AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Seattle Symphony Appoints New CEO
Jeremy Rothman, who for 18 seasons has been artistic administrator at the Philadelphia Orchestra, will begin in Seattle as of September 1. He succeeds Krishna Thiagarajan, who departed last year after a stormy tenure. – The Seattle Times
- When Cutting the Cord Pays Off
Good Morning,
Watch the money this morning. Three arts institutions on two continents are rewriting survival, and none of them is doing it a traditional way. Wigmore Hall walked away from Arts Council England’s portfolio and says ticket sales are up 25% year-on-year since (The Stage). Opera Australia, $10.6 million in the red two years ago, broke even after a 29% jump at the box office (Limelight). And Sydney Dance Company, four straight deficits deep, is closing the gap by selling classes to the public (Australian Financial Review). Earned income, not grants.
Which makes the Heinz Endowments’ recent move worth a look: it’s pulling back from individual artists and one-off projects to fund organizations and infrastructure instead (WESA). The safety net is reorganizing around buildings, not people. Meanwhile the West End shows why the math is so brutal in the first place: it now costs £3 to £10 million just to raise the curtain on a musical (WhatsOnStage).
Elsewhere, jazz is taking stock of Sonny Rollins, the last man standing from “A Great Day in Harlem” (Richard Brody at the The New Yorker, Nate Chinen at The Gig).
And the virally successful Savannah Bananas now want to be Disney (The Guardian). Some empires you can see coming.
All of our stories below. See you tomorrow,
Doug
- Why The U.S. Radio Industry Opposes Year-Round Daylight Savings Time
You know how numerous radio stations have to reduce their broadcast power, and a few even have to go off the air, during non-daylight hours? Now, think about morning drive-time up north in December and January … – Inside Radio
- Knoxville Reverses Its Ban Of Alex Haley’s “Roots” From School Libraries
“Knox County Schools Superintendent Jon Rysewyk said the district will return the (Pulitzer-winning) 1976 novel to school library shelves, walking back a decision that (led to) … weeks of community backlash, board member pressure, and statewide criticism.” – Tennessee Lookout
- Miles Davis’ “Kind Of Blue” Is The Best-Selling Jazz Album Of All Time. He Thought It Was A Failure
When I tell people that I missed what I was trying to do on Kind of Blue, that I missed getting the exact sound of the African finger piano up in that sound, they just look at me like I’m crazy. – The Conversation
ISSUES
- Spanish Government Demands Audit Of Reina Sofia Museum Collections
Spain’s government is turning up the pressure on the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía over longstanding problems tied to its collection inventory, with lawmakers threatening consequences that could ultimately cost museum director Manuel Segade his job. – ARTnews
- A 2018 Fire Destroyed 80 Percent Of Brazil’s National Museum Collection. It’s Working To Rebuild
The fire on September 2, 2018, began with an electrical issue, but it spiraled out of control when the hydrants next to the building proved to be dry. According to a 160-page report, the museum had been chronically underfunded for years, and a whistleblower had warned of fire risk as early as 2004. – Smithsonian
- The Heroic Effort To Rebuild Brazil’s National Museum, Almost Completely Destroyed In A Fire
“The news arrived (in September 2025) with both excitement and a pang of grief: The oldest national history museum in the Americas was slated to partially (and temporarily) reopen for the first time since a 2018 fire destroyed more than 16 million objects — 80 percent of its collections.” – Smithsonian Magazine
- How The Big Art Auction Houses Engineered Their Roaring Comeback
“The houses leaned into spectacle — including a promotional video featuring Nicole Kidman dancing around a bronze Brancusi head — and prearranged deals … that reduced their risk. The result was a season with a few flashy records — and … a broader return to deliberate bidding, quality material and logical prices.” – The New York Times
- Paris’ Pont Neuf Becomes A Stone Grotto
French artist JR has taken over Paris’s Pont Neuf—the oldest bridge over the Seine, and the city’s first built from stone, not wood. JR’s hotly awaited hometown installation La Caverne du Pont Neuf (2026) measures 120 meters long, 20 meters wide, and, in some spots, 18 meters tall. – Artnet
MEDIA
