ArtsJournal Classic

AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only

DANCE

    IDEAS

    • Good Morning

      Looking back across this week, it’s striking how many stories were about who gets to control cultural narratives — and how much that fight has escalated. Congressional Republicans introduced a bill that would take book banning national, the Trump administration was sued for rewriting history in national parks, and at the Smithsonian, volunteer citizen historians are quietly documenting every gallery to track whatever the government changes next. Meanwhile at the Berlinale, the festival director may lose her job over how she handled political speech by artists — another institution discovering that “artistic freedom” has invisible asterisks. I explore this topic further in my new weekly AJChronicles essay here.

      Arts budgets got slashed from Nova Scotia to Australia, the UK is reconsidering free museum entry, and three-quarters of Chicago’s indie music venues are now unprofitable. France had its own institutional earthquake — the Louvre director resigned after a year of strikes, scandals, and a crown-jewel heist, the culture minister quit to run for mayor of Paris, and Macron filled both jobs in days. Netflix dropped out of the Warner bidding war, handing the win to Paramount Skydance — over a company that lost $252 million last quarter. Hard to see how the business model works here. Confirmation? Netflix stock soared after it pulled out of the deal.

      A dystopian short story apparently spooked Wall Street out of $200 billion this week, 35 forgotten Rembrandt etchings turned up in a Dutch family’s safe, and legendary editor Ann Godoff was remembered as someone who made writers — and publishing — better than they knew they could be. Literature: still powerful enough to move markets, if not always Congress.

      All of this week’s stories below.

    • AJ Chronicles: The Battles for Who gets to say what Culture Is
      Evidence abounds this week that the battles for culture are intensifying. Taken together, these tests of authority over cultural institutions are probes of where the line is, of how much self-censorship the cultural sector will perform without being explicitly required to.
    • Events and Donor Fulfillment Associate – Paul Taylor Dance Company

      Events and Donor Fulfillment Associate

      Position Overview:

      We are seeking a highly organized and motivated individual to join Paul Taylor Dance Company as an Events and Donor Fulfillment Associate. The Events Associate will play a key role in planning, managing, and executing the Company’s annual series of events and donor fulfillment initiatives, including our annual November gala. This position requires excellent project management skills, a strong understanding of event planning, budgeting, and marketing, as well as the ability to hold donor information in strict confidence and to work collaboratively with a diverse group of stakeholders.

      Job Title: Events and Donor Fulfillment Associate
      Department: Development
      FLSA Status: Exempt
      Employment Status: Full-Time
      Reports to: Senior Director of Advancement
      Salary: Commensurate with experience, the salary for this position is $67,000.

      General Responsibilities:

      Event Planning & Support
      ● Lead in executing and producing patron dinners, donor receptions, studio events, open rehearsals, November gala for 400 guests, Board events, and special campaign events.
      ● Coordinate event invitations, guest lists, and RSVP lists.
      ● Work closely with the development team to ensure prompt creation of event materials.
      ● Assure efficiency for internal and external event execution.
      ● Oversee events (mornings, nights, and some weekends required with three full weeks of extended workdays during the Lincoln Center performance season in November).
      ● Assist with and coordinate logistics support for Board events and Taylor-on-the-Road trips, including coordination with venues and vendors; hotel, restaurant, and travel logistics; tracking and coordination of special requirements for guests and hosts; planning, confirmation and follow-up communications.

      Vendor & Production Coordination
      ● Oversee contracts and invoices for clients pre- and post-events.
      ● Host vendor site visits.
      ● Support vendor activity regarding load-in/out, set-up in designated areas, and adherence to all event guidelines.
      ● Conduct research for site rentals and potential vendors.

      Community Relations & Internal Communications
      ● Field phone calls and e-mails related to event inquiries.
      ● Track and share project timelines, calendars, check lists, work requests and memos to support internal communications and ensure timely delivery of work product.

      Development Operations & Records Management
      ● Maintain accurate records in databases and shared drives.
      ● Collaborate with the development team to manage database for gift entry, ticket sales, and acknowledgement of event-related gifts.
      ● Track event revenue and expense budgets.

