AJ Four Ways:
Text Only (by date) | headlines only
- San Diego Proposes To Cut Its Arts Budget. A Big Mistake
While this may be framed as fiscal discipline, cutting arts and culture is not a serious long-term economic strategy. It is a short-term fix that reduces foot traffic, weakens neighborhood business districts, and chips away at the culture that makes people want to live, work, visit, and invest here in the first place. – San Diego Magazine
- Book Slop By Any Other Name (Or “Blake Whiting”)
Using AI tools and a pseudonym, unknown culprits are now profiting from my work and that of my colleagues. Worse, they are limiting what we can write about in the future. What publisher wants to publish a second book on an archaeological discovery, no matter how significant? – The American Scholar
- John Luther Adams On The Sound Of The World
For me, the subject of music is its sound. And in my music, I want to be in touch with sound that I haven’t heard before, that feels somehow elemental, inevitable. One of the ways I’ve gone about it is, I use mathematics. – NPR
- A Visit To Africa’s Number-One Dance Training Center
“The main studio of the École des Sables (in) Senegal defies every convention of what a professional dance space should be. It has no sprung floor, no mirrored walls, … no walls at all. The dancers work outdoors, under a large, tented canopy. … The floor is unusually treacherous: It’s sand.” – The New York Times
- How Books Reinforced A Colonialist Mindset
The book became a dominant symbol of the age of development through the efforts of the new international institutions, and the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in particular. – The Conversation
- Grappling With What A Soul Is
This soul of yours has obviously come into existence with your body. Yet equally obviously it’s not made of bodily stuff. It lasts through the night when your body sleeps. It wanders off and leaves your body when you dream. – Aeon
- What Does It Mean That Some Respected Creatives In Hollywood Are Okay With AI?
“It may not be realistic to expect lockstep agreement with Guillermo del Toro’s perspective that he would ‘rather die’ than use AI on his films. … But it does prompt questions about determining the right amount of support (or at least agnosticism) that anti-AI advocates can tolerate in their creative heroes.” – The Guardian
- Turns Out Florence Price Wasn’t The Only Black Female Composer The Vienna Phil Slighted Last New Year’s
The arrangement of Price’s Rainbow Waltz the Vienna Philharmonic played at its New Year’s concert in January has been criticized for bearing almost no resemblance to the original. Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin says he commissioned an arrangement from composer Valerie Coleman; the Viennese rejected it as unsuitable. – The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
- Cape Cod Is Losing A Professional Theater Company
After 42 years, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater (WHAT) is suspending its operations as of June 1. The director cited “steadily rising costs in an increasingly challenging philanthropic environment” since the company’s post-COVID reopening in 2021. – TheaterMania
- Nashville Reveals Plans For New Performing Arts Center
Construction on the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, in the redeveloping East Bank neighborhood, begins next year; opening is expected in 2030. The complex, with Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) as lead designer, will include a 2,600-seat hall for touring Broadway shows, a 650-seat dance/opera hall, a black-box theater and a cabaret space. – WPLN (Nashville)
- National Gallery Of Art In Washington Gets $116 Million Gift For Loaning Works Nationwide
“(The donor is) Mitchell Rales, the 69-year-old billionaire art collector and co-founder of health care company Danaher. The contribution is the largest programming-related donation in the NGA’s history and will serve to indefinitely fund the museum’s Across the Nation program, which loans artwork to partner museums.” – The Washington Post (Yahoo!)
- Desmond Morris, Author Of “The Naked Ape”, Zoologist And TV Host (And Artist), Has Died At 98
Over 60 years he wrote or co-wrote more than 50 books and fronted several hundred hours of television, starting in 1956 with the British children’s series Zoo Time. … He was an acknowledged authority on mammal behavior, including that of humans, and maintained a separate career as a surrealist painter. – The Guardian
- Smithsonian American Art Museum Names New Director
Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, who begins her term after Labor Day and who is currently CEO of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, in fact began her career at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, where she spent two decades and eventually rose to become chief curator. – ARTnews
- America’s 250th: all anxiety, no statues
Good Morning,
America turns 250 in under three months, and the mood isn’t fireworks, it’s unease. The New York Times finds historians scrambling to meet the public’s “hunger for meaning” as the anniversary approaches, while museums across the country roll out their celebratory exhibitions (New York Times). Meanwhile the National Garden of American Heroes, Trump’s promised 250-statue monument, supposedly ready for July 4, hasn’t even had its site finalized, per CNN. The sculptors who applied still haven’t heard a word.
Contrast Budapest, where 16 years of Orbán just ended. Hungary’s arts world is cautiously recalibrating (Ocula), and pianist András Schiff, who vowed in 2010 never to return while Orbán was in power — has accepted an invitation to perform in the city he left (Telex). Two nations, two anniversaries, the same question about who is shaping the culture.
Elsewhere: 120,000 authors have filed claims in the Anthropic copyright settlement (Reuters), AI may have authenticated a disputed El Greco (Scientific American), and book-ban attempts just hit a record high (AP).
All of our stories below.
- Vancouver Finally Has A Company Focused On Classical Ballet
Ballet BC is an impressive troupe, but it has long specialized in contemporary work; it’s been more than a decade since there was a resident company focused on classical and neoclassical style. That’s why choreographer Joshua Beamish founded Ballet Vancouver, which debuts this week. – The Georgia Straight (Vancouver)
- Japan’s 1,200-Year-Old Record Of Cherry Blossoms Has A New Keeper
Last summer, Prof. Aono, who had meticulously updated the record year after year, died after a battle with cancer. That prompted supporters of his work to start looking for a worthy successor. – The New York Times
- Seattle Nonprofit Buys Downtown Office Building To Convert To Artist Housing
This is happening through the city’s Office to Residential Conversion Program, which allows developers to take empty commercial buildings and turn them into living spaces. The program gives developers a tax deferral as long as 10% of the units in the building are sold or rented below market value. – KNKX
- How Will Hungary’s Arts World Recover From 16 Years Of Viktor Orbán?
