Biagio da Cesena, the Papal Master of Ceremonies, and Venetian satirist Pietro Aretino hated the fact that Michelangelo was putting so many naked people on the Sistine Chapel’s wall, saying the painting belonged in a public bathhouse. Bad idea to publicly attack a high-profile artwork while the artist is still working on it. - Artnet
Producer Charlie Brooker proposes scanning the faces of cinemagoers as they enter the theater and then using AI to cast them “randomly” in the actual movie. - Deadline
The move reflects where the entire tech industry is headed — toward a future where screens become background noise and audio takes center stage. - TechCrunch
In 1873, Jasper Francis Cropsey’s Autumn in the Ramapo Valley, Erie Railway was taken to London by its commissioner. It remained overseas until last year, when a couple of American art collectors acquired it — then sent it to a museum because it wouldn’t fit through the door of their home. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
These dancers, choreographers, directors, and companies are already doing exceptional work, but we’re betting on them to break through in a major way in the year to come. - Dance Magazine
“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
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
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
“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
“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
"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
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
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
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
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
“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)
“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)
“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
“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
“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
The move reflects where the entire tech industry is headed — toward a future where screens become background noise and audio takes center stage. - TechCrunch
What’s the harm, studio executives might wonder, if machines take over work that seems unchallenging and rote to knowledgeable professionals? The problem is that entry-level creative jobs are much more than grunt work. Working within established formulas and routines is how young artists develop their skills. - The Atlantic
My change in listening habits comes from a compulsion that many people in my life share: to make every minute of the day as “productive” as possible. By that blinkered calculus, an informative podcast will always trump music. - The Atlantic
Silicon Valley promised 2025 would be the age of tireless AI agents. Instead, they clicked slowly, got lost in drop‑down menus, hallucinated baseball maps, and reminded everyone that the “Year of the Agent” is really the “Decade of Maybe.” - The New Yorker
“People think of AI as something that speeds up tasks or improves efficiency, but our findings suggest something far more interesting. When people were shown AI-generated design suggestions, they spent more time on the task, produced better designs, and felt more involved. It was not just about efficiency. It was about creativity and collaboration.” - SciTech Daily
Experienced musicians tend to possess an advantage in short-term memory for musical patterns and a small advantage for visual information, according to a large-scale international study. - PsyPost
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
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...
“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)
These were the economic and political forces shaping culture in 2025. From the decline of the middle-class musician and the digitization of art to critical reassessments of literary heavyweights and political cinema... - The Walrus
Richard Grenell’s letter argues not only that Redd has harmed the Center’s finances, but that his withdrawal constitutes an “act of intolerance” driven by “the sad bullying tactics employed by certain elements on the left.” Grenell vows, “We will not let them cancel shows without consequences.” - The Atlantic
“The current bylaws, obtained by The Washington Post, were revised in May to specify that board members designated by Congress — known as ex officio members — could not vote or count toward a quorum. Legal experts say the move may conflict with the institution’s charter.” - The Washington Post (MSN)
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
“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.” -...
When “Walk My Walk” went No. 1, several observers disputed the narrative that country music was being overrun by AI. They noted that relatively few country listeners purchase digital songs in today’s streaming world, so topping that particular chart isn’t that significant. - Washington Post
“The organization has canceled its Classics 5 concert, which was scheduled for January 16. … The Philharmonic is made up largely of musicians who previously performed with the San Antonio Symphony, which dissolved in 2022. Many of the financial challenges that plagued the Symphony have also affected the Philharmonic.” - Texas Public Radio
Gen Z has decided CDs are cool again, sending sales wobbling upward before promptly wobbling back down. It’s mostly about vibes, nostalgia, and proving to millennials that nothing stays uncool forever. - LiveNow Fox
Esther Hwang alleges that she was assaulted by a senior orchestra member in 2017 — and that, after complaining to management, she was forced to sign an NDA and then edged out of the ensemble. VSO attorneys have threatened to sue her for violating that NDA. - Vancouver Sun
Biagio da Cesena, the Papal Master of Ceremonies, and Venetian satirist Pietro Aretino hated the fact that Michelangelo was putting so many naked people on the Sistine Chapel’s wall, saying the painting belonged in a public bathhouse. Bad idea to publicly attack a high-profile artwork while the artist is still working on it. -...
