AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Rethinking Dance Education
“The data shows that the majority of kids who enroll in dance will not pursue it as a career, and 90 percent will quit in their preteen years. There’s an opportunity for dance education to rethink its approach: How do we teach kids to love dance and the skin they’re in for all stages of life?” – Dance Teacher
- A New York Times Reporter Becomes A Supernumerary For ABT’s “Swan Lake”
“Being onstage, although well out of the spotlight, brought once-familiar sensations flooding back: the particular dry-mouth feel that comes from nerves and heavy lipstick, the sweat-and-velvet musk of the costumes. But nothing can quite prepare you for your first look into the Met audience — faceless and staggeringly vast.” – The New York Times
- Data: A Widening Gap In Financial Health Of Arts In American Cities
We found that as federal relief funding waned, the gap between the strongest- and weakest-performing cities widened sharply. – SMU Data Arts
- Sony Sues AI Music-Creator Udio Over Copyright Theft
Sony Music Entertainment has filed a second copyright infringement lawsuit against Udio, asserting 30,117 sound recordings it says the AI music company copied without permission to train its generative AI models. – Music Business Worldwide
- Clothing Fashion Turned Over To Algorithms
It monitors customers’ social media activity and internet searches, factors in Hailey Bieber’s latest outfits and spits out 300 styles a month made cheaply in China. After it reached $460 million in sales in 2025, one of its founders boasted to The Wall Street Journal, “We’re more like a data company than a fashion company.” – The New York Times
ISSUES
- Clothing Fashion Turned Over To Algorithms
It monitors customers’ social media activity and internet searches, factors in Hailey Bieber’s latest outfits and spits out 300 styles a month made cheaply in China. After it reached $460 million in sales in 2025, one of its founders boasted to The Wall Street Journal, “We’re more like a data company than a fashion company.” – The New York Times
- Auction House Sales Reports Show A Fundamental Change In The Art Business
This year, the houses devoted nearly as much space to private sales, lending, financial services, luxury goods, hospitality, and advisory work as they did to paintings and sculptures. Read together, they suggest that the biggest transformation in the auction business isn’t the recovery itself. It’s the transformation of the auction houses’ businesses. – ARTnews
- A Bill In Congress To Protect Art Owned by The Federal Government
The PRESERVE Act (“Protecting Resources and Ensuring Stewardship of Enduring Records of Visual Expression Act”) would require the General Services Administration, which manages federal agencies, to identify any artworks contained within government buildings deemed “surplus property” and form a committee to oversee the future of said artworks. – ARTnews
- The End Of The Mega Gallery
“Are we witnessing the art world’s Napoleonic march to Moscow, an over-expansion propelled by hubris that is now inevitably falling to its knees?” – Artnet
- Renoir Sure Painted A Lot Of Young Girls
Who were they? – LitHub
MEDIA
- Data: A Widening Gap In Financial Health Of Arts In American Cities
We found that as federal relief funding waned, the gap between the strongest- and weakest-performing cities widened sharply. – SMU Data Arts
- UK’s Culture Secretary Will Stay On Under New Prime Minister
“Despite new Prime Minister Andy Burnham undergoing an extensive cabinet reshuffle, incumbent culture minister Lisa Nandy is set to remain in post. Nandy, who has been a member of Parliament since 2010 …, was appointed secretary of state for culture, media and sport by previous Prime Minister Keir Starmer in July 2024.” – Variety
- What Touched Off The Culture Wars
Frohnmayer’s dilemma was that he believed in artistic freedom and didn’t think Congress should dictate what the N.E.A. funded, but he also felt obliged, as a political appointee, to avoid funding work that Congress and the President found offensive. The result was flip-flopping. – The New Yorker
- Cleveland Comes Out On Top For Public Funding Of The Arts
The report ranked Cleveland No. 1 revenue growth among arts organizations from 2019 to 2024 in a cohort of 10 U.S. cities. The others were Atlanta, Des Moines, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento and Seattle. – Ideastream
- Music Publishers Drop Lawsuits Against X, Which Drops Lawsuits Against Music Publishers
Why? No one’s saying: “In their legal papers, the companies gave no reason for the stipulation of dismissal and did not mention any settlement.” – The New York Times
MUSIC
- Both Houses Of Congress Introduce Bill Allowing Nationwide Book Bans In Public Schools
“Senate Bill 4925, a partisan effort to control materials in public schools, … was introduced June 24 by Republican Senators. … Like its companion legislation, House Bill 7661, SB 4925 would amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to prohibit the use of federal funding for ‘sexually oriented material’ in public schools.” – Publishers Weekly
- Here Are The Books All Students In Texas Schools Will Be Required To Read
“(The state) is doing something unusual, attempting to create a common canon of books that all students statewide will be required to read. The list was approved last month by the Republican-led Texas State Board of Education and is in the process of being finalized. It will take effect starting in 2030.” – The New York Times
- When Is It Okay To Let A Language Die?
