A statement from his wife and two children, all collaborators, said that he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's pre-pandemic and a recent bout of COVID has worsened his condition. The last film he was working on, Shulan River, will not be completed. - Variety
Hyperallergic has spoken with multiple artists, all of whom asked to remain anonymous, who said they had received threatening phone calls and emails from their collectors and galleries after publicly showing support for Palestine. - Hyperallergic
Fanny was still allowed to compose and perform, but only in private. And yet inconveniently, she turned out to have a talent so enormous it spilled over into everything she did. - The Guardian
"More than 300,000 people attended Eurovision-related events in Liverpool in May, giving the local economy a £54.8m boost. … In total, 306,000 people visited the city centre for Eurovision events, according to research commissioned by Liverpool City Council." - BBC
If the media really want to cover what’s roiling culture — and how these forces reflect our fissuring society — the old “happy talk” model is not going to cut it. - ArtsFuse
"The incredible feeling of recognition on the highest event stage has caused a glow through (the World DanceSport Federation) since its unveiling — but to know that it won't be renewed, even before getting a chance to throw down any moves, leaves a bitter aftertaste." - The Big Idea (New Zealand)
These days, it is something of a fool’s errand to try to determine whether a text encountered online is written by a human or a chatbot. You might think a text sounds cheesy, canned, or off-the-shelf, but isn’t a lot of human writing just that? - Boston Review
Early Monday morning, thieves stole a U-Haul containing the hundreds of puppets, costumes, and equipment used in Hamid Rahmanian's Persian-style shadow-puppet show Song of the North. The truck was located in Richmond on Wednesday; most of the puppets were there, though the costumes and electronics were gone. - The New York Times
Within the contemporary art world, Mr. Irwin’s work on human attention and perception — he called it, with a nod to scientific research, an “inquiry” into perception — was highly influential; he won a MacArthur “genius” award in 1984. - The New York Times
"The Luma Foundation … has relit a cultural fire in Arles, bringing the delights of the international modern art world to a debt-laden, struggling city. But renewed interest in Arles has come at a cost" — that being, to oversimplify a bit, embourgeoisement (French for gentrification). - The Guardian
The development of South Broad Street into a performing arts destination has been widely considered a success, but in 2023, visitor numbers remain roughly half their pre-pandemic levels. Authorities are considering a number of redesign options, particularly to "reduce the power differential between pedestrian and vehicular traffic." - MSN (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
"The Museu de l’Art Prohibit … aims to explain how censorship works by exhibiting artworks that have been subject to prohibitions (successful or merely attempted), and detailed documentation on how and why administrations, religious or cultural authorities have sought to curtail artistic expression." - MSN (The Telegraph)
"The Freedom of Expression Award invites applicants to write about one banned book that changed their life and why. The $10,000 (£8,168) prize will be awarded to a high-school student planning to attend university in 2024." - The Guardian
Hampshire High School in the Chicago suburbs had been planning to stage "The Prom" — about, ironically, a school that tries to cancel a dance rather than letting a gay couple attend — when district officials "postponed" the show for "safety" reasons. The ensuing uproar changed their minds. - MSN (Chicago Tribune)
"The educational company, which both publishes and distributes books, waded into hot water last month after it confirmed that it was changing its policy for its middle school book fair offerings, … putting most of the titles dealing with race, gender and sexuality into their own collection." - NPR
