AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- How’s Hollywood Handling The Steady Decline Of Cable TV Subscriptions?
With mergers, mostly. “While efforts are already underway by pay TV operators like Charter Communications, Comcast and DirecTV to reinvent the bundle and by networks to pivot towards digital, M&A drama has dominated the industry.” – TheWrap (Yahoo!)
- “NPR Network” Fundraising Project Has Done Unusually Well
The fundraising program brought in more than $30 million in fiscal 2025, well above projections. Half of the donations and 20% of the podcast subscription fees collected, a total of $18 million, will be distributed to member stations in January; 31 of those stations will, in effect, have their NPR dues refunded. – Current
- $200K Grawemeyer Award For Composition Goes To Liza Lim
The Australian composer won for her cello concerto A Sutured World, composed for Nicolas Altstaedt and co-commissioned by the Bavarian Radio Symphony, the Melbourne Symphony, the Amsterdam Cello Biennale and the Casa da Música Porto in Portugal. – Limelight (Australia)
- Louvre Will Raise Ticket Prices For All Non-EU Visitors
“(The) museum has approved a ticket hike from €22 to €32 ($25 to $37) for non-European visitors from January to help finance an overhaul of the building whose degradation has been exposed by the Oct. 19 crown jewels heist.” – AP
- When Doctors Prescribe the Arts as Treatment, Nonprofit Arts Organizations (At Long Last) Prove Their Worth
Unless, of course, they muck it up by asking for money.
(Image by Tatyana Kazakova from Pixabay.)
“Musick has Charms to soothe the savage Breast
― William Congreve, “The Mourning Bride”
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak”
There seems to be some truth to that, and nonprofit arts organizations could prove worth (and increase their charitable value to their communities) by following specific medical advice to soothe savage breasts and more.
There was a report from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) last month — yes, Canada still has a public broadcasting service which Canadians are happy to support — concerning the power of the arts literally to heal.
Social prescribing is neither a new nor controversial kind of practice. It describes and defines a system by which non-pharmaceutical activities can solve or mitigate psychological and physical ailments caused by isolation and lack of brain stimulation.
“It’s particularly helpful for people from communities facing health inequities and need support in accessing anything that impacts the social determinants of health — non-medical factors that influence health outcomes — such as loneliness, housing, income or discrimination.”
A real prescription: Puppies We wrote about the charitable impact that nonprofit arts organizations have the capacity to deliver in the recent article Loneliness and the Arts: If Bringing People Together is the Cure, What is the Disease?. Across Canada, these issues have been in play for years. In the CBC report, for example, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra has partnered with Médecins francophones du Canada to allow doctors to prescribe the symphony as medicine to “reduce loneliness, improve health outcomes, ease the burden on the healthcare system, and build much-needed trust between doctors and their patients.”
“Physicians will give prescriptions to patients. The patients will call us. We give each patient that calls us two tickets, free of charge. And they can select the concert they want.”
—Mélanie La Couture, CEO of the Montreal Symphony OrchestraIt’s important to lean on the doctors and scientists to make the call on the power of music to heal the body. It’s important (and more impressive) to society-at-large when an arts organization chooses to bring people out of their self-imposed isolation chambers and electronic mind-control machines with activities prescribed by those same doctors and scientists.
Your arts organization can do this, too. Actually, it should. Regardless of your financial strengths or weakness (whether you’re swimming in cash or holding a going out of business sale), this is a way to prove to your community that you can help them. To some, it will be a revelation that your company might not be a toxic luxury for the rich, but indispensable to all.
Image by WOKANDAPIX from Pixabay One wonders if there are just too many nonprofit arts organizations that are currently addicted to the idea that ticket sales and earned revenues are the ultimate measure of their success. Too many who care about acclaim and reviews to adopt this kind of program full-time. Too many who scrounge for dollars instead of providing a cure to reduce any stigma that might occur when someone is in need…at no charge at all.
If you’re not one of those self-centered, self-indulgent art-for-art’s-sake companies (that all need to change or die) and you want to do good in your immediate community, why aren’t you actively advocating for groups of folks who have been deemed invisible by the movers and shakers to get free access to your music, your art, your dance, your theater, etc.? If it’s a program that heals, why not seek out the most isolated, the neediest, and the loneliest of your human beings and do everything you can to bring your art to them?
And then show us the outcomes, supported by science, from an external source?
Forget about selling tickets to these folks. Or even worry about funding it through an external grant. Just do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. That’s what nonprofits are supposed to do.
