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- America At 250: Still Under Construction
Good Morning,
Happy 250th. Fitting that today’s stories keep circling the question the country has never settled: what is American culture, and who gets to say? There’s a case for George Bristow’s “Niagara” — a choral finale that outscales Beethoven’s Ninth — as the first great American symphony (Early Music America). Stephen Foster, born on the nation’s 50th birthday, turns 200 today still singing to America’s contradictions (The Conversation). Noah Webster spent a career trying to pry American English loose from Britain’s grip (Literary Hub). Even the national symbol was an import: the Statue of Liberty, considered as an art object, is a French sculpture that melted into an American idea (The New York Times).
The argument isn’t only historical. An appeals court says the administration needn’t restore the national park displays it purged for “disparaging” Americans (The Hill) — the national story, still being edited in real time. New York, meanwhile, cast its vote for culture with money: a record $323.8 million for culture in the new city budget (Hyperallergic).
And Nieman Lab caught an AI-generated fake news article complaining that AI fake news is killing real news (Nieman Lab). The ouroboros files its first dispatch.
Happy 4th! All of our stories below.
Doug
- The First Great American Symphony? George F. Bristow’s “Niagara”
Doug Shadle: “As I listened to the symphony — a strange yet monumental work with a choral finale eclipsing Beethoven’s Ninth in scope — the sonic confluences that have given shape and vibrancy to our national culture for 250 years rushed at me for over an hour.” – Early Music America
- Cleared Commonwealth Prize-winner Explains His Writing Process
In a phone interview on Tuesday afternoon, Jamir Nazir told me that he feels vindicated—and relieved. “Look, I didn’t use it!” he said about AI. Now that he has won the prize, Nazir said, he is free at last to explain his process and clear his name. – The Atlantic
- How Noah Webster Pushed (And Pushed Some More) To Americanize The English Language
“Though it was much maligned during its initial years, The American Spelling Book had a profound pedagogical effect throughout the young nation. … ‘There iz no alternativ,’ implored Webster in 1790, … ‘Every possible reezon that could ever be offered for altering the spelling of wurds, stil exists in full force.’” – Literary Hub
- The Movies Smartphones Make That Hollywood Can’t
Over the last 15 years, as a filmmaker and professor of digital arts, I have seen extraordinary shorts and features made on smartphones. Many were created by early career filmmakers who would have struggled to access industry funding without a smartphone and a minimal crew. – The Conversation
- Spotify Removes Half-Million Streams After Suspicious Kalshi Activity
Spotify has removed more than 500,000 registered streams from Malcolm Todd‘s Earrings, after the song’s rise to No. 1 on the platform’s daily US chart was tied to bets placed on the prediction market Kalshi. – MusicBusinessWorldwide
- Pondering The Statue Of Liberty As An Art Object
Financed by public subscription, powered by photography and P.R., the Statue of Liberty is now so identified with her adopted home that she has all but melted into symbol. – The New York Times
- Anna Deavere Smith’s Latest Theater Piece Is About Her Own Great-Great-Grandfather
“’Basil Biggs’ premieres this month in Philadelphia, written for the nation’s 250th anniversary. The title character is her great-great-grandfather, a free Black man who became a … conductor of the Underground Railroad … and prominent figure at Gettysburg” who made Lincoln’s speech there possible. – NPR
- Vijay Gupta: Classical Music Needs A New Why
“My teachers made it clear that music was sacred. But after I got into the LA Philharmonic at 19, playing the most celebrated music with the most celebrated musicians of our time, the sacred was hard to find. I started asking inconvenient questions: was the concert hall the only sacred space?” – The Strad
- The Two Versions Of Who We Really Are
Jean-Paul Sartre, for instance, insists that for humans ‘existence precedes essence’. We do not have an essence until we give ourselves an essence. In short, ‘man first exists: he materialises in the world, encounters himself, and only afterward defines himself.’ I define myself. – Psyche
- AI Company Midjourney Attempts To Force Movie Studios To Reveal AI Use
- Atlanta’s Second Ballet Company Celebrates Ten Years
“Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre has been making movement magic in Atlanta for a decade. Artistic Director John Welker spoke to ArtsATL about its accomplishments so far and its vision for the future.” – ArtsATL
- How JD Vance’s Book Put bell hooks’ 2002 Book Back On The Bestseller List
In 2002, the Black feminist writer and scholar bell hooks published a book titled “Communion,” which argues that women have been conditioned to search for love outside of themselves, and should focus on cultivating self-love in all stages of their lives. – The New York Times
- Attendance Has Plunged At Europe’s Jewish Museums
Across Europe, many Jewish museums have seen visitor numbers drop, patrons back away and security threats rise since the fall of 2023. The association’s members also reported online harassment, vandalism and acts of aggression against staff members. – The New York Times
- Appeals Court Reverses Lower Court Ruling That National Park Signs Had To Be Restored To Their Originals
The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday halted the ruling, which would have restored park materials that the administration says were purged as part of the administration’s effort to get rid of materials that “disparage” Americans. – The Hill
- To This We’ve Come: An AI Fake News Article Complaining About AI Fake News Killing Off Real News
“The headline was a grabber: ‘The Ghost Paper That Ate Alabama: How a Media Startup Killed 47 Weekly Newspapers and No One Noticed.’ It was a site named The Editorial, whose name rang a vague bell for me.” – Nieman Lab
- “Avenue Q” Director On Reviving The Show For A New Generation
Jason Moore, who has restaged and updated the show for London: “Once I revisited, I was like, ‘Oh, right, we made this in our 20s,’ and it’s for people in their 20s. There’s now a whole generation of people who … know the show from a soundtrack, but never saw it.’” – People
- The Man Who Invented American Popular Song: Stephen Foster At 200
Born on July 4, 1826, Foster’s legacy is as influential, and as mixed, as that of his nation. Some of his songs were written for minstrel shows, but many of his lyrics were progressive for their time and place, and one key to their success was their ambiguity. – The Conversation
- Paris Opera’s Historic Theater Has Lead Poisoning
“Planned restoration work (at the Palais Garnier) that was supposed to take two years is now projected for five, with evaluation for the best method to extract the lead to be undertaken this summer.” – ARTnews
- New York City’s New Budget Has Record-High Arts Funding
“The city government will give $323.8 million to (the Department of Cultural Affairs), which administers public funding to arts institutions throughout the city. The appropriation marks a nearly 7% increase from last year’s then-record $299.6 million investment.” – Hyperallergic
- Robert Kimball, Broadway Treasure Hunter, Has Died At 86
“(He) often acted as a kind of Indiana Jones of song, as when he helped excavate a treasure trove of manuscripts by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and others that was found in a warehouse in Secaucus, N.J., in 1982. The hoard dated back to the advent of sound pictures.” – The New York Times
- Actor Danny Glover Reveals Alzheimer’s Diagnosis
The four-time Emmy nominee, who received an honorary Oscar in 2022, says he was diagnosed with the disease three years ago. His 80th birthday is later this month. – AP
- Flynn Center for the Performing Arts seeks Director of Marketing
Organization
The Flynn is where the unexpected meets the familiar—where strangers become neighbors through shared wonder. We light up stages and communities alike with performances that inspire and moments that transform. Here, bold art feels personal—and belonging takes center stage.
The Flynn welcomes international, national, and regional artists to its stages, presenting a diverse range of performances designed to create transformative experiences for audiences. Its programming includes world-class music, Broadway, theater, dance, family performances, intimate events in Flynn Space, the annual Burlington Discover Jazz Festival around the city, and statewide art in public space presentations throughout the year.
The Flynn’s facilities include a 1,439-seat Main Stage theater, Flynn Space (a smaller black-box performance venue), education and dance studios, and a visual art gallery. These spaces support a wide range of performances, educational activities, and community events. In addition to presenting its own season and programs, the Flynn provides a performance venue for organizations such as the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Vermont Youth Orchestra, Lyric Theatre, UVM Lane Series, and other local and touring groups.
