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- Good Morning
Two big entertainment deals closed last week — Paramount sold, Live Nation tightened its grip on ticketing — and I argue in Diacritical why these commercial infrastructure moves should alarm anyone running a nonprofit arts organization. The pipes matter, even when they’re someone else’s pipes.
The art market grew in 2025, but the fine print is instructive: auctions bounced back, galleries barely budged, and nearly all the gains came from a handful of very expensive works (ARTnews). Meanwhile, fewer than ten full-time book critics remain in the United States (Book Work). The BSO’s break with conductor Andris Nelsons — players and board in apparent “disrepair,” future vision unspecified — fits the same picture (The Guardian).
The Pritzker went to Chilean architect Smiljan Radić Clarke, who responded to learning he’d now be famous by saying the prize “will probably mean being far more exposed than I would like” (NPR). Relatable.
All of our stories below.
- Paramount and Live Nation/Ticketmaster Won Big Last Week: Here’s why Orchestras and Theatres and Museums (and Consumers) Lost
Two huge culture industry deals in the past week, both in entertainment, and maybe they don’t seem connected. Certainly not connected to non-profit arts. But these are exactly the kind of culture infrastructure deals that should worry anyone in the commercial or non-profit culture business because they impact us all. Here’s why. - Big Candy Makers Are Cutting Way Back On Cocoa In Their “Chocolates”
The climate crisis has caused devastated cacao farming in West Africa, causing huge price spikes and volatility in the cocoa commodity market — leading companies like Hershey’s and Cadbury, which manufacture inexpensive chocolate products for ordinary consumers, to start using other ingredients. – The Guardian
- There Are Fewer Than 10 Full Time Book Critics Left
By some measures, there are as many as 1 million books published annually in the US, and it’s a number that doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. The result is that there is intense competition for the small slice of the review landscape that remains. – Book Work
- Organ Harvesting: Nonprofit Is Rescuing Church Instruments From Decrepitude And Dismantling
Every year, over 400 church organs in the UK alone are sent to the junkyard or become unplayable due to neglect. The organization Pipe Up is rescuing some of those instruments which can be made playable at relatively little expense, then sending them to new owners ranging from London to the Philippines. – BBC (Yahoo!)
- What Happens When Art Experts And AI Disagree On Authentication?
Combining machine learning, deep neural networks and computer vision algorithms, Art Recognition’s approach can, in theory, be adapted to any painter with a big enough back catalog. To date, the company has produced models for more than 200 artists. – CNN
- The Art Market Grew In 2025. But…
The recovery, however, came with an asterisk. While auctions bounced back strongly, galleries barely budged, and much of the market’s growth came from a small number of very expensive works. – ARTnews
- Bernie Sanders Has an AI Proposal<a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2026/03/bernie-sanders-has-an-ai-proposal.html" title="Bernie Sanders Has an AI Proposal” rel=”nofollow”><img width="150" height="150" src="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/BERNIE-SANDERS-750-150×150.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" link_thumbnail="1" decoding="async" srcset="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/BERNIE-SANDERS-750-150×150.jpg 150w, https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/BERNIE-SANDERS-750-100×100.jpg 100w, https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/BERNIE-SANDERS-750-200×200.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="72960" data-permalink="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/screenshot-339" data-orig-file="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/BERNIE-SANDERS-750.jpg" data-orig-size="750,1065" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"Screenshot","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"Screenshot","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="Bernie Sanders" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="
Calls for a moratorium on new data centers.
