The unspoken secret had been fleetingly exposed: Free labor is a fact of academic life. “These arrangements are common in academia.” - The New York Times
After successfully leading Scottish Opera, the Manchester International Festival, the Holland Festival, and the cultural program at the 2012 London Olympics, her firing from the Châtelet was (and remains) somewhat mysterious. She now takes over as director of Australia's Adelaide Festival through 2026. - The Age (Melbourne)
Wealthy Russian businessmen, many of whom are now sanctioned, have donated between $372 million and $435 million to more than 200 nonprofits in the US in the last two decades. The findings are laid out in a database created in 2020. - Hyperallergic
"The arts center will be the centerpiece of a 53-acre park on the Sarasota bayfront. It will have a 2,250-seat main stage theater and a 400-seat flexible performance and event space ... (as well as) a lawn where people can watch movies or performances in the open air." - Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Artists do not deserve financial support just for being artists. Selling one’s art is a different story altogether and requires at least 2 parties to be in agreement. Artists are no more deserving of financial support than any other worker, thinker, or creator. - Alan Harrison
"As of March 30, UNESCO said, the confirmed damaged sites, located in several regions across Ukraine, include 29 religious sites, 16 historic buildings, four museums and four monuments." - NPR
And activists, including the co-director of last year's documentary nominee Crip Camp, would very much like that to change. (The report focuses on representation of and by Black, indigenous, and other people of color, and women of all races and ethnicities.) - Variety
The novel Brother of the More Famous Jack has just been reissued - and "The title alone deserves a party. It puts its finger on a big category – the person who gets used to being an adjunct. It’s a category traditionally inhabited by women." - The Observer (UK)
This seems transparently foolish. After all, it wasn't Jada Pinkett Smith or their adult children up there smacking Chris Rock. Yet: "Public relations specialists who focus on crisis management warned that the incident could erode the good will that the Smiths have built up." - The New York Times
First, physical books get banned for transparently hysterical "reasons." Then e-readers might be provided for free - with content that is outrageously expensive. But incarcerated people, say advocates, desperately need, and want, the tools that will keep their minds engaged. - Publishers Weekly
There is abundant evidence to show the government’s financial support for the arts and culture has been significantly reduced over many years. Today the arts don’t even rate a mention in the title of the government department responsible for them. - ArtsHub
Sarah Kaufman talks to performers who've been expatriates for decades but sometimes work in Russia (such as conductor Vladimir Jurowski) and one (theater director Dmitry Krymov) who happened to be traveling to a gig in Philadelphia when the war started and won't be going back. - The Washington Post
Even as the annexation of Crimea faded from the media, Signerbusters kept showing up to concerts, draped in Ukrainian flags, equipped with signs and spirit. Sometimes there were just two or three of them present. Still, for eight years, Signerbusters say they have never missed a show. - Washington Post
"Based on responses from 2,128 D.C. area theatregoers from March 14-17, significantly more audience members responded negatively than positively about ending these requirements in theatres." - American Theatre
In short, the letter Z (which doesn’t actually exist in the Cyrillic alphabet used in Russia) has been transformed and made toxic; it’s a remarkable example of how swiftly and decisively the meaning of a symbol can be completely reinvented, seeming at random. - Fast Company
