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Was Sid Caesar’s Cancellation a Media Parable for Today?

It must mean a lot that I can remember watching Sid Caesar’s “Show of Shows” on TV with my parents as a young child. For one thing, I don’t recall watching anything else as a family. For another, Caesar’s “Show of Shows” went off the air in 1954 and I

Cut Paste Print A History of Political Photomontage in the 20th Century

This blogpost cannot adequately display the exhaustive content and brilliant design of "Couper, Coller, Imprimer," the richly illustrated catalogue of an extraordinary photomontage exhibition at La Contemporaine in Nantes, France (running through March 14). Even so, it is hoped that this limited attempt evokes the broad historical spirit of the

It’s 2026. Oy. Is the Nonprofit Arts Sector in America Any Healthier?

Now that it’s 2026, the public expects its charities to be charitable — including your theater, opera, ballet, museum, and symphony.

Concessions prices: there oughtta be a law?

A reader, Kevin, asks if I had seen this new report by Brian Shearer at Vanderbilt University on legal remedies for high prices charged by different sorts of firms (airports, hospitals, car dealerships, etc) on “captive” consumers. I had not. I am no lawyer, and so I cannot speak to the various

The Great Renegotiation: Five Ideas about where Culture is going in 2026

If 2025 is the year that 20th Century culture models stopped working, 2026 is the year we turn to building something new.

Adrian Rodriguez talks about how to be committed to young people as they develop in the arts

Adrian Rodriguez, Director of Community Engagement, Chorus Director and Curriculum Manager of the Music Advancement Program at The Juilliard School, shares how to implement a commitment to young people as they develop in the arts.

Five Year-end Observations about the state of Arts and Culture in 2025

We posted more than 6,000 stories across all forms of culture in 2025. When you pull back and look at them in aggregate, the individual crises—the closures in San Francisco, the lawsuits in D.C., the endless op-eds about the "death of cinema"—stop looking like isolated incidents. They resolve into a

“SCENE CHANGE 3” Just Named to Kirkus Reviews’ “25 Best Indies of 2025!”

If you're serious about succeeding as a nonprofit arts organization, you're going to want to pick up the trilogy at your favorite bookstore.

Nostalgia and Familiarity Oversimplifies What Audiences Want

Nostalgia may be having a moment, but to say that's all that audiences want is oversimplifying. A recent NY Times article flattens the current moment in regional theater and I analyze what it means for how we can understand audiences.

AI that turns Museums into Conversations: The Digital Twin

Museums still operate as if interpretation is a one-way stream, produced by experts and consumed by the public. Instead, imagine an exhibition that doesn't just speak, but listens and responds.

Cheyenne King-Bails talks about the extraordinary impact of the SphinxConnect conference

Cheyenne King-Bails, Director of Community Experience at The Sphinx Organization, shares the value of the SphinxConnect conference and its impact on the arts community.

Dear Mayor Mamdani: Here’s Your Art Everywhere

Dear Mayor Mamdani, We love your love of arts for all, and we swooned when we read that your favorite museum is the art we all see and share together in the NYC subway: the “…beautiful murals and pieces of art across our subway system. And the fulfillment of art as being something for the

Welcome to Twenty Twenty-Six

Heavy winter snows whitened the trees. They turned the branches into filigrees shivering in the wind.

Who Wrote “Porgy and Bess”?

It must mean something that the highest creative achievement in American classical music is permanently controversial. When Porgy and Bess premiered on Broadway in 1935, a typical critical reaction was: “What is it?” American-born classical musicians (unlike their European-born brethren) marginalized George Gershwin as an interloper, a gifted dilettante. Later,

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