Outside, digital signs that typically advertise upcoming performances instead flashed a red “Emergency alert” announcing the building was closed to the public. Guards stood at the doors. On Wednesday, fencing was erected around the building. - Washington Post
Because of overcrowding in the main building’s galleries, the museum will acquire an additional space a few blocks away: the Ice and Automobile Palace, which has been vacant since 2007 and will undergo a €70 million ($81 million) renovation. When it opens, the new branch will display 21st-century works. - ARTnews
Academic history matters. It matters for honing critical engagement, for challenging all-encompassing technological vapidity, for strengthening individuality. It matters because it shows us that process cannot be separated from what we produce. - History Today
Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr said Wednesday that a series of upcoming wireless spectrum auctions over the next couple of years could generate more than $100 billion in proceeds. - Reuters
“To be clear, the deal collapsing wouldn't be fatal to Warner Bros. Discovery. CEO David Zaslav would walk away with a $7 billion break-up fee that could offer additional flexibility as an independent company. But experts who spoke to TheWrap are skeptical that management would continue to go it alone long-term.” - TheWrap (MSN)
How Sheeran, a musician known for his crowd-pleasing, inoffensive everyman appeal, landed in this situation illustrates the hazards of planning a lucrative, global music tour at a time of intense geopolitical unrest and cultural division over violent conflicts. - The Wall Street Journal
It is a Goliath of a building, 700 feet long with 300,000 square feet of space. In terms of massiveness, visual impact and sheer joyous bravado, it offers as much spectacle as any of his films. But it is not so much its size that amazes, but its uncanny shape. - The Wall Street Journal
“Trump is taking the Center hostage and threatening to in effect kill it unless he gets his way.” The president is counting on the board’s civic spirit and affection for the institution—neither of which he evidently possesses—to strong-arm it into giving him what the law and courts would not allow. - The Atlantic
The Trump administration is currently preparing temporary signs that will accuse the National Museum of American History of ideological bias, according to a letter I obtained sent by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. - The Atlantic
"Universal Pictures, which controls rights to the film outside North America, (is evidently) having second thoughts on a documentary it paid a significant sum to acquire. The company has not dated the movie, has not communicated with the filmmaking team about its plans, and generally appears to be rethinking the release." - The Hollywood Reporter
“The basic disagreement is … not simply over a percentage raise. It is also over how much work the orchestra should be guaranteed and how the Opera should structure itself now that it stages far fewer operas than it once did.” - San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)
“I think that the Trump administration should certainly have recognition. Because frankly, if we don't do that, it's going to close. It'll end up being ripped down,” he told reporters. He said the previous day that he won’t spend congressionally-designated money for the center's renovation unless the building bears his name. - ABC News
“More than half of each floor had been closed. The gift shop was papered over. The box office was open, but there were no tickets to upcoming performances to sell. … A group of young students were shuffling through one last tour. … Security guards were stationed by areas already cordoned off with red tape and ‘Do Not Enter’...
Austrian media were reporting that there would be two leaders: stage director Barrie Kosky (artistic) and Dutch National Opera chief Sophie de Lint (administration). Negotiations with that pair collapsed at the last minute, so the Festival board turned to Peter de Caluwe, until last year director of La Monnaie in Brussels. - Moto Perpetuo
There’s a new play atop the list: Kimberly Belflower’s John Proctor Is the Villain, followed by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's Purpose and Bess Wohl’s Pulitzer-winning Liberation. Among playwrights, once-perennial leader Lauren Gunderson is down to fourth place; the late August Wilson is number one, followed by Belflower and Jacobs-Jenkins. - American Theatre
