"Audience members generally rustle their programs and shift in their seats when performers are onstage. But on that late October evening inside Lincoln Center in 2021, 'it was so quiet,' remembers. 'Absolute silence.'" - Mother Jones
Free speech requires a robust exchange of views without the coercion of threats and violence, and self-censorship in response to social pressure is a genuine risk. Yet by definition, there is no free speech if one person is allowed to make an argument and another is not allowed to object to it. - The Atlantic
Several lines of contemporary scholarship emphasize what might be gained by moving from a focus on science education to a focus on reciprocal power-sharing, cooperation, and exchange between researchers and citizens. - Boston Review
“You are the last orchestra and the most important orchestra where I have been music director. Your memory will accompany me in my heart to the end of my life. You, Chicago, are the Symphony of my heart. Grazie.” - New City
Some of the images, like Grant Wood's American Gothic and van Gogh's The Night Café and Hokusai's The Wave, work pretty well. Others, like Munch's The Scream and Kehinde Wiley's portrait of Barack Obama, wellll ... (We can't decide about Leonardo's Last Supper and Picasso's Guernica.) - Artnet
The concert itself was cancelled, but that doesn't mean the orchestra didn't perform: instead, these musicians from the capital of the rebellious 13 colonies played a two-piece tribute to Her Majesty that moved just about everyone. - The Philadelphia Inquirer
An avant-garde likes to present itself as insurgent and radical, yet the logic of the metaphor suggests that a new group will soon be coming along to replace it. Today’s avant-garde is always liable to congeal into tomorrow’s orthodoxy. - The Nation
"(He) was the cable news channel's lead anchor for two decades until his retirement in 2001. During his tenure, Shaw anchored major breaking news events, like the attempted assassination of President Reagan in 1981, the Tiananmen Square student revolt in 1989 and every presidential election." - The Hollywood Reporter
Located on Benjamin Franklin Parkway just opposite the Rodin Museum and Barnes Foundation, Calder Gardens will include both a building (designed by Herzog & de Meuron) and landscaped outdoor spaces to display a rotating selection of Calder's mobiles and stabiles. - The Philadelphia Inquirer
"At a time when Philadelphia architecture rarely rises above the goal of extracting money from land, Calder Gardens promises to be a work of art itself. Ideas about Calder's creativity and Philadelphia's history are embedded in every detail. Yet the design is no mere intellectual exercise." - The Philadelphia Inquirer
‘When you get it right, it affects our health policy, our education policy, our environment policy, foreign affairs, trade, veterans’ affairs, tourism… A nation with a strong cultural policy is a nation where we know ourselves, know each other and invite the world to better know us.’ - ArtsHub
“While it’s absolutely true that this AI art couldn’t exist if it weren’t trained on copyrighted images and the work of artists, the end result is something we don’t have a precedent or parallel for,” Baio told me. “This technology is a black-box machine that generates high-quality imagery endlessly. - The Atlantic
Even after the Soviet Union crumbled, Russia was able to keep up its classical strengths—and attract artists from all around the world. But now its musicians are leaving, and Western ones have stopped arriving for guest performances. - Foreign Policy
In response to the Second Vatican Council's reforms, the monks of the Abbey of Keur Moussa set about Africanizing their worship, researching traditional music and adapting it to their liturgy. It was when they discovered the kora that everything clicked — and even got them a recording contract. - The New Yorker
For those blessedly anchored in the real world, here is a brief summary of a case that began as a passionate-yet-niche dispute between scholars and has reverberated—or been manufactured—into a broader referendum on academic and free speech in the United States. - Van
Theresa May first proposed the festival in 2018 to showcase the liberated UK as a creative powerhouse. Yet, by 2022, nobody was in a festive mood, many of the artists (mostly Remainers and fiercely anti-Tory) considered themselves Robin Hoods, and most people don't even know Unboxed exists. - The House (UK)
Jason Allen did not paint “Théâtre D'opéra Spatial,” AI software called Midjourney did. It used his prompts, but Allen did not wield a digital brush. This distinction has caused controversy on Twitter where working artists and enthusiasts accused Allen of hastening the death of creative jobs. - Vice
Sources also say that both sides were eager to avoid another protracted, distracting and brutally expensive legal battle, to put it mildly: The fight over the previous, 2018-22 rate period went on for more than three years and cost many millions of dollars in legal and other fees. - Variety
"He is an artist for whom Americanness truly matters, as much as the tradition of Western classical music — both heritages treated not with nostalgia, but with awareness and affection." Joshua Barone profiles Adams ahead of the world premiere of his Antony and Cleopatra in San Francisco. - The New York Times
I can think of no recent novel or film that provoked passionate debate. Public arguments people do have about art — about appropriation and offense, usually — have grown stale and repetitive, almost rote. - The New York Times
