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- The Once-Banned Street Music Of Afro-Uruguayans Has Leapt Back To Life
Candombe — not to be confused with candomblé, the syncretic religion created by Afro-Brazilians — was once confined to poor black neighborhoods in Montevideo. Now it has many thousands of practitioners and fans throughout the country. – The Guardian
- Shaker Dancing And Christian Spirituality
“Though Christianity’s relationship with dance remains tangled, the full-bodied nature of Shaker devotion, revolutionary in the 18th century, is now an ideal for some Christians — and some dance artists.” – The New York Times
- How Luxembourg’s Minister Of Culture Defended This Year’s Venice Biennale Entry
“The role of the state is not to filter works in the name of good taste,” Thill said, adding that art should challenge audiences rather than simply please them. He said the public debate surrounding the project proves that it is doing its job. – ARTnews
- Why You Can’t Love A Clone
- Italy Pays €30 Million For Rare Portrait By Caravaggio
“The portrait, painted around 1598 and attributed to Caravaggio in 1963, depicts Maffeo Barberini, a nobleman who later became Pope Urban VIII. The painting was acquired from a private collection by the Italian state after over a year of negotiations and will now enter Rome’s Palazzo Barberini permanent collection.” – AP
- Fighting Over Art And Politics Again (And Again)
Identity, even when mobilized as a force for visibility and justice, can shield art from critique—transforming dissent into offense and rendering criticism suspect. Questioning the work risks being seen as questioning the identity. – LA Review of Books
- How Politics Made Contemporary Art Predictable And Dull
The ambition to explore every facet of the present was quickly replaced by a devout commitment to questions of equity and accountability. There was a new answer to the question of what art should do: it should amplify the voices of the historically marginalized. What it shouldn’t do, it seemed, is be inventive or interesting. – Harper’s
- The Global Elite Have Given Up On Spelling And Grammar
The literary breaches, while trivial, highlight a reality that has become all too clear: There’s an inverse correlation between power and proper punctuation. – The Wall Street Journal
- Marseille Has A Thriving Artist Community. So Why Might The City Elect A Far Right Government?
If your experience of Marseille is limited to certain multicultural central neighbourhoods then it might be easy to assume that this is – and always will be – a leftwing city, an outlier in the far-right bastion that is the wider south of France. But Marseille’s politics have always been contested. – The Guardian
- Last Of Great Authors Of Latin America’s Literary Boom, Alfredo Bryce Echenique, Has Died At 87
“(He) achieved international renown with the 1970 publication of A World for Julius, … portraying the life of Lima’s elite through the eyes of a sensitive and lucid child. The book continues to be studied in universities around the world and marked a before and after in Peruvian literature.” – Euronews
- This Year’s Spotify Report: Music Business Is Increasingly Global
Spotify said artists from 75 different countries had generated at least $500,000 in streaming royalties last year, compared to 66 the year prior, with about half of an average artist’s streams now coming from outside their home country. – The Hollywood Reporter
- Making The Case For Opera In Odd Spaces
Sitting in front of the singers, without the distraction of the sets or even an orchestra, I found myself face to face with Mozart’s sublime interwoven vocal lines and the unadulterated beauty and power of the human instrument. It reminded me of why I keep turning up to opera in the first place. – The Guardian
- Hollywood’s Casting Process Has Changed Massively
“As their profession is thrust into the spotlight with a new Oscar for their work being awarded on Sunday, the casting directors I spoke with acknowledged that the digital migration of their process has in some ways globalized the experience, … but they also acknowledge that sometimes a human touch is lost.” – The New York Times
- European Union Threatens To Withdraw Funding For Venice Biennale If Russia Is Allowed To Participate
“This decision by the Fondazione Biennale is not compatible with the EU’s collective response to Russia’s brutal aggression,” said the EU commissioners for technology and culture. “Should the Fondazione Biennale … allow Russia’s participation, we will examine further action, including the suspension or termination of an ongoing EU grant to the Biennale Foundation.” – ARTnews
- Portland Has Millions Of Dollars In Unspent Arts Funding, And Arts Organizations Are Pleading For It
The government of Oregon’s largest city has $8.5 million in money from its (unpopular) Art Tax that has never been spent; this was reported shortly after the city cut arts grants by nearly half. – Oregon ArtsWatch
- Over Objections Of Musicians And Staff, Beatrice Venezi Confirmed As Music Director Of La Fenice In Venice
“Venezi, the daughter of a far-right militant and known for tossing her blonde mane in a popular shampoo ad, is seen as part of the (current) government’s declared aim of ending alleged left-wing cultural hegemony in Italy. … Critics say her conducting record is too slim for a post like La Fenice’s.” – ANSA (Italy)
- Phoenix Symphony Selects L.A. Phil Alum As Its Next Music Director
