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- A Deeply Skeptical Austria Gets A New ‘Sound Of Music’ Museum
“For decades, many residents [of Salzburg] didn’t even know about the blockbuster musical that put their city on the map for global audiences. Those who did often dismissed it as kitsch.” – The New York Times
- California’s Governor Signs Into Law A Postproduction Tax Credit To Help Stem The Hollywood Tide
The Editors Guild wanted a much larger credit, but hey, the editors still “see the more modest allocation as a positive first step.” – Variety
- Ireland Is Staying Out Of Eurovision Again To Protest Israel’s Participation
The boycott is because of “the ‘appalling’ ongoing killing in Gaza, the national broadcaster has said.” – The Guardian (UK)
- A New California Law Means That The Cranachs At The Norton Simon Museum Are Once Again Lawsuit Material
“The paintings were among many looted from Goudstikker by the Nazi Reichsmarshall Hermann Goering in 1940 and later recovered by Allied forces who returned them to Dutch officials.” – The New York Times
- Are Efforts To Silence Filmmakers And Musicians Only, Actually, Marketing Their Work?
For instance: “Macklemore, who hasn’t had a major hit since the 2010s, is relevant again. He has the support of artists, fans and thousands more outraged by his dismissal.” Then there’s NAZA. – Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)
- The ‘Shaun The Sheep’ Creators Are Somehow Not Worried About AI
“Students at Aardman’s Academy are also being taught to embrace imperfection in the painstaking art of stop-motion, where every blink, smile and movement is created by hand.” – BBC
- How One Woman Helped Secure The Future For Kansas City’s Struggling Lyric Opera
“It was Sandler … who both came up with the idea that they could create an income source by building opera sets and renting them out to other companies, and also Sandler who sold that idea,” including to Missouri’s Republican governor. – Kansas City Stack
- John Clapp shares strategies for successful inclusion efforts
John Clapp, Chief Orchestra & Production Officer of the Cincinnati Symphony, shares the sustainable strategy that drives their inclusion efforts.
- Nobody Endows a Wing Called “It’s Complicated”
This Week’s Highlights:
The Kennedy Center closed its doors this week, its board voting to shut down indefinitely after a presidential phone call and weeks of pressure to put his name on the building (The New Republic). Philip Kennicott made the point that deserves attention: this was arguably the country’s most authentically populist arts center, caricatured as elitist by the man starving it (Washington Post). The Wall Street Journal’s remedy for such capture — privatize — runs into Josh Goldblum’s harder observation: donors underwrite celebration, not complication (Josh Goldblum). Every funder edits. The question is which edits you can live with.
The week’s other story is labor. Philadelphia Orchestra musicians will earn $200,000 a year under a tentative deal (Philadelphia Inquirer) while San Francisco Opera’s orchestra struck for a week over how much opera the company intends to make (San Francisco Chronicle), and staff at the Whitney, the Brooklyn Museum and the Folk Art Museum voted to strike over pay below what a single adult needs to live in New York (ARTnews). Museum-worker-organizing in action.
A UK survey (conducted by a London orchestra) reported that interest in orchestral music is at a six-year high, led by the young (Gramophone).
And writers are going to extraordinary lengths to prove their work is human says the The Wall Street Journal. The audience is asking for presence and provenance, and proving it is getting harder.
All this week’s stories below, organized by topic.
- Prolific Theatre And Film Director Anthony Page Has Died At 90
He directed more than 35 titles for film and TV, including The Lady Vanishes and Middlemarch, but had even greater impact in theatre: he staged numerous classics in London and New York, notably by Beckett and Albee, and won a Tony for directing Janet McTeer in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. – Playbill
- NPR Has An Aggressive Plan For Its Digital Future
Katherine Maher said the organization is fundamentally reimagining its digital presence, looking for more ways to capitalize on its network of 243 newsrooms and member stations, and expanding its programming portfolio beyond what audiences traditionally associate with NPR. – Inside Radio
- Texas Ballet Theater Finds Its New Executive Director In Pittsburgh
Nicholas Dragga, currently executive director of Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, will take the same job at the Fort Worth-based company as of January 1. He succeeds Vanessa Logan, who stepped down in June 2025 to become managing director of Goodspeed Musicals in Connecticut. – Fort Worth Report
- As Studies Suggest Cognitive Decline With AI Use, Universities Are In A Bind
As A.I. leaders warn about the dangers of their own technology, the dissonance between optimism of university leaders and the fears of many students and professors may increase. Professors and students are often in a bind about what they should do: Use more A.I. to stay relevant, or dial back to preserve learning and thinking? – The New York Times
- Rebellion Against Flock Camera Surveillance Has Become a Rallying Cry
In at least 36 states, opponents of the technology have taken matters into their own hands, destroying or impairing ALPRs rather than wait for local governments to step in. – The Conversation
- Interesting: Fashion Week Suggests A Cohesive Theme For Our Times
Rarely does such a cohesive, poignant theme emerge from any given New York Fashion Week. But this September, a surprising number of designers showed work that seemed to yearn for a breath of fresh air, for the obliviating embrace of the wilderness and the natural world. – Washington Post
- Lynchpin Of “Oh, Mary!” National Tour Takes Medical Leave
J. Harrison Ghee, who won a Tony in 2023 for playing Jerry/Daphne in Some Like It Hot, was cast as Mary’s Husband for the first part of the tour, then Mary herself as of January. Ghee, who lives with kidney disease, has been advised not to perform until at least November 1. – TheaterMania
- Viewer Ratings For “60 Minutes” Season Premiere Down 21 Percent
Viewership for the season premiere of “60 Minutes” fell roughly 21 percent from a year ago, according to Nielsen, making it the lowest-rated premiere of the long-running show in recent memory. – The New York Times
