Figures from the arts include poet Jericho Brown, violinist Johnny Gandelsman, media artist Tony Cokes, filmmaker Sterlin Harjo, cabaret artist Justin Vivian Bond, writers Juan Felipe Herrera and Ling Ma, multimedia artist Ebony G. Patterson, choreographer Shamel Pitts, visual artist Wendy Red Star, and young people's lit author Jason Reynolds. - NPR
A beloved musical theater performer, singer-songwriter and activist who won a Tony for Hello, Dolly! (opposite Bette Midler) and an Olivier for The Book of Mormon, Creel died just two months after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. - The Hollywood Reporter
“The new owners have sold some one-of-a-kind furnishings that Wright designed for the building. And the building itself is up sale, listed on a commercial real estate auction website next to hollowed out strip malls and an empty Burger King.” - The New York Times
“This is what happens when the big fish eat all the little fish: grim times for employees, writers and, ultimately, readers. Should those of us who care about Australian books and literature be alarmed by these latest acquisitions” - Crikey
Nothing good. “Is a commercial art gallery willing to risk litigation if it dares to offer one of Warhol’s Prince or Marilyn silk-screens ‘for sale?’ What if another commercial gallery across town is offering a retrospective survey of Goldsmith’s rock star photos or Korman’s publicity shots?” - Oregon ArtsWatch
“The Internet Archive is one of the most important historical-preservation organizations in the world. The Wayback Machine has assumed a default position as a safety valve against digital oblivion.” - Wired
To protest the prison sentences given today to the original climate-protesting art vandals, three of their comrades went to the National Gallery in London and assaulted the very same painting with almost the same liquid. (This time they used Heinz vegetable soup instead of tomato.) - Artnet
Lily Janiak writes that she was reminded — very gladly — of just how many things go right to pull off a farce like this one so successfully. - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
Considered by many the greatest British actress of her formidable generation, she won widespread admiration for such stage and screen performances as The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Hedda Gabler and became genuinely beloved for her work in the Harry Potter films and Downton Abbey. - The Washington Post (MSN)
Abraham Bredius was director of the Mauritshuis in The Hague 1889-1919, and he bequeathed 25 Rembrandts and other Old Master paintings to the museum on condition that they be displayed. Only five are on public view, so Bredius's heirs say the Mauritshuis is violating the bequest's terms. - The New York Times
The case, Little v. Llano County, involves local citizens who sued a Texas county on First Amendment grounds for ordering certain titles removed from public libraries shelves. County officials argue that decisions about public library books count as speech by government itself, and thus aren't required to be content-neutral. - Publishers Weekly
"At the core of the dispute is what the union identifies as an unacceptable wage gap between NSO musicians and their peers in orchestras of similar size and stature, including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic." - The Washington Post (MSN)
“I’m guessing an image generator scraped a photo of my dad from somewhere online (maybe the wedding pictures I posted in 2007?) and then didn’t jumble it up enough to make it into someone new. Instead, it issued forth an eerie facsimile.” - Slate
On Christmas Day, 1985, two veterinary students broke into Mexico City’s National Museum of Anthropology and stole more than 100 “archeological pieces from the rooms dedicated to the Maya, Mixteca and Mexica civilizations.” (The Gael García Bernal movie Museo shows a dramatic recreation of the heist.) - El País
“Deep doubt is skepticism of real media that stems from the existence of generative AI. This manifests as broad public skepticism toward the veracity of media artifacts, which in turn leads to a notable consequence: People can now more credibly claim that real events did not happen.” - Wired
France was late to American-style drag, but as at the Olympics, it’s now prominent. So: “Answering hatred with glitter is a time-honored drag tradition, and Drag Race France Live, which premiered in Paris this week, showed French drag in defiant form.” - The New York Times
The complainers, and the police, said the painting of a naked woman could be pornographic. The artist: "I don’t know what kind of pornography they’ve been looking at, but it’s definitely not my painting.” - The Guardian (UK)
The chorus struck for three days last week, canceling the season opener. “An earlier proposal would cut choristers’ compensation by 65% and reduced their programs to five per year.” Now there’s a compromise proposal, but will that be enough? - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
These corporations have erected a private state over us. They who have disrupted almost every economic and political balance in the Republic. They who have amassed the power to shape and determine how we speak to one another and share news and information. Even how we think, dream, and perceive our place in the world. - Harper's
"More than 150 musicians and patrons joined the Symphony Chorus, which formed a picket … in front of Davies Symphony Hall an hour and a half before the Verdi Requiem concert was scheduled to begin. Among the signs held by strikers, one read, 'No contract = No Chorus.'" - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
