ArtsJournal Classic

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

DANCE

    IDEAS

    • The Writer’s Guild Has A Staff Union, And That Union Has Authorized A Strike

      “The labor group’s staff union (WGSU), which includes attorneys, research analysts and other positions, claims that ‘management has dismissed [its] staff’s needs and engaged in bad faith surface bargaining with no intent to reach a fair contract.’” – Los Angeles Times (MSN)

    • Layoffs Thrust Boston Museum Of Fine Art Firmly Into A Credibility Crisis

      “Against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s targeting of DEI policy at universities and cultural institutions and expanding ICE raids, the layoffs are causing a community-wide crisis of confidence that good faith is guiding leadership at one of Boston’s leading art institutions.” – Boston Art Review

    • Canadian Legend Catherine O’Hara, Of Schitt’s Creek, Best In Show, And Home Alone, Dead At 71

      “Though Big Hollywood roles didn’t follow Home Alone‘s success, O’Hara would find her groove with the crew of improv pros brought together by [Christopher] Guest for a series of mockumentaries that began with 1996’s Waiting for Guffman.” – CBC

    • This Week’s AJ Chronicles: Context is Survival
      Existential crises have a way of forcing clarity. Whether the arts and the larger creative world are in crisis I leave for you to decide. But with weekly news of financial and organizational meltdowns, political pressures and an almost primordial angst about threats of AI, some things may be becoming clearer about what matters and/or what works.
    • Good Morning

      This week’s AJ highlights: Wynton Marsalis has announced his retirement from Jazz at Lincoln Center after a 40-year tenure that essentially defined the organization. The Kennedy Center’s administrative situation has descended into farce: its newly hired VP of artistic programming, Kevin Couch, resigned after just two weeks while Sarah Kramer, a senior director who rose through the ranks over a decade, was abruptly fired. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s decision to lay off 6% of its workforce to address an “unsustainable deficit” and the Washington Post’s “existential meltdown” are departures at a more industrial scale.

      There’s a growing “Resistance of the Analog” hardening into a defense against synthetic culture. Yale professors are increasingly banning screens and requiring students to read on paper to force a direct, unmediated encounter with texts that AI cannot replicate. This is justified by the week’s technology news: while advancing AI can beat the “average” human on creativity tests, it still fails to reach the level of “radical” human innovation and judgment. This defense is also taking place in the courts, with major music publishers seeking $3 billion in damages from Anthropic for the alleged mass-theft of song lyrics.

      Finally, we are seeing the rise of a Keep it Human strategy. To keep audiences from disappearing into their screens, the Palo Alto Players has begun offering free childcare to lower the barriers to attending the theater. Mixing cultures, Detroit Opera is welcoming Parliament-Funkadelic for a full symphonic collaboration. And Bob Ross to the rescue: public media is being financially buoyed by the “happy little trees” of Bob Ross, whose paintings are now fetching nearly $800,000 at auction.

      From Cambodian immigrants in Maine finding solace in traditional dance as ICE descends, to a Minneapolis bookshop going viral for resisting federal agents, it’s been an eventful week.

      Lastly — here’s a link to this week’s AJChronicles essay, a new feature in which I riff off the week’s stories

      All of this week’s stories below

    ISSUES

    MEDIA

    MUSIC

    PEOPLE

    • The Writer’s Guild Has A Staff Union, And That Union Has Authorized A Strike

      “The labor group’s staff union (WGSU), which includes attorneys, research analysts and other positions, claims that ‘management has dismissed [its] staff’s needs and engaged in bad faith surface bargaining with no intent to reach a fair contract.’” – Los Angeles Times (MSN)

    • Layoffs Thrust Boston Museum Of Fine Art Firmly Into A Credibility Crisis

      “Against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s targeting of DEI policy at universities and cultural institutions and expanding ICE raids, the layoffs are causing a community-wide crisis of confidence that good faith is guiding leadership at one of Boston’s leading art institutions.” – Boston Art Review

    • Canadian Legend Catherine O’Hara, Of Schitt’s Creek, Best In Show, And Home Alone, Dead At 71

      “Though Big Hollywood roles didn’t follow Home Alone‘s success, O’Hara would find her groove with the crew of improv pros brought together by [Christopher] Guest for a series of mockumentaries that began with 1996’s Waiting for Guffman.” – CBC

    • This Week’s AJ Chronicles: Context is Survival
      Existential crises have a way of forcing clarity. Whether the arts and the larger creative world are in crisis I leave for you to decide. But with weekly news of financial and organizational meltdowns, political pressures and an almost primordial angst about threats of AI, some things may be becoming clearer about what matters and/or what works.
    • Good Morning

      This week’s AJ highlights: Wynton Marsalis has announced his retirement from Jazz at Lincoln Center after a 40-year tenure that essentially defined the organization. The Kennedy Center’s administrative situation has descended into farce: its newly hired VP of artistic programming, Kevin Couch, resigned after just two weeks while Sarah Kramer, a senior director who rose through the ranks over a decade, was abruptly fired. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s decision to lay off 6% of its workforce to address an “unsustainable deficit” and the Washington Post’s “existential meltdown” are departures at a more industrial scale.

