In another market, the building might fetch $100 million. Today, in a downtown cultural district still recovering from the pandemic - with depressed real estate values, weakened foot traffic and strained arts funding - the buyer pool shrinks to a narrow question: Who can take on a large, vacant cultural space and make it work? - San Francisco Chronicle...
In a city still somewhat in thrall to its heritage, from the Haçienda to Oasis, many in the Strange Quarter say the area has redefined Manchester’s cultural life. - The Guardian
“The AI companies are claiming fair use, but this argument is bogus,. It’s bogus because while they claim it’s fair to use the work of creators as training data, they do multimillion-dollar deals with rights holders and publishers like Disney, and Condé Nast, and Vox, and Warner Music.” - Fortune
“Tacoma Arts Live has filed for receivership, a court process similar to bankruptcy. ... TAL announced earlier this year that it would close for good this summer and sell the historic Tacoma Armory, its sole remaining building, citing debts incurred in part due to declining ticket sales following the pandemic.” - The Seattle Times
Reversing the pro-culture stances of his predecessor, left-leaning former president Gabriel Boric, new president José Antonio Kast has ordered a 3% reduction of the culture ministry’s budget. What’s more, his government has no stated cultural policy of any kind. - The Art Newspaper
Though it has long been one of the country’s most successful technology hubs, Shenzhen has always been on the margins of the global cultural map. Now it is trying to shed its reputation as a “cultural desert” and claim a place in Asia’s increasingly active art scene. - Artnet
Tempting as it is to blame Trump for the Kennedy Center’s fate, he does not bear sole responsibility. The idea of a national arts center was always more of a noble dream than a reality. - The New Yorker
These proposals, the rush to realize them, the stacking of key oversight groups with Trump loyalists and flunkies and the collaboration of firms like Shalom Baranes Associates, have upended and effectively destroyed the process of design review — which has until now preserved Washington as a monumental, picturesque capital. - Washington Post
Visitors will discover that it’s a dramatically different place than a decade ago: lines of bikes and throngs of pedestrians where lanes were once jammed with cars, greenery encroaching on former pavement, summer swimming in the once-grimy Seine river — and a corresponding drop in air and water pollution. - Bloomberg
One of those statements was Musk “tweeting a poop emoji when then-Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal commented there was no way for external parties to calculate this information.” - Courthouse News
This feels like good news for creators: “‘I feel like the human mind is so beautiful,’ The Melty Way developer Gabriel Paquette told me. ‘Why not use it?’” (Archive Today link) - The Verge
“Early investment in race and gender studies ‘favored programs over departments,’ which has always made financing a tenuous proposition. And at the end of the day, even the highest minded universities stay beholden to bottom lines and trustees.” - LitHub
The suspicion is that’s this is the result of bowing down to the “only positive history” guideline from the federal government, but the people of Lowell are not pleased to have their history questioned. - NBC
“ABC knew that Paul had been charged in a domestic violence incident that led to the injury of her child and somehow thought she would make an excellent Bachelorette anyway. What were they thinking?” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
Gehry’s vision included completing the original plans cost-cut out of Disney a quarter-century ago, along with new modifications and much more throughout the area. Some are more costly than others. Enough could be done on Grand Avenue in time for the Olympics to make a difference if we begin this minute. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)