Preserve this language (or species or building or mine) or else surrender to indifference, cynicism, and nihilism. But is that ever the choice we face? – The New Yorker
- How Publishers Fight For Sweet, Sweet ‘Odyssey’ Money
New covers – foil-stamped! Or colorfully graphic-novel-esque! – famous translators, deckled edges, and marketing moves try to set apart various versions of The Odyssey for the surprisingly robust market. – The New York Times
- In The UK, Fifty Years Of Post-Punk, Radical Fanzines See A Massive Resurgence
Why? “Digital attention span is at an all-time low. … You’re almost definitely going to spend more time looking at a zine than anything you see scrolling. It’s more interesting and more real.” – The Guardian (UK)
PEOPLE
- Rethinking Dance Education
“The data shows that the majority of kids who enroll in dance will not pursue it as a career, and 90 percent will quit in their preteen years. There’s an opportunity for dance education to rethink its approach: How do we teach kids to love dance and the skin they’re in for all stages of life?” – Dance Teacher
- A New York Times Reporter Becomes A Supernumerary For ABT’s “Swan Lake”
“Being onstage, although well out of the spotlight, brought once-familiar sensations flooding back: the particular dry-mouth feel that comes from nerves and heavy lipstick, the sweat-and-velvet musk of the costumes. But nothing can quite prepare you for your first look into the Met audience — faceless and staggeringly vast.” – The New York Times
- Data: A Widening Gap In Financial Health Of Arts In American Cities
We found that as federal relief funding waned, the gap between the strongest- and weakest-performing cities widened sharply. – SMU Data Arts
- Sony Sues AI Music-Creator Udio Over Copyright Theft
Sony Music Entertainment has filed a second copyright infringement lawsuit against Udio, asserting 30,117 sound recordings it says the AI music company copied without permission to train its generative AI models. – Music Business Worldwide
- Clothing Fashion Turned Over To Algorithms
It monitors customers’ social media activity and internet searches, factors in Hailey Bieber’s latest outfits and spits out 300 styles a month made cheaply in China. After it reached $460 million in sales in 2025, one of its founders boasted to The Wall Street Journal, “We’re more like a data company than a fashion company.” – The New York Times
PEOPLE
- Rethinking Dance Education
“The data shows that the majority of kids who enroll in dance will not pursue it as a career, and 90 percent will quit in their preteen years. There’s an opportunity for dance education to rethink its approach: How do we teach kids to love dance and the skin they’re in for all stages of life?” – Dance Teacher
- A New York Times Reporter Becomes A Supernumerary For ABT’s “Swan Lake”
“Being onstage, although well out of the spotlight, brought once-familiar sensations flooding back: the particular dry-mouth feel that comes from nerves and heavy lipstick, the sweat-and-velvet musk of the costumes. But nothing can quite prepare you for your first look into the Met audience — faceless and staggeringly vast.” – The New York Times
- Data: A Widening Gap In Financial Health Of Arts In American Cities
We found that as federal relief funding waned, the gap between the strongest- and weakest-performing cities widened sharply. – SMU Data Arts
- Sony Sues AI Music-Creator Udio Over Copyright Theft
Sony Music Entertainment has filed a second copyright infringement lawsuit against Udio, asserting 30,117 sound recordings it says the AI music company copied without permission to train its generative AI models. – Music Business Worldwide
- Clothing Fashion Turned Over To Algorithms
It monitors customers’ social media activity and internet searches, factors in Hailey Bieber’s latest outfits and spits out 300 styles a month made cheaply in China. After it reached $460 million in sales in 2025, one of its founders boasted to The Wall Street Journal, “We’re more like a data company than a fashion company.” – The New York Times
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Why Costco Is Thriving As The Antithesis Of Amazon
While most retailers today assume that consumers want ever greater assortment, Costco’s popularity speaks to a countervailing desire for less choice. Indeed, the pre-selection of items for sale in their warehouses is part of the value proposition. – The Walrus
- A Short History Of Being Burned Out
Burnout’s meaning shifted from literal to figurative over time. It began as a description of candles burning out or fuel being used up, then shifted to a barn burning down and a worker’s energy or body being depleted in the rebuilding. Eventually it came to simply describe a worker’s exhaustion. – The Conversation
- Why Is Everything Weird? Blame The Uni-Context
How do all other norms—our morals, our ethics, our sense of what is good for us and for others—change when we continually imagine ourselves to be living in a universal room with everybody else? – Derek Thompson
- How Indigenous Communities In Brazil Are Dealing With Threats From The Internet
Using Nhandeflix, “users can find Guarani cultural productions like Roda Cutia (a Guarani children’s song), Bicicletas de Nhanderú (a documentary about a Guarani-Mbya town in southern Brazil), … and Como a noite apareceu (a fictional film based on a Guarani legend).” – El País English
- There’s A Big Plot Twist At The End Of The Odyssey
Don’t blame Homer for this one, and don’t read this story if you don’t want spoilers. – Slate