Education and community engagement are central to the Flynn’s work. The Flynn serves participants through programs such as the Student Matinee Series, which connects schools with live performances, as well as classes, camps, and workshops for children, teens, and adults. Outreach efforts extend beyond the building, bringing performances into schools, public spaces, and communities across Vermont. Initiatives such as artist residencies, public-space performances, and student ticket programs help remove barriers to access and ensure broad participation, including partnerships with social service agencies and opportunities for emerging and local artists. Welcoming more than 165,000 attendees each year through more than 100 performances and programs, the Flynn continues to be a cultural anchor for Vermont, presenting bold, diverse, and high-quality artistic experiences that celebrate global perspectives, elevate local voices, and invite the entire community to take part in the transformative power of live performance.
The Flynn has a 22 member board of directors led by Board Chair Chiuho Sampson. The Director of Marketing reports to the Chief Growth & Impact Officer. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, the Flynn reported $10.3 million in total revenue, including 53% from program services, 29% from contributions and grants, and 18% from investment income.
Sources: edited from flynnvt.org; propublica.org
Community
Burlington, Vermont, is a welcoming, highly livable lakeside city, combining neighborhood character, civic engagement, cultural activity, and abundant outdoor amenities on the shores of Lake Champlain. With a 2024 estimated population of 44,432, Burlington is a highly educated community, where 60.5% of residents age 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. The City’s comprehensive planning work, known as planBTV, serves as Burlington’s principal guide for land use policy, long-range decision-making, and future public and private investment. Through planBTV 2050, Burlington is advancing a unified citywide vision that brings together planning, transportation, parks and recreation, and community and economic development to reflect how Burlingtonians live, work, and move through the city.
Burlington’s community life is shaped by its waterfront, parks, downtown, and arts infrastructure. The City’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Waterfront oversees more than 35 parks, more than 550 acres of open space, four public beaches, street trees and greenways, community gardens, Miller Recreation Center, Leddy Ice Arena, North Beach Campground, the Community Boathouse Marina, and a wide range of recreation programs. Residents enjoy year round access to biking and walking paths, sailing and paddling on the lake, and easy proximity to Vermont’s renowned skiing and outdoor recreation areas.
Local food culture, farmers’ markets, independent shops, and a strong sense of neighborhood identity contribute to Burlington’s appeal as a place where residents can enjoy both small city accessibility and a rich, creative community life. In this setting, Burlington offers the scale and accessibility of a close-knit Vermont city with the quality of life, natural beauty, and cultural energy of a community actively shaping an inclusive and sustainable future.
Sources: edited from burlingtonvt.gov; census.gov
Position Summary
The Director of Marketing (Director) will be a dynamic, revenue-minded brand leader responsible for building the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts’ (the Flynn) audience, accelerating ticket sales, and turning organizational priorities into compelling campaigns that move people from awareness to action. As a key leader within the Growth & Impact system, the Director will shape and execute high-performing marketing strategies across channels, using data, creativity, and audience insight to drive conversion, deepen engagement, and strengthen the Flynn’s visibility in the marketplace. Working in close partnership with Strategic Communications and Advancement, the Director will help deliver integrated campaigns that elevate the Flynn’s story, expand participation, and generate measurable results, while maintaining clear accountability for earned revenue, audience growth, and marketing ROI.
Roles and Responsibilities
Revenue & Audience Growth
• Lead marketing strategies that drive ticket sales, membership acquisition, and earned revenue growth.
• Set, track, and achieve revenue and attendance goals in alignment with organizational targets.
• Oversee audience segmentation, pricing alignment, and promotional strategy to maximize conversion and yield.
• Support priorities that strengthen the Flynn community and contribute to shared organizational success.
• Embrace other revenue and audience growth responsibilities as needed.Campaign Strategy & Execution
• Plan and execute integrated marketing campaigns for performances, festivals, rentals, and institutional initiatives.
• Translate organizational priorities into clear, actionable marketing plans that deliver measurable results.
• Manage campaign timelines, budgets, and workflows to ensure efficiency and impact, including setting up systems that allow staff to be creative and plan work thoughtfully.
• Embrace other campaign strategy and execution responsibilities as needed.Sales Integration & Performance
• Partner with outbound sales and rentals functions to ensure coordinated messaging, offers, and revenue strategies.
• Support effective collaboration with promoters, Broadway producers, and other partners connected to earned revenue success.
• Align marketing efforts with box office operations to optimize the full sales funnel.
• Monitor campaign performance and continuously adjust tactics to improve conversion, attendance, and revenue.