- Kennicott: The Cultural Significance Of the Kennedy Center
Although the president caricatured it as an elite institution, and slandered it as anti-American and a danger to youth, the Kennedy Center was perhaps the most authentically populist major arts center in the country. – Washington Post
- Microsoft Exec Called AI Scraping Of Online News The “Largest Theft Of Labor In Human History”
Microsoft Director of Applied Science Brent Hecht repeatedly warned in documents that scraping news for AI training was “an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions,” calling it perhaps the “largest theft of labor in human history,” news orgs said. – Ars Technica
- “The Sistine Chapel Of The New Deal” Might Be Saved Thanks To A Republican Congressman
“The sponsor of the bill to save it is Representative Scott Perry, Republican of Pennsylvania and former chairman of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, whose mission statement expressing support for ‘limited government’ is the very antithesis of the social welfare programs celebrated in the Cohen building’s artworks.” – The New Republic
- Madrid Gets A New Stellar Museum
The real game-changer is a landmark donation of over 180 works worth more than €16 million ($18.5 million) from the Thyssen-Bornemisza family, plus a loan of 180 more, worth €10 million ($11.5 million). – Artnet
- David Ellison Is Losing The Hollywood Crowd
All the right-wing glad-handing that’s been happening, especially at CBS, has created optics that shroud the entire operation. This is a strategic failure that Hollywood moguls throughout history worked to avoid. – Los Angeles Times
- Study: LLMs Respond Differently To Harmful Prompts When AI Watermarking Is Present
New research shows that SynthID-Text can change not just word selection but also the tools a model invokes and the chances it will adhere to or disregard safety guardrails it has been trained to follow. – Ars Technica
- PEN America Appoints New Leader After Internal Battles Of This Past Summer
“(The literature-and-human-rights advocacy group) has named Phil Klay as its new president. … Klay’s appointment comes after novelist Dinaw Mengestu resigned from his post as president in July following the organization’s report on cultural boycotts and the ‘rising isolation and exclusion’ of Israeli and Jewish writers.” – Publishers Weekly
- “Spring Awakening” Composer Duncan Sheik Is Dead At 56
“(His) alt-pop hit ‘Barely Breathing’ became a Generation X touchstone, but (he) squirmed under the label of MTV heartthrob and eventually decamped to Broadway, winning two Tonys for composing the smash musical.” – The New York Times
- Ravinia Festival Starts On A Second Renovation Project
This summer the Chicago Symphony’s summer home re-opened its concert pavilion after a $70 million revamp. Next on the to-do list, with work starting in October, is a $38 million makeover of the Martin Theatre, the last remaining structure from when Ravinia’s park-like grounds first opened in 1904. – WBEZ (Chicago)
- Pittsburgh Symphony’s Manfred Honeck Gets Big Jobs In London And San Francisco
The 68-year-old (as of Thursday) Austrian will become Principal Conductor of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra in 2028, succeeding Santtu-Matias Rouvali. That same season he starts as the San Francisco Symphony’s Festival Director, a new title in which he’ll program and conduct a three-week festival for each of the next five seasons. – Moto Perpetuo
- Plaintiffs In Kennedy Center Case Ask Judge To Consider Putting It In Receivership Or Replacing Board
A joint statement from the plaintiffs said, “If the current leadership of the Kennedy Center is unwilling or unable to exercise its fiduciary duty to protect the historic building and the grounds of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the court should consider appointing a receiver or replacing that leadership.” – ARTnews
- Judge Orders Trump Not To Tear Down Kennedy Center Without 30 Days’ Notice
“A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Kennedy Center to provide 30 days’ notice before making any major physical changes to the building, including demolishing it as President Donald Trump has threatened.” – AP
- Strike Is Over: San Francisco Opera And Its Orchestra Reach Deal On Contract
“San Francisco Opera management and its orchestra musicians have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, ending a strike that began nearly a week ago and forced the cancellation of multiple performances at the start of the company’s 2026-27 season.” – San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
- Photogs Get Picture Of Trump Studying Headlines About Demolishing Kenned Center
Late Wednesday night, photojournalists captured images through the windows of Air Force One that showed President Trump reviewing a large poster board with what looked like a rendering of a construction site beneath three very visible words: “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED.” – The New York Times
- Singapore Is Paying Its People To Read Books
“Under the scheme, readers accrue points that can be redeemed for a few cents. People will have to log 50 daily reading sessions (of 15 minutes or more) on a government website to earn S$1 (80 cents US). … One reading session is allowed daily.” – The Guardian
- AI Companies Are Destroying Books. What Does That Mean For Art?
AI companies, after losing copyright lawsuits over using pirated books found in digital formats, found a way forward, since the law doesn’t prohibit them from buying physical books and destroying them. In another ironic twist, they are looking only for books printed before 2022, because they want books that definitely have not been produced using AI. – ARTnews
- How Marcello Angelini Remade Tulsa Ballet
“During Angelini’s (31-year) tenure as artistic director, Tulsa Ballet has grown from a well-regarded regional troupe — best known for its efforts to preserve the Ballet Russe traditions championed by its founders, Roman Jasinski and Moscelyne Larkin — into a versatile dance company that many critics consider among the best in the United States.” – Tulsa Flyer
- Journalism Inside Libraries
“I once described the larger ambition as opening 16,000 community-led newsrooms, one in every public library in the country.” Now he believes the goal should be “creating 16,000 places where neighbors can look more closely at where they live and make something public from what they find.” – NiemanLab