Half of the composers commissioned by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra for its flagship new music program, 50 Fanfares, are women. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra will premiere 17 new Australian works in its 2023 season. More than half have been composed by women. - The Guardian
"The thing I love most about the movies is their ability to obliterate reason and abolish taste. You know the jump scare is coming, but you jump anyway. You suspect you should be offended by the joke, but you laugh helplessly in spite of yourself." - The New York Times
Mid-20th-century writing guides taught that this emphatic punctuation mark should be used sparingly -- not least because advertising and marketing overuse it. But ! filled a real void when it was invented in the 1340s, and it fills one now (which is why our text messages have so many). - MSN (The Washington Post)
Figures published on Friday by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions show that while the number of visits to its sites rose by 69% in 2022 compared with the year before, this was still 23% lower than in 2019. - The Guardian
"Scientists working on the scorched interior of Notre-Dame de Paris have found iron was used in the cathedral's construction in the mid-12th century. It's an unexpected discovery that changes how researchers thought the church was built, and provides surprising insights on the iron trade in 12th-century Paris." - Gizmodo
AI image and text generation is pure primitive accumulation: expropriation of labour from the many for the enrichment and advancement of a few Silicon Valley technology companies and their billionaire owners. - The Guardian
"Amazon hasn't shared its exact reason for the change …, but one obvious explanation is that relatively few people are buying these subscriptions and it doesn't make financial sense to continue to support them." - Nieman Lab
The British Museum was the most-visited art museum in the UK in 2022—and the third globally. It reported 4.1 million visitors, more than three times higher than in 2021, when it received 1.3 million. However this number is still more than a third down on its 2019 number of 6.2 million. - The Art Newspaper
The New York-based institution is the favored bank of many Broadway theaters, producers, and related businesses; when New York state regulators closed Signature last Sunday, there was genuine fear that those businesses could lose everything but the FDIC-insured $250,000. For now, though, they're okay. - Broadway News
“Despite being the top per capita provider of arts in the nation, Los Angeles ranks 259th in government funding allocation,” the nonprofit’s CEO Gustavo Herrera said in a statement. - Hyperallergic
It made international headlines when Pensacola Christian College cancelled a performance by the famed vocal sextet two hours before curtain time because of some members' "lifestyle." The group's two countertenors recount how they got the news, what they did next, and what they heard from students afterward. - Classic FM (UK)
Before dawn on March 18, 1990, two criminals dressed as policemen convinced a security guard to let them into the Boston museum, tied him up in the basement, and carried away 13 works valued at over $500 million. It's modern history's biggest unsolved property crime. - MSN (The Boston Globe)
Here's a chronology of the entire mystery, from the strange event two weeks before the robbery happened through all the tips, clues, and suspects, most now dead. - MSN (The Boston Globe)
"Stella Abrera is ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School's new Artistic Director. Abrera has been acting in this position for the last several months after serving as Artistic Director of Kaatsbaan Cultural Park in Tivoli (a position now held by former ABT star Paloma Herrera)." - The Ballet Herald
The study, covering calendar year 2021, shows a 13.7% increase in economic value over 2020 provided by the arts; it also indicates clearly that the sector had not fully bounced back from the 2020 lockdowns. - National Endowment for the Arts