      Qualifications:

      ● 5+ years experience in arts management, event planning, or a related field (or equivalent experience)
      ● Proven experience in project management, preferably in the arts or nonprofit sector
      ● Exceptional organizational and time management skills, with the ability to multitask and prioritize effectively
      ● Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to work collaboratively with diverse teams and stakeholders
      ● Knowledge of event planning and production, including budgeting, logistics, and technical requirements
      ● Familiarity with marketing and promotion strategies, including digital marketing and social media platforms
      ● Familiarity with CRMs and data management
      ● Familiarity with social media platforms and Google suite
      ● Passion for the arts, particularly dance, and a commitment to community engagement
      ● Ability to work flexible hours, including evenings and weekends, as required by event schedules

      Benefits:

      Employee health and dental insurance covered; 10 days PTO in the first year; retirement savings matched up $1,000; other benefits and services provided through PEO.

      Start Date: April 1, 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter

      About Paul Taylor Dance Company:

      Founded by choreographer Paul Taylor in 1954, Paul Taylor Dance Company is a premier institutional center for American modern dance. Under the artistic direction of Michael Novak, Paul Taylor Dance Company honors Taylor’s groundbreaking legacy and invests heavily in the future of the art form, creating a repertory that speaks directly to contemporary times and amplifying new voices that complement Taylor’s genius.

      Paul Taylor Dance Company is an equal employment opportunity employer and complies with all applicable laws prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, creed, religion, ethnicity, sex, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, veteran status, marital status, medical condition, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic characteristic, as well as any other category protected by law. All such discrimination is unlawful and all persons involved in the operations of the Foundation are prohibited from engaging in this type of conduct.

      To Apply:

      Interested applicants are asked to send a cover letter and resume as one document to jobs@ptdc.org. Absolutely no phone calls. Applications received by March 13, 2026, will be considered with highest priority.

      MORE

    • Larry Reed, California’s Master Of Shadow Puppetry, Is Dead At 81

      He was among the first Americans to study Balinese shadow theater and then perform it back home, which he did for his entire career. He expanded his practice to include collaborating in stagings of Shakespeare and Octavio Solis as well as producing his own elaborate myth- or history-based extravaganzas. – San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

    • Ode To A Great Editor

      During my own editing stint, I came to understand writers as prisoners of their own minds, pressed up against the bars of the words they have already committed to the page. Writers suffer from a cognitive impairment that limits their ability to see flaws in their prose. – The Atlantic

    ISSUES

    • Sorry, “Guerilla Teaching” Isn’t Allowed In Smithsonian Galleries

      He was at the Portrait Gallery as an educator but also as co-founder of Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian, a group that last year spent thousands of hours documenting every corner of the Smithsonian, to track any changes made as Trump administration officials assert control over the content of the museums. – Washington Post

    • Pompeii Gets a Digital Makeover: Now With Less Ash

      Forget the petrified citizens – new 3D renderings show Pompeii as the thriving metropolis it was before Vesuvius crashed the party. Because apparently we needed CGI to remind us that ancient Romans actually lived there. — Aeon

    • A Real Shit Show: Berlinale’s Director Faces Axe Over Israel Stance

      Tricia Tuttle discovers that running a major film festival means navigating more landmines than a war correspondent. Her crime? Apparently failing to muzzle artists fast enough for Berlin’s taste. Nothing says ‘artistic freedom’ quite like institutional panic. — Hyperallergic

    • DePaul Art Museum In Chicago To Shut Down This Summer

      Announcement of the closure, which is effective June 30, comes two months after DePaul University laid off 114 full-time and part-time staff. Administrators cited financial troubles due to a significant drop in international graduate student enrollment, increased demand for financial aid and the rising costs of benefits. – WBEZ (Chicago)