- The Savannah Banana Phenomenon: What It’s Becoming
The Disney comparison is not necessarily a coincidence. Multiple players mention an overlap between Disney fandom (including Disney adults) and bananaball fandom, and Jesse Cole, founder of the Bananas, identifies Walt Disney as a key influence. – The Guardian
- Heinz Endowments Changes Priorities In Its Arts Funding Grants
The Pittsburgh-based foundation is ending grants for one-time projects and for individual artists in favor of funding arts organizations and cultural infrastructure in the region. – WESA (Pittsburgh)
- Colleges Are Hemorrhaging Student Enrollment. One Oregon College Hits The Wall
According to the plan released, “We are maintaining an infrastructure built for 30,000 students while currently serving 20,000.” Other options “have been exhausted” and “incrementalism” has failed, it says. – InsideHigherEd
- Russia Bombs Many Of Kyiv’s Major Cultural And Historical Sites
The National Art Museum, National Philharmonic of Ukraine, Kyiv Opera Theater, National Chornobyl Museum, Valeriy Lobanovskyi Dynamo Stadium and Hinaus Gallery were among sites hit in what the Minister of Culture called the “largest series of damages” to cultural institutions in Kyiv since Russia’s war in all of Ukraine began in 2022. – CBC
- The Enrollment Cliff Is Here For American Colleges
Last year, at least sixteen nonprofit colleges and universities announced that they would close and seven more announced that they would merge with or be acquired by other schools. – The New Yorker
MUSIC
- Knoxville Reverses Its Ban Of Alex Haley’s “Roots” From School Libraries
“Knox County Schools Superintendent Jon Rysewyk said the district will return the (Pulitzer-winning) 1976 novel to school library shelves, walking back a decision that (led to) … weeks of community backlash, board member pressure, and statewide criticism.” – Tennessee Lookout
- How The Cherokee Bible Reveals Differences Between European And Native American Worldviews
One can learn quite a bit by noticing which English words and phrases had no Cherokee equivalent — and in how translators chose to render those words and phrases in Cherokee. – The Conversation
- Booktok Sells Tons Of Books. Its Reviews, Though…
While TikTok’s stunted critical language sells legions more books—even good ones—than the literary critics who dismiss the platform, as a doubtfully salable fiction writer I’m less interested in how a book goes viral than in what this costs the reader. – The Point
- Behind Book Bans In The Digital Age
I think the library feels like a place where you can do something concrete. You can go to an actual library; you can pull books off the shelves. And I think maybe that’s behind this strange resurgence of book banning. – The Walrus
- Weird Writing Advice (It’s The Best)
Writers have a bevy of mantras—“show don’t tell,” “kill your darlings”—that mainly help by giving the writer a sense that there are rules. But the rules can’t govern the place the work comes from. – The New Yorker
PEOPLE
- Seattle Symphony Appoints New CEO
Jeremy Rothman, who for 18 seasons has been artistic administrator at the Philadelphia Orchestra, will begin in Seattle as of September 1. He succeeds Krishna Thiagarajan, who departed last year after a stormy tenure. – The Seattle Times
- When Cutting the Cord Pays Off
Good Morning,
Watch the money this morning. Three arts institutions on two continents are rewriting survival, and none of them is doing it a traditional way. Wigmore Hall walked away from Arts Council England’s portfolio and says ticket sales are up 25% year-on-year since (The Stage). Opera Australia, $10.6 million in the red two years ago, broke even after a 29% jump at the box office (Limelight). And Sydney Dance Company, four straight deficits deep, is closing the gap by selling classes to the public (Australian Financial Review). Earned income, not grants.
Which makes the Heinz Endowments’ recent move worth a look: it’s pulling back from individual artists and one-off projects to fund organizations and infrastructure instead (WESA). The safety net is reorganizing around buildings, not people. Meanwhile the West End shows why the math is so brutal in the first place: it now costs £3 to £10 million just to raise the curtain on a musical (WhatsOnStage).
Elsewhere, jazz is taking stock of Sonny Rollins, the last man standing from “A Great Day in Harlem” (Richard Brody at the The New Yorker, Nate Chinen at The Gig).
And the virally successful Savannah Bananas now want to be Disney (The Guardian). Some empires you can see coming.
