AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- The Trump FCC’s Threats To Disney/ABC’s Broadcast Licenses Are Legally Doomed
“That is the technical legal term for this: batshit crazy. … Legally there is no basis for removing a broadcast license because you don’t like the program. And if there is some kind of DEI claim here, I really don’t know what that would be.” – Vulture (MSN)
- “Shattered Moral Compass”: Whistleblower Alleges Malfeasance At Palm Springs Museum Of Art
“The whistleblower claims that the museum improperly moved funds between various accounts in order to meet severe cash crunches. The whistleblower alleged that a former director was forced out based on trumped-up staff complaints, and that the museum failed to even interview two qualified candidates to replace him before promoting an internal candidate.” – ARTnews
- Has A Valuable Stradivarius Looted By The Nazis Been Hiding In Plain Sight?
“In 1944 during the German army’s retreat, the 1719 ‘Lauterbach’ Stradivari violin was looted from the Warsaw Museum in Poland. … The violin’s value is estimated at €10 million. … Now, more than 80 years later, notice has been taken of an instrument which may be the looted violin.” – The Strad
- Boston’s Mayor Wants To Cut City’s Arts Budget By More Than One-Fourth
“(Mayor Michelle Wu’s) approximately 27% cut leaves the city’s budget for arts and culture with a total of $3,365,057 for fiscal year 2027. While still above pre-pandemic levels, even when adjusted for inflation, this is one of the largest cuts to any city department’s budget.” – Boston Art Review
- Buffalo AKG Art Museum Director Janne Sirén To Step Down
The move comes almost three months after news broke of a six-figure loan the museum made to Sirén for buying a house; the loan reportedly was never repaid. Under Sirén’s leadership, AKG greatly increased its collection, underwent a $230 million renovation and expansion, and achieved record attendance numbers. – ARTnews
ISSUES
- “Shattered Moral Compass”: Whistleblower Alleges Malfeasance At Palm Springs Museum Of Art
“The whistleblower claims that the museum improperly moved funds between various accounts in order to meet severe cash crunches. The whistleblower alleged that a former director was forced out based on trumped-up staff complaints, and that the museum failed to even interview two qualified candidates to replace him before promoting an internal candidate.” – ARTnews
- Buffalo AKG Art Museum Director Janne Sirén To Step Down
The move comes almost three months after news broke of a six-figure loan the museum made to Sirén for buying a house; the loan reportedly was never repaid. Under Sirén’s leadership, AKG greatly increased its collection, underwent a $230 million renovation and expansion, and achieved record attendance numbers. – ARTnews
- NJ Father/Daughter Team Convicted Of $2M Art Fraud
Erwin Bankowski, 50, and Karolina Bankowska, 26, admitted in federal court in Brooklyn to wire fraud conspiracy and misrepresenting Native American–produced goods. The pair, a father and daughter, now face up to 20 years in prison, along with at least $1.9 million in restitution. – ARTnews
- Zimbabwe’s Plundered Iconic Stone Birds Are Finally Returned
Known as the Zimbabwe Bird, it has long been a symbol of national identity, but behind it lies a complex tale of displacement, colonial plunder and restitution. – BBC (MSN)
- What Has Gone Wrong With Architecture
Architecture is a Fox’s discipline. It sits between capital, politics, infrastructure, climate, design, engineering, art, psychology, and economics. Its task is to hold these domains together, manage complexity, and, at its best, make spaces and places in which we can live better together. – Time
MEDIA
- Boston’s Mayor Wants To Cut City’s Arts Budget By More Than One-Fourth
“(Mayor Michelle Wu’s) approximately 27% cut leaves the city’s budget for arts and culture with a total of $3,365,057 for fiscal year 2027. While still above pre-pandemic levels, even when adjusted for inflation, this is one of the largest cuts to any city department’s budget.” – Boston Art Review
- Hampshire College, Soon To Close, Will Sell Off Campus Of Pay Off Debt
“The college has around $25 million in debt, between loans and a private partner. It was primarily taken in 2010 and 2016.” – MassLive
- A Change To Portland’s Widely-Disliked Arts Tax
“’We’ve not identified a way to make (the tax) not annoying,’ said Council President Jamie Dunphy, the architect of the new policy. ‘But we’ve found ways to make it less annoying.’” The proposed change: fewer people paying more money. – Oregon Public Broadcasting
- How Chicago’s Arts Institutions Are Coping With Federal Funding Cuts
“The defunding of arts and humanities programming across the state has left leaders skeptical as to whether government funding can be a reliable source in the future.” – Crain’s Chicago Business
- Ireland’s Artist Basic Income May Not Account For Artists With Disabilities
“Ó Ceallacháin says many artists with disabilities feel as though they need to “]exist between ‘professional enough’ to be a ‘real’ artist for the Department of Culture and ‘disabled enough’ to receive support from the Department of Social Protection.” – Irish Times
MUSIC
- Lost Copy Of Oldest Surviving English Poem Turns Up In Rome
“Scholars from Trinity College Dublin uncovered the manuscript that contains Caedmon’s Hymn at the National Central Library of Rome. Bede, the medieval theologian revered as the father of English history, recorded the nine-line poem in the eighth century.” – The Guardian
- State Legislatures Tweak Library And School Laws Concerning Books (To Protect Them)
“We’ve had success in blue states that want to protect from book banning at the local level, but these efforts have moved to purple or even red states, to the point of Alaska now moving this forward.” – Publishers Weekly
- “Ghost Imaging” Recovers Text Of 1,500-Year-Old Biblical Manuscript
The 6th-century Codex H included a Greek-language copy of the New Testament’s letters of St. Paul. Sometime in the Middle Ages, though, the monks of Mt. Athos broke the book up and re-used the parchment. Fragments have since been identified, but the original text on them was considered irretrievable — until now. – Artnet
- Docs: Adelaide Writers Week Sacrificed To Save Arts Festival
Adelaide writers’ week was sacrificed to save the 2026 Adelaide festival, an event that ploughs more than $60m into South Australia’s economy each year, documents show. – The Guardian
- How AI Looks Set To Change The Actual Printing Of Books
“A new report from the Book Manufacturers’ Institute on the state of the book industry predicts that printing is on the cusp of potential major changes.” – Publishers Weekly
PEOPLE
- The Trump FCC’s Threats To Disney/ABC’s Broadcast Licenses Are Legally Doomed
“That is the technical legal term for this: batshit crazy. … Legally there is no basis for removing a broadcast license because you don’t like the program. And if there is some kind of DEI claim here, I really don’t know what that would be.” – Vulture (MSN)
- “Shattered Moral Compass”: Whistleblower Alleges Malfeasance At Palm Springs Museum Of Art
“The whistleblower claims that the museum improperly moved funds between various accounts in order to meet severe cash crunches. The whistleblower alleged that a former director was forced out based on trumped-up staff complaints, and that the museum failed to even interview two qualified candidates to replace him before promoting an internal candidate.” – ARTnews
- Has A Valuable Stradivarius Looted By The Nazis Been Hiding In Plain Sight?
