AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Good Morning
Today’s AJ highlights: A game-changing media deal that could redefine copyright.
The most significant story today is the massive investment and licensing deal, which sees Disney license its vast character library to OpenAI’s new AI platforms in a deal that will redefine copyright (The Wall Street Journal (MSN)). This arrangement is a watershed moment that places AI at the center of the creative economy’s intellectual property landscape. The traditional media world faces its own upheaval as an analysis unpacks David Ellison’s dangerous play for Warner Bros. (The New Yorker) and his history of mixing business with political connections. Adding to the industry drama, a scandal involving production funding fraud saw a Netflix director found guilty (The Hollywood Reporter) of swindling $11 million.
The political assault on cultural institutions continues to escalate, as Arkansas becomes the first state to sever its public television’s ties with PBS (Arkansas Advocate). A major institutional leadership story sees the Director of Britain’s Tate Galleries to step down (The Guardian) after a nine-year tenure. Finally, in a victory for public culture, the World’s Third-Busiest Public Library withdrew a restructuring plan (The Guardian) after a significant public and writers’ outcry.
All these stories and more, below.
- An Ethnomusicologist Analyzes Eartha Kitt’s “Santa Baby”
Prof. Michael O’Brien discusses why we listen to so many of the same songs year after year, the unusual appeal of “Santa Baby,” and why Eartha Kitt’s version is so much better than Madonna’s (or anyone else’s). – The Post and Courier (Charleston)
- The Woeful State Of Arts PR. Here’s Why It Matters
On the inside of my job, lousy PR is one of the biggest signs that an institution is struggling. Outreach goes ignored, follow-up is late and flustered, and media events suffer. – Broad Street Review
- The Collective Who’s Transforming Ballet In France’s Second City
“(LA)HORDE is a choreographic collective running the National Ballet of Marseille and rewriting the ballet rulebook for a new era. Their work blends classical techniques with surprising influences, from queer nightlife to the political history of social dance.” – BBC (video)
- What Happens To You Creatively After You’ve Won Success?
These big breaks and large prizes are remarkable things that can provide incredible opportunities, but there is so often another side to that success. – LA Review of Books
ISSUES
- Director Of Britain’s Tate Galleries To Step Down
“Maria Balshaw is to (depart) in 2026, after a challenging nine-year tenure when she steered the organisation through the COVID-19 pandemic and had to deal with fluctuating attendance figures and financial instability.” – The Guardian
- Controversial New Designs For Notre Dame’s Stained Glass Windows Go On Display
The designs for six new stained-glass windows for the cathedral of Notre Dame have gone on show at the Grand Palais in Paris, despite a number of protests against the project. – CNN
- The Louvre’s Security Cameras Caught The Entire Jewel Heist — But The Security Guards Couldn’t See It
“(The museum’s) security control room was not equipped with enough screens to watch every camera simultaneously, so the break-in was not watched in real-time. By the time guards had manually switched to the relevant live feed, nearly eight minutes after the heist began, the robbers were already getting away.” – Artnet
- Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum To Open Its First Satellite
And no, it’s not in Abu Dhabi. It will be in the south of the Netherlands, in the high-tech hub of Eindhoven. The new museum, planned to cover more than 3,500 square meters (37,673 square feet) near the city’s central railway station, is scheduled to open in six to eight years. – AP
- “The Sistine Chapel Of The New Deal” In Danger Of Demolition By Trump Administration
The Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building in Washington, D.C. contains perhaps the most important New Deal-era murals in the city — works by Philip Guston and Seymour Vogel as well as Ben Shahn’s monumental The Meaning of Social Security. The Trump administration is currently soliciting bids for the building’s demolition. – The New Republic
MEDIA
- The Woeful State Of Arts PR. Here’s Why It Matters
On the inside of my job, lousy PR is one of the biggest signs that an institution is struggling. Outreach goes ignored, follow-up is late and flustered, and media events suffer. – Broad Street Review
- Profound Changes In Canada’s Cultural Economy
It found that Manitoba’s cultural sector produces $1,010 worth of cultural goods and services per person, one of the highest per-capita levels in Canada. Manitoba trails only British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. – Winnipeg Free Press
- A Wave Of Unionization At Chicago’s Cultural Institutions
In the last four years, AFSCME’s Cultural Workers United organizing campaign has helped 2,500 Illinois cultural workers form unions at such sites as the Art Institute of Chicago, Field Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shedd Aquarium, Newberry Library, and, most recently, the Adler Planetarium and Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. – WBEZ (Chicago)
- Why Does It Seem Like Every Major Cultural Institution In Melbourne Is Named After The Same Person?
