Stories

And Who Has Swooped In To Buy Bankrupt Radio Giant Audacy? George Soros.

"(His) buyout of approximately $415 million of Audacy's debt would make his Soros Fund Management the largest stakeholder of the second-largest radio company in the U.S. when it emerges from chapter 11 reorganization." - Inside Radio

BBC Says It Has “Secured The Future” Of The BBC Singers

Last year, public outrage caused the broadcaster to abandon its plan to dissolve the 20-member BBC Singers. Now the network has announced a partnership between the Singers and the VOCES8 Foundation that's evidently meant to provide more revenue, though the Foundation will not give direct financial support. - BBC Music Magazine

National Book Awards Extends Eligibility To Non-US Citizens

"The change will affect prizes for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people’s literature to begin including authors 'who maintain their primary, long-term home in the United States, US territories, or Tribal lands' regardless of their citizenship status." - Mother Jones

English National Opera’s Orchestra Ends Its Strike Threat

All labor action planned for February has been called off as the company and the Musicians' Union have come to a revised agreement about the instrumentalists' fate when ENO moves from London to Manchester. - The Guardian

Can Humans Survive AI?

“Biological extinction, that’s not the point. The light of humanity and our understanding, our intelligence — our consciousness, if you will — can go on without meat humans.” - Jacobin

How Arts Council England Coerces

"A number of programming staff at a major ACE-funded organisation recently described to me how they were investigated by its HR department after inviting a gender-critical artist to speak. Their jobs are now in doubt because they “exposed audiences to dangerous ideas”. - Unherd

Royal Ontario Museum To Redesign, Make First Floor Free Admission

"We call it OpenROM, a transformative project that will both literally and figuratively open the museum up even more, creating a thriving cultural and civic hub in the heart of the city and province." - MSN (CP)

Like A Switch Flipped: Today’s College Students Have A Reading Comprehension Disability

Now students are intimidated by anything over 10 pages and seem to walk away from readings of as little as 20 pages with no real understanding. Even smart and motivated students struggle to do more with written texts than extract decontextualized take-aways. - Slate

Judge Throws Out Some Artist Claims Against OpenAI

In the ruling, Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín threw out claims on vicarious copyright infringement, DMCA violations, negligence, and unjust enrichment. The court did not believe the plaintiffs’ allegations of unlawful business practices and fraudulent conduct related to unfair competition. - The Verge

The Allure Of The Grand Gesture

Classic grand gestures from novels and films are defined by a kind of sacrifice: hallmarks include the willingness to be rejected. - The Point

With Las Vegas Philharmonic Between Music Directors, Leonard Slatkin Will Fill In

Donato Cabrera ends his 10-year term as the orchestra's music director this summer; with no successor yet appointed, Slatkin will serve as Artistic Consultant. (In fact, the Vegas Phil's executive director hints that there may not be a single music director going forward.) - Las Vegas Review-Journal (third item)

BodyTraffic Aims To Be LA’s Dance Company

For most of its existence BODYTRAFFIC has been better known and more appreciated outside of LA than in its hometown, in great part because LA has not built the infrastructure necessary for dance. - Forbes

How Hard Is It To Make Animated Characters Cry? Let The Animators Tell You

"Heaving sobs and effervescent teardrops are the result of the exacting labor of artists who must precisely illustrate, iterate on, time, and log their work on a budget. Making all that controlled effort look spontaneous and, above all, natural is never an easy feat." - Vulture (MSN)

A Transformative Calder Gift To The Seattle Art Museum

Last April, the Shirleys donated 48 works by Alexander Calder to the Seattle Art Museum (SAM). While Calders proliferate in museums across the globe, these are particularly major ones—the group of works was valued at $200 million by a Christie’s higher-up. - ARTnews

Another San Francisco Theater Has To Do An Emergency Donate-Or-We-Close-Down Campaign

"Cutting Ball Theater, the 25-year-old company known for form-breaking new plays and rejuvenated classics, ... says it needs to raise $45,000 by March 1 and $200,000 by June, out of a $750,000 annual budget, in order to stay open." - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

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