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- Alessandra Ferri Famously Doesn’t Follow Strategies, So How Does She Run The Vienna State Ballet?
“It’s not that I don’t have a strategy — I just don’t have one for my life. I don’t plan it. Some people define their next goal and know exactly what they want. I let things come. … I have a vision about how I want to run the company.” – Hube
- Are Movies Bad For Us?
Whether in the spirit of saving or eulogizing the industry, the question of its influence deserves serious thought. – The Atlantic
- How Madrid Renters Are Using Art To Protest Landlords
When their homes came under threat, they instinctively reached for the tools they had to hand: their social and cultural capital. That’s how an apartment block in Madrid became a stage, broadcast on every news channel. – The Guardian
- The Violin As Aesthetic Choice
Nature never produces two things that are truly identical. If art is an imitation of nature, then true art cannot be replicated. It can only be pursued. Each instrument was a singular act. – The Strad
- PEN America’s Co-CEO Defends Article On Israel That Prompted Organization’s President To Resign
“The article, ‘A Silent Moratorium,’ explores the harassment and professional challenges that Israeli and Jewish authors have experienced since the (Gaza War). … The chief executives knew the article could be controversial, … but the idea for it had come out of conversations with writers starting last year, and it felt ‘critical’ to pursue.” – The New York Times
- Oh, Great — Now They’ve Found Legionnaires’ Disease Bacteria At The Met Museum, Too
“The Metropolitan Museum of Art has tested positive for traces of the bacteria linked to a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, health officials announced Tuesday. The bacteria were previously detected at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, as authorities continue searching for the source of the outbreak.” – ARTnews
- Tasmania’s “Provocative” Museum Of Old And New Art To Open Branch In Bangkok
MONA, owned and run (in famously quirky style) by gambling mogul David Walsh in Australia’s island state, is slated to open its first satellite museum on the banks of the Chao Phraya River in the Thai capital in 2029. – Artnet
- Arts And Culture In Moscow Are Starting To Resemble The Late Soviet Years
Art shows in apartments or offices, open to friends only, featuring artists forbidden to exhibit publicly. Philosophy clubs in people’s kitchens and living rooms. Small theater companies careful to refer to sensitive topics (like the Ukraine war or Putin) obliquely or not at all. A pervasive climate of fear. – The New York Times
- Investor Sues Paramount CEO David Ellison And His Father (And Funder) Over Alleged Side Deal With Trump To Rein In CNN
“Paramount Skydance chief David Ellison and his tech billionaire dad Larry Ellison have been sued by a Paramount shareholder who alleged they cut an ‘illegal’ deal with President Donald Trump to secure U.S. governmental approval for the takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.” – Variety
- BBC Lost More Than Half A Million License-Fee Payers Last Year
“Today’s BBC Annual Report showed that license fee payers slid by 539,000 last year to around 23.3 million. This is the biggest decline since 2020-21 and likely one of the biggest of all time. … News of the decline in license-fee payers comes with the BBC seeking some sort of revamped financial model.” – Deadline
- Trump Administration Removes Mentions Of Slavery From Site Of George Washington’s House In Philadelphia
“The original panels” — removed on Wednesday following a court decision — “were put in place in 2010 and told the story of how nine slaves lived in the home along with George and Martha Washington in the 1790s, when Philadelphia was briefly the nation’s capital.” – AP
- The Bow Makers Are Replanting the Forest
Good Morning,
Nearly every fine violin bow starts as pernambuco, an endangered Brazilian wood, and its most devoted conservators turn out to be the bow makers themselves, documenting legal stockpiles, tracing the provenance of finished bows, replanting trees by the millions (The New York Times).
In London, theatre owners and Equity negotiated a three-year West End pay deal that averts a strike (WhatsOnStage). On Broadway, Andrew Lloyd Webber answered the closing of Cats: The Jellicle Ball with a plea for owners, unions and producers to convene before “a crisis coming to a head” (Broadway World).
Wyoming’s public TV station will keep PBS programming but drop the branding — “Wyoming’s storyteller first and a member station second” (Current) — a bet that stewardship is valuably local. The countercase: UK universities axed nearly 4,000 humanities and arts jobs in a single year (The Guardian).
And the Louvre heist suspects say the client who hired them was disappointed — he thought they could have taken more (The Guardian). Everyone’s a critic.
All of our stories below.
