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How Do You Tariff Foreign Films? Here’s A Better Way To Help The Movie Industry

While tariffs are unlikely to have the effect Trump claims he wants, a federal tax credit program for filmmakers—something California politicians spent years advocating for—could be a much stronger alternative. - Wired

Trump’s Kennedy Center CEO Attacks Lin-Manuel Miranda And “America’s Got Talent”

Ric Grenell complained after Monday’s episode revealed that Miranda, who has declined to perform at the venue after its Trump-led makeover, will be mentoring contestants in the lead-up to the Season 23 finale later this month. - The Daily Beast

The Uncertain Future Of One Of The Smithsonian’s Most Popular Museums

Now it is in the cross-hairs of President Trump, who issued an executive order in March that seeks to address what he described as the Smithsonian’s promotion of “narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive,” singling out the African American museum as a particular offender. - The New York Times

George Clooney’s “Good Night, And Good Luck” Breaks Another Broadway Record

“(The show) brought in $4,003,481.50 last week, becoming the first Broadway play to surpass $4 million in a single week. The play also broke its own record, yet again, as the highest grossing play in Broadway history … (after it) received five Tony Award nominations, including one for Clooney.” - The Hollywood Reporter

How LACMA’s New Building Will Change The Art Inside

The discussion offered a glimpse into the animated debate that the museum’s 45 curators have been engaged in over the last five years, reimagining how the institution should present art in its curvaceous, Peter Zumthor-designed building crossing Wilshire Boulevard. - The New York Times

How Spotify Came To Own The Music

If you spend enough time on Spotify, it’s easy to sense, inchoately, that the platform is taking advantage of everyone involved. - The Nation

Reckless Tourist At Colosseum In Rome Survives Getting Impaled On Metal Fence

Last Friday, a 47-year-old man scaled a metal fence at an entrance to the ancient landmark, then fell and was impaled on one of the fence’s spikes, which pierced his spine. He screamed in pain and bled until he passed out; it took an ambulance crew 20 minutes to extract him. - Artnet

The Louvre’s Leaky Roof Nearly Damaged A 13th-Century Painting

“A powerful hailstorm breached the Louvre’s roof (on Saturday) afternoon, causing water to drip into the Salle Rosa room hosting its headline exhibition, ‘A New Look at Cimabue: At the Origins of Italian Painting.’ … (The water) narrowly missed Giovanni Cimabue’s unprotected Maestà wooden panel painting (circa 1280).” - ARTnews

House Republicans Propose Giving Kennedy Center $257 Million For Repairs

“A House committee approved a budget proposal last week that called for allocating $257 million to the Kennedy Center for capital repairs and other expenses, roughly six times the amount it usually receives from the government.” The committee said in a statement that the allocation was requested by Trump. - The New York Times

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Only Skyscraper is Sold, Ending Legal Struggle

“On April 28, a bankruptcy court ruled that the (Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma) will be sold for $1.4 million to McFarlin Building LLC. The 19-story property was to sell on May 6 in a bankruptcy auction, but despite its bankruptcy trustee approaching hundreds of potential buyers, no additional bids were submitted." - Artnet

Soprano Patricia Racette Is Next Artistic Director Of Opera Theatre Of St. Louis

Racette has a long history with the company: she first performed there in 1993 and has returned numerous times since; she made her debut as a stage director there in 2018 with La Traviata, and has directed the company’s young artist programs since 2019. - St. Louis Public Radio

Percival Everett’s “James” Was Not Initially One Of The Pulitzer Fiction Finalists

Here’s what happens when the Pulitzer board either (a) considers none of the three finalists submitted by the jury in a category a worthy winner or, as in this case, (b) can’t find consensus on a single choice among the submitted finalists. - The New York Times

Houston Ballet Selects A Baryshnikov Protégée As Its New Executive Director

Sonja Kostich studied at Baryshnikov’s School of Classical Ballet and was 17 when he invited her to join ABT. She went on to dance with his White Oak Dance Project as well as San Francisco and Zurich Ballets. As an administrator, she has led Kaatsbaan Cultural Park and the Baryshnikov Arts Center. - CultureMap Houston

Trying Out A New Finale For “Don Giovanni” — Mozart’s Requiem

At Berlin's Komische Oper, stage director Kirill Serebrennikov has replaced the opera’s moralizing final sextet with an epilogue: a solo dancer represents the dead lothario's soul as it struggles against, and then accepts, its fate — this as the soloists and chorus perform last rites using Mozart's final work. - The New York Times

How JMW Turner Became The Painter We Know

 A fellow painter, Benjamin Robert Haydon, thought that “Turner’s pictures always look as if painted by a man who was born without hands” who had “contrived to tie a brush to the hook at the end of his wooden stump.” - New Statesman

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