AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Pope Leo: Movie Theatres And Cathedrals
There’s “an inner peace that comes from entering the sanctum sanctorum of those movie palaces with the wall-sized screens.2 Don’t take it from me. Take it from a higher authority: his holiness, Pope Leo XIV.” – The Bulwark
- La Jolla Playhouse Appoints Jessica Stone As Artistic Director
As of early next year, the two-time Tony nominee (for her direction of Kimberly Akimbo in 2023 and Water for Elephants in 2024) will succeed Christopher Ashley, who is departing to lead the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York. – The San Diego Union-Tribune (MSN)
- Well, If We Thought The Color-Blind Casting Debate Was Settled, We Were Wrong
“It can now be hard to remember that colorblind casting was once an inflammatory proposition. … But the triumphal march of colorblind casting — hiring actors of any race to play roles originally designated for just one — has taken a detour this year.” – The New York Times
- Alabama Public Television Decides Not To Break Up With PBS (Yet)
“Facing a public backlash, the commission that oversees Alabama Public Television voted Tuesday to continue paying its contract with PBS, rejecting an effort — at least for now — to be the first state to cut ties with the broadcast giant because of politics.” – AP
- Gustav Klimt Portrait Is Now Second-Most Expensive Artwork Ever Auctioned
The six-foot-tall painting, Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (1914-16), shows a young heiress and daughter of Klimt’s patrons draped in a Chinese robe. Its sale price of $236.4 million is exceeded only by the notorious Salvator Mundi attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which sold for $450 million in 2017. – The Guardian
ISSUES
- Gustav Klimt Portrait Is Now Second-Most Expensive Artwork Ever Auctioned
The six-foot-tall painting, Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (1914-16), shows a young heiress and daughter of Klimt’s patrons draped in a Chinese robe. Its sale price of $236.4 million is exceeded only by the notorious Salvator Mundi attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which sold for $450 million in 2017. – The Guardian
- Conceptual Frame: An Art Installation You Have To Really Commit To See
The Frattini Bivouac is not staffed, ticketed or mediated. Anyone can enter it, but only after a six-to-eight-hour ascent on foot across scree, moss and snowfields. – The Guardian
- Louvre Closes A Gallery Because Its Floor Might Cave In
The museum has shuttered some office space and the Campana Gallery (which showcases ancient Greek ceramics) due to “particular fragility of certain beams holding up the floors.” – AP
- Phillips Collection To Controversially Sell Masterpieces To Buy New Art
“Like many of my museum colleagues,” said Eliza Rathbone, chief curator emerita at the Phillips, “I’m deeply saddened and appalled that the Phillips Collection would so irreparably mar the vision of the founder by selling such carefully chosen works.” – Washington Post
- The Studio Museum In Harlem Reopens, After Seven Years, In Its Own New Home
The museum director: “In many ways I do feel the timing of our opening now is ideal. … We’re opening in a moment that’s very much like the moment when the museum was founded.” – Gothamist
MEDIA
- Well, If We Thought The Color-Blind Casting Debate Was Settled, We Were Wrong
“It can now be hard to remember that colorblind casting was once an inflammatory proposition. … But the triumphal march of colorblind casting — hiring actors of any race to play roles originally designated for just one — has taken a detour this year.” – The New York Times
- Two Of New York’s Biggest Arts Philanthropists Dies This Year. Will Anyone Follow In Their Footsteps?
As one former museum director put it about Leonard Lauder and Agnes Gund, “They could open doors, they could bring people together, they would give money, they would give art. It takes three different board members to contribute what they could.” Yet today there are few such people around. – The New York Times
- Is The World Really Getting Dumber? “Yes, And We All Know It.”
Across the developed world, since the 1930s, there’s been what’s called the Flynn effect: IQ scores overall have been rising by about three points a decade — through the turn of the millennium, that is. Social scientist Elizabeth Dworak has documented the effect reversing since 2006. This surprises few people. – New York Magazine (MSN)
- Warning: Florida’s New Education Dictates Are A Return To McCarthyism
“History should never be rewritten to match the politics of the day, as history has valuable lessons to teach.” – APNews
- How The Ushers At New York’s Top Performing Arts Venues Shoo The Audience Back Into The Hall From Intermission
First, they repeatedly play a little melody on a glockenspiel or dinner chime or marimba as they stroll through the lobbies. Then, says one longtime usher at the Metropolitan Opera, “We have to push them, kind of like moving cattle.” – The New York Times
MUSIC
- Giller Prize 2026 Goes To “Pick A Colour” By Souvankham Thammavongsa
This is the second time that the Laotian-Canadian author has won Canada’s top literary award; she is only the fourth author to do so, after Esi Edugyan, M.G. Vassanji and Alice Munro. – Canadian Press (Yahoo!)