” data-medium-file=”https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/BERNIE-SANDERS-750-211×300.jpg” data-large-file=”https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/BERNIE-SANDERS-750-721×1024.jpg”>He’s been called a luddite. But he rejects that and says he is calling for a moratorium on building new AI data centers because he is concerned about an existential threat to humankind. - What Percentage Of Americans Went To A Movie Theatre Last Year? (You Might Be Surprised)
According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in the summer of 2025, 53% of U.S. adults said they had seen a movie in theaters in the prior 12 months. A small but notable 7% said they had never seen a movie in a theater at all. – Variety
- Missing Page From Major Archimedes Manuscript Rediscovered In France
“A lost page from the Archimedes Palimpsest, among the oldest sources for the Greek mathematician in existence, has been discovered … at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Blois. The page in question contains geometric diagrams and a passage from Archimedes’s treatise on the sphere and the cylinder, hidden beneath a layer of later religious writings.” – Artnet
- Women-Owned Radio Stations And The Communities They’re Building
Whatever their mission and wherever their location, what the stations have in common is the amplification — literally and metaphorically — of women’s voices to create a community that might not otherwise exist, on-air or off. – NiemanLab
- Player Pianos, Automation And AI
Nearly every major pianist of the early 20th century made music for these machines. Echoing AI commentary today, some musicians viewed the player piano as not just replicating human playing, but exceeding it. – The Atlantic
- Damage To Iran’s Historic Sites Mounts
The strikes on Isfahan on Monday came a week after another cultural icon, the Golestan Palace, was badly damaged during an attack on a police station in downtown Tehran, according to the ministry. – The New York Times
- National Choreographers Initiative In Los Angeles Will End After This Summer
For two decades, NCI has offered four young choreographers the chance to spend three weeks creating works on professional dancers. In a Q&A, artistic director Molly Lynch talks about the initiative and why it is ending. – L.A. Dance Chronicle
- What We Can Learn From Radical Access To The Arts
Access Fringe program at the Melbourne Fringe Festival is a 10-year partnership with Arts Access Victoria supporting d/Deaf and disabled artists through commissions, mentorships and specialised development programs. The initiative shows how embedding access into every space and conversation can lead to change across the entire cultural sector. – ArtsHub
- Why Did The Boston Symphony Decide To Part Ways With Its Music Director?
Right now though, it’s anyone’s guess where the “future vision” of the BSO will take them – and if the relationship between the players and the board is in the state of disrepair it seems to be, this could become a Premier League style story of power, vanity and ingloriousness. Oh dear. – The Guardian
- Lessons From Sundance: New Focus On Artist Care
For all of the egregious consent violations in the film industry that the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements shone a light on, I was heartened by what I heard about artist care from the independent filmmakers, and I believe that there’s much that theatre can learn from them. – American Theatre
- Pritzker Prize For Architecture 2026 Goes To Smiljan Radić Clarke Of Chile
Though The New York Times has described him as “a rock star among architects,” he’s not as famous as previous “starchitect” winners such as Frank Gehry, I.M. Pei, and Zaha Hadid. In fact, Radić says that this award “will probably mean being far more exposed than I would like.” – NPR
- Change To Middle Passage Exhibit At Smithsonian’s African-American Museum
Since the National Museum of African-American History and Culture opened in 2016, its exhibit on the transport of millions of enslaved Africans to the Americas has featured a piece of the slave ship São José-Paquete de Africa. That fragment, on loan from the Iziko Museums of South Africa, will be returned this summer. – AP
- Barack And Michelle Obama Are Now Broadway Producers
Higher Ground, their production company, is one of the main backers of this spring’s 16-week run of David Auburn’s Tony- and Pulitzer-winning play Proof, starring Don Cheadle and Ayo Edibiri (in their Broadway debuts) and directed by Thomas Kail, who staged Hamilton. – Variety
- Bill Cosby May Be Out Of Jail, But He’s Not Out Of The Courtroom
The now-disgraced entertainer is facing a number of lawsuits (one of which began trial this week) in California by women who allege that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted them. – The New York Times
- Can Voice Of America Rebuild After Kari Lake Nearly Dismantled It?