Even if it’s more effective to go where they are instead of forcing them to come to you. Your building isn’t what will cure them, after all. But your art just might.
After all, isn’t it more important to your community that you solve a need instead of figuring out which ticketing scheme and price structure maximizes your revenue?
Doesn’t she deserve to be well? You can do something about that. Aren’t they more important than you?
If your answer is no, please leave the business or simply convert to a for-profit business. As a member of the nonprofit community, you’re hurting everyone else.
You save the art by saving the purpose, not by just continuing to satisfy your own “artistic vision,” which is completely meaningless to your community. Find the connections in the medical community who prescribe wellness with your art and then show us the data and stories of success. Don’t show us what you did without showing us how these people got better. Your community needs you. And it’s the first step toward success as a charitable institution.
If you want your nonprofit arts organization to thrive, just pick up this inexpensive trilogy. If not, I can let you know how to throw “Going Out Of Business” sales.
If you want to encourage vigorous discussion on how to make the nonprofit arts industry work for you, please consider buying me a cup of coffee by clicking on the cup. It’s a small thing, I know, but I need the caffeine. And hey, if you’re in the Seattle area, let’s have a cup together and talk!
ISSUES
- Louvre Will Raise Ticket Prices For All Non-EU Visitors
“(The) museum has approved a ticket hike from €22 to €32 ($25 to $37) for non-European visitors from January to help finance an overhaul of the building whose degradation has been exposed by the Oct. 19 crown jewels heist.” – AP
- Museums Struggle To Reinvent In A Shifting Landscape
As public funding evaporates, political scrutiny intensifies, and donor behavior shifts, museums are confronting a turning point: adapt or risk irrelevance. The museums best poised for the future are those willing to embrace collaboration, transparency, and experimentation. – Artnet
- Fighting To Save Britain’s First Multiplex Movie Theatre From A Housing Development
“As a shot of commercial and architectural adrenaline, it revived British cinema-going, welcoming more than a million visitors in its first year, and impelling the subsequent proliferation of multiplexes.” – The Guardian (UK)
- There’s A Lot Of History, And Art, Beyond Art Basel Miami Beach
Getting beyond the tent walls means understanding just how much the Cuban diaspora means to the city. – The New York Times
- Inside The Philly Traveling Museum Where Black Collectors Have The Spotlight
“It got to the point where I had more art than walls. … I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool for a bunch of collectors to get together and create a space to show our work. Tell our story?’” – Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
MEDIA
- Clueless Colleges Are Preparing To Harm Their Students In The Name Of ‘Preparing’ Them For A World Of AI
“Based on the available evidence, the skills that future graduates will most need in the AI era—creative thinking, the capacity to learn new things, flexible modes of analysis—are precisely those that are likely to be eroded by inserting AI into the educational process.” – The Atlantic
- In The Miserable Economy For Creative People, What Happens When One Is Successful?
In Alison Bechdel’s newest book, “Communal systems of support and shared resources are positioned against the capitalist drive to isolate, hoard resources, and privatize.” – Los Angeles Review of Books
- How Did These Film Studios Get Approved In A British Greenbelt?
One person on the town council: “This is the direct result of ill-thought-out planning changes and poor decision making, which threaten to destroy our green spaces.” But hey, James Cameron supports it. – BBC
- Sally Rooney Says She May No Longer Be Able To Sell Her Books In The UK
Rooney says that “UK legislation may mean she cannot be paid royalties by her British publisher or the BBC because it could leave both at risk of being accused of funding terrorism.” The Irish writer has said that she intends her royalties to support the group Palestine Action. – BBC
- Johnny Cash Estate Sues Coca Cola Under New “Elvis Act” For Using His Artistic Personna Without Permission
The case has been filed under the Elvis Act of Tennessee, made effective last year, which protects a person’s voice from exploitation without consent. – The Guardian
MUSIC
- What Will This French City Do If Its Famous Comic Book Festival Fails?