- The Icelandic Language Is In Danger Of Dying Out
“Having this language that is spoken by so very few, I feel that we carry a huge responsibility to actually preserve that. I do not personally think we are doing enough to do that,” she said, not least because young people in Iceland “are absolutely surrounded by material in English, on social media and other media”. – The Guardian
- “Parasocial” Is Cambridge Dictionary’s 2025 Word Of The Year
Taylor and Travis, podcast hosts, even chatbots — this has been a year full of intense but one-sided relationships between some ordinary individuals and celebrities (or pieces of code) they’ve never actually met. – Cambridge University Press
- What Explains Boomers’ Addiction To Ellipses?
There’s an extensive online discourse on the Baby Boomer generation’s penchant for ellipses. ‘OK . . .’ ‘Thanks . . .’ ‘See you next week . . .’ Sometimes they’re a playful way to build suspense, sometimes a form of passive aggression, and sometimes they relay an implication. – Granta
- The Latest Threat To Authors And Books
What is “Take Back the Classroom” – and how did it get so prominent, so quickly? – BookRiot
PEOPLE
- Pope Leo: Movie Theatres And Cathedrals
There’s “an inner peace that comes from entering the sanctum sanctorum of those movie palaces with the wall-sized screens.2 Don’t take it from me. Take it from a higher authority: his holiness, Pope Leo XIV.” – The Bulwark
- La Jolla Playhouse Appoints Jessica Stone As Artistic Director
As of early next year, the two-time Tony nominee (for her direction of Kimberly Akimbo in 2023 and Water for Elephants in 2024) will succeed Christopher Ashley, who is departing to lead the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York. – The San Diego Union-Tribune (MSN)
- Well, If We Thought The Color-Blind Casting Debate Was Settled, We Were Wrong
“It can now be hard to remember that colorblind casting was once an inflammatory proposition. … But the triumphal march of colorblind casting — hiring actors of any race to play roles originally designated for just one — has taken a detour this year.” – The New York Times
- Alabama Public Television Decides Not To Break Up With PBS (Yet)
“Facing a public backlash, the commission that oversees Alabama Public Television voted Tuesday to continue paying its contract with PBS, rejecting an effort — at least for now — to be the first state to cut ties with the broadcast giant because of politics.” – AP
- Gustav Klimt Portrait Is Now Second-Most Expensive Artwork Ever Auctioned
The six-foot-tall painting, Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (1914-16), shows a young heiress and daughter of Klimt’s patrons draped in a Chinese robe. Its sale price of $236.4 million is exceeded only by the notorious Salvator Mundi attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which sold for $450 million in 2017. – The Guardian
PEOPLE
- Pope Leo: Movie Theatres And Cathedrals
There’s “an inner peace that comes from entering the sanctum sanctorum of those movie palaces with the wall-sized screens.2 Don’t take it from me. Take it from a higher authority: his holiness, Pope Leo XIV.” – The Bulwark
- La Jolla Playhouse Appoints Jessica Stone As Artistic Director
As of early next year, the two-time Tony nominee (for her direction of Kimberly Akimbo in 2023 and Water for Elephants in 2024) will succeed Christopher Ashley, who is departing to lead the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York. – The San Diego Union-Tribune (MSN)
- Well, If We Thought The Color-Blind Casting Debate Was Settled, We Were Wrong
“It can now be hard to remember that colorblind casting was once an inflammatory proposition. … But the triumphal march of colorblind casting — hiring actors of any race to play roles originally designated for just one — has taken a detour this year.” – The New York Times
- Alabama Public Television Decides Not To Break Up With PBS (Yet)
“Facing a public backlash, the commission that oversees Alabama Public Television voted Tuesday to continue paying its contract with PBS, rejecting an effort — at least for now — to be the first state to cut ties with the broadcast giant because of politics.” – AP
- Gustav Klimt Portrait Is Now Second-Most Expensive Artwork Ever Auctioned
The six-foot-tall painting, Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (1914-16), shows a young heiress and daughter of Klimt’s patrons draped in a Chinese robe. Its sale price of $236.4 million is exceeded only by the notorious Salvator Mundi attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which sold for $450 million in 2017. – The Guardian
THEATRE
VISUAL
- We Live In An Age Of Self-Optimization. Where Did This Notion Come From?
This culture of self-quantification in the pursuit of self-improvement long predates social media, algorithms and targeted advertising. In fact, we can trace its roots back into the daily lives and preoccupations of the Victorian middle classes. – Aeon
- Education Is Flapping Around Trying To Figure Out AI’s Role In Teaching, Learning
Even as a significant proportion of their students are submitting AI-generated work, they proudly reassure each other that their courses are too demanding or too humanistic for any machine to understand them. – Persuasion
- Have Screens Actually – We Mean It, This Time – Destroyed Education, Worldwide?
“It seems ridiculous to have to say this, but digital distraction is terrible for academic performance.” – The New York Times
- Netflix House Is Temu Disneyland, In A Mall
“Let’s say you are a Netflix fan, as anyone making a pilgrimage to Netflix House is sure to be. What, then, are you a fan of? … Netflix has been on a relentless campaign to become a fandom hub, a never-ending Comic-Con celebrating itself.” – Slate
- British Church Architecture Is, Frankly, Cold On The Inside
How to solve this problem? Heat pumps, of course. – Wired