“(A) source familiar with the matter suggested a ramp-up could occur within a matter of months, but that would mean a more nimble operation of around 500 journalists” — down from more than 1,000 — “and a potential consolidation of VOA and Radio Free Europe or Radio Free Asia.” – TheWrap (MSN)
- You’re Not Still Planning an Arts Season From YOUR Perspective, Are You?Are you still looking at plays and symphonies and exhibits as your starting point? A reasonable approach in 1976. Big mistake in 2026.
- All About America, Good And Bad, At This Year’s Edinburgh International Festival
“It is the largest presentation of American artists in the history of the festival,” says director Nicola Benedetti. The program includes a residence by Wynton Marsalis (Benedetti’s husband). Theatre productions will explore the AIDS crisis and racist lynchings; Clown Show will present a ‘contemporary portrait of America as a falling-apart circus’.” – The Guardian
- Historic Palaces In Iran Damaged By U.S. Bombing
“The most serious confirmed damage to date has been to Tehran’s Golestan Palace, dating back to the 14th century, and the 17th-century Chehel Sotoon Palace in Isfahan.” Other landmarks in Isfahan, one of Iran’s most historic cities, have been damaged as well. – The Guardian
- How AI Terminated 1,477 NEH Grants: A Naive Exercise in Casuistry
Nate Cavanaugh of DOGE (March 2025)From 2010 until its sudden termination by DOGE last April, I directed Music Unwound, an NEH-funded national consortium of orchestras and universities. A letter from Michael McDonald, the acting NEH chairman, informed me that the demise of Music Unwound represented “an urgent priority
- Grand Rapids Symphony – President & CEO
As it approaches its 100th anniversary in 2030, The Grand Rapids Symphony seeks an accomplished, mission-driven President & Chief Executive Officer to lead the organization through its next chapter of artistic excellence, community impact, national relevance, and long-term sustainability.
In partnership with a committed Board of Directors and Music Director Marcelo Lehninger, the incoming CEO will play a central role in propelling the Symphony’s artistic and organizational success, including through the development and implementation of strategies that will magnify its marketing and fundraising efforts; deepen community relationships; and fortify organizational culture and resilience.
The Symphony has an annual operating budget of approximately $12 million; an independent, non-profit Foundation dedicated to its financial success; an endowment of $42 million; an administrative staff of 27; and a complement of 77 exquisite musicians.
The Grand Rapids Symphony seeks candidates prepared for a projected date in late summer 2026. The hiring range begins at $220,000 and includes a competitive benefits package.
The search is led by Brett Egan and Syrah Gunning of the DeVos Institute of Arts and Nonprofit Management. Apply here or contact segunning@DeVosInstitute.net.
- Good Morning
Venice is turning into a political battleground — again, but louder. The EU is now threatening to pull funding from the Biennale entirely if Russia is allowed to participate, calling the decision “not compatible with the EU’s collective response to Russia’s brutal aggression” (ARTnews). Meanwhile, over in Venice proper, Italy’s far-right government has pushed through the appointment of Beatrice Venezi as music director of La Fenice — over the objections of musicians and staff — as part of its declared campaign to end what it calls left-wing cultural hegemony (ANSA (Italy)). Critics say her conducting record is too thin for the job. The government appears unbothered.
Harper’s has a pointed essay from 2024 arguing that contemporary art became predictable and dull precisely when politics took over — that the mandate to amplify marginalized voices crowded out the mandate to be inventive (Harper’s). The LA Review of Books pushes back, noting that “questioning the work risks being seen as questioning the identity” — which is its own kind of critical trap (LA Review of Books). It’s a debate worth having.
Portland has been cutting arts grants — nearly in half. It has also been sitting on $8.5 million in unspent arts tax revenue. Arts organizations are, understandably, asking questions (Oregon ArtsWatch).
All of our 20 stories below.
- 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
- What If A “Day Job” Is The Foundation Of An Artistic Career?
Rather than sticking our heads in the sand—and hoping that belief, alone, will be the source of motivation we need to succeed—what if we focused on doing what it takes to play the game for as long as possible? – 3 Quarks Daily
- 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