Well, because that person, Ian Potter, was extraordinarily generous, as his widow and his foundation continue to be. But when your sister gets angry because she was waiting for you at one Ian Potter Museum while you waited for her at another, you realize there must be a better way. – ABC (Australia)
- The Trumped Up Kennedy Honors
Every detail of the ceremony appeared to have been plucked from Trump’s mood board, an indelible blend of revanchist impulses and eighties camp. – The New Yorker
MUSIC
- World’s Third-Busiest Public Library Withdraws “Restructuring” Plan After Outcry
Many of Australia’s most prominent writers and artists, along with thousands of ordinary citizens, expressed outrage over the proposal to eliminate 39 jobs — including cutting the number of public-facing reference librarians by 60% — and refocus the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne on tourist-oriented “digital experiences.” – The Guardian
- Poetry And Politics In The U.S., Then And Now
Verse was used as a political tool going back all the way to the Revolutionary War. Walt Whitman considered poetry to democracy, which “waits the coming of its bards … in the twilight of dawn.” And the connection of poetry to politics continues today with Joy Harjo and Amanda Gorman. – JSTOR Daily
- A.A. Milne, Author Of Winnie-the-Pooh, Also Wrote Romance Novels
“For the next fifty years, females of all ages both delighted and troubled him. He was not sure he ever understood them, but … he wrote about women time and time again.” – Literary Hub
- Frank Lloyd Wright Also Designed Typeface Fonts
What’s more, those fonts have been adapted for digital use. – Artnet
- If You Quit Social Media. Will Your Time Really Be Better Spent On…?
One of the more common doomsday scenarios about social media goes something like this: an internet-addicted public, hooked on the dopamine hits of engagement and the immediate satisfaction of short-form video, loses its ability to read books and gets stupider and more reactionary as a result. – The New Yorker
PEOPLE
- Good Morning
Today’s AJ highlights: A game-changing media deal that could redefine copyright.
The most significant story today is the massive investment and licensing deal, which sees Disney license its vast character library to OpenAI’s new AI platforms in a deal that will redefine copyright (The Wall Street Journal (MSN)). This arrangement is a watershed moment that places AI at the center of the creative economy’s intellectual property landscape. The traditional media world faces its own upheaval as an analysis unpacks David Ellison’s dangerous play for Warner Bros. (The New Yorker) and his history of mixing business with political connections. Adding to the industry drama, a scandal involving production funding fraud saw a Netflix director found guilty (The Hollywood Reporter) of swindling $11 million.
The political assault on cultural institutions continues to escalate, as Arkansas becomes the first state to sever its public television’s ties with PBS (Arkansas Advocate). A major institutional leadership story sees the Director of Britain’s Tate Galleries to step down (The Guardian) after a nine-year tenure. Finally, in a victory for public culture, the World’s Third-Busiest Public Library withdrew a restructuring plan (The Guardian) after a significant public and writers’ outcry.
All these stories and more, below.
- An Ethnomusicologist Analyzes Eartha Kitt’s “Santa Baby”
Prof. Michael O’Brien discusses why we listen to so many of the same songs year after year, the unusual appeal of “Santa Baby,” and why Eartha Kitt’s version is so much better than Madonna’s (or anyone else’s). – The Post and Courier (Charleston)
- The Woeful State Of Arts PR. Here’s Why It Matters
On the inside of my job, lousy PR is one of the biggest signs that an institution is struggling. Outreach goes ignored, follow-up is late and flustered, and media events suffer. – Broad Street Review
- The Collective Who’s Transforming Ballet In France’s Second City
“(LA)HORDE is a choreographic collective running the National Ballet of Marseille and rewriting the ballet rulebook for a new era. Their work blends classical techniques with surprising influences, from queer nightlife to the political history of social dance.” – BBC (video)
- What Happens To You Creatively After You’ve Won Success?
