Akhmetshina on the Habanera from Bizet’s Carmen. - The New York Times

Writers vs. Machines: The John Henry Complex Returns

ChatGPT has writers channeling their inner folk hero, hammer in hand. But as Stephen Marche notes, we've been dancing with technological muses long before algorithms—typewriters, anyone? — LitHub

Why Movies Launch And Music Drops

A key reason why it’s now more complicated to promote an album than, say, a theatrically released film, is the ephemeral, immaterial nature of contemporary music consumption.  By comparison, most films that see a theatrical release maintain a predictable, streamlined promotional schedule. - The New Yorker

Afghan Musicians Fled To Pakistan To Escape The Taliban. Now Pakistan Is Chasing Them Out

The rhythms that resonate in wedding halls, concert stages and apartment blocks are falling silent, as the Pakistani government pursues a wave of expulsions that has already forced out a million Afghans since last year. - The New York Times

Maybe Listening To An Audiobook Really Is As Good As Reading A Print Book

“Is listening to a book while doing the dishes, walking the dog or drifting off to sleep really as valuable as sitting down to read it? For authors, the publishing trade and those encouraging reading and literacy, the answer is increasingly yes.” - The Guardian

The Crisis In Humanities? The Business Model Doesn’t Work

Fundamentally, the state of the humanities and liberal arts reveals a widening conflict over the “value” of higher education – with increasingly corporatized universities favoring market-driven metrics for evaluation, and proponents of humanistic education stressing that its worth to both individuals and society at large cannot be measured that way. - The Guardian

As The Old Starchitects Die, Maybe We Shouldn’t Replace Them

The "starchitect" was a figment of media attention, drummed up to answer our interest in celebrity, and our exaggerated expectations of what might be achieved without the help of other people. It belongs to a deluded, more decadent age. - Dezeen

Alabama Library Board Cuts Funding To Library That Wouldn’t Remove “Handmaid’s Tale”

The Republican-run Alabama Public Library Service Board voted to withhold roughly $22,000 in state funding from the Fairhope Public Library, citing the library’s failure to comply with the board’s rules requiring books deemed “sexually explicit” be relocated to the adult section. - The Daily Beast

So This Is Donald Trump’s “Golden Age of Culture” …

“Trolling and tackiness, often crossbred with left-coded pop songs and hot memes, have served to wish a new zeitgeist into existence. Consume only the output of MAGA’s multi-front media efforts, and you may come to feel that the country is coalescing into pep-rally unity on Trump’s behalf.” - The Atlantic (MSN)

Our Free Newsletter

Join our 30,000 subscribers

Latest

Don't Miss

function my_excerpt_length($length){ return 200; } add_filter('excerpt_length', 'my_excerpt_length');