AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- San Francisco Ballet And “Anticipatory Obedience”
Trot out the national anthem, the flag or a John Philip Sousa march, they believe, and it’s like a free exclamation mark to whatever point they’re trying to make: “Ha! See? The stars and stripes are on my side!” – San Francisco Chronicle
- There’s More Footage Of The Jewelry Robbery At The Louvre — And It Looks Pretty Bad
“The two perpetrators can be seen wearing balaclavas and using disc cutters to slice open display cases. The theft takes place under the watch of staff members who were not able to intervene.” – Artnet
- Author and Alter Ego Cruise a River Called America
<a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2026/01/author-and-alter-ego-cruise-a-river-called-america.html" title="Author and Alter Ego Cruise a River Called America” rel=”nofollow”>
For readers familiar with his work, it will come as no surprise that Swiss novelist Christoph Keller’s prose in English, an adopted language, has the idiomatic flare of a native speaker. Nor is it a surprise that much of his latest novel is again set in downtown Manhattan, where he - Women-Centered Fantasy Is Fueling The Publishing Industry
Women are rewriting the rules of sword-and-sorcery, trading testosterone-fueled quests for romance-driven adventures. Publishers are discovering that dragons plus dating equals dollars—who knew female readers wanted both magic and meaningful relationships? — The Conversation
- Philly Art Museum’s Rebrand Needs a Rebrand (And Might Get It)
Nothing says “we nailed it” quite like forming a task force to fix your fresh new identity while quietly showing your chief marketing officer the door. Sometimes the most authentic brand move is admitting you got it spectacularly wrong. — Hyperallergic
ISSUES
- There’s More Footage Of The Jewelry Robbery At The Louvre — And It Looks Pretty Bad
“The two perpetrators can be seen wearing balaclavas and using disc cutters to slice open display cases. The theft takes place under the watch of staff members who were not able to intervene.” – Artnet
- Philly Art Museum’s Rebrand Needs a Rebrand (And Might Get It)
Nothing says “we nailed it” quite like forming a task force to fix your fresh new identity while quietly showing your chief marketing officer the door. Sometimes the most authentic brand move is admitting you got it spectacularly wrong. — Hyperallergic
- Trump Takes Aim at New Deal Murals
Because nothing says ‘making America great again’ like erasing the last time we actually invested in artists. Depression-era public art programs apparently too woke for 2025. Grandma Moses weeps. — Hyperallergic
- As The Old Starchitects Die, Maybe We Shouldn’t Replace Them
The “starchitect” was a figment of media attention, drummed up to answer our interest in celebrity, and our exaggerated expectations of what might be achieved without the help of other people. It belongs to a deluded, more decadent age. – Dezeen
- Philadelphia Art Museum’s New Director On Moving Past The Recent Turmoil
Daniel H. Weiss talks about leading the museum (“I believe very strongly in shared governance”) and sorting out the pressing priorities: re-examining the rebrand, erasing the budget deficit, looking at the museum’s physical facilities, and getting everyone’s focus back on the art. – The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
MEDIA
- The Crisis In Humanities? The Business Model Doesn’t Work
Fundamentally, the state of the humanities and liberal arts reveals a widening conflict over the “value” of higher education – with increasingly corporatized universities favoring market-driven metrics for evaluation, and proponents of humanistic education stressing that its worth to both individuals and society at large cannot be measured that way. – The Guardian
- So This Is Donald Trump’s “Golden Age of Culture” …
“Trolling and tackiness, often crossbred with left-coded pop songs and hot memes, have served to wish a new zeitgeist into existence. Consume only the output of MAGA’s multi-front media efforts, and you may come to feel that the country is coalescing into pep-rally unity on Trump’s behalf.” – The Atlantic (MSN)
- Here Are The Grants The New National Endowment For The Humanities Has Given
The National Endowment for the Humanities on Thursday announced $71 million in new grants, including nearly $40 million to classical humanities institutes and civic leadership programs that have been promoted by conservatives as a counterweight to liberal-dominated higher education. – The New York Times
- Despite Trump Administration Attacks, NEH Has Just Given $75 Million In Grants
“The National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) has announced a new round of grants — $75.1m to 84 projects, many of them celebrating the US’s semiquincentennial. These are the first grants since the administration of president Donald Trump fired all but four members of the National Council on the Humanities … in October.” – The Art Newspaper
- The Trump-Kennedy Center Regime’s Odd Notion Of An Arts Business Model
The notion that unstated corporate aesthetic preferences should determine what the public encounters as art — indeed, what counts as art at the nation’s art center — is absurd. It’s why we don’t (yet) have touring musicals about a young couple discovering the bold, zesty flavor of Cool Ranch Doritos. – Washington Post
MUSIC
- Women-Centered Fantasy Is Fueling The Publishing Industry
Women are rewriting the rules of sword-and-sorcery, trading testosterone-fueled quests for romance-driven adventures. Publishers are discovering that dragons plus dating equals dollars—who knew female readers wanted both magic and meaningful relationships? — The Conversation
- Writers vs. Machines: The John Henry Complex Returns
ChatGPT has writers channeling their inner folk hero, hammer in hand. But as Stephen Marche notes, we’ve been dancing with technological muses long before algorithms—typewriters, anyone? — LitHub
- Maybe Listening To An Audiobook Really Is As Good As Reading A Print Book