Angoulême is where graphic novels and comic books are normally celebrated in a huge festival each year. But maybe not in 2026. “Criticized for financial opacity, harsh management style and the firing of an employee who had filed a rape complaint, the company 9e Art + has found itself cornered on all sides.” – Le Monde English (Archive Today)
- The Oxford Word Of The Year Is Probably Something You Experience Every Day
You know what clickbait is, right? Well, the word of the year is its anger-fueled cousin, rage bait, “manipulative tactics used to drive engagement online, with usage of it increasing threefold in the last 12 months.” – BBC
- In Turbulent Times, An ‘Uneasy Book’ Might Be The Perfect Thing
Tessa Hadley: “Storytelling was the most powerful magic I knew: it got expressed first in the games I played out with my friends. Written down though, words were puny for such a long time.” Then came Henry James. – The Guardian (UK)
- This Seattle Graphic Novel Store Focuses On The Art Of Comics
Larry Reid, the man who owns and runs Seattle’s Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, says that comics have “a more immediate impact on culture than fine art.” – Seattle Times
- Tennessee Libraries Shut Down For Republicans’ Book Purge
Public libraries in Tennessee have begun to shut down as they carry out an order from state officials to remove children’s books containing LGBTQ+ themes or characters. – Common Dreams
PEOPLE
- How’s Hollywood Handling The Steady Decline Of Cable TV Subscriptions?
With mergers, mostly. “While efforts are already underway by pay TV operators like Charter Communications, Comcast and DirecTV to reinvent the bundle and by networks to pivot towards digital, M&A drama has dominated the industry.” – TheWrap (Yahoo!)
- “NPR Network” Fundraising Project Has Done Unusually Well
The fundraising program brought in more than $30 million in fiscal 2025, well above projections. Half of the donations and 20% of the podcast subscription fees collected, a total of $18 million, will be distributed to member stations in January; 31 of those stations will, in effect, have their NPR dues refunded. – Current
- $200K Grawemeyer Award For Composition Goes To Liza Lim
The Australian composer won for her cello concerto A Sutured World, composed for Nicolas Altstaedt and co-commissioned by the Bavarian Radio Symphony, the Melbourne Symphony, the Amsterdam Cello Biennale and the Casa da Música Porto in Portugal. – Limelight (Australia)
- Louvre Will Raise Ticket Prices For All Non-EU Visitors
“(The) museum has approved a ticket hike from €22 to €32 ($25 to $37) for non-European visitors from January to help finance an overhaul of the building whose degradation has been exposed by the Oct. 19 crown jewels heist.” – AP
- When Doctors Prescribe the Arts as Treatment, Nonprofit Arts Organizations (At Long Last) Prove Their Worth
Unless, of course, they muck it up by asking for money.
(Image by Tatyana Kazakova from Pixabay.)
“Musick has Charms to soothe the savage Breast
― William Congreve, “The Mourning Bride”
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak”
There seems to be some truth to that, and nonprofit arts organizations could prove worth (and increase their charitable value to their communities) by following specific medical advice to soothe savage breasts and more.
There was a report from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) last month — yes, Canada still has a public broadcasting service which Canadians are happy to support — concerning the power of the arts literally to heal.
Social prescribing is neither a new nor controversial kind of practice. It describes and defines a system by which non-pharmaceutical activities can solve or mitigate psychological and physical ailments caused by isolation and lack of brain stimulation.
“It’s particularly helpful for people from communities facing health inequities and need support in accessing anything that impacts the social determinants of health — non-medical factors that influence health outcomes — such as loneliness, housing, income or discrimination.”
A real prescription: Puppies We wrote about the charitable impact that nonprofit arts organizations have the capacity to deliver in the recent article Loneliness and the Arts: If Bringing People Together is the Cure, What is the Disease?. Across Canada, these issues have been in play for years. In the CBC report, for example, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra has partnered with Médecins francophones du Canada to allow doctors to prescribe the symphony as medicine to “reduce loneliness, improve health outcomes, ease the burden on the healthcare system, and build much-needed trust between doctors and their patients.”
“Physicians will give prescriptions to patients. The patients will call us. We give each patient that calls us two tickets, free of charge. And they can select the concert they want.”
—Mélanie La Couture, CEO of the Montreal Symphony OrchestraIt’s important to lean on the doctors and scientists to make the call on the power of music to heal the body. It’s important (and more impressive) to society-at-large when an arts organization chooses to bring people out of their self-imposed isolation chambers and electronic mind-control machines with activities prescribed by those same doctors and scientists.
Your arts organization can do this, too. Actually, it should. Regardless of your financial strengths or weakness (whether you’re swimming in cash or holding a going out of business sale), this is a way to prove to your community that you can help them. To some, it will be a revelation that your company might not be a toxic luxury for the rich, but indispensable to all.
Image by WOKANDAPIX from Pixabay One wonders if there are just too many nonprofit arts organizations that are currently addicted to the idea that ticket sales and earned revenues are the ultimate measure of their success. Too many who care about acclaim and reviews to adopt this kind of program full-time. Too many who scrounge for dollars instead of providing a cure to reduce any stigma that might occur when someone is in need…at no charge at all.
