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- “The Menace of Mechanical Music” – and of Digitization and ScreensJohn Philip Sousa
Following up on my chat with Aaron Cohen for “Arts Fuse,” I offer some further thoughts
- New York Theatre Ballet seeks Development Director
NEW YORK THEATRE BALLET is the most widely seen chamber ballet company in the United States. For nearly five decades, NYTB has occupied a unique place in NYC’s cultural landscape: preserving important works of ballet history; introducing young audiences to the magic of dance; training generations of artists; creating opportunities for new choreographers to flourish; and making ballet accessible to wider audiences and communities.
POSITION OVERVIEW
The Director of Development is NYTB’s senior fundraising leader, responsible for designing and executing a comprehensive development strategy that advances two core organizational pillars:
1. NYTB’s artistic mission — producing innovative chamber ballet, commissioning new works, preserving classic repertory, and expanding community access.
2. NYTB School’s educational mission — delivering exceptional ballet training, expanding scholarships, and strengthening community partnerships.
This role oversees all contributed revenue streams, manages donor and institutional relationships, leads development operations, and partners closely with the Executive Director, Artistic Director, and Board of Directors to ensure sustainable organizational growth. Salary range $80,000 – $85,000.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Strategic Leadership
• Develop and implement a multiyear fundraising strategy aligned with NYTB’s artistic and educational priorities.
• Establish annual revenue goals, campaign plans, and donor pipeline strategies.
• Provide strategic guidance to the Executive Director and Board on fundraising trends, opportunities, and risks.
• Lead development planning for repertory initiatives, new works, scholarships, and community programs.Individual Giving
• Manage a portfolio of major donors and prospects.
• Lead donor cultivation through meetings and exclusive experiences.
• Oversee donor communications, stewardship, and impact reporting.Institutional Giving
• Secure foundation, government, and corporate grants.
• Oversee proposals, reporting, and compliance.
• Maintain funder relationships.Events & Campaigns
• Lead fundraising events, including the gala, salons, studio showings, and school showcases.
• Execute targeted scholarship, repertory, and new works campaigns.
• Partner with marketing on cohesive messaging and engagement.Development Operations
• Oversee CRM, donor segmentation, reporting, and gift processing.
• Ensure regulatory and financial compliance.
• Manage the department budget and revenue forecasts.Cross-Organizational Collaboration
• Align with NYTB School on program, scholarship, and parent-engagement priorities.
• Integrate donor engagement into artistic and community programs.
• Partner with marketing to strengthen company and school storytelling.QUALIFICATIONS
• 5+ years of fundraising experience, preferably in the arts, education, or nonprofit sector.
• Proven success in major gifts, grants, campaigns, and donor stewardship.
• Strong relationship-building, communication, and project-management skills.
• Experience with CRM systems, budgets, reporting, and fundraising compliance.
• Ability to work independently and collaborate with staff, board members, donors, and community partners.
• Commitment to NYTB’s artistic, educational, and community-access missions.APPLICATIONS AND INQUIRIES
Submit cover letter and resume to jkarceski@1020partners.com.
- New York Theatre Ballet Seeks Administrative/Office Manager
NEW YORK THEATRE BALLET is the most widely seen chamber ballet company in the United States. For nearly five decades, NYTB has occupied a unique place in NYC’s cultural landscape: preserving important works of ballet history; introducing young audiences to the magic of dance; training generations of artists; creating opportunities for new choreographers to flourish; and making ballet accessible to wider audiences and communities.
POSITION SUMMARY
New York Theatre Ballet seeks an organized, proactive office manager to oversee operations for its professional company and ballet school. Join a small, mission-driven arts organization where your work directly supports performances, education, and community programs. Salary range $60,000 – $65,000.
PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES
Oversee administrative, HR, program, performance, and communication functions, with peak periods around performances, events, and registration.
Office Administration & Operations
• Run daily operations and serve as the primary administrative contact.
• Manage communications, visitors, calendars, files, records, and databases.
• Improve procedures and support invoices, payments, and financial records.School Administration
• Manage registration, enrollment, attendance, records, billing, payments, and scholarships.
