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Rijksmuseum Director On The Humanness Of Museums

“In a good museum, it’s a lot about imagination. You don’t want to spell things out. We are complex. History is complex, and history has both triumphs and it has dark pages.” - The Times

AMC Declares Its Live Event With Netflix A Huge Success

In addition to the countless millions of people who will enjoy Stranger Things on the Netflix streaming platform, in just two days, more than 753,000 Stranger Things fans flocked to an AMC Theatre to personally join in the celebration. - Deadline

China Threatens To Jail Anyone Who Performs, Listens To, Or Shares Uyghur Songs

During a meeting in the historic Uyghur city of Kashgar in October, authorities warned residents that performing, playing, uploading onto social media, or storing on devices any of a list of Uyghur songs would face imprisonment. Uyghur exiles report that several people have already been jailed for doing so. - AP

Prince’s Withering Putdown Of Digital Musicians

“The kid with the PC in the bedroom can’t play his instrument. He can make some sounds, and then you can get a vast amount of repetition, but if they didn’t take the time to learn their instrument and their scales and to actually speak the language of music then they can’t play.” - Music Radar

The Playwright Contemplating The Post-Human World

“Everyone was afraid of the telephone, everyone was afraid of television,” Harrison said. “It’s just going to march on. And we’ll acclimate.” - The New York Times

Doug Varone Talks About Cancelling His Date At The Kennedy Center

"I do believe they should be separate. And the success of the Kennedy Center, you know, working in a bipartisan way, has been an example of that in a great way." - NPR

Māori Vogue Balls Hit The Mainstream In New Zealand

The voguing scene, led by Māori (indigenous New Zealanders) and immigrants from the Pacific islands, only got started in the country about a decade ago. By last October, there was a major ball held at the national museum. - The Guardian

Ten Questions For Theatre In 2026

Each year, theater producers and publicists work to make opening night more and more meaningless.  Given that this is the night that reviews come out, the result is the continuing, deliberate devaluing of professional theater criticism. - New York Theatre

Trump Plans To Reconstitute The “Commission Of Fine Arts” To Approve His Projects

The White House is expected to invite past Trump appointees to rejoin the Commission of Fine Arts, according to three people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss those plans.  - Washington Post

Like “The Vandals In Rome”: Senators Investigate How MAGA Allies Are “Looting” Kennedy Center

Led by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Democrats on the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee say they’ve obtained documents suggesting that the Center is being operated as a “slush fund and private club for Trump’s friends and political allies”, resulting in millions of lost income and a departure from its statutory mission. - The Guardian

Australia’s Capital Will Finally Get A Big-City-Sized Performing Arts Center

“The new (2,000-seat) theatre will allow Canberra to host major national and international theatre productions that currently don’t visit Canberra because our 1965-built Canberra Theatre stage is too small and with only 1,200 seats, it just isn’t commercially viable for most touring shows,” wrote Australian Capital Territory Chief Minister Andrew Barr. - Limelight (Australia)

If We Want More People To Read, We Should Tell Them That Reading Is A Vice

“This would be a more effective way to attract young people, and it also happens to be true. When literature was considered transgressive, moralists couldn’t get people to stop buying and reading dangerous books. Now that books are considered virtuous and edifying, moralists can’t persuade anyone to pick one up.” - The Atlantic (MSN)

Rightist Politicians Instigate Parliamentary Inquiry On Impartiality Of France’s National Broadcaster

“The UDR party, an ally of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally, set up the inquiry amid far-right claims that public TV and radio has a bias against them. Le Pen … has said ‘there is a clear problem with neutrality in public service broadcasting’ and that she would like to privatise it.” - The Guardian

Russia Reopens Theater It Bombed Out In Occupied Ukrainian City

“Moscow-installed authorities marked the rebuilding of the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater (in Mariupol) with a gala concert on the building’s new main stage Sunday night. … The original theater was destroyed when it was targeted by a Russian airstrike on March 16, 2022,” killing around 600 people sheltering inside. - AP

Janet Fish, Dead At 87, Painted Radiant Still Lifes As The Art World Favored Abstraction

“As rendered by Fish, bottles of window-cleaning fluid, jars of honey, plastic-wrapped trays of fruit, and glass vases bursting with flowers appeared to glow from within, conjuring a sense of exuberance and possibility.” - Artforum

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