Laura Fernandez, who studied and then danced at the Mariinsky in St. Petersburg before becoming first soloist at Moscow's Stanislavsky Theatre, has family in Mariupol. "I would tell my friends in Moscow and they would say, 'No, it's fine, they're not killing those guys, they're saving them'." - The Guardian
While she has done repeating guest-star roles and specials (and the unforgettable miniseries Fresno), the 89-year-old actress has not had a regular role in a series since her variety show ended in 1978. Burnett will star alongside Kristen Wiig in the Apple comedy series Mrs. American Pie. - The Hollywood Reporter
It all seemed promising two years ago, when pianist Anne-Marie McDermott was hired as artistic director to replace the orchestra/concert presenter's retiring co-founders. Now McDermott has resigned, key staffers have been fired or fled, and the organization's largest donor has walked away in disgust. - Santa Fe New Mexican
"The budget signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis allocates slightly more than $59 million for three major grant categories, up from the $26.7 million last year. Once again this year, the budget provides no money for the cultural endowments category" and focuses largely on programming grants. - Sarasota Herald-Tribune
At 41, Alexandra Suda will be the youngest director in the PMA's history, and she comes to Philadelphia after three years at the helm in Ottawa. She succeeds Timothy Rub, whose 12-year tenure in Philadelphia included both a $500 million renovation/expansion and considerable staff turmoil. - MSN (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
The Ministry of Culture has put Jean-Luc Martinez, who left Paris's flagship museum at the end of last year and was then appointed a cultural heritage ambassador, on temporary leave in the wake of his being formally charged with complicity in organized fraud and money laundering. - Artnet
"(She) influenced generations of dancers both as the founder of the noted dance department at Connecticut College and as the longtime dean of the school of the American Dance Festival." - The New York Times
Reversing Murano’s fate would be a monumental task, especially at this pivotal moment when soaring gas prices, caused by the war in Ukraine, have forced small, independently-owned factories to shut down their furnaces. - The New York Times
How to reproduce online the serendipity of walking into a bookstore and discovering new books and authors. A new app, Tertulia, launched this week, is trying a different approach, by measuring and distilling the online chatter about books to point readers to the ones that are driving discussions. - The New York Times
The job vacancy rate has been particularly high since April of 2021, when the sector experienced a record monthly vacancy rate of 8.8%. That appeared to be an inflection point, when the vacancy rate became much higher than previous levels, which were typically well below 5%. - Hill Strategies
To be meta was to flex your self-awareness for social currency, to demonstrate proficiency in the language of smirky dissociative irony that was the trendy cultural refuge from the massive information shitstorm. - The Atlantic
If, in fact, book reviews are on the whole too positive, as some suggest, does this mean that the purpose of book reviewing is to sniff out what’s rotten? Or, if book reviews are too negative, does this mean that public-facing literary criticism’s purpose is to highlight what’s worth reading? - LA Review of Books
The National Gallery of Australia needs to urgently find more than $67 million to protect its $6.1 billion art collection with a backlog of repairs to its 40-year-old building left unfunded by the Morrison government. - Sydney Morning Herald
Nathaniel Silberschlag, who became the Cleveland Orchestra's principal hornist at age 21, astounds even jaded professional orchestra musicians. His teacher, Met Opera principal hornist Julie Landsman, calls him "brilliant, motivated, personable and talented beyond belief" and told Franz Welser-Möst that he's "the biggest talent I've ever seen." - The New York Times
The US – like many other Western nations – has gone from a place “where it seemed like some sort of consensus was possible”, to a new order in which “every cultural and political moment of significance gets interpreted in two radically different ways”, with there being “very little overlap”, said Glass. - New Statesman