• Assist families and coordinate classes, faculty, studios, and space.
• Support workshops, intensives, special programs, and community engagement.Company Administration & Performance Support
• Coordinate company, performance, touring, venue, and event logistics.
• Maintain schedules, artist information, and cross-team communication.Program & Event Coordination
• Coordinate programs, performances, fundraisers, galas, and special events.
• Coordinate volunteers and event staff as needed.Human Resources Administration
• Coordinate hiring, payroll, and benefits administration.
• Track leave, time, documentation, policies, and handbook updates.
• Support training and employment compliance.Website & Technology Support
• Update website schedules, school information, biographies, events, and announcements.
• Support registration, forms, databases, platforms, and basic troubleshooting.
• Coordinate technology vendors and maintain data integrity.Communications & Marketing Support
• Prepare newsletters, email campaigns, audience updates, and public calendars.
• Schedule social media and maintain consistent branding.QUALIFICATIONS
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience and 3–5 years in administration, office management, or operations.
• Strong organization, project management, communication, and attention to detail.
• Proficiency in Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams.
• Ability to manage competing deadlines and confidential information accurately and discreetly.PREFERRED
• Nonprofit, education, performing arts, dance school, or arts administration experience.
• Experience with CMS, CRM, ticketing, or registration systems.APPLICATIONS AND INQUIRIES
Submit cover letter and resume to susan@levlin.com
- The Voynich Manuscript Was Probably Bound Wrong
Good Morning,
Colin Layfield, a University of Malta lecturer, and Lisa Fagin Davis, a medieval-handwriting expert, argue that the Voynich manuscript, the undeciphered 15th-century codex at Yale, has been read in the wrong order. Its sheets were likely stacked as loose “singulions” and mis-bound in the mid-to-late 1400s. Davis says the evidence points to as many as five scribes and a communal object: “the ‘lone genius’ idea is kind of out of the door” (The Guardian).
Harmonium of Texas, a new San Antonio orchestra founded by the pianist-conductor Jeffrey Kahane, debuted Friday with 68 players, many from the defunct San Antonio Symphony, and more than 100 singers for Carmina Burana. Three days before the concert, the San Antonio Philharmonic, which Kahane left as music director in February, sued him over donor and email lists (San Antonio Express-News).
New York is doubling its grants to individual artists from $5,000 to $10,000, the first increase in about 20 years, with roughly $3.5 million going to five borough arts councils. The Whitney’s staff union won raises of at least 14.75 percent over four years hours before a strike that would have hit the Lichtenstein retrospective’s previews (ARTnews, ARTnews).
At the Hollywood Pantages, the touring The Outsiders rains more than 100 gallons of water onto its climactic brawl eight shows a week, and the cast walks the fight through before each performance “at 65,” short of full speed (Los Angeles Times).
All of our stories below.
- Rain, Blood, Mud — How The Broadway Staging Of “The Outsiders” Handles All The Fluids And Fists In The Climactic Brawl
“Staging that key three minutes of the show’s meticulously choreographed, highly anticipated climax, is a technical feat involving more than 100 gallons of water and unwavering physical acumen on the part of the cast.” – Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
- Our Billionaire Problem
Where billionaires in the past operated in the physical world, ushered in societal change as a byproduct of their innovation, and used their sizable largesses to try uplifting lives, today’s billionaires stretch the limits of technological reality (and law) with sheer glee, with a meagre spirit of altruism. – The Walrus
- Audible Introduces Interactive Features To Its Audiobooks
“On Thursday, the Amazon-owned company introduced three new features that will allow listeners to explore a book’s characters, engage in interactive stories, and view additional imagery and bonus information about landmarks or places mentioned in the book.” Unfortunately, for now this all is available with only one title. – TechCrunch
- Guggenheim Bilbao Gets A High Profile Expansion
The striking, €45m project in which Foster + Partners has worked with the eminent Basque architect Luis María Uriarte, has been described as a “floating pavilion” and will double the current exhibition space in the museum, to around 6,000 sq. m, and will also remodel 8,000 sq. m of existing galleries. – The Art Newspaper
- Cleaning Up Our Conservation Harms
Conservators face a particular challenge: how to ensure that preserving the past does not compromise the future. – The Art Newspaper
- Explain This Trend: Building New Stately English Mansions That Look Like They’ve Been There Forever
Featuring elegant proportions, hand-carved cornicing, expansive stone doorsteps and porches, and with a flourish of columns, this house and others like it have all been built in recent years – but without a backstory of beheaded queens or servant entourages. Welcome to the world of houses built to look like they’ve always been there. – BBC (MSN)
- Why David Hallberg Is Nervous About Bringing The Australian Ballet To New York
“This is absolutely the city — audiences, presenters, critics — that knows me best” he said. “And there is no denying that eyes will be on how I have guided and how I am presenting the company that I have directed for six years.” – The New York Times
- The Midnight Express: NBA Finalist for Nonfiction<a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2026/10/the-midnight-express-nba-finalist-for-nonfiction.html" title="The Midnight Express: NBA Finalist for Nonfiction” rel=”nofollow”>We’ve
- Who Owns An Orchestra When It Goes Away?
