“The (fully-costumed) clowns gathered in front of the Ministry of Education in La Paz to oppose a decree published in February. The new mandate says schools must give 200 days of lessons each year — effectively banning schools from hosting the special events where these entertainers are frequently employed.” - AP
HarperCollins has announced a multi-year partnership with Toonstar, an “AI-powered” animation studio, to adapt a slate of the publisher’s titles into original YouTube series. - Publishers Weekly
Next month the hipster harpsichordist is doing the cycle three different ways: the usual manner, for solo keyboard; arranged for strings, flute and continuo (the scoring of Bach’s Musical Offering; and as a new composition, UNDR for piano, percussion and electronics. He explains here in a Q&A. - Bachtrack
A German artist who created carnival displays mocking Russian President Vladimir Putin was sentenced in absentia on Thursday to 8 1/2 years in prison by a court In Moscow. - AP News
The letter characterizes this tech, also known as “age assurance,” as a tactic for the “centralization of power.” The letter notes, “Those deciding which age-based controls need to exist, and those enforcing them gain a tremendous influence on what content is accessible to whom on the internet.” - The Baffler
Arts philanthropy is essential but elusive. Even so, there is a curious — and hopefully not delusional — optimism in classical music, L.A. style. We have lively leadership at all levels. “Accessibility” isn’t the term bandied about; “adventure” is. Full houses are common. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)
“As the architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable once noted: ‘There is a kind of collective schadenfreude in the revelation of defects in great buildings and flaws in great men.’ Few figures bear this out more fully than Wright.” - Aeon
The Federal Trade Commission last May began requiring Ticketmaster to disclose concert ticket fees upfront – a practice known as all-in pricing. But documents obtained by the Guardian in public records requests show how Ticketmaster simply raised other fees so it wouldn’t lose money. - The Guardian
For the first 40,000 years of its existence, it was simply an abstract symbolic system to process complex data; only in the last 3,000 years did mankind acquire the strange notion that these sign-systems might correspond to the grunts and gurgles they used for everyday communication. - Unherd
China has ordered a sweeping, nationwide audit of its state-run museums after a scandal at one of its top institutions revealed that national treasures had quietly slipped into the private market, according to Hong Kong newspaper South Morning China Post. - ARTnews
The network is launching the new video podcast and cross-platform show NPR Newsmakers, which will feature long-form interviews with some of NPR’s highest-profile reporters and hosts. - Inside Radio
Last week, the Federal Government’s recently established Parliamentary Inquiry into Arts and Cultural Philanthropy held its first significant hearing. - ArtsHub
Among the Largest 50 companies, in Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, artistic directors earned an average of $240,741. This represents an increase compared to FY2023, during which the average compensation was $227,650. - Dance Data Project
New York is missing out on the ideas of designers who could find surprising paths through an obstacle course of conventions, whose experience with the constraints and cultures of other continents might loosen New York’s rigid set of habits. - New York Magazine
Ever since a publisher’s clever marketing trick in 1923, Norwegians have associated the period around Easter with crime fiction. The phenomenon is called påskekrim (Easter crime) and it’s ubiquitous. And since Norway is usually still cold this time of year, holing up and reading makes sense. - BBC
