The list is broken out into the top 20 large communities and the top 10 each of medium-sized and small communities. Because of the unpredictable and uneven nature of recovery from COVID-related shutdowns, this year the list is not ranked. - SMU Data Arts
The fact that people protest when they don’t accept the outcome of the democratic process is a rather clear sign that protests are a non-democratic activity at best, and at worst an attempt to override and undermine democracy itself. - 3 Quarks Daily
Jair Bolsonaro, the mercurial right-winger whom President da Silva succeeds, abolished the culture ministry on his first day in office. Lula wasted no time in restoring the department, and he's appointed as minister renowned singer Margareth Menezes, who founded a major cultural nonprofit in her home state of Bahia. - Artnet
“We’re working toward being the first city in North America to implement a 15-minute city planning framework, where people—not developers—are at the center of urban revitalization. - Fast Company
"The war recalibrates everything. The humanism and decency of Chekhov now seem less relevant than the survey of Russian violence in the works of Maxim Gorky. ... Everything is situated around burning questions: How could a country come to this? How could a people commit these crimes?" - MSN (The Washington Post)
"The bill, if passed, would allow more performing artists to deduct essential work expenses from their taxes by updating what's called the Qualified Performing Artist (QPA) deduction." - Broadway News
In partnership with food pantries, housing nonprofits, support organizations for ex-prisoners, and similar groups, the Ticket Bank will offer 1,000 free or pay-what-you-wish tickets each week to performances at the National Theatre, the Barbican, the Roundhouse, and four nonprofit theatres, with more to be added. - The Guardian
Having only launched as a public beta on Nov. 30, ChatGPT crested well over a million users in five days. Since then, media coverage has ballooned, and its user base has only continued to grow. - Gizmodo
This week, practitioners in India have once again sought to draw attention to what they see as cultural appropriation of yoga, amid allegations it has been whitewashed. Vikram Jeet Singh, a yoga instructor in Goa said that “his own culture” has been “wiped out and suppressed by colonisation”. - The Guardian
The walkout by part-time faculty (87% of the total) at the New School University, which encompasses both Parsons and Mannes, began on November 16 and ended over the weekend with tentative agreement on a new contract which includes pay raises, health insurance, and compensation for work outside the classroom. - Artforum
Books on Amazon are cheap and arrive quickly. Spotify offers tens of millions of songs and podcasts for less per month than what we pay for a single CD. But for creators, chokepoint capitalists—the firms that control access to their work—are an exploitative nightmare. - The Atlantic
The pandemic was over in 2022, phew! Well, of course it wasn’t. But live entertainment pushed forward, with mask mandates dropping, and people rushing to buy things like, oh, Taylor Swift tickets! - Baltimore Sun (AP)
"After ample reflection and prayer, I have made the painful decision to downsize our blessed hamlet. Lord be praised, not all is lost. The petting zoo will continue to prosper, and the gift shop will actually be receiving an expansion. However, we will be purging many of the village’s less popular features." - The New Yorker
Many artists have found that old age, for all its physical and emotional burdens, can be a moment of creative liberation comparable to, even superior to, anything in youth. - Washington Post
