The art world’s merriest prankster; the guy who duct-taped a banana to a gallery wall, called it “Comedian,” and saw it get eaten, sold for $6.2 million, and then eaten again — he says “My work has always been serious. The problem is people often stop at the joke.” - The Guardian
Two credible allegations of sex with teenage girls would by themselves be enough to get Flynn cancelled today, especially since both complainants said that he forced himself on them. Unfortunately, that’s not how it played out in 1942 and ‘43 for Hollywood’s biggest star. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
If we look at the meanings incorporated into different objects during the early medieval period, we see that the Bayeux tapestry is a visual form of the scop, an early medieval storyteller who told tales of heroes and great deeds, helping to preserve the oral tradition of the early English peoples. - The Conversation
This doesn’t sound like a very nice life, does it? It’s an existence in which you’re micromanaged and surveilled, given almost no freedom or privacy, and put under constant pressure while, at the same time, being seen as incompetent and lazy. - The New Yorker
These same dons disdained Britain’s provincial universities—known pejoratively as Redbrick—as well as academics in the U.S., whom they scorned for going about their business with “woefully unnecessary seriousness.” A don, by contrast, was effortlessly successful. - The Wall Street Journal
That would be the 120-foot scroll of architectural tracing paper on which Jack Kerouac typed — single-spaced — his original draft of On the Road. He produced the whole megillah in three very caffeinated weeks. - AP
According to the VPD, a caller reported seeing a person’s feet sticking out from behind a counter and believed medical assistance was needed. - Vancouver City News
After years of extensive renovation and structural upgrades, the LDS Church will open its signature temple April 5 to the public — Mormons and non-Mormons alike – for six months of unprecedented tours. - CNN
Attacks on Bauhaus by Alternative for Germany, also known as AfD, come as Saxony-Anhalt in eastern Germany is about to vote in an election that could see a far-right party take control of one of the country’s states for the first time since World War II. - AP
“Public television stations are not only broadcasters. They are physical infrastructure inside FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System — one of the pathways that pushes AMBER Alerts, severe-weather warnings, and evacuation orders to the phone in your pocket.” And if rural communities lose their public stations, those alerts disappear. - The Hollywood Reporter
What will happen to the stage where Elvis’s swiveling pelvis was kept demurely out of frame, where the Beatles made their American debut, where Jackie Mason may or may not have flipped the bird at the host, where Topo Gigio found inexplicable fame? - Curbed
The bargaining committee said it’s far apart from management with regard to compensation, repetitive stress injuries and gaining a voice in the orchestra’s artistic direction. - Ideastream
“Across the country’s five largest cities, Chicago was the only one to cut the funding for its local arts agency during its most recent budget cycle. And while its spending dwarfs that of the larger Los Angeles, and trails only behind New York per capita, the pressure is mounting to do more.” - WBEZ (Chicago)
“In the quarter-century since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the horror of that day has inspired novels, films, television shows, paintings and sculpture. But the most enduring artistic response has been … Come From Away, about a small town with a big airport where nearly 7,000 travelers were diverted.” - The New York Times
That subject is the Welsh nobleman Owain Glyndŵr, who led a major rebellion against the English in the 15th century. Despite his fame, Sheen says, Glyndŵr’s story wasn’t taught in Welsh schools and nobody had ever staged it on a large scale before. - The Guardian
“The anonymous homeowner was planning to build a new terrace in his garden when he found … a trove of 700 Viking Age silver objects and fragments. … The hoard contains numerous silver bars, as well as bracelets, 47 whole coins and fragments, a small Thor’s hammer, and various cut silver objects.” - ARTnews
“Since joining the Joffrey in 2013, (Greg) Cameron has brought financial stability to the organization, eliminating a budget deficit and establishing its first-ever endowment, which has grown to approximately $30 million. During his tenure, the operating budget more than doubled from $13 million to about $33 million.” - WBEZ (Chicago)
Those years seemed to be productive and were certainly profitable: she became the highest-priced living female artist, famous all over the world. At the same time, she stopped seeing visitors, fired longtime assistants and was reportedly bedridden. How, and with whom, was she producing her late work? - The New York Times
“Administration officials ‘cannot in good conscience continue to support the Smithsonian under current leadership,’” said a letter from a key policy director and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. “citing artifact loans, procurement assistance and discretionary grants as examples of federal support that could be at risk.” - The Washington Post (Yahoo!)