      There’s a growing “Resistance of the Analog” hardening into a defense against synthetic culture. Yale professors are increasingly banning screens and requiring students to read on paper to force a direct, unmediated encounter with texts that AI cannot replicate. This is justified by the week’s technology news: while advancing AI can beat the “average” human on creativity tests, it still fails to reach the level of “radical” human innovation and judgment. This defense is also taking place in the courts, with major music publishers seeking $3 billion in damages from Anthropic for the alleged mass-theft of song lyrics.

      Finally, we are seeing the rise of a Keep it Human strategy. To keep audiences from disappearing into their screens, the Palo Alto Players has begun offering free childcare to lower the barriers to attending the theater. Mixing cultures, Detroit Opera is welcoming Parliament-Funkadelic for a full symphonic collaboration. And Bob Ross to the rescue: public media is being financially buoyed by the “happy little trees” of Bob Ross, whose paintings are now fetching nearly $800,000 at auction.

      From Cambodian immigrants in Maine finding solace in traditional dance as ICE descends, to a Minneapolis bookshop going viral for resisting federal agents, it’s been an eventful week.

      Lastly — here’s a link to this week’s AJChronicles essay, a new feature in which I riff off the week’s stories

      All of this week’s stories below

    PEOPLE

    • The Writer’s Guild Has A Staff Union, And That Union Has Authorized A Strike

      “The labor group’s staff union (WGSU), which includes attorneys, research analysts and other positions, claims that ‘management has dismissed [its] staff’s needs and engaged in bad faith surface bargaining with no intent to reach a fair contract.’” – Los Angeles Times (MSN)

    • Layoffs Thrust Boston Museum Of Fine Art Firmly Into A Credibility Crisis

      “Against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s targeting of DEI policy at universities and cultural institutions and expanding ICE raids, the layoffs are causing a community-wide crisis of confidence that good faith is guiding leadership at one of Boston’s leading art institutions.” – Boston Art Review

    • Canadian Legend Catherine O’Hara, Of Schitt’s Creek, Best In Show, And Home Alone, Dead At 71

      “Though Big Hollywood roles didn’t follow Home Alone‘s success, O’Hara would find her groove with the crew of improv pros brought together by [Christopher] Guest for a series of mockumentaries that began with 1996’s Waiting for Guffman.” – CBC

    • This Week’s AJ Chronicles: Context is Survival
      Existential crises have a way of forcing clarity. Whether the arts and the larger creative world are in crisis I leave for you to decide. But with weekly news of financial and organizational meltdowns, political pressures and an almost primordial angst about threats of AI, some things may be becoming clearer about what matters and/or what works.
    • Good Morning

      This week’s AJ highlights: Wynton Marsalis has announced his retirement from Jazz at Lincoln Center after a 40-year tenure that essentially defined the organization. The Kennedy Center’s administrative situation has descended into farce: its newly hired VP of artistic programming, Kevin Couch, resigned after just two weeks while Sarah Kramer, a senior director who rose through the ranks over a decade, was abruptly fired. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s decision to lay off 6% of its workforce to address an “unsustainable deficit” and the Washington Post’s “existential meltdown” are departures at a more industrial scale.

      There’s a growing “Resistance of the Analog” hardening into a defense against synthetic culture. Yale professors are increasingly banning screens and requiring students to read on paper to force a direct, unmediated encounter with texts that AI cannot replicate. This is justified by the week’s technology news: while advancing AI can beat the “average” human on creativity tests, it still fails to reach the level of “radical” human innovation and judgment. This defense is also taking place in the courts, with major music publishers seeking $3 billion in damages from Anthropic for the alleged mass-theft of song lyrics.

      Finally, we are seeing the rise of a Keep it Human strategy. To keep audiences from disappearing into their screens, the Palo Alto Players has begun offering free childcare to lower the barriers to attending the theater. Mixing cultures, Detroit Opera is welcoming Parliament-Funkadelic for a full symphonic collaboration. And Bob Ross to the rescue: public media is being financially buoyed by the “happy little trees” of Bob Ross, whose paintings are now fetching nearly $800,000 at auction.

      From Cambodian immigrants in Maine finding solace in traditional dance as ICE descends, to a Minneapolis bookshop going viral for resisting federal agents, it’s been an eventful week.

      Lastly — here’s a link to this week’s AJChronicles essay, a new feature in which I riff off the week’s stories

      All of this week’s stories below

    THEATRE

      VISUAL

      WORDS