“A wave of leadership changes is widely expected across major museums and cultural bodies, which could lead to the return of (figures) who were previously sidelined. There is, however, reason for caution. Magyar is himself a former Fidesz party member and a conservative politician, and some analysts warn against expecting rapid transformation.” – Ocula
- 120,000 Authors File Claims In Anthropic Copyright Settlement
Claims have been filed for 91% of the more than 480,000 works covered by the settlement, according to a court filing
, opens new tab in the case on Thursday. – Reuters - Critics Press V&A Museum To Pay Its Workers A Living Wage
While the V&A complies with all legal minimum-wage requirements, with some workers paid a living wage or above, campaigners say some of the lowest-paid contractors in London are not in receipt of the living wage. The UK minimum wage is £12.71 an hour and the living wage in London is £14.80 an hour. – The Guardian
- Rethinking How Our Brains Process The World Using Categories
“The stimulus, cognition, response model of the brain is wrong. The brain prepares for a response and then perceives a stimulus. A brain is not reactive. It’s predictive. Action planning comes first. Perception comes second, as a function of the action plan.” – Picower Institute
- Lost Poem By García Lorca Discovered
“A previously unknown verse attributed to Federico García Lorca has been discovered 93 years after the celebrated Spanish poet and playwright is believed to have jotted it on the back of one of his manuscripts.” – The Guardian
- Did AI Solve A Longstanding El Greco Mystery?
Using artificial intelligence, researchers analyzed The Baptism of Christ at the microscopic level, looking for trends in the texture of the paint at the resolution of a single paintbrush bristle. The results suggest El Greco painted the majority of The Baptism himself—but some experts caution more research is needed. – Scientific American
- Today’s Debates About AI And Music Echo Concerns About Player Pianos A Century Ago
More than a century ago the rise of the player piano prompted strikingly similar debates about automation, artistry and fair compensation. Of all the technologies that have reshaped music, it is the closest historical parallel to AI. – Scientific American
- The Helen DeWitt Story Offers An Examination Of What We Expect From Artists
The level of prioritization it takes to truly produce something great puts you directly in conflict with people in your life. – The Argument
- Chicago’s Porchlight Music Theatre Finally Has A Single Venue — In Another Company’s Underused Venue
“Porchlight Music Theatre, an Equity-affiliated, nonprofit Chicago company founded in 1994, will stage its full upcoming 2026-27 season at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theatre, a historic venue in Lincoln Park that has been mostly dark since the pandemic.” – Chicago Tribune (Yahoo!)
- How America’s Museums Are Celebrating The 250th
The exhibitions showcase both the traditional and the unexpected, from portraiture to multimedia installations, from founding documents to found objects. Across the country, the joy, sorrow and humor of the nation’s history are on display. – The New York Times
- America’s 250th Birthday Is Here. Americans Are Worried
Increasingly, historians are asking if they need to do more to meet the public’s hunger for meaning and inspiration. – The New York Times
- Uncertainty Can Be Toxic. But Understanding it Creates Possibility
Research suggests uncertainty can be more distressing than negative certainty. In one study, people were calmer when they knew they would receive an electric shock than when there was only a 50% chance of one. – The Guardian
- Legal Struggle Over Possession Of “Sistine Chapel Of Romanesque Art”
A set of 13th-century murals from the Sijena Monastery in Spain were taken to Barcelona for safekeeping during the Spanish Civil War and are now in the National Art Museum of Catalonia — which is defying a court order to return them, saying the artworks are too fragile to be moved. – ARTnews
- Obamas Will Take Their Production Company Independent After Netflix Contract Ends
“Barack and Michelle Obama‘s production company Higher Ground is transitioning to an independent operation following eight years at Netflix.” – The Hollywood Reporter
- James Hayward, Leading Figure Among California’s Abstract Painters, Has Died At 82
“Across a career that stretched more than four decades, Hayward developed a reputation for paintings that were both restrained and intensely physical. His best-known works used dense layers of oil paint and repeated diagonal strokes to build ridged, meditative surfaces that explored color, gesture and the material force of paint itself.” – San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)
- Trump Wanted His “Heroes” Sculpture Garden Open For July 4. It Probably Won’t Even Be Started By Then.
Plans for Trump’s National Garden Of American Heroes still haven’t been submitted to the agencies which must approve it. The choice of site hasn’t even been finalized. Artists and foundries that applied to work on the sculptures haven’t heard anything back — and the statues are supposed to be finished by June. – CNN
- The Onion Has Another Deal To Take Over Alex Jones’s Wingnut Conspiracy Site
“Nearly a year and a half after its prior effort to acquire the right-wing conspiracy-centric brand Infowars was nixed by a bankruptcy judge, The Onion is moving forward with a new effort to take over the company and secure justice for the families of Sandy Hook victims.” – The Hollywood Reporter
- Book Bans And Attempts In U.S. Are At Record High, Says American Library Association
“The ALA on Monday issued its annual list of the books most challenged at the country’s libraries, part of the association’s State of America’s Libraries Report. … The (list) usually features 10 books, but this year has 11, with four tied for eighth place.” – AP