• Embrace other sales integration and performance responsibilities as needed.Channel Management & Optimization
• Oversee paid and owned marketing channels with a focus on performance, conversion, and ROI.
• Lead paid social media strategy, digital advertising, email marketing, and audience targeting efforts.
• Partner with Strategic Communications to coordinate organic and paid social media strategies, ensuring alignment of voice, content, timing, and performance goals across shared channels.
• Use data, CRM insights (Tessitura), and analytics tools to refine targeting and optimize campaigns.
• Ensure marketing systems and tools evolve with changing audience behavior and technology.
• Embrace other channel management and optimization responsibilities as needed.Collaboration Across Growth & Impact
• Partner with Strategic Communications to align campaigns with institutional voice, messaging, and visibility goals.
• Collaborate with Advancement to support membership acquisition and audience-to-donor pathways.
• Work across departments to align marketing strategies with programming, public-space work, and organizational priorities.
• Prioritize effective support for staff and the Flynn community.
• Embrace other collaboration across growth and impact responsibilities as needed.Traits and Characteristics
The Director of Marketing will be a results-oriented and data-informed leader who is driven by audience growth, earned revenue, and measurable campaign performance, with curiosity about data and a feedback-focused approach to learning what is working. They will bring a strategic and practical approach to marketing, translating organizational priorities into clear plans that support ticket sales, membership acquisition, attendance, and long-term audience development, while helping the team understand and advance institutional priorities. Highly collaborative and responsive, the Director will work effectively across marketing, sales, box office, communications, advancement, programming, and rentals to ensure coordinated messaging, aligned strategies, and strong execution, bringing flexibility, realistic goal-setting, and a team-focused approach rather than working in a silo. They will be analytical and adaptable, using audience segmentation, CRM insights, campaign data, and performance metrics to refine targeting, improve conversion, and maximize return on investment. Organized and action-oriented, they will manage timelines, budgets, workflows, and channels with discipline and efficiency while remaining receptive to changing audience behavior, new technologies, and emerging opportunities. With sound judgment, creativity, and a focus on continuous improvement, the Director of Marketing will strengthen marketing operations and elevate audience engagement.
Other key competencies include:
• Time and Priority Management – The aptitude to ascertain competing priorities, resolve difficulties, and overcome obstacles, and maximize the use of time and resources to attain the desired outcomes.
• Goal Orientation and Decision Making – The ability to set and pursue goals, while analyzing all aspects of each situation to consistently make sound decisions.
• Problem Solving and Flexibility – The facility to analyze a problem and formulate a solution while remaining adaptable and responsive to change.
• Teamwork – The proficiency to work effectively and cooperatively as part of a team.Qualifications
A minimum of seven to 10 years of experience in marketing leadership, audience development, or a related field is highly desirable. Demonstrated success driving earned revenue through marketing strategy and execution is highly valued, as is an understanding that success extends beyond ticket goals to ensuring broad awareness of the Flynn’s full range of activities. Strong analytical skills and comfort working with performance data, metrics, and campaign results are essential, including curiosity about real data, data fluency, and measures of impact beyond attendance alone. Experience leading teams, managing complex campaigns, and translating audience insights into effective marketing strategies is needed, particularly within producing and/or presenting environments where organizations and audiences are navigating both traditional and hybrid engagement models. Demonstrated fluency with evolving digital marketing tools, platforms, and audience engagement strategies is highly valued. Experience with Tessitura is necessary. A bachelor’s degree is desirable, and an advanced degree or equivalent experience is preferred.
Compensation and Benefits
The Flynn offers a comprehensive compensation and benefits package, including an annual salary range of $120,000 to $125,000, and a benefits package that includes health, dental, and vision insurance coverage, Safe Harbor 401(k) contributions, and paid time off.
Applications and Inquiries
To submit a cover letter and resume with a summary of demonstrable accomplishments (electronic submissions preferred), please visit https://artsconsulting.com/opensearches/flynn-center-for-the-performing-arts-seeks-director-of-marketing/
The Flynn is committed to creating an inclusive workplace that promotes and values diversity. We strive to be diverse in age, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, ethnicity, and perspective. Our goal is to build and maintain an organization where everyone can do their best work. We believe that people of color, people from working class backgrounds, women, and LGBTQ people must be centered in the work we do, we strongly encourage applications from people with these identities or who are members of other marginalized communities.