If you’re not one of those self-centered, self-indulgent art-for-art’s-sake companies (that all need to change or die) and you want to do good in your immediate community, why aren’t you actively advocating for groups of folks who have been deemed invisible by the movers and shakers to get free access to your music, your art, your dance, your theater, etc.? If it’s a program that heals, why not seek out the most isolated, the neediest, and the loneliest of your human beings and do everything you can to bring your art to them?
And then show us the outcomes, supported by science, from an external source?
Forget about selling tickets to these folks. Or even worry about funding it through an external grant. Just do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. That’s what nonprofits are supposed to do.
Even if it’s more effective to go where they are instead of forcing them to come to you. Your building isn’t what will cure them, after all. But your art just might.
After all, isn’t it more important to your community that you solve a need instead of figuring out which ticketing scheme and price structure maximizes your revenue?
Doesn’t she deserve to be well? You can do something about that. Aren’t they more important than you?
If your answer is no, please leave the business or simply convert to a for-profit business. As a member of the nonprofit community, you’re hurting everyone else.
You save the art by saving the purpose, not by just continuing to satisfy your own “artistic vision,” which is completely meaningless to your community. Find the connections in the medical community who prescribe wellness with your art and then show us the data and stories of success. Don’t show us what you did without showing us how these people got better. Your community needs you. And it’s the first step toward success as a charitable institution.
If you want your nonprofit arts organization to thrive, just pick up this inexpensive trilogy. If not, I can let you know how to throw “Going Out Of Business” sales.
If you want to encourage vigorous discussion on how to make the nonprofit arts industry work for you, please consider buying me a cup of coffee by clicking on the cup. It’s a small thing, I know, but I need the caffeine. And hey, if you’re in the Seattle area, let’s have a cup together and talk!
PEOPLE
- How’s Hollywood Handling The Steady Decline Of Cable TV Subscriptions?
With mergers, mostly. “While efforts are already underway by pay TV operators like Charter Communications, Comcast and DirecTV to reinvent the bundle and by networks to pivot towards digital, M&A drama has dominated the industry.” – TheWrap (Yahoo!)
- “NPR Network” Fundraising Project Has Done Unusually Well
The fundraising program brought in more than $30 million in fiscal 2025, well above projections. Half of the donations and 20% of the podcast subscription fees collected, a total of $18 million, will be distributed to member stations in January; 31 of those stations will, in effect, have their NPR dues refunded. – Current
- $200K Grawemeyer Award For Composition Goes To Liza Lim
The Australian composer won for her cello concerto A Sutured World, composed for Nicolas Altstaedt and co-commissioned by the Bavarian Radio Symphony, the Melbourne Symphony, the Amsterdam Cello Biennale and the Casa da Música Porto in Portugal. – Limelight (Australia)
- Louvre Will Raise Ticket Prices For All Non-EU Visitors
“(The) museum has approved a ticket hike from €22 to €32 ($25 to $37) for non-European visitors from January to help finance an overhaul of the building whose degradation has been exposed by the Oct. 19 crown jewels heist.” – AP
- When Doctors Prescribe the Arts as Treatment, Nonprofit Arts Organizations (At Long Last) Prove Their Worth
Unless, of course, they muck it up by asking for money.
(Image by Tatyana Kazakova from Pixabay.)
“Musick has Charms to soothe the savage Breast
― William Congreve, “The Mourning Bride”
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak”
There seems to be some truth to that, and nonprofit arts organizations could prove worth (and increase their charitable value to their communities) by following specific medical advice to soothe savage breasts and more.
There was a report from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) last month — yes, Canada still has a public broadcasting service which Canadians are happy to support — concerning the power of the arts literally to heal.
Social prescribing is neither a new nor controversial kind of practice. It describes and defines a system by which non-pharmaceutical activities can solve or mitigate psychological and physical ailments caused by isolation and lack of brain stimulation.
“It’s particularly helpful for people from communities facing health inequities and need support in accessing anything that impacts the social determinants of health — non-medical factors that influence health outcomes — such as loneliness, housing, income or discrimination.”
A real prescription: Puppies We wrote about the charitable impact that nonprofit arts organizations have the capacity to deliver in the recent article Loneliness and the Arts: If Bringing People Together is the Cure, What is the Disease?. Across Canada, these issues have been in play for years. In the CBC report, for example, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra has partnered with Médecins francophones du Canada to allow doctors to prescribe the symphony as medicine to “reduce loneliness, improve health outcomes, ease the burden on the healthcare system, and build much-needed trust between doctors and their patients.”