    • 35 Rembrandt Etchings Rediscovered After A Century In A Safe

      Charlotte Meyer’s grandfather, who had a sharp eye, picked them up inexpensively back when etchings weren’t highly valued, and they remained in her family’s safe for decades. When she had time during the COVID lockdowns, she found the works and later took them to the nearby Rembrandt House in Amsterdam, where they were authenticated. – ARTnews

    MEDIA

    MUSIC

    • Ode To A Great Editor

      During my own editing stint, I came to understand writers as prisoners of their own minds, pressed up against the bars of the words they have already committed to the page. Writers suffer from a cognitive impairment that limits their ability to see flaws in their prose. – The Atlantic

    • Congressional Republicans Propose National Book Banning

      House Resolution 7661 transforms grassroots library battles into national policy, giving censors sweeping powers to purge school and public collections. Democracy’s reading rooms become political battlegrounds as cultural wars scale up. — Literary Hub

    • Where Has The Sex Gone? Our Literature Is Getting Cleaner

      Literary writers have other demands to satisfy. In general, readers come to their books seeking not an escape from reality but perspective on it. Romance novels can provide this, just as literary novels can have happy endings, but they’re still beholden to the fantasy that’s part of the genre. – The Atlantic

    • A Rebirth In Critic-ing?

      If the review sections of newspapers are closing down, there’s a sense that this moment could make room for a meatier, weirder kind of criticism. – Columbia Journalism Review

    • A Reporter Starts A “Book Club” For Newspaper Articles

      At a St. Petersburg bookstore, Lauren Peace, an enterprise equity reporter at the Tampa Bay Times, moderates conversations about a selected story among its author and community members. The idea is not just to discuss the story’s substance, but to give readers a behind-the-scenes look at the reporting process and decision-making. – Nieman Lab

    PEOPLE

    • Good Morning

      Looking back across this week, it’s striking how many stories were about who gets to control cultural narratives — and how much that fight has escalated. Congressional Republicans introduced a bill that would take book banning national, the Trump administration was sued for rewriting history in national parks, and at the Smithsonian, volunteer citizen historians are quietly documenting every gallery to track whatever the government changes next. Meanwhile at the Berlinale, the festival director may lose her job over how she handled political speech by artists — another institution discovering that “artistic freedom” has invisible asterisks. I explore this topic further in my new weekly AJChronicles essay here.

      Arts budgets got slashed from Nova Scotia to Australia, the UK is reconsidering free museum entry, and three-quarters of Chicago’s indie music venues are now unprofitable. France had its own institutional earthquake — the Louvre director resigned after a year of strikes, scandals, and a crown-jewel heist, the culture minister quit to run for mayor of Paris, and Macron filled both jobs in days. Netflix dropped out of the Warner bidding war, handing the win to Paramount Skydance — over a company that lost $252 million last quarter. Hard to see how the business model works here. Confirmation? Netflix stock soared after it pulled out of the deal.

      A dystopian short story apparently spooked Wall Street out of $200 billion this week, 35 forgotten Rembrandt etchings turned up in a Dutch family’s safe, and legendary editor Ann Godoff was remembered as someone who made writers — and publishing — better than they knew they could be. Literature: still powerful enough to move markets, if not always Congress.

      All of this week’s stories below.

    • AJ Chronicles: The Battles for Who gets to say what Culture Is
      Evidence abounds this week that the battles for culture are intensifying. Taken together, these tests of authority over cultural institutions are probes of where the line is, of how much self-censorship the cultural sector will perform without being explicitly required to.
    • Events and Donor Fulfillment Associate – Paul Taylor Dance Company

      Events and Donor Fulfillment Associate

      Position Overview:

      We are seeking a highly organized and motivated individual to join Paul Taylor Dance Company as an Events and Donor Fulfillment Associate. The Events Associate will play a key role in planning, managing, and executing the Company’s annual series of events and donor fulfillment initiatives, including our annual November gala. This position requires excellent project management skills, a strong understanding of event planning, budgeting, and marketing, as well as the ability to hold donor information in strict confidence and to work collaboratively with a diverse group of stakeholders.