“In 1944 during the German army’s retreat, the 1719 ‘Lauterbach’ Stradivari violin was looted from the Warsaw Museum in Poland. … The violin’s value is estimated at €10 million. … Now, more than 80 years later, notice has been taken of an instrument which may be the looted violin.” – The Strad
- Boston’s Mayor Wants To Cut City’s Arts Budget By More Than One-Fourth
“(Mayor Michelle Wu’s) approximately 27% cut leaves the city’s budget for arts and culture with a total of $3,365,057 for fiscal year 2027. While still above pre-pandemic levels, even when adjusted for inflation, this is one of the largest cuts to any city department’s budget.” – Boston Art Review
- Buffalo AKG Art Museum Director Janne Sirén To Step Down
The move comes almost three months after news broke of a six-figure loan the museum made to Sirén for buying a house; the loan reportedly was never repaid. Under Sirén’s leadership, AKG greatly increased its collection, underwent a $230 million renovation and expansion, and achieved record attendance numbers. – ARTnews
PEOPLE
- The Trump FCC’s Threats To Disney/ABC’s Broadcast Licenses Are Legally Doomed
“That is the technical legal term for this: batshit crazy. … Legally there is no basis for removing a broadcast license because you don’t like the program. And if there is some kind of DEI claim here, I really don’t know what that would be.” – Vulture (MSN)
- “Shattered Moral Compass”: Whistleblower Alleges Malfeasance At Palm Springs Museum Of Art
“The whistleblower claims that the museum improperly moved funds between various accounts in order to meet severe cash crunches. The whistleblower alleged that a former director was forced out based on trumped-up staff complaints, and that the museum failed to even interview two qualified candidates to replace him before promoting an internal candidate.” – ARTnews
- Has A Valuable Stradivarius Looted By The Nazis Been Hiding In Plain Sight?
“In 1944 during the German army’s retreat, the 1719 ‘Lauterbach’ Stradivari violin was looted from the Warsaw Museum in Poland. … The violin’s value is estimated at €10 million. … Now, more than 80 years later, notice has been taken of an instrument which may be the looted violin.” – The Strad
- Boston’s Mayor Wants To Cut City’s Arts Budget By More Than One-Fourth
“(Mayor Michelle Wu’s) approximately 27% cut leaves the city’s budget for arts and culture with a total of $3,365,057 for fiscal year 2027. While still above pre-pandemic levels, even when adjusted for inflation, this is one of the largest cuts to any city department’s budget.” – Boston Art Review
- Buffalo AKG Art Museum Director Janne Sirén To Step Down
The move comes almost three months after news broke of a six-figure loan the museum made to Sirén for buying a house; the loan reportedly was never repaid. Under Sirén’s leadership, AKG greatly increased its collection, underwent a $230 million renovation and expansion, and achieved record attendance numbers. – ARTnews
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Cory Doctorow: Why The World Is Suddenly Becoming Enshittified
“The internet is getting worse, fast. The services we rely on, they’re all turning into piles of shit. Worse, the digital is merging with the physical, which means that the same forces that are wrecking our platforms are also wrecking our homes and our cars, the places where we work and shop. – Literary Review of Canada
- AI: A Philosophy About Language
The underlying intelligence of a large language model isn’t a function of its architecture, its parameter count, or the volume of compute thrown at its training. It is not even about the training data. It is a function of the social complexity of the civilization whose language it digested. – The Ideas Newsletter
- New Google Paper Argues AI Will Never Be Conscious
The paper shows the divergence between the self-serving narratives AI companies promote in the media and how they collapse under rigorous examination. – 404 Media
- Why AI Is Struggling With Creativity
Many generative AI programs geared toward creative fields have encountered a common problem: rapid initial adoption, followed by declining sustained engagement. – The Conversation
- Why It’s So Difficult To Agree On Truth
These different notions of truth shape everyday discourse as well as philosophical debate. They might help explain why some arguments feel pointless, why political debates circle endlessly, and why certain disagreements never quite meet on common ground. – Psyche