Chilean conductor Paolo Bortolameolli, who was associate conductor under Gustavo Dudamel at the Los Angeles Philharmonic through 2023, begins his term in Phoenix with the 2027-28 season. He will maintain his other current position, music director of the Teatro Municipal de Santiago, Chile’s national opera house, and the Filarmonica de Santiago. – Arizona Republic
- Costs To Produce Theatre In Britain Have Doubled In The Last Ten Years
The annual Theatre in the UK report from the Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre says that, despite soaring attendance, many theatres in Britain are expecting to post operating deficits — because, as costs have risen, ticket prices have not been raised so as not to drive away audiences. – The Stage
- Bill Kurtis To Retire From NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me”
The 85-year-old former CBS anchorman has been judge and scorekeeper on the public radio comedy-quiz show for 12 years. His last show will air on May 23. – Inside Radio
- Days of JudgmentPoems and Drawings That Speak for Themselves<a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2026/03/days-of-judgmentpoems-and-drawings-that-speak-for-themselves.html" title='Days of Judgment
Poems and Drawings That Speak for Themselves’ rel=”nofollow”>
New from Moloko Print — ‘Days of Judgment’ by Mark Terill with drawings by Gerard Bellaart. - It Looks Like Spring Has Come, But Don’t Be Fooled<a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2026/03/it-looks-like-spring-has-come-but-dont-be-fooled.html" title="It Looks Like Spring Has Come, But Don’t Be Fooled” rel=”nofollow”>
Two days of suddenly warm weather here in New York City brought a poem to mind, though it’s really too early to think about it. - The Data Confirms: It’s Women Who Keep American Contemporary Dance Running
“Among the largest 150companies, … in all leadership categories except music directors/principal conductors, women comprised between 59% and 85% of artistic and administrative roles.” – Dance Data Project
- The LiveNation Settlement Will Solve Nothing
With a fine equivalent to a few days’ revenue and some marginal changes to its business practices, Live Nation will, more or less, plow ahead as the dominant force in live music. – The Los Angeles Times
- Al Zuckerman, Who Founded One Of The First Modern Literary Agencies, Has Died At 94
“His working approach was that a literary agent should be a creative and business partner for writers — a relatively novel idea at the time that he launched the agency, in 1973. Writers House now has over 20 agents and 50 employees and represents hundreds of authors,” many of them very prominent indeed. – Publishers Weekly
- Handicapping The Oscars
Whatever happens on Oscar Sunday, I suspect that the two front-runners will share the spotlight in a spirit as companionable as it is competitive. – The New Yorker
- Simon & Schuster Hires Former Amazon Exec As New CEO
The choice of Greg Greeley marks the first time in memory that Simon & Schuster had hired a CEO from outside the company. The 62-year-old Greeley succeeds Jonathan Karp, who announced last year that he was stepping down to found his own imprint. – AP
- Yearning For The Meaning Of Consciousness
“What I find moving in these discussions is the intense yearning for a world that is more alive than secular scientists might think it is, a kind of seeking for a god that one suspects these scientists do not, at the same time, believe to exist.” – The American Scholar
- Trump White House Is Releasing Video Mixes Of Iran War Footage With Video Games And Action Movies
“The White House’s social media feed has issued a series of pumped-up videos that mix real Iran war explosions with movie action heroes, gaming footage and bone-crunching football tackles, leading critics like a top cleric of the U.S. Catholic Church to condemn a trivialization of deadly real-life conflict.” – AP
- The Collective Community Wound When Famous Buildings Burn
The fire will have obvious economic consequences for the city, particularly through the loss of businesses caught in and close to the fire. But the emotional effect of the fire will be felt by the city’s residents and visitors, particularly if the building lies in ruins indefinitely. – The Conversation
- Exodus Of Top Staff At The Art Gallery Of Ontario
Art Gallery of Ontario deputy director and chief curator Julian Cox will leave his post this April after eight years in the role, marking the latest departure at the Toronto museum since it became embroiled in a controversy over a failed plan to acquire a work by Nan Goldin. – ARTnews
- Roblox Is Hugely Popular — But What Is It Teaching Our Kids?
Roblox burgeoned during the COVID-19 pandemic; many of my students told me that their most cherished remote-learning memories were actually ditching Zoom classes to play Roblox together. – Psyche
- Is There Still Room For “Beautiful” Mathematics In An AI World?
- Don’t Get Too Smug, Timothée. Movies Are In Crisis, Too.
“The medium is facing a host of issues informed by global technological shifts and the financial dynamics of mounting a production anywhere. But let’s keep it focused. Hollywood — and, yes, American independent cinema — is staring down the barrel of a loaded gun.” – Vulture (MSN)
- Why The German Government Feels Threatened By Independent Bookshops
Independent bookshops are dangerous because they interrupt us. They do not optimise our curiosity. They derail it. Is that the reason why Germany’s culture commissioner, Wolfram Weimer, is now consulting the domestic intelligence agency before approving funds to bookshops? – The Guardian
- Longtime Kennedy Center Patrons Contemplate A Shutdown
For many loyal patrons, the question has become how to fill the void left by the cancellations and the impending two-year closing. – The New York Times