These big breaks and large prizes are remarkable things that can provide incredible opportunities, but there is so often another side to that success. – LA Review of Books
PEOPLE
- Good Morning
Today’s AJ highlights: A game-changing media deal that could redefine copyright.
The most significant story today is the massive investment and licensing deal, which sees Disney license its vast character library to OpenAI’s new AI platforms in a deal that will redefine copyright (The Wall Street Journal (MSN)). This arrangement is a watershed moment that places AI at the center of the creative economy’s intellectual property landscape. The traditional media world faces its own upheaval as an analysis unpacks David Ellison’s dangerous play for Warner Bros. (The New Yorker) and his history of mixing business with political connections. Adding to the industry drama, a scandal involving production funding fraud saw a Netflix director found guilty (The Hollywood Reporter) of swindling $11 million.
The political assault on cultural institutions continues to escalate, as Arkansas becomes the first state to sever its public television’s ties with PBS (Arkansas Advocate). A major institutional leadership story sees the Director of Britain’s Tate Galleries to step down (The Guardian) after a nine-year tenure. Finally, in a victory for public culture, the World’s Third-Busiest Public Library withdrew a restructuring plan (The Guardian) after a significant public and writers’ outcry.
All these stories and more, below.
- An Ethnomusicologist Analyzes Eartha Kitt’s “Santa Baby”
Prof. Michael O’Brien discusses why we listen to so many of the same songs year after year, the unusual appeal of “Santa Baby,” and why Eartha Kitt’s version is so much better than Madonna’s (or anyone else’s). – The Post and Courier (Charleston)
- The Woeful State Of Arts PR. Here’s Why It Matters
On the inside of my job, lousy PR is one of the biggest signs that an institution is struggling. Outreach goes ignored, follow-up is late and flustered, and media events suffer. – Broad Street Review
- The Collective Who’s Transforming Ballet In France’s Second City
“(LA)HORDE is a choreographic collective running the National Ballet of Marseille and rewriting the ballet rulebook for a new era. Their work blends classical techniques with surprising influences, from queer nightlife to the political history of social dance.” – BBC (video)
- What Happens To You Creatively After You’ve Won Success?
These big breaks and large prizes are remarkable things that can provide incredible opportunities, but there is so often another side to that success. – LA Review of Books
THEATRE
VISUAL
- What Happens To You Creatively After You’ve Won Success?
These big breaks and large prizes are remarkable things that can provide incredible opportunities, but there is so often another side to that success. – LA Review of Books
- The Benefits Of Tolerant Cultures
A tolerant person is one who does not interfere with other people, even if he thinks they are wrong, but is prepared to let them think what they like and say what they think. If he thinks they are wrong, he may try to persuade them, but he will not try to force them. – Psyche
- Americans’ Obsession With Renovation And Makeovers — And The White House
The White House has explained the East Wing’s demolition as “renovation,” and the necessary prelude to a multimillion-dollar ballroom. This is the architectural equivalent of a celebrity-style makeover: a redo to admire as a luxury commodity, an old building rejuvenated, history erased. – The New York Times
- The People Who Are Using AI To Do Their Thinking
For this set of compulsive users, AI has become a primary interface through which they interact with the world. The emails they write, the life decisions they make, and the questions that consume their mind all filter through AI first. “It’s like a real addiction.” – The Atlantic
- What If Laziness And Apathy Have Neurological Causes?
When these systems become dysfunctional, people who were once highly motivated can become pathologically apathetic. Whereas previously they might have been curious, highly engaged and productive – at work, in their social lives and in their creative thinking – they can suddenly seem like the opposite. – The Guardian