In 1873, Jasper Francis Cropsey’s Autumn in the Ramapo Valley, Erie Railway was taken to London by its commissioner. It remained overseas until last year, when a couple of American art collectors acquired it — then sent it to a museum because it wouldn’t fit through the door of their home. - The Philadelphia Inquirer...
“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
The Vondelkerk, a 154-year-old Gothic Revival church which had been deconsecrated and run as a concert and events venue in recent years, ignited shortly after midnight. The flames were fanned by strong winds, and the tower and roof of the building collapsed. - The Telegraph (UK)
By no means is all of this bad art actually from 2025, though a fair bit of it is. In fact, one choice (this writer’s personal favorite) has been on display in Philadelphia for more than a century, and it just keeps on looking god-awful. - Artnet
In the U.S., a tense political climate and moves by the Trump administration to exert more control over the country’s cultural institutions is creating new challenges for museums, both financially and ideologically. - Artnet
“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)
The persistent cultural resistance to Bellow, who remains popularly read yet broadly under-appreciated by the taste-making classes, comes in several flavors. Over the decades he’s come to be categorized by critics as a hundred different kinds of “too much”... - The Metropolitan Review
Much of the tumult came from the Trump White House, some more of it came from local and state officeholders banning particular books from school and public libraries, but perhaps the most worrying difficulties happened in a frequently overlooked but crucial corner of the industry. - Publishers Weekly
A book prize was "paused" when half the nominees dropped out because they objected to another nominee, Reading Rainbow came back, Salman Rushdie’s attacker was convicted of attempted murder, AI ruined the em-dash, and plenty more. - Literary Hub
“Among the books being driven into the woods by pitchfork-wielding villagers this year: Louis C.K.’s masturbatory debut novel, Olivia Nuzzi’s delusional fortune cookie, Woody Allen’s autofictional kvetch-fest, and Kamala Harris’s 304-page excuse for ineptitude.” - Literary Hub
A reclusive Georgia beekeeper accidentally writes a blockbuster: a gentle, allegorical novel that spreads through book clubs, Facebook aunties, and sheer goodwill, turning its humble author into a literary phenomenon he never planned to become. - Washington Post
Producer Charlie Brooker proposes scanning the faces of cinemagoers as they enter the theater and then using AI to cast them “randomly” in the actual movie. - Deadline
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
“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...
The show averaged 3.01 million viewers, according to Nielsen’s report, CBS publicist Julie Holland shared in an email Tuesday — down about 25 percent from the previous year. The Kennedy Center did not respond to a request for comment on the ratings. - Washington Post
“The year saw the industry take some big swings, like the Las Vegas Sphere getting into the theatrical business with an enhanced version of The Wizard of Oz, or the revival of a long-dead format for cinephiles. Then there’s AI, a technology that Hollywood is still coming to grips with.” - TheWrap (MSN)
There were reasons to feel optimistic about the trajectory of an industry that has been knocked down and counted out for half a decade. But those reasons didn’t end up counterbalancing several worrying trends — not least of which was the expansion of Netflix. - Variety
These dancers, choreographers, directors, and companies are already doing exceptional work, but we’re betting on them to break through in a major way in the year to come. - Dance Magazine
"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
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
Choreographer Celia Rowlson-Hall lays out the half-dozen movements which were most important to the film’s dance sequences — and recounts how those movements changed on the fly during shooting. - Vulture (MSN)
"It's literally being a body in space, drawing attention in a way that is effective. Often the effectiveness is in making the information very local. The hard part is, how do we make it global?” - Dance Enthusiast
“Medhi Walerski will leave his role as of June 30, 2027, following the company’s big 40th-anniversary season. Walerski has led the company since July 2020 after the departure of Emily Molnar to Nederlands Dans Theater, guiding it past pandemic shutdowns into an era of extensive international touring and energized packed houses.” - Stir (Vancouver)
“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
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
“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
