In London, three of the four non-BBC orchestras had their grants cut, with only the Royal Philharmonic seeing no change. The major orchestras beyond the capital had funding maintained or increased, the Aurora Orchestra got a 53% boost, and grants to the National Youth Orchestra and Choir nearly doubled. - Bachtrack
"Firstly, there is a substantial transfer of funding away from opera (11% down), most of which has gone to dance (12% up). In addition, The Royal Opera, which does both, is 13% down." Two companies which do a lot of regional touring got big cuts; others got small increases. - Bachtrack
The Manchester-based ensemble Psappha and the Cambridge-based Britten Sinfonia were defunded, while the London Sinfonietta and the service organisation Sound and Music saw cuts of one-third or more. Other groups, including the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Manchester Collective, and the record label NMC, got new or increased funding. - Bachtrack
Arts Council England has cut 100% of its grant to the company, which is known for small-scale productions that often go on to successful runs in the West End and on Broadway and for launching the careers of leading directors and actors. - WhatsOnStage (London)
"The Calgary-based Mayr won for her novel ..., which follows a queer, Black sleeping car porter making a treacherous trip from Montreal to Vancouver in 1929." - Toronto Star
The overriding focus on the algorithm—and the content it delivers—has caused us to overlook a central part of TikTok’s operating logic: the phone. A failure to fully explore the role of this device in TikTok’s powers of transmission has resulted in a limited appreciation of how the platform works. - Wired
By attacking a famous and high-value cultural target like Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring — it even starred in its own movie — the protesters are asking us to examine our values. - The Conversation
Balanchine is an unusual subject for what critics like to call, and I’ll go there, a magisterial biography. He was a shy, somewhat receding figure. He had a facial tic, a nervous fluttering under one eye, that got him called “the rat” as a child. - The New York Times
I read and write about books for fun. And yet, time and again, my mind goes blank during book discussions, and all I can muster up is “Er, I thought the book was good, because …” - LA Review of Books
Art is now viewed as a pretext for collective discourse, raising “issues” that provide the raw material for op-eds, Twitter threads, college seminars, and conference panels, not to mention (dreaded word) post-performance “talkbacks.” But not just any kind of collective discourse. - Salmagundi
With the museum, designed by Thom Mayne, obviously the headliner, OCMA might have shown off its collection as the main exhibition, with perhaps a tangy traveling topical show as an enlivener. Instead, it went with staging a new edition of one of the institution’s heretofore well-regarded series. - The Wall Street Journal
Last week, mere days after long-time director Gaëtane Verna left for a bigger job in the United States, board members resigned en masse, saying interference from Harbourfront made it impossible to fulfill its duties. - The Globe & Mail (Canada)
Duchovny has moved fluidly between social circles, careers, and media. He was well into graduate school, preparing the fancifully titled (but never written) PhD dissertation, “Magic and Technology in Contemporary Fiction and Poetry,” when he took an interest in playwriting. - LA Review of Books
Real hula is primal, archetypal, esoteric and ever- evolving. And it’s now shared digitally all over the world. This is a good thing, because it helps authentic hula spread, not just via more hula schools but also through conferences, theatrical performances and festivals in the 50th state. - Dance Magazine
Every year, the Academy tweaks the rules, trying to improve the controversial and oft-criticized process by which the international nominees are selected: But they won’t get it right until the Academy rethinks the flawed logic behind the category. - Variety
