Music executives say Swift has raised the bar for the concert industry, not just with ticket and merchandise sales, but conceptual ambition, stage production, wardrobe and news-cycle penetration. - The Wall Street Journal
"People often think of these musical memories as fixed snapshots of the past. But recent research my team and I published suggests music may do more than just trigger memories – it might even change how you remember them." - The Conversation
"They obtain scores and parts, consult with conductors and concertmasters, check the music for accuracy, ensure that page turns are realistic, and make corrections as necessary. … Can you get the mute out fast enough? Who’s going to need more time to turn a page?" - San Francisco Classical Voice
Lynne Charles, artistic director of English National Ballet School, has developed a method she calls 4Pointe. "There are all these methods ... but there’s no pre-pointe teaching ... the balance as you go through your foot. I’ve developed exercises for specific parts of the foot and put them in a specific order." - Bachtrack
"Why would anyone want to be a critic? As I’ve admitted before, it wasn’t in my case an aspiration but a series of accidents that only in retrospect seem inevitable." Charles McNulty explains how it happened as well as the principles that shape his criticism. - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
"In the last two years, even as auction prices have generally come down, 'there’s been a growing recognition for this medium by institutions and museums,' Michael Bouhanna, head of digital art and NFTs at Sotheby’s, said. 'It’s in a more educational phase.'" - The New York Times
With the estimated cost of the project having risen by 50% to C$600 million, the museum's board decided to end work on the design by Herzog & de Meuron and to seek a new architect. - CBC
Culture secretary Angus Robertson predicted the new funding for culture earmarked for the coming financial year would be 'transformational" for the arts industry. Finance secretary Shona Robison said that she aims to allocate an additional £20 million for the following fiscal year. - The Scotsman
"One thing voting for awards has taught me is that virtually every outside assumption about how the process works is wrong, (especially) any attempt to extract an overarching meaning from the results. … Fortunately, there’s an easy way to explain the process. … All you have to do is watch Conclave." - Slate (MSN)
"Nearly 500 journalists are on strike at The Guardian and its sister paper, the Sunday-only Observer, to protest the planned sale of The Observer to a small digital startup. … Says (star reporter) Carole Cadwalladr, 'The sale of The Observer to a loss-making startup is potentially the death of this historic brand." - NPR
To survive the next four years, to make sense of where all this could be going, we need to understand barbarism as a living, ever-present force tending always to cruelty and destruction. And more important: We need to understand how culture pushes back against it. - Washington Post (MSN)
According to UK Theatre, the majority of tickets sold in regional theatres cost under £35, with 99.9% priced below £100. Even in commercial venues, 65% of all tickets sold for less than £45. Furthermore, since 2019, the average ticket price at UK Theatre venues has decreased by 5%. - The Stage
So far, Masterworks has been buying up works and selling shares in the asset, often with delayed payment terms, giving time for the Masterworks team to aggressively sell the shares to retail investors. In 2022 it had reportedly bought up $475m worth of art. - The Critic
A nonprofit called CulturalDC bought the Source Theatre in 2006 so it could remain a performance space. Now, however, CulturalDC's board wants to sell the building by the end of the year and is asking for $5.8 million. The company using the Source has offered to buy it, but not at that price. - Washingtonian (MSN)
There’s a loosely defined term of art for things that are prized and embedded in a culture but not necessarily architectural landmarks: intangible heritage. - The New York Times