      Job Title: Events and Donor Fulfillment Associate
      Department: Development
      FLSA Status: Exempt
      Employment Status: Full-Time
      Reports to: Senior Director of Advancement
      Salary: Commensurate with experience, the salary for this position is $67,000.

      General Responsibilities:

      Event Planning & Support
      ● Lead in executing and producing patron dinners, donor receptions, studio events, open rehearsals, November gala for 400 guests, Board events, and special campaign events.
      ● Coordinate event invitations, guest lists, and RSVP lists.
      ● Work closely with the development team to ensure prompt creation of event materials.
      ● Assure efficiency for internal and external event execution.
      ● Oversee events (mornings, nights, and some weekends required with three full weeks of extended workdays during the Lincoln Center performance season in November).
      ● Assist with and coordinate logistics support for Board events and Taylor-on-the-Road trips, including coordination with venues and vendors; hotel, restaurant, and travel logistics; tracking and coordination of special requirements for guests and hosts; planning, confirmation and follow-up communications.

      Vendor & Production Coordination
      ● Oversee contracts and invoices for clients pre- and post-events.
      ● Host vendor site visits.
      ● Support vendor activity regarding load-in/out, set-up in designated areas, and adherence to all event guidelines.
      ● Conduct research for site rentals and potential vendors.

      Community Relations & Internal Communications
      ● Field phone calls and e-mails related to event inquiries.
      ● Track and share project timelines, calendars, check lists, work requests and memos to support internal communications and ensure timely delivery of work product.

      Development Operations & Records Management
      ● Maintain accurate records in databases and shared drives.
      ● Collaborate with the development team to manage database for gift entry, ticket sales, and acknowledgement of event-related gifts.
      ● Track event revenue and expense budgets.

      Qualifications:

      ● 5+ years experience in arts management, event planning, or a related field (or equivalent experience)
      ● Proven experience in project management, preferably in the arts or nonprofit sector
      ● Exceptional organizational and time management skills, with the ability to multitask and prioritize effectively
      ● Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to work collaboratively with diverse teams and stakeholders
      ● Knowledge of event planning and production, including budgeting, logistics, and technical requirements
      ● Familiarity with marketing and promotion strategies, including digital marketing and social media platforms
      ● Familiarity with CRMs and data management
      ● Familiarity with social media platforms and Google suite
      ● Passion for the arts, particularly dance, and a commitment to community engagement
      ● Ability to work flexible hours, including evenings and weekends, as required by event schedules

      Benefits:

      Employee health and dental insurance covered; 10 days PTO in the first year; retirement savings matched up $1,000; other benefits and services provided through PEO.

      Start Date: April 1, 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter

      About Paul Taylor Dance Company:

      Founded by choreographer Paul Taylor in 1954, Paul Taylor Dance Company is a premier institutional center for American modern dance. Under the artistic direction of Michael Novak, Paul Taylor Dance Company honors Taylor’s groundbreaking legacy and invests heavily in the future of the art form, creating a repertory that speaks directly to contemporary times and amplifying new voices that complement Taylor’s genius.

      Paul Taylor Dance Company is an equal employment opportunity employer and complies with all applicable laws prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, creed, religion, ethnicity, sex, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, veteran status, marital status, medical condition, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic characteristic, as well as any other category protected by law. All such discrimination is unlawful and all persons involved in the operations of the Foundation are prohibited from engaging in this type of conduct.

      To Apply:

      Interested applicants are asked to send a cover letter and resume as one document to jobs@ptdc.org. Absolutely no phone calls. Applications received by March 13, 2026, will be considered with highest priority.

