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- Oscars Will Leave Network TV For YouTube In 2029
The TV network ABC will continue to broadcast the ceremony through its centennial edition in 2028. From the following year through 2033, YouTube will retain global rights to streaming the Academy Awards, including pre-ceremony red-carpet coverage. – AP
- Choreographer Hans Van Manen Has Died At 93
“(He) was the Netherlands’ best-known choreographer for over sixty years and regarded as one of the great masters of contemporary ballet. He was also one of the most productive, creating more than 150 works. … All bear his distinct signature – clarity in structure, refined simplicity and an aversion to unnecessary decorative frills.” – Gramilano (Milan)
- A Portion Of The Louvre Reopens As Strikes Continue
Unionized staffers voted unanimously on Wednesday morning to continue their rolling strike over staffing levels, building maintenance, security, etc. Management did open a “masterpiece route” in parts of the museum which allowed tourists to view its most popular attractions, Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. – ARTnews
- Good Morning
It is no longer a question of if artists will adopt AI, but how thoroughly it has already permeated the creative process. A new survey reveals that a staggering 87 percent of musicians are now using AI tools in their work, powering a new era of “self-sufficient” production (Hypebot). Yet as The New York Times argues, the existential threat here isn’t to human creativity itself, but to the basic ability to make a living from creative endeavor (The New York Times).
That fragility is being mirrored by institutional retreat. The Poetry Foundation has announced it will discontinue all public programming (Publishers Weekly), shifting its focus entirely to grantmaking. Across the Atlantic, the pressure is top-down: a new government report calls for a “thorough reform” of Arts Council England (The Guardian), demanding the agency cut bureaucracy and scrap its controversial “Let’s Create” strategy.
At the top of the food chain, the battle for scale continues. Warner Bros. Discovery has officially rejected Paramount’s $108 billion hostile takeover bid (The Hollywood Reporter), leaving the media landscape in a tense stalemate. For others, the stakes are far higher than corporate control: the Russian government has officially labeled Pussy Riot an “extremist organization”, effectively banning the group’s activities and threatening prosecution for anyone who even supports them online (ARTnews).
- How They Put Paddington Bear On A Stage And Made All London Swoon
One could say that they just put an actor in a bear suit, but it really isn’t that simple. There’s some real theatrical magic at work. – The New York Times
- Marie Rambert And The Origins Of British Ballet
“Having worked with the Ballets Russes, most notably with Vaslav Nijinsky …, Marie Rambert became a pioneer in British ballet: setting up a ballet school, and then establishing her own company, the first in the UK, Ballet Rambert, which she led for 40 years after its founding in 1926.” – Bachtrack
- When Your Ownership Of Something You Bought Depends On Continuing To Pay
With the Internet of Things, and more broadly the layering of networked computers into every interaction, the function of almost anything, or the availability of any service, can be made contingent on the provider and the customer keeping a good relationship, subject to terms of service set unilaterally, revocable at will. – Commonplace
- Now That We’ve Lost Trust In Institutions, Can We Get it Back?
Now that so many of us say that we mistrust or distrust things like Big Pharma and the government, we need to think about what the consequences of a breakdown in institutional trust would be. – Psyche
- The Art Market Roars Back In the Fall
Sellers tracking the market downturn started slapping lower price-tags on their pieces as well, which stoked momentum in the second half of the year. Overall, Sotheby’s and Christie’s sales topped $13.2 billion in 2025, up from $11.7 billion the year before. – The Wall Street Journal
- Warner Board Rejects Paramount Offer
With the rejection official, Paramount will need to persuade WBD shareholders to tender their shares at that price, or to submit a higher bid than its $108 billion offer that would shift the outcome of the dealmaking. – The Hollywood Reporter
- The Arabian Peninsula’s Museum-Building Boom
In Abu Dhabi, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, a bumper crop of lavishly funded art and history museums is growing. They’re largely designed by foreign architects and, at least for now, developed and run by foreign consultants. Is enough local talent being trained to take over in the future? – Artnet
- The Threat Of AI Is Not To Art But To The Ability To Make A Living Making Art
What A.I. imperils is not human creativity itself but the ability to make a living from creative endeavor. – The New York Times
- As Our Culture Diet Becomes More Synthetic, The “Realness” Of Live Experience Will Be More Valuable
As the world becomes more digital, more “optimized”, and more isolated, the value of embodied, shared, human experience increases, not decreases. And we’re already seeing the backlash begin. – Blair Russell
- How Small Museums Are Going Viral
Small museums, looking to raise their profiles and educate the masses, are turning their paintings, sculptures and tapestries into the unlikely stars of TikTok microdramas. – The Wall Street Journal
- After 14 Years, Libya’s National Museum Reopens
“The National Museum of Libya – housing Africa’s greatest collection of classical antiquities in Tripoli’s historic Red Castle complex – had been closed for nearly 14 years due to the civil war that followed the former dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s downfall.” – The Guardian
- Corporate America Is “Desperate To Hire Storytellers”
While the heyday of technology gurus, developer ninjas, SEO rockstars and at least one digital prophet have long since passed, calling salaried communications professionals “storytellers” and the practice of storytelling appears to only have picked up in popularity. –The Wall Street Journal
- Study: 87 Percent Of Musicians Are Using AI In Their Work
It found that 87% of artists have incorporated AI into at least one part of their process. AI is powering a new era of self-sufficient artists. Artists are beginning to write, produce and promote their work at a level previously only achievable with a team around them. – Hypebot