- Waits of 9 hours for tickets to the Bayeux Tapestry
Rebecca Makkai pulls back the curtain on how judging for book awards actually works — idiosyncratic judges, no institutional input, winners that surprise even the heads of the prize organizations (Rebecca Makkai). The Commonwealth Short Story Prize went to a story some judges suspected was written by AI — and awarded anyway (The Guardian). And the International Booker doubled its purse and changed its name (Publishers Weekly). Prizes are one of the last reliable attention machines publishing has; still, it turns out we know remarkably little about how they run.
Meanwhile, two orchestras are quietly redrawing their businesses. Paris Opera’s musicians have launched their own self-governing concert orchestra (Moto Perpetuo), and the Pittsburgh Symphony’s budget “jumped” $7 million — not from a windfall, but because live-with-film concerts have become predictable enough to count as a core business (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).
In case anyone tells you demand for culture is the problem: online queues for Bayeux Tapestry tickets at the British Museum hit nine hours (The Guardian). For a 950-year-old embroidery.
All of our stories below.
- In Bali, Sacred Dance Lives On
A photo journal of more than 30 teenage girls performing the Rejang dance for the Kuningan holiday, the close of a ten-day Balinese Hindu festival celebrating the triumph of good over evil. – AP
- Video On Social Media Platforms Is Now The Leading Way People Worldwide Consume News: Study
“Worldwide” is the key word here: demand for news video on third-party platforms, while certainly growing, is lowest in Europe and North America, with such usage much higher in Asia and Latin America. – Nieman Lab
- How Book Prizes Really Work
In every prize I’ve ever judged or heard firsthand reports of, everything else is up to the judges and their idiosyncrasies. There’s no input from anyone else. The heads of these organizations often learn the winner at the same moment the rest of the world does. – Rebecca Makkai
- Why The Pittsburgh Symphony’s Budget Jumped By $7M
Special concerts, especially the live-with-film concerts, are now programmed further in advance and are more predictable in terms of their revenue. This has led the orchestra to include these figures in its overall budget, which raises the figure to $42 million and is more accurate. – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
- The Wrong Way To Criticize The Humanities
This poorly argued case that it may be time to restrain the principles of academic freedom and faculty autonomy is not helping the situation. – Boston Review
- Paris Has Become Europe’s Nexus For Black Culture
“Paris draws together communities from west, central and north Africa, as well as the Caribbean, and its density creates the conditions for encounters that aren’t as easy to manufacture elsewhere. What distinguishes Paris from other diaspora hubs … is the granularity of African identity it sustains.” – The Guardian
- Canadian Art Forger Used His Children In Scheme
Labeled Canada’s largest art fraud ever by investigators, the scheme has been the subject of a prolonged court battle that culminated last year in the conviction of Jeffrey Cowan, one of eight people arrested in 2023. He has been accused of taking part in an effort to sell 1,400 faked Morrisseau works. – ARTnews
- How A Self-Published Book Became A Mega Bestseller
Theo of Golden is one of the bestselling books currently making all the lists right now, but its beginnings are a little unorthodox. It was written by a 70-year-old former judge who first went the self-publishing route before having his book distributed by a top-five publisher. – Book Riot
- How To Open Up Elite Universities?
It seems possible to push wealthy colleges like Princeton to enroll more working- and middle-class students. They surely need that push, because our most prestigious universities enroll a larger share of rich students now than they did in the 1980s. – The New York Times
- Sydney’s Second-Largest Nonprofit Theatre Loses Its Set-Building Workshop To Fire
The blaze broke out at the Belvoir St Theatre’s scenery shop on Monday, June 22 and burned well into the next day; at one point 80 firefighters were battling the flames. No one was injured, but tools, materials, and stored set elements were lost and the building is seriously damaged. – Limelight (Australia)
- LA Sound Studios See Sharp Decline In Business
L.A. soundstages surveyed by permitting office FilmLA were 93 percent occupied as of 2019. That number has fallen to 62 percent as of last year. With that turn, more complexes have retooled themselves as creator campuses. – The Hollywood Reporter