      MORE

    • Larry Reed, California’s Master Of Shadow Puppetry, Is Dead At 81

      He was among the first Americans to study Balinese shadow theater and then perform it back home, which he did for his entire career. He expanded his practice to include collaborating in stagings of Shakespeare and Octavio Solis as well as producing his own elaborate myth- or history-based extravaganzas. – San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

    • Ode To A Great Editor

      During my own editing stint, I came to understand writers as prisoners of their own minds, pressed up against the bars of the words they have already committed to the page. Writers suffer from a cognitive impairment that limits their ability to see flaws in their prose. – The Atlantic

    PEOPLE

    • Good Morning

      Looking back across this week, it’s striking how many stories were about who gets to control cultural narratives — and how much that fight has escalated. Congressional Republicans introduced a bill that would take book banning national, the Trump administration was sued for rewriting history in national parks, and at the Smithsonian, volunteer citizen historians are quietly documenting every gallery to track whatever the government changes next. Meanwhile at the Berlinale, the festival director may lose her job over how she handled political speech by artists — another institution discovering that “artistic freedom” has invisible asterisks. I explore this topic further in my new weekly AJChronicles essay here.

      Arts budgets got slashed from Nova Scotia to Australia, the UK is reconsidering free museum entry, and three-quarters of Chicago’s indie music venues are now unprofitable. France had its own institutional earthquake — the Louvre director resigned after a year of strikes, scandals, and a crown-jewel heist, the culture minister quit to run for mayor of Paris, and Macron filled both jobs in days. Netflix dropped out of the Warner bidding war, handing the win to Paramount Skydance — over a company that lost $252 million last quarter. Hard to see how the business model works here. Confirmation? Netflix stock soared after it pulled out of the deal.

      A dystopian short story apparently spooked Wall Street out of $200 billion this week, 35 forgotten Rembrandt etchings turned up in a Dutch family’s safe, and legendary editor Ann Godoff was remembered as someone who made writers — and publishing — better than they knew they could be. Literature: still powerful enough to move markets, if not always Congress.

      All of this week’s stories below.

    • AJ Chronicles: The Battles for Who gets to say what Culture Is
      Evidence abounds this week that the battles for culture are intensifying. Taken together, these tests of authority over cultural institutions are probes of where the line is, of how much self-censorship the cultural sector will perform without being explicitly required to.
    • Events and Donor Fulfillment Associate – Paul Taylor Dance Company

      Events and Donor Fulfillment Associate

      Position Overview:

      We are seeking a highly organized and motivated individual to join Paul Taylor Dance Company as an Events and Donor Fulfillment Associate. The Events Associate will play a key role in planning, managing, and executing the Company’s annual series of events and donor fulfillment initiatives, including our annual November gala. This position requires excellent project management skills, a strong understanding of event planning, budgeting, and marketing, as well as the ability to hold donor information in strict confidence and to work collaboratively with a diverse group of stakeholders.

      Job Title: Events and Donor Fulfillment Associate
      Department: Development
      FLSA Status: Exempt
      Employment Status: Full-Time
      Reports to: Senior Director of Advancement
      Salary: Commensurate with experience, the salary for this position is $67,000.

      General Responsibilities:

      Event Planning & Support
      ● Lead in executing and producing patron dinners, donor receptions, studio events, open rehearsals, November gala for 400 guests, Board events, and special campaign events.
      ● Coordinate event invitations, guest lists, and RSVP lists.
      ● Work closely with the development team to ensure prompt creation of event materials.
      ● Assure efficiency for internal and external event execution.
      ● Oversee events (mornings, nights, and some weekends required with three full weeks of extended workdays during the Lincoln Center performance season in November).
      ● Assist with and coordinate logistics support for Board events and Taylor-on-the-Road trips, including coordination with venues and vendors; hotel, restaurant, and travel logistics; tracking and coordination of special requirements for guests and hosts; planning, confirmation and follow-up communications.

      Vendor & Production Coordination
      ● Oversee contracts and invoices for clients pre- and post-events.
      ● Host vendor site visits.
      ● Support vendor activity regarding load-in/out, set-up in designated areas, and adherence to all event guidelines.
      ● Conduct research for site rentals and potential vendors.

      Community Relations & Internal Communications
      ● Field phone calls and e-mails related to event inquiries.
      ● Track and share project timelines, calendars, check lists, work requests and memos to support internal communications and ensure timely delivery of work product.