- Letters Confirm That André Breton’s Wife Was Frida Kahlo’s Lover
“A revelatory new biography of the overlooked French Surrealist painter Jacqueline Lamba brings to light her long-rumored affair with Frida Kahlo — all thanks to a cache of newly-discovered love letters. Kahlo specialist Salomon Grimberg has long hoped to revive Lamba’s reputation, which he believes has been unfairly overshadowed by that of her husband, the Surrealist icon André Breton.” – Artnet
- Why Betting Site Kalshi Is Pushing Into Bets On Reality TV
Millions of dollars in bets on “Love Island USA” signal prediction platform Kalshi’s push into pop culture, where reality TV fandoms are fueling a rapid surge in entertainment trading volume. – Los Angeles Times
- Six Decades After It Was First Performed, Yoko Ono’s “Cut Piece” Is Still Frightening
Ono debuted the work at Carnegie Hall in 1964, sitting motionless onstage as people took turns cutting off her clothes with scissors. The Broad in Los Angeles is presenting Cut Piece twice this weekend across the street at REDCAT. The performer, known as MPA, is scared — but not of the scissors. – The Guardian
- What If Americans Just Don’t Want To Participate In Community?
Over and over again, Americans choose to sever bonds that connect us with each other: We move away from our hometowns, we leave our churches, we quit our unions, we quit our parties, we stay in instead of going out, we donate instead of volunteering, we let friendships fade away. – Matt Pearce
- No, AI Is Not Killing Reading
AI summaries differ in speed, scale, and uncertain accuracy, but not in their basic educational function. They compress and translate. They can provide a map before we enter unfamiliar territory. – AI In
- Utah’s Board Of Education Bans Stephen King’s “Different Seasons”
“It’s a collection that includes stories which inspired the acclaimed movies ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ and ‘Stand By Me’. Libraries in (four) school districts removed the book. Under a 2022 Utah law, that means it can be removed from schools statewide, since at least three districts banned it.” – Utah Public Radio
- “Catcher In The Rye” At 75
Pour out a Scotch and soda — make that a malted milk — for this spry codger of a novel that’s stayed on the dance floor long past when might be expected, leaping over book bans from the right and dodging cancellation from the left. – The New York Times
- Why CNN Is An Important Piece Of The Paramount/Warner Deal
CNN is more important to the deal than it might seem at first glance, for two simple reasons: Politics, and debt. – The Hollywood Reporter
- How Foucault Anticipated What’s Happening Today
“What Is an Author?” predicted a future where old ideas about authorship would give way to new questions about technology and power. “What are the modes of existence of this discourse?” Foucault asked. “Where does it come from, how is it circulated” and — perhaps most important — “who controls it?” – The New York Times
- Why “Digital Freedom” Feels So Oppressive
Power no longer feels like oppression. It feels like opportunity, a pressure that builds from within, overwhelming our sense of choice with a compulsion to perform. We become both manager and managed. – The New Atlantis
- Did Munich’s Ballet Company Just Fire One Of Its Principal Dancers Via Instagram?
So claims Julian MacKay, who was a principal at the Bavarian State Ballet from 2022 until this week. He says he complained about unfair treatment and threatened to resign, then was dismissed without warning while on sick leave. The company says he was properly terminated in an in-person meeting. – The Violin Channel
- Foreign Artists Are Skipping The US Because Of Broken Visa Process
The time it takes to process a visa has dramatically increased. The number of available interview slots at U.S. embassies is backlogged. Application costs have surged. And there’s an added layer of uncertainty: paperwork can be perfect, fees can be paid, and yet artists still can be turned away at the border. – NPR
- Major Publishers Sue Google Contending Unprecedented Copyright Infringement
A group of major publishers have filed a lawsuit against Google, accusing the company of illegally using millions of copyrighted books to help build its Gemini artificial intelligence models, in “one of the most prolific infringements of copyrighted materials in history”. – The Guardian - Seattle To Build A New Concert Hall Dedicated To Chamber Music
When it opens in 2028, this new Center for Chamber Music will be Seattle’s first permanent venue designed exclusively for chamber music performance, featuring a 271-seat concert hall engineered to create an immersive experience where no listener will be more than 40 feet from the performers. – Seattle Times
- One Of Our Most Prominent Living Philosophers Argues That Opera Can Save Us
“In the opinion of Martha Nussbaum, now 79, …opera can help to fix Western societies that have become nasty, brutish and narcissistic. In particular, we need more men like Cherubino, the cross-dressing boy of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro … than we do Putins, Hegseths, Trumps and Tates.” – The Telegraph (UK) (MSN)
- Why Did Toledo Museum Of Art Cancel Its Exhibition Of Bongs?
