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The Classically Cool Frick Re-emerges

If the museum experience is now more stylistically bifurcated — the Beaux Arts past on one side of the complex, a sympathetic but unapologetic contemporary aesthetic on the other — they unite in enhancing the museum experience. - Bloomberg

Trump Administration Wants Congress To Cancel Funding For PBS, NPR

The plan is to request that Congress rescind $1.1 billion in federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. If Congress agrees, that will amount to about two years of the organization’s funding, nearly all of which goes to public broadcasters including NPR, PBS and their local member stations. - The New York Times

Expanding The Repertoire For Harp Is A Tricky Business

Parker Ramsay: “Could you conceive of a world in which a harp work occupies your attention like an opera or a violin concerto? That might be a stretch, but I’ve been able to commission music that makes me think it’s possible.” - The New York Times

Why Trump’s Sculpture Garden Project Of American Heroes Is A Big Deal

Effectively killing the NEH in its current form and then reallocating its money to build the National Garden of American Heroes—the centerpiece of Trump’s plans to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States (thus, 250 sculptures)—is yet one more missile launched in his administration’s ongoing culture war. - The Atlantic

Stem Or Humanities? It’s a Disastrous Distinction

In fact, neither one of these labels names a particularly coherent group of fields. STEM covers endeavors as different in their workings and aims as heart surgery is from number theory, while humanities disciplines have little in common beyond an (often) qualitative interest in (usually) human concerns. - Slate

Do We Even Know What Classical Music Is These Days?

Like every other sector of cultural life, classical music has been roiled over the past decade by intense debates about the field’s ongoing lack of diversity, among performing artists, composers, and leaders of musical organizations. - The Atlantic

After Last Year’s Fiasco, Dallas Black Dance Theatre Works To Rebuild “Community Trust”

“(A) task force … will convene monthly to eventually put forth recommendations ... The news comes after the dance company reached a settlement for over $560,000 with the National Labor Relations Board in December to compensate 10 fired dancers and three whose offers of employment were rescinded.” - KERA (Dallas)

Why We Went Ahead And Played At The Kennedy Center

Ryan Miller of the band Guster: “We wanted to support the staff who were caught in this political crossfire; the fans who had bought tickets, flights, and hotel rooms; the musicians we would be performing with. … We had been given a microphone and we intended to use it.” - The Atlantic (MSN)

Pope Francis Puts Architect Antoni Gaudí On Path To Sainthood

“The architect behind the Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona has been declared ‘Venerable’ by Pope Francis, the second step in the path to canonisation. Gaudí was recognised by the Vatican for his ‘heroic virtues’.” - Dezeen

Cate Blanchett Says She’s Giving Up Acting

“My family roll their eyes every time I say it, but I mean it. I am serious about giving up acting.  (There are) a lot of things I want to do with my life.” - Radio Times (UK)

Jean Marsh, Who Co-Created And Starred In “Upstairs, Downstairs,” Is Dead At 90

While she’s best remembered for the TV series, in which she played housemaid Rose Buck, she had an extensive career in theatre, television and film in both the UK and US, from Doctor Who to the Burton-Taylor epic Cleopatra to Hitchcock’s Frenzy to Ron Howard’s Willow. - The Telegraph (UK) (Yahoo!)

Climate-Protesting Art Vandal Who Attacked Degas Sculpture Convicted

“A federal jury convicted Raleigh climate activist Timothy Martin of two felonies Monday for smearing washable paint on a sculpture’s display case in the National Gallery of Art — an act of civil disobedience that could send him to prison for 10 years.” - The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC)

National Geographic Says These Are The World’s Best Book Towns

By definition, a book town is “a small, preferably rural, town or village in which secondhand and antiquarian bookshops are concentrated… available to everyone…” Today, there are dozens of towns with the designation. - National Geographic

Inside The Rise And Fall Of YA Fiction

The rise of more inclusive YA has felt as much like a seismic shift as “The Hunger Games” did back in the day. It’s given teen books a new relevance, and a new energy. Alas, sales of young-adult fiction have been declining since 2021, in part due to well-organized efforts to ban books. - Los Angeles Times

Are Em-Dashes Really A Sign Of AI-Generated Content?

If so — not to put too fine a point on it — is this a sign that the content AI stole, “scraped," from literary writers might have used the em-dash more often than it’s used in everyday communication? - Rolling Stone

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