- Time For The Art Market To Be “Right-Sized”
There is another way of looking at the shake-ups and shutdowns that have defined the art trade in 2025. Instead of a collapse, the process might better be thought of as the right-sizing of an industry where collectors were not alone in making big speculative bets on enormous growth that simply did not materialise. – The Art Newspaper
- Russian Government Officially Declares Pussy Riot An “Extremist Organization”
“The judgement means that Pussy Riot’s activities are now banned in Russia. Any individual or organization found to be supporting the group’s actions or social media posts could also face prosecution following the decision.” – ARTnews
- Emanuel Ax Is Musical America’s Artist Of The Year For 2026
Gabriela Lena Frank was named Composer of the Year; Jakub Hrůša, music director of London’s Royal Opera and music director-designate of the Czech Philharmonic, is Conductor of the Year; bass-baritone Gerald Finley is Vocalist of the Year; and San Diego Symphony CEO Martha Gilmer is Impresario of the Year. – Musical America
- Humphrey Burton, BBC’s First Head Of Music And Arts, Dead At 94
In the 1960s, he was producer and then host of flagship arts magazine Monitor before supervising all music and arts programming. He co-founded London Weekend Television, then hosted ITV’s first major arts program, Aquarius. In the mid-1970s, he returned to the BBC, presiding over a golden age of arts on television. – The Telegraph (UK)
- Poetry Foundation To Discontinue All Public Programs
The organization announced on December 1 that it intends to phase out all public programming, beginning with the discontinuation of its Forms & Features workshops and Library Book Club in the new year. A more recent statement stressed that the Foundation is transitioning into a grantmaking organization. – Publishers Weekly
- Yuval Sharon To Depart Detroit Opera By Mutual Agreement
While the company broadened both its repertoire and its audience during Sharon’s six years as artistic director (he departs at the end of this season), he and the board have agreed that, at this time, the company simply doesn’t have the money to realize his creative ambitions. – Detroit Free Press (MSN)
- Warner Bros. Discovery’s Board Rejects Paramount Skydance’s Takeover Bid, Calling It “Illusory”
“For Warner, what was missing was a clear declaration from Paramount that the Ellison family” — Paramount Skydance chief David Ellison and his father, tech mogul Larry Ellison — “had agreed to commit funding for the deal.” – Los Angeles Times (MSN)
- England’s Arts Funding Agency Needs A Major Overhaul, Finds Government Report
The Hodge Report, as it’s called, recommends that the agency, Arts Council England, not be abolished but that its procedures and strategy need thorough reform. Among the major recommendations are streamlining the excessive paperwork required from applicants, eliminating the controversial “Let’s Create” strategy, and devolving much grantmaking to the regional level. – The Guardian
- Hallmark Adds A Third Pillar To Its Business — “Experiences”
Combining, after a fashion, its two main businesses, greeting cards and television, the company has begun offering branded cruises and seasonal theme parks — and customers are responding very positively so far. – The Hollywood Reporter
- The Re-Rise Of The Middlebrow?
Whereas the modernists and postmodernists tended to use low culture as a vast reserve of references, tropes, and stock characters to be deployed as needed within the novel-as-polyvocal-assemblage, our recent crop of “genre-benders” instead work from within the given structures of genre plots, out of which they develop more traditional “literary” elements. – LA Review of Books
- After Ravaging By ISIS, Mosul’s Religious Landmarks Are Being Restored. Can The City’s Religious Diversity Return As Well?
“It remains to be seen whether rebuilding churches and mosques will encourage social cohesion and religious peace in a still-fractured society. There are fewer than 70 Christian families living in Mosul, down from a pre-2014 population of 50,000.” – The Art Newspaper
- The 56 Artists Chosen For The 2026 Whitney Biennial
Guerrero said the biennial—which is the longest-running survey of contemporary art in the US—will interrogate themes such as kinship and infrastructure to try and shed light on how artists connect with the world, but also sometimes reject it. The event will also question the US’s role in global affairs. – ARTnews
- Get The Popcorn: The Battle To Buy Warner Bros. Is Pure Entertainment
You couldn’t avoid the irony: The drama for how traditional Hollywood will be devoured is now as entertaining as anything Hollywood could ever come up with. – The Hollywood Reporter
- Study: Australian Theatre Pay Lags
Drawing on data from 92 Australian performing arts organisations with annual turnovers of between $250,000 and $4 million, the survey charts the persistently lagging salaries of small-to-medium arts company employees – even in roles that enjoyed healthy increases over the past two years. – ArtsHub
- Rob Reiner’s Son Nick Struggled With Addiction For Years As His Parents Grew Desperate
Now 32 and being held without bail as a suspect in the murder of his parents, Nick was 15 when he entered drug rehab for the first time. He see-sawed between attempts at recovery and relapses with heroin and cocaine ever since. – The New York Times
- Two Generations Of Rothschilds Battle Over Their “Mini-Louvre” Art Collection
The lawsuits centre on the family’s extensive collection of furniture, priceless historic objects and paintings held at the baronial domain, the Chateau de Pregny in Switzerland, which one visitor described as a “mini Louvre”. – The Guardian
- AI Is Causing Havoc With Recipe Bloggers
The AI had taken elements of similar recipes from multiple creators and Frankensteined them into something barely recognizable. In one memorable case, the Google AI failed to distinguish the satirical website the Onion from legitimate recipe sites and advised users to cook with non-toxic glue. – The Guardian
- North Carolina County Dissolves Library Board Over Decision On Book About A Transgender Boy
Kasey Meehan, director of the Freedom to Read program at free-expression advocacy group PEN America, said Randolph County’s decision to dissolve its library board is among the most severe penalties she has seen in response to a controversial book. – Washington Post