      Development Operations & Records Management
      ● Maintain accurate records in databases and shared drives.
      ● Collaborate with the development team to manage database for gift entry, ticket sales, and acknowledgement of event-related gifts.
      ● Track event revenue and expense budgets.

      Qualifications:

      ● 5+ years experience in arts management, event planning, or a related field (or equivalent experience)
      ● Proven experience in project management, preferably in the arts or nonprofit sector
      ● Exceptional organizational and time management skills, with the ability to multitask and prioritize effectively
      ● Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to work collaboratively with diverse teams and stakeholders
      ● Knowledge of event planning and production, including budgeting, logistics, and technical requirements
      ● Familiarity with marketing and promotion strategies, including digital marketing and social media platforms
      ● Familiarity with CRMs and data management
      ● Familiarity with social media platforms and Google suite
      ● Passion for the arts, particularly dance, and a commitment to community engagement
      ● Ability to work flexible hours, including evenings and weekends, as required by event schedules

      Benefits:

      Employee health and dental insurance covered; 10 days PTO in the first year; retirement savings matched up $1,000; other benefits and services provided through PEO.

      Start Date: April 1, 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter

      About Paul Taylor Dance Company:

      Founded by choreographer Paul Taylor in 1954, Paul Taylor Dance Company is a premier institutional center for American modern dance. Under the artistic direction of Michael Novak, Paul Taylor Dance Company honors Taylor’s groundbreaking legacy and invests heavily in the future of the art form, creating a repertory that speaks directly to contemporary times and amplifying new voices that complement Taylor’s genius.

      Paul Taylor Dance Company is an equal employment opportunity employer and complies with all applicable laws prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, creed, religion, ethnicity, sex, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, veteran status, marital status, medical condition, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic characteristic, as well as any other category protected by law. All such discrimination is unlawful and all persons involved in the operations of the Foundation are prohibited from engaging in this type of conduct.

      To Apply:

      Interested applicants are asked to send a cover letter and resume as one document to jobs@ptdc.org. Absolutely no phone calls. Applications received by March 13, 2026, will be considered with highest priority.

      MORE

    • Larry Reed, California’s Master Of Shadow Puppetry, Is Dead At 81

      He was among the first Americans to study Balinese shadow theater and then perform it back home, which he did for his entire career. He expanded his practice to include collaborating in stagings of Shakespeare and Octavio Solis as well as producing his own elaborate myth- or history-based extravaganzas. – San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

    • Ode To A Great Editor

      During my own editing stint, I came to understand writers as prisoners of their own minds, pressed up against the bars of the words they have already committed to the page. Writers suffer from a cognitive impairment that limits their ability to see flaws in their prose. – The Atlantic

    THEATRE

      VISUAL

      • “Moral Self-Defense” And The Uses of Public Shaming

        “There are plenty of self-serving, self-aggrandizing, morally objectionable reasons for why people participate in public shaming. Nevertheless, the concept of moral self-defence reminds us that our self-respect, our social identities, and our status in our communities are vital.” – Psyche

      • The Qualities Of Ethics Required For Good Government

        In a world increasingly defined by distance, between citizen and state, between policy and experience, between law and justice, Rammohun Roy offers a reminder that good government is not only a matter of laws or statistics. It is a matter of presence.  – Aeon

      • Just What/Where Is The Leisure Class?

        We need to work, because survival demands it, and we need to rest, because work is tiring, but are those two possibilities really exhaustive? – Liberties Journal

      • How Instrumentalization Devalues The Meaning Of Art

        It is no longer enough for universities to say that their programmes allow you to explore some of the most fundamental questions of existence. Now the questions are of a decidedly more bottom-line sort: how will philosophy help you buy a house or build your pension pot? – Aeon

      • How To Declutter Your Attention

        The aim is cognitive clarity via fewer inputs, distilled choices, and settings centred around presence and focus. While design minimalism emphasizes appearance and object count, psychological minimalism directs attention and reduces cognitive friction. – Psyche

      WORDS