“Is listening to a book while doing the dishes, walking the dog or drifting off to sleep really as valuable as sitting down to read it? For authors, the publishing trade and those encouraging reading and literacy, the answer is increasingly yes.” – The Guardian
- Alabama Library Board Cuts Funding To Library That Wouldn’t Remove “Handmaid’s Tale”
The Republican-run Alabama Public Library Service Board voted to withhold roughly $22,000 in state funding from the Fairhope Public Library, citing the library’s failure to comply with the board’s rules requiring books deemed “sexually explicit” be relocated to the adult section. – The Daily Beast
- A Brief History Of The Word “Hello”
The greeting’s first known appearance in print happened 200 years ago this week in a Connecticut newspaper, but its roots go back at least two centuries further, probably more. – BBC
PEOPLE
- San Francisco Ballet And “Anticipatory Obedience”
Trot out the national anthem, the flag or a John Philip Sousa march, they believe, and it’s like a free exclamation mark to whatever point they’re trying to make: “Ha! See? The stars and stripes are on my side!” – San Francisco Chronicle
- There’s More Footage Of The Jewelry Robbery At The Louvre — And It Looks Pretty Bad
“The two perpetrators can be seen wearing balaclavas and using disc cutters to slice open display cases. The theft takes place under the watch of staff members who were not able to intervene.” – Artnet
- Author and Alter Ego Cruise a River Called America<a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2026/01/author-and-alter-ego-cruise-a-river-called-america.html" title="Author and Alter Ego Cruise a River Called America” rel=”nofollow”>For readers familiar with his work, it will come as no surprise that Swiss novelist Christoph Keller’s prose in English, an adopted language, has the idiomatic flare of a native speaker. Nor is it a surprise that much of his latest novel is again set in downtown Manhattan, where he
- Women-Centered Fantasy Is Fueling The Publishing Industry
Women are rewriting the rules of sword-and-sorcery, trading testosterone-fueled quests for romance-driven adventures. Publishers are discovering that dragons plus dating equals dollars—who knew female readers wanted both magic and meaningful relationships? — The Conversation
- Philly Art Museum’s Rebrand Needs a Rebrand (And Might Get It)
Nothing says “we nailed it” quite like forming a task force to fix your fresh new identity while quietly showing your chief marketing officer the door. Sometimes the most authentic brand move is admitting you got it spectacularly wrong. — Hyperallergic
PEOPLE
- San Francisco Ballet And “Anticipatory Obedience”
Trot out the national anthem, the flag or a John Philip Sousa march, they believe, and it’s like a free exclamation mark to whatever point they’re trying to make: “Ha! See? The stars and stripes are on my side!” – San Francisco Chronicle
- There’s More Footage Of The Jewelry Robbery At The Louvre — And It Looks Pretty Bad
“The two perpetrators can be seen wearing balaclavas and using disc cutters to slice open display cases. The theft takes place under the watch of staff members who were not able to intervene.” – Artnet
- Author and Alter Ego Cruise a River Called America<a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2026/01/author-and-alter-ego-cruise-a-river-called-america.html" title="Author and Alter Ego Cruise a River Called America” rel=”nofollow”>For readers familiar with his work, it will come as no surprise that Swiss novelist Christoph Keller’s prose in English, an adopted language, has the idiomatic flare of a native speaker. Nor is it a surprise that much of his latest novel is again set in downtown Manhattan, where he
- Women-Centered Fantasy Is Fueling The Publishing Industry
Women are rewriting the rules of sword-and-sorcery, trading testosterone-fueled quests for romance-driven adventures. Publishers are discovering that dragons plus dating equals dollars—who knew female readers wanted both magic and meaningful relationships? — The Conversation
- Philly Art Museum’s Rebrand Needs a Rebrand (And Might Get It)
Nothing says “we nailed it” quite like forming a task force to fix your fresh new identity while quietly showing your chief marketing officer the door. Sometimes the most authentic brand move is admitting you got it spectacularly wrong. — Hyperallergic
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Why Movies Launch And Music Drops
A key reason why it’s now more complicated to promote an album than, say, a theatrically released film, is the ephemeral, immaterial nature of contemporary music consumption. By comparison, most films that see a theatrical release maintain a predictable, streamlined promotional schedule. – The New Yorker
- How We Lost The Art Of Paying Attention
Most of us are by now familiar with the broad mechanisms of the “attention economy” – the hijacking and monetising of consumer attention through addictive channels. The ravages of this system are ever more apparent. – The Observer
- The Death Of The 20th Century Mono-Culture (And What It Means)
The implications for the battered-and-bruised entertainment industry are obvious. The impacts on our culture are just starting to fully materialize, but will be more significant. Instead of pulling us together, pop culture is another force dragging us apart. – The Wall Street Journal
- We Think Time Always Moves Forward. This Is A Relatively New Concept
This picture of time is not natural. Its roots stretch only to the 18th century, yet this notion has now entrenched itself so deeply in Western thought that it’s difficult to imagine time as anything else. And this new representation of time has affected all kinds of things, from our understanding of history to time travel. – Aeon
- What If AI Changes The Very Nature Of Our Attention?
What if the next wave of artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t designed to feed that addiction — but to fundamentally change it? What if the future of AI demands young people’s attention, curiosity, and creativity in ways we haven’t experienced before? – Big Think