The museum began work on “High Style: The Art of Cannabis Pipes” three years ago, thinking that increasing legalization and acceptance of marijuana made the timing good. Yet the show was cancelled this spring; museum management says it was for logistical reasons. The question: the logistics of what exactly? – The New York Times
- Chicago’s Bilingual Improv School Is A Big Hit
“(Starting) in March 2025, (Rudy Mendoza) offered drop-in classes at Logan Square Improv to students who wanted to try playing in either (English or Spanish). The school has grown exponentially since. There are now three full levels of classes for bilingual students. He has a roster of seven other teachers.” – Chicago Tribune
- Ohio’s School Librarians Are Worried
“Proposed legislation to filter the reading choices students can make has brought concern, and budget reductions make some worry about the future of public school librarians. … ‘Right now, a lot of administrators and school boards look at having school librarians as a luxury,” said (union president) Gayle Schmuhl.” – Ohio Capital Journal
- What Happens To Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center Without Robert Wilson?
“’Bob was always saying he didn’t want Watermill to become an institution,’ said Charles Chemin, Watermill’s new artistic director. ‘He didn’t want to create a Bob Wilson school. But Watermill is filled with the vision of Bob Wilson, with his unique form of composition and his unique way of collaborating.’” – The New York Times
- As California Sues To Block Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger, Paramount Considers Leaving California
“CEO David Ellison’s … confidantes have pushed him to consider moving its corporate headquarters and reallocating much of its $30 billion in planned spending outside the state” in reaction to the lawsuit. “The considerations may just be a show of brinkmanship, given so much of the industry’s production takes place outside of Hollywood already.” – Semafor
- Writers Guild Files Latest Legal Challenge To Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger
“This proposed combined entity would be the largest employer of writers, with tremendous power to suppress our wages, eliminate opportunities for emerging writers, cut jobs across the industry, and produce less programming,” said Writers Guild of America East president Tom Fontana in a statement. – AP
- Director of the Flint School of Performing Arts working with Management Consultants for the Arts
Flint School of Performing Arts’ Director will lead this celebrated and impactful division of the Flint Institute of Music and be a voice for community performing arts education in the region. They will collaborate with FIM’s leadership around FSPA’s major organizational direction and directly supervise their administrative and educational direct reports in the day-to-day work of the School. A successful Director will nurture FSPA’s strong assets and traditions while bringing their own voice to the role with empathy, diplomacy and a solid dedication to Flint. Meaningful experience in an arts education environment, experience leading teams and shepherding organizational direction, and developing resources and programs will be strong assets. Flint School of Performing Arts has engaged Management Consultants for the Arts to lead the search, and interested candidates may apply for this position by visiting this link: https://www.mcaonline.com/searches/director-fspa
The annual salary range for the Director starts at $115,000; benefits include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage and a retirement plan with an employer contribution. Flint School of Performing Arts has engaged Management Consultants for the Arts to facilitate this important search; Thomas Pearson, Carlton Ford, and Christopher Mossey are leading the search. A search committee of FIM leadership led by Rodney Lontine hopes to make a final decision by Q4 of 2026, with the new Director beginning work in the first quarter of 2027.
FIM Flint School of Performing Arts (FSPA) is one of the largest community schools of the arts in the country. The school serves roughly 3,500 students of all ages each year on an annual budget of about $2.5 million, with an endowment that covers close to half of operating expenses. More information on Flint School of Performing Arts can be found at https://thefim.org/fspa/.
- Artistic Director – Studio Theatre working with Management Consultants for the Arts
Studio Theatre is seeking its next Artistic Director, someone to cultivate and champion the artistic vision of Studio, planning seasons of stellar, thought-provoking contemporary theater written by significant playwrights and presented by a mix of local, national, and international artists. Studio Theatre has engaged Management Consultants for the Arts to lead the search, and interested candidates may apply for this position by visiting this link: https://www.mcaonline.com/searches/artistic-director-studio
The salary range for this position is $195,000 – $210,000. Studio Theatre offers a generous benefits package including medical insurance with a partial employer contribution and a funded HRA, dental and vision insurance, and FSA; long-term disability insurance; life insurance; 401K with an employer match; and commuter benefits. Studio Theatre’s time off policies include annual vacation, paid holidays, additional floating holidays, and separate sick leave. The hiring decision will be made by the full Studio Board upon consideration of a recommendation by the Search Committee. Studio Theatre expects to make a final decision early in 2027 with the new Artistic Director on site in Summer 2027.
As it approaches its 50th Anniversary, Studio Theatre is a mainstay of the Washington, D.C. theatre scene, offering bold artistry, challenging themes, and top production values in deliberately intimate spaces. Spanning 48 seasons and more than 350 productions, Studio has grown from a company that produced in a single rented theatre to one that owns a substantial multi-venue complex stretching half a city block in the heart of D.C.’s dynamic 14th Street corridor. With four theatres under one roof — all of them smaller than 225 seats — Studio’s productions now reach some 40,000 people annually, with audiences from across D.C., Virginia, and Maryland. More information on Studio Theatre can be found at https://www.studiotheatre.org/.