“Physicians will give prescriptions to patients. The patients will call us. We give each patient that calls us two tickets, free of charge. And they can select the concert they want.”
—Mélanie La Couture, CEO of the Montreal Symphony OrchestraIt’s important to lean on the doctors and scientists to make the call on the power of music to heal the body. It’s important (and more impressive) to society-at-large when an arts organization chooses to bring people out of their self-imposed isolation chambers and electronic mind-control machines with activities prescribed by those same doctors and scientists.
Your arts organization can do this, too. Actually, it should. Regardless of your financial strengths or weakness (whether you’re swimming in cash or holding a going out of business sale), this is a way to prove to your community that you can help them. To some, it will be a revelation that your company might not be a toxic luxury for the rich, but indispensable to all.
Image by WOKANDAPIX from Pixabay One wonders if there are just too many nonprofit arts organizations that are currently addicted to the idea that ticket sales and earned revenues are the ultimate measure of their success. Too many who care about acclaim and reviews to adopt this kind of program full-time. Too many who scrounge for dollars instead of providing a cure to reduce any stigma that might occur when someone is in need…at no charge at all.
If you’re not one of those self-centered, self-indulgent art-for-art’s-sake companies (that all need to change or die) and you want to do good in your immediate community, why aren’t you actively advocating for groups of folks who have been deemed invisible by the movers and shakers to get free access to your music, your art, your dance, your theater, etc.? If it’s a program that heals, why not seek out the most isolated, the neediest, and the loneliest of your human beings and do everything you can to bring your art to them?
And then show us the outcomes, supported by science, from an external source?
Forget about selling tickets to these folks. Or even worry about funding it through an external grant. Just do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. That’s what nonprofits are supposed to do.
Even if it’s more effective to go where they are instead of forcing them to come to you. Your building isn’t what will cure them, after all. But your art just might.
After all, isn’t it more important to your community that you solve a need instead of figuring out which ticketing scheme and price structure maximizes your revenue?
Doesn’t she deserve to be well? You can do something about that. Aren’t they more important than you?
If your answer is no, please leave the business or simply convert to a for-profit business. As a member of the nonprofit community, you’re hurting everyone else.
You save the art by saving the purpose, not by just continuing to satisfy your own “artistic vision,” which is completely meaningless to your community. Find the connections in the medical community who prescribe wellness with your art and then show us the data and stories of success. Don’t show us what you did without showing us how these people got better. Your community needs you. And it’s the first step toward success as a charitable institution.
If you want your nonprofit arts organization to thrive, just pick up this inexpensive trilogy. If not, I can let you know how to throw “Going Out Of Business” sales.
If you want to encourage vigorous discussion on how to make the nonprofit arts industry work for you, please consider buying me a cup of coffee by clicking on the cup. It’s a small thing, I know, but I need the caffeine. And hey, if you’re in the Seattle area, let’s have a cup together and talk!
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Have We Given Liberal Arts Institutions Too Much Credit?
While liberal arts institutions do have intrinsic value, that doesn’t mean they are entitled to be socially favoured or economically exceptional for ever. A particularly stubborn myth is that liberal arts education has a monopoly on cultivating critical thinking. – The Guardian
- Why Perfectionism Is Killing Our Culture
This fetishization of perfection might not be surprising, but that doesn’t make it any less damaging. You cannot learn or grow while trying to appear as if you have everything figured out. You cannot talk to God by trying to avoid doing something wrong. Perfection is stagnation. – The New York Times
- Video Games Are Feeding A Deep Well Of Conspiracy Theories
“In the fiction of Assassin’s Creed, humanity is descended from ancient aliens; … world events [are] influenced by a shadow war between two secret societies; the media exists to manipulate the public. This makes for an exciting series of video games” — but it echoes real-life conspiracy theories. – Slate
- A Classical Pianist’s Plea To Let Art Be Messy, And Real
“Playing an instrument well is phenomenally difficult. It takes a lifetime of arduous work and can become all-consuming, making it easy to forget that technical mastery is a means to an expressive end, not the goal. … In and of itself, it is uninteresting.” – The New York Times
- With A Phone, A Friend, And Some LEGO, You’re All Set To Understand The Planet
Sure, people didn’t have phones (or LEGO) 2,000 years ago, but even they knew the Earth was round. – Wired