Harmonium, founded by pianist and conductor Jeffrey Kahane after he stepped down as the Philharmonic’s music director earlier this year, begins its orchestral life Friday at the Lila Cockrell Theatre. Its emergence poses an unusual question: when an orchestra disappears, who — if anyone — inherits it? – San Antonio Current
- What The Kennedy Center Was And Why It Closed
“I was a vice president at that arts center in Washington, and I can tell you that maintenance is almost certainly not why it closed its doors last month.” – Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)
- The World Of Science Is Being Overwhelmed By New Studies
In 2025, academics worldwide published about 7 million scholarly articles – that’s more than 19,000 each day. On the surface, that might seem like a number to celebrate, but it also poses a problem. As the volume of research balloons, it can be hard to discern what these millions of papers actually tell us. – Aeon
- Is The Reason The Voynich Manuscript Is So Confounding Because The Pages Are Out Of Order?
“In … peer-reviewed journal Digital Medievalist, (two researchers) argue that the manuscript’s folded sheets may have originally been piled on top of each other as ‘singulions’ – like a stack of Christmas cards – but were mis-bound in a more typical ‘nested’ arrangement at some point in the mid-to-late 15th century.” – The Guardian
- Alabama Governor Dismisses Five Members Of The State’s Public TV Board
The move to dismiss the members came days after a survey conducted by the board showed support for Alabama Public Television continuing its relationship with the Public Broadcasting Service. Last October, two conservative members of the board brought the idea of disaffiliating from PBS. Barnett accused PBS of being “anathema” to President Donald Trump. – Alabama Reflector
- The Dazzling Physical Afterlife Of The Ancient Pharaohs
Of all the priorities that governed ancient-Egyptian life, perhaps the hardest for us to fathom is the expenditure on the afterlife, not merely as a place of immaterial spiritual reward, but as a world of material goods. – The Atlantic
- The People Who Resist New Technology
Call them legacy users, or upgrade holdouts. They’ve clung to iPhones with home buttons, Bush-era computers, and headphones older than some tech CEOs, even when doing so impedes their ability to complete everyday tasks like emailing or navigation. – The Atlantic
- Referrals From Google To Media Websites Have Plummeted, But Overall Page Views Have Held Fairly Steady. How Come?
“Direct traffic is taking a larger share, internal recirculation is up and private sharing through texts, DMs and apps like WhatsApp has surged. Meanwhile, publishers’ most loyal readers are generating more pageviews than they did two years ago. The catch: Publishers are attracting fewer new readers.” – A Media Operator
- City Of New York Doubles Its Grants To Individual Artists
“Rising from $5,000 to up to $10,000, the increase … represents the first change in this funding stream in some 20 years. The funding comes from the Department of Cultural Affairs and is distributed to each borough’s arts councils, which act as regrant partners and dole out grants to individual artists annually.” – ARTnews
- Robert Rauschenberg’s New York Loft/Studio Is For Sale. Should It Be Saved?
