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The Neon Lights That Made Hong Kong Hong Kong Are Fading Away

"Once ubiquitous in Hong Kong, the signs ... have been steadily removed in the last few decades. The recent dismantling of some of the largest remaining ones, however, is rekindling interest in the local art form." - Bloomberg CityLab

Are The Oscars As We Knew Them, Doomed?

The more important factor in the dwindling of the Academy Awards viewership is that the Academy has been hurting itself by doing its job: honoring the best movies each year. “Best” is famously a matter of taste, but most observers would agree that it doesn’t mean “most successful financially.” - The Daily Beast

She’s The Edinburgh International Festival’s First Woman Director. What Are Nicola Benedetti’s Plans?

She's made her career as a classical violinist, but the EIF includes dance, theatre, and popular music as well.  "'Well, classical music does count for a pretty large percentage of the offering,' she counters, before saying that she's been deluged with offers of help in the other areas." - The Guardian

The Artist Who Travels America “Improving” Bad Hotel Art

At first, Mr. Powell says, the artistic mischief was a joke, a test of whether anyone would notice and a strike against the ubiquitous prints he saw at hotel chains. Now, it is part of his brand and his business. - The Wall Street Journal

U.S. Ballet Companies Are — Gradually — Performing More Works By Female Choreographers

Dance Data Project's latest report says that in "ballet and classically inspired companies" the vast majority of the repertoire was created by male choreographers, but that the ratio has changed from nearly ¾-¼ to more like ⅔-⅓ — with near parity for mixed bills of new works. - Dance Data Project

Are Great Works Of Art Properly Protected From Demonstrators’ Soup-Throwing And Super-Gluing?

A leading expert on museum security answers questions about which artworks are and aren't protected by glass (and why), the tensions between protecting the art and letting the public see it, and what he wishes the demonstrators would understand. - The Atlantic

Disney Tells France: We Won’t Release Any Blockbusters In Your Cinemas Unless You Change Your Rules

"Disney is to release Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in French cinemas next month but has warned that future blockbusters may go straight to its streaming service, Disney+, unless France relaxes film distribution rules" which keep films off streaming services until long after a theatrical run. - The Guardian

Patti LuPone Says She Has Given Up Her Actors’ Equity Card And Her Stage Career

She tweeted the news on Monday but actually turned in her card this summer.  LuPone said in a subsequent statement, "When the run of Company ended this past July, I knew I wouldn't be onstage for a very long time. And ... I made the decision to resign from Equity." - Playbill

America’s Oldest Working Theater Is Selling Naming Rights

"The Walnut Street Theatre is seeking a single donation of more than $10 million to complete a capital campaign for the long-planned, pandemic-delayed expansion of its Center City home. The benefactor would be offered naming rights to the existing mainstage auditorium or perhaps the entire theater complex." - The Philadelphia Inquirer

The Next Music Director Of London’s Royal Opera House Will Be Jakub Hrůša

"(The Czech conductor), 41, will begin his tenure in September 2025. He succeeds Antonio Pappano, who steps down from the post at the end of the 2023-24 season after 22 years in the role – making him the Royal Opera's longest serving music director." - The Guardian

The Booker Prize For 2022 Goes To “The Seven Moons Of Maali Almeida” By Shehan Karunatilaka

"(This) supernatural satire set amid a murderous Sri Lankan civil war ... is about a photographer who wakes up dead, with a week to ask his friends to find his photos and expose the brutality of war." - BBC

The Confidence To Know Our Own Ignorance

The better approach is to cultivate an appreciation for our ignorance, get comfortable with it and look at it very closely, disentangling it as much as possible from our ego to see what’s really there (or not there). - 3 Quarks Daily

Kennicott: Attacking Paintings To Protest Climate And Social Justice Policies?

All this is misdirected and counterproductive. It makes the urgency of the crisis seem ridiculous to people who are already disinclined to give credence to the science of global warming. And they create a false moral choice for those who love both art and the environment. - Washington Post

Seattle Repertory Theatre Artistic Director Departs For Chicago

Braden Abraham joined Seattle Rep in 2002 as an artistic intern, holding multiple artistic staff positions at the company, including seven years as associate artistic director, before becoming the theater’s artistic leader in 2014. - Seattle Times

This Small Publishing House Keeps Winning Nobels, Bookers…

Jacques Testard said that he would think it “very silly” if people called Fitzcarraldo the home of the Nobel. “It’s not like we have a strategy to try and win,” he said. His taste just happened to align with “a bunch of older bourgeois Swedish people” who decide the Nobel each year, he added. - The New York Times

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