This doesn’t sound like a very nice life, does it? It’s an existence in which you’re micromanaged and surveilled, given almost no freedom or privacy, and put under constant pressure while, at the same time, being seen as incompetent and lazy. - The New Yorker
These same dons disdained Britain’s provincial universities—known pejoratively as Redbrick—as well as academics in the U.S., whom they scorned for going about their business with “woefully unnecessary seriousness.” A don, by contrast, was effortlessly successful. - The Wall Street Journal
Journalist Nicholas Carr called the online world “the shallows” for the way it erodes concentration. But the paradox is that its depthlessness arrives as immersion. - The Walrus
From the battlefields of Europe to middle-class households and sex trafficking, women’s logistics has one thing in common: performing organisational and supply work for men who have capital, status and control. - Psyche
The act of writing is an act of thinking, and to automate our paragraphs is to populate our screens with words without filling our minds with the ideas necessary to conceive of them. - Derek Thompson
The entire architecture of digital life – with its algorithmic feeds, frictionless production and the ambient expectation that we should be consuming or optimising at all times – nudges us towards chasing outputs rather than generating meaning. - Aeon
“Across the country’s five largest cities, Chicago was the only one to cut the funding for its local arts agency during its most recent budget cycle. And while its spending dwarfs that of the larger Los Angeles, and trails only behind New York per capita, the pressure is mounting to do more.” - WBEZ...
“Administration officials ‘cannot in good conscience continue to support the Smithsonian under current leadership,’” said a letter from a key policy director and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. “citing artifact loans, procurement assistance and discretionary grants as examples of federal support that could be at risk.” - The Washington Post (Yahoo!)
“The distribution of funds raised by the Scottish capital’s new visitor levy, which is expected to raise up to £50m annually, has been the subject of intense debate in recent weeks. ... (Organisations now) face a ‘deeply frustrating’ delay until the uplift is confirmed.” - The Stage
Proposed federal rule changes would eliminate the requirement for public feedback and consultation with key parties like Tribal Nations and ultimately lead to the destruction of much of our cultural heritage. - Live Science
The announcement comes one day after Drexel and the Academy said they would close the Academy’s museum effective Sept. 30 and that Academy CEO Scott Cooper would be stepping down immediately. Sept. 27 will be the last day the museum will be open to the public. - Philadelphia Inquirer
The posts come in many forms — retractable, rigid, ordinary, ornate, thick, thin. There are other objects that serve a similar purpose, including “sugar cube” barriers and hulking planters. At Lincoln Center, stylish, warped concrete blocks guard the square. - The New York Times
The bargaining committee said it’s far apart from management with regard to compensation, repetitive stress injuries and gaining a voice in the orchestra’s artistic direction. - Ideastream
Tom Service: “What does being the ‘best’ mean? And how and why have the Berliners acquired, and held on to, their globe-topping orchestral reputation for so many decades, through changes of conductor and personnel, political upheaval and technological transformation?” - The Guardian
Metal and classical: deeply different, or close companions? As a musician straddling both genres, I feel they have much more in common than they differ. - San Francisco Classical Voice
For 12 years he delivered what seems like an almost endless chain of exemplary reviews and essays, all framed in his distinctly personal, uncluttered prose, witty, now and then biting, but most often illuminating. - The New York Times
The group, which has no name as yet, “will become Scotland’s sixth National Performing Company, joining the National Theatre of Scotland, Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.” - The Herald (Scotland)
The Opera Ball was scheduled for Sept. 12, opening night of the season — and the date on which the company orchestra’s musicians have threatened to begin a strike if their contract negotiations haven’t been settled by then. - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
The art world’s merriest prankster; the guy who duct-taped a banana to a gallery wall, called it “Comedian,” and saw it get eaten, sold for $6.2 million, and then eaten again — he says “My work has always been serious. The problem is people often stop at the joke.” - The Guardian
If we look at the meanings incorporated into different objects during the early medieval period, we see that the Bayeux tapestry is a visual form of the scop, an early medieval storyteller who told tales of heroes and great deeds, helping to preserve the oral tradition of the early English peoples. - The Conversation
According to the VPD, a caller reported seeing a person’s feet sticking out from behind a counter and believed medical assistance was needed. - Vancouver City News
After years of extensive renovation and structural upgrades, the LDS Church will open its signature temple April 5 to the public — Mormons and non-Mormons alike – for six months of unprecedented tours. - CNN
Attacks on Bauhaus by Alternative for Germany, also known as AfD, come as Saxony-Anhalt in eastern Germany is about to vote in an election that could see a far-right party take control of one of the country’s states for the first time since World War II. - AP
“The anonymous homeowner was planning to build a new terrace in his garden when he found … a trove of 700 Viking Age silver objects and fragments. … The hoard contains numerous silver bars, as well as bracelets, 47 whole coins and fragments, a small Thor’s hammer, and various cut silver objects.” - ARTnews
That would be the 120-foot scroll of architectural tracing paper on which Jack Kerouac typed — single-spaced — his original draft of On the Road. He produced the whole megillah in three very caffeinated weeks. - AP
The decline of the English major offers a lesson in what young people want. Teenagers in the 2020s have a spiritual thirst that is unmet by a curriculum without order and greatness and charm. A field without a bible like the Norton doesn’t satisfy them. - Portico Quarterly
The company launched in 2020 to offer shoppers a way of buying books online that supported independent bookstores and to divert sales away from Amazon and competing platforms. It operates both as a proprietary sales channel and offers affiliate sales for independent stores and influencers. - Publishers Weekly
“Oxford University Press plans to offshore its financial operations department to EXL Services, which will provide the service from the (Indian) subcontinent. More than 30 Unite the Union members walked out on Tuesday over the plans, with the industrial action set to last until 11 September.” - BBC (Yahoo!)