The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation clearly doesn’t think so: not only has it listed the Soho building he bought in 1966, it has already sold the house on Florida’s Captiva Island where he spent his final decades. (A resort developer bought that property for $45 million.) – The New York Times
- Plans Revealed For $250 Million Arts District In Historically Black Neighborhood In Chicago
The Bronzeville Legacy Collective says it has already raised $75 million toward its goal: a campus with museums dedicated to the gospel music, blues legend Muddy Waters, and Emmett Till; a center for Black dance; a theater with a resident company; a recreational trail; and an arts and culture center. – WBEZ (Chicago)
- Whitney Museum And Staffers Agree On Contract Just Hours Before Strike Deadline
“Under the new contract, every Whitney employee will receive a wage increase of at least 14.75% over four years. Workers with the lowest salaries will receive larger raises, ranging from 5% to 23% in the first year.” The settlement came in time to avoid disruption of the museum’s major Roy Lichtenstein retrospective. – ARTnews
- San Antonio’s Newest Orchestra Makes A Crowd-Pleasing Debut
Harmonium of Texas — made up largely of musicians from the long-defunct San Antonio Symphony and the now-probably-defunct San Antonio Philharmonic, and co-founded by former SA Phil music director Jeffrey Kahane — gave its first performance on Friday, three days after what’s left of the Philharmonic sued Harmonium. – San Antonio Express-News (Yahoo!)
- Jeffrey Archer — Bestselling Novelist, Tory Politician, Convicted Felon — Is Dead At 86
“Possessed of huge drive, vast wealth and immense personal charm, Archer bounced back from disaster and, more than once, rebuilt a shattered life. But for all his talents, he will be remembered as a man affected by a defective moral compass, whose public humiliation was entirely self-inflicted.” – BBC (MSN)
- Oracle Gives $10M To Help Save The Nashville Symphony
The gift will allow the symphony to resume the season, which runs through June 2027, and to retain staff, Mark Tillinger, Nashville Symphony’s president and chief executive, said in a news release on Sunday. – The New York Times
- Why More Adults Are Playing With Kids Toys
“People just stay very playful for a longer period of time. And it’s cross-brand. You know, it might be Teddy bears. It might be Lego bricks. It might be Transformers. It might be Barbie dolls.” – The New Yorker
- Will We Still Need Punctuation When Machines Are Writing?
What are those commas doing there, anyway? By modern usage, they should mark off a non-restrictive clause, but they don’t. Nor are they marking items in a series or natural pauses in speech. – The New Yorker
- Musical Instruments Are Getting More Expensive
The consequences have reverberated across the country. Higher instrument prices are a particular threat to lower-income districts where enrollment and budgets are shrinking. – The New York Times
- The NFL Is Trying To Woo New Fans With Its Own Romance Writing
That is … not going well (though romance readers are still gaga for M/M, W/W, and M/W hockey tales from more traditional channels). Fans “see the stories as cheap pandering that fails to engage with female and LGBTQ hockey fans’ concerns about homophobia and toxic masculinity in the sport.” – Wired
- Can A Movie Make A Global Difference?
“In the coming weeks, NAZA will continue its rollout to theaters across the U.S., and this week it hit No. 1 at the Italian box office, surpassing Avengers: Endgame.” – Vulture
- If You Can’t Hold It, You Don’t Own It
Physical media are really making a comeback in the era of streaming services removing series and movies at (seemingly) random, book censorship, and AI music. – The Guardian (UK)
- Authoritarian Politics Are Threatening Culture Worldwide
In addition to established understandings of intrinsic esthetic and historic values of heritage, new emphasis on development reconceptualizes heritage as a resource that can generate economic development, tourism, employment and social cohesion. – The Conversation
- What, Exactly, Is Literary Substack?
As Substack has become a more respectable platform and mainstream academics have begun to join in some numbers, they have encountered a strange simulacrum of fields they thought they knew intimately. Cultural and symbolic capital seem to work differently here. – Paroxysms