Even four years after his decades-long, widely-gossiped-about abuse of his employees was publicly exposed and he was cancelled, few observers were expecting him to start producing shows on Broadway again. Many of those observers are not happy to see him back. - TheaterMania
“Some Bay Area artists have found a way to ply their trades inside AI companies, to both parties' benefit. The catch: the techies have to take the artists' skills seriously, and the artists have to define their moral boundaries within a much-maligned, constantly evolving industry.” - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
Nataki Garrett Myers, former artistic director of Oregon Shakes: “Neutrality is an illusion. What the article actually offers is a case study in how comfort becomes policy — aesthetic, institutional, and ideological. That comfort has a look. It has a voice. And it has a conspicuous absence.” - Be A Ladder Leader
“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
She beguiled audiences for seven decades, toggling between ballet and modern dance, film and television, concert stage and nightclub. Her noble bearing, high cheekbones, sinuous torso and impressive wingspan revealed a wide portfolio of characters experiencing torment or ecstasy. - The Washington Post (MSN)
In 2012, as an octogenarian artist with failing eyesight, she achieved worldwide (what’s the euphemism we want here?) recognition when her attempt to restore a painting of Christ on a church wall in Spain went awry and then went viral. - Euronews
“Combining keen curiosity, dogged investigative skills and a gift for storytelling, he covered Hollywood, … presidential politics (capturing Richard M. Nixon’s first, albeit brief, public remarks after resigning as president) and contentious subjects like the Church of Scientology.” - The New York Times
Earn your Master’s in One Year. Northwestern University’s MS in Leadership for Creative Enterprises (MSLCE) program develops leaders across Entertainment, Media and the Arts.
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...
“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)
The Vondelkerk, a 154-year-old Gothic Revival church which had been deconsecrated and run as a concert and events venue in recent years, ignited shortly after midnight. The flames were fanned by strong winds, and the tower and roof of the building collapsed. - The Telegraph (UK)
Choreographer Celia Rowlson-Hall lays out the half-dozen movements which were most important to the film’s dance sequences — and recounts how those movements changed on the fly during shooting. - Vulture (MSN)
“The current bylaws, obtained by The Washington Post, were revised in May to specify that board members designated by Congress — known as ex officio members — could not vote or count toward a quorum. Legal experts say the move may conflict with the institution’s charter.” - The Washington Post (MSN)
She beguiled audiences for seven decades, toggling between ballet and modern dance, film and television, concert stage and nightclub. Her noble bearing, high cheekbones, sinuous torso and impressive wingspan revealed a wide portfolio of characters experiencing torment or ecstasy. - The Washington Post (MSN)
Esther Hwang alleges that she was assaulted by a senior orchestra member in 2017 — and that, after complaining to management, she was forced to sign an NDA and then edged out of the ensemble. VSO attorneys have threatened to sue her for violating that NDA. - Vancouver Sun
Listening to a podcast is usually a solo experience. “Going to a theater to see these podcast performers live can feel like the exact opposite: Strangers with the same niche interest crowding into one place in not just rapt, but maybe even a bit rabid, attention." - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
Nataki Garrett Myers, former artistic director of Oregon Shakes: “Neutrality is an illusion. What the article actually offers is a case study in how comfort becomes policy — aesthetic, institutional, and ideological. That comfort has a look. It has a voice. And it has a conspicuous absence.” - Be A Ladder Leader
“For some fiber artists, craft is inherently political. ‘Creating in a time of destruction and chaos, that is resistance in and of itself,’ said Downey. … But she thinks one of the other successes of craftivism is that “‘it centers joy’” - The Guardian (UK)
More than 150,000 were taken, and never returned, often turned into ammunition or taken to a Glockenfriedhof, or bell cemetery. The sliver of silver lining: “A postwar ‘bell quality race’ ... led to major advances in campanology.” - The New York Times
The spokesperson at the Kennedy Center told NPR, "Any artist cancelling their show at the Trump Kennedy Center over political differences isn't courageous or principled—they are selfish, intolerant, and have failed to meet the basic duty of a public artist.” - NPR