All of our stories below. See you tomorrow,
Doug
- Why The U.S. Radio Industry Opposes Year-Round Daylight Savings Time
You know how numerous radio stations have to reduce their broadcast power, and a few even have to go off the air, during non-daylight hours? Now, think about morning drive-time up north in December and January … – Inside Radio
- Knoxville Reverses Its Ban Of Alex Haley’s “Roots” From School Libraries
“Knox County Schools Superintendent Jon Rysewyk said the district will return the (Pulitzer-winning) 1976 novel to school library shelves, walking back a decision that (led to) … weeks of community backlash, board member pressure, and statewide criticism.” – Tennessee Lookout
- Miles Davis’ “Kind Of Blue” Is The Best-Selling Jazz Album Of All Time. He Thought It Was A Failure
When I tell people that I missed what I was trying to do on Kind of Blue, that I missed getting the exact sound of the African finger piano up in that sound, they just look at me like I’m crazy. – The Conversation
PEOPLE
- Seattle Symphony Appoints New CEO
Jeremy Rothman, who for 18 seasons has been artistic administrator at the Philadelphia Orchestra, will begin in Seattle as of September 1. He succeeds Krishna Thiagarajan, who departed last year after a stormy tenure. – The Seattle Times
- When Cutting the Cord Pays Off
Good Morning,
Watch the money this morning. Three arts institutions on two continents are rewriting survival, and none of them is doing it a traditional way. Wigmore Hall walked away from Arts Council England’s portfolio and says ticket sales are up 25% year-on-year since (The Stage). Opera Australia, $10.6 million in the red two years ago, broke even after a 29% jump at the box office (Limelight). And Sydney Dance Company, four straight deficits deep, is closing the gap by selling classes to the public (Australian Financial Review). Earned income, not grants.
Which makes the Heinz Endowments’ recent move worth a look: it’s pulling back from individual artists and one-off projects to fund organizations and infrastructure instead (WESA). The safety net is reorganizing around buildings, not people. Meanwhile the West End shows why the math is so brutal in the first place: it now costs £3 to £10 million just to raise the curtain on a musical (WhatsOnStage).
Elsewhere, jazz is taking stock of Sonny Rollins, the last man standing from “A Great Day in Harlem” (Richard Brody at the The New Yorker, Nate Chinen at The Gig).
And the virally successful Savannah Bananas now want to be Disney (The Guardian). Some empires you can see coming.
All of our stories below. See you tomorrow,
Doug
- Why The U.S. Radio Industry Opposes Year-Round Daylight Savings Time
You know how numerous radio stations have to reduce their broadcast power, and a few even have to go off the air, during non-daylight hours? Now, think about morning drive-time up north in December and January … – Inside Radio
- Knoxville Reverses Its Ban Of Alex Haley’s “Roots” From School Libraries
“Knox County Schools Superintendent Jon Rysewyk said the district will return the (Pulitzer-winning) 1976 novel to school library shelves, walking back a decision that (led to) … weeks of community backlash, board member pressure, and statewide criticism.” – Tennessee Lookout
- Miles Davis’ “Kind Of Blue” Is The Best-Selling Jazz Album Of All Time. He Thought It Was A Failure
When I tell people that I missed what I was trying to do on Kind of Blue, that I missed getting the exact sound of the African finger piano up in that sound, they just look at me like I’m crazy. – The Conversation
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Eyewitness Memory Is Unreliable. Or Is It?
The science of memory has been shifting. A re-evaluation of real-world criminal cases and laboratory experiments suggests that an eyewitness’s confidence in a specific memory can be a strong indicator of the veracity of their account, at least in certain circumstances. – Nature
- You Couldn’t Design A More Anti-News Internet If You Tried
It’s like an invisible tax levied on our communities that we pay civically, cognitively and sometimes even literally, in the form of higher local bond prices due to more wasteful government spending. Increasingly, this invisible tax is being silently levied by Big Tech. – NiemanLab
- Why Has The World Stopped Making Babies?
Some blame technology, particularly smartphones and social media. Others blame a kind of 21st-century weltschmerz—a sadness about the state of the world and our uncertain future in it. – The Atlantic
- Gandhi And His Notion Of Micro- And Macro-Morality
Gandhi demonstrated that micro-morality is essential, but not good enough. We have to be morally good people used to looking inside and judging what we do before we do it, but also people who look seriously at the flawed systems that surround us and think about what we can do to oppose them. – 3 Quarks Daily
- Maybe We’re Thinking About Ecosystems The Wrong Way
Why do we keep thinking ecosystems have functions they could fail to perform? – Aeon
