Kanal, on the edge of central Brussels, will feature a large museum, multiple performance venues, and an architecture center. It’s 95% complete and scheduled to open this time next year. Yet, thanks to widely expected budget cuts and a particularly Belgian kind of political dysfunction, Kanal’s prospects are in doubt. - The Guardian
The Nativity scene by artist Victoria-Maria Geyer (herself a practicing Catholic) is the first new one on the Grand-Place in 25 years, and she made the human figures without faces so that people of any background could identify with them. Alas, that’s not how the assemblage was received. - Euronews
While he called the reporting of the allegations “unfair,” Adjaye didn’t address directly the substance of the charges (which he denied when the first reports came out). Rather, he spoke about the effect the accusations had on him and what he sees as the media’s motives in reporting the story. - Dezeen
Company management expects to reduce its base expenses by £2.8 million ($3.7 million) annually with layoffs as well as pay cuts for some remaining staffers. - The Stage (UK)
As he was in New York receiving three Gotham Awards for his Cannes-winning It Was Just an Accident, a Tehran court sentenced Panahi to a year in prison and a two-year travel ban for “propaganda activities against the system.” - AP
In London, until now, post-1900 Western art was Tate territory, but the National has launched “Project Domani,” a £750 million ($998 million) plan to build a new wing for the gallery and set up an endowment to acquire and care for post-1900 art. - The Times (UK)
“Russia's prosecutor general opened a case against the feminist art group on Friday, November 28. The ‘extremist’ label, commonly deployed by the government as justification for stifling political opposition, would officially ban the collective's activities in Russia.” - Hyperallergic
Canada has been neglecting our (excellent and varied) music scene for the past decade. A post-pandemic evaluation of the government’s Canada Music Fund revealed that revenues are down: album sales fell by nearly 74 percent between 2015 and 2021. - The Walrus
“The Serpentine x FLAG Art Foundation Prize, as it will be called, will be awarded every other year to an international artist who will receive £200,000 ($265,000), as well as an exhibition and programming at both institutions and an accompanying catalog.” - ARTnews
More than 100 Southeast Asian titles have appeared in Netflix’s Global Top 10. Over 40 of those titles charted in 2025 alone. Titles from the region also ranked in the top 10 lists of over 80 countries in 2025. - Deadline
While I agree that leaning on a cliché might be a prosaic get-out-of-jail-free card, I do think they get a bad rap. The general criticism is that clichés are lazy, which I can understand. Yet sometimes I feel like this feedback itself is lazy or one-dimensional. - Sydney Review of Books
I learned about close reading when I asked them to take their own thinking seriously—to take themselves seriously. Doing so, I found, forced me to take my job more seriously. - Boston Review
August Bournonville directed the company in the mid-19th century, and his works and style became thoroughly identified with the institution. Yet for some years the RDB turned away from Bournonville toward contemporary ballet; new artistic director Amy Watson is bringing his works and style back to the company’s heart. - The New York Times
It took weeks for me to realize that I was a broken reader. I assumed I’d just had a streak of bad luck in the Dept. of Picking. I started taking fewer chances. I bought only books that looked like books I would buy. This backfired in a kind of horror-movie sequence. - The New York Times
A huge portion of the world’s recorded musical heritage is stored on magnetic tape, used regularly from the 1940s into the digital age to capture musicians’ sounds in the studio. But as analog tape ages, it grows more fragile and vulnerable. - The New York Times