“The magazine’s January issue will be its last in print, according to Joan SerVaas, the president and publisher. In a letter to The Post’s 50,000 subscribers ..., she attributed the decision to a combination of rising production costs, declining advertising revenue and shifting reader habits.’” - The New York Times
“(The shops), many of them tucked away ... inside buildings, have long offered a refuge and a window to a freer world for some mainland Chinese readers seeking ideas suppressed at home. But these spaces now are under threat following a wave of bookseller arrests over alleged sedition under a 2024 national security law.”...
“Public television stations are not only broadcasters. They are physical infrastructure inside FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System — one of the pathways that pushes AMBER Alerts, severe-weather warnings, and evacuation orders to the phone in your pocket.” And if rural communities lose their public stations, those alerts disappear. - The Hollywood Reporter
“It feels like a wicked joke that Cartoon Network's late-night programming block — already an aberration when it launched in cable's heyday in 2001 — is somehow thriving, ... even as the rest of cable slowly slides into oblivion. Even the folks behind Adult Swim don't really understand it.” - TheWrap (Yahoo!)
When Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi — famous in their native Spain as “Los Javis” — took their film La Bola Negra to Cannes this year, they earned a 20-minute ovation, the Best Director prize, a bidding war over distribution rights, and Oscar buzz. They've also learned something serious about themselves. - The New...
Assembly Bill 2222, known as the Community Newsroom Employment and Workforce Sustainability Act, creates refundable tax credits for the state’s news outlets based on the number of journalists they employ. - NiemanLab
“(Lawmakers) imposed a $5 million annual cap on corporate tax credits in June. (Industry representatives) argued that the cap would undercut the state’s $750 million incentive. … In response, legislative leaders and the governor’s office agreed to let studios to redeem tax credits for cash in two years instead of five.” - Variety
“Since joining the Joffrey in 2013, (Greg) Cameron has brought financial stability to the organization, eliminating a budget deficit and establishing its first-ever endowment, which has grown to approximately $30 million. During his tenure, the operating budget more than doubled from $13 million to about $33 million.” - WBEZ (Chicago)
This past May, Dance Place executive director André Mazelin abruptly fired artistic director Tariq O’Malley and eliminated his position. In July, at a town hall, former staffers, performers, and choreographers gave accounts of severe staffing, management, and interpersonal difficulties. (Mazelin himself resigned in August.) - Washington City Paper
The money was given by “an anonymous, long-time patron” of the organization who found themselves “inspired” by its transformation during Nissinen’s time there, according to the news release. - People
You get semi-improvised Bharatanatyam — normally a highly codified form — by three dancers basing their moves on a game of Ms. Pac-Man which they’re playing live onstage. - BBC (MSN)
“By the 1950s, Chandralekha was a legendary figure in (Bharatanatyam). However, she walked away from fame, rejecting the Brahminical and nationalist values that had come to shape it. ... When she returned to the stage in 1984, she brought with her a radically reimagined practice — sensual, iconoclastic and uncompromisingly feminist.” - Elle India
The 49-year-old native of Estonia danced with San Francisco Ballet for 18 years, retiring as a principal in 2023. He spent over a decade applying for artistic director positions; now that he has one, he’s excited about almost every aspect of it, even the fundraising. - Pointe Magazine
What will happen to the stage where Elvis’s swiveling pelvis was kept demurely out of frame, where the Beatles made their American debut, where Jackie Mason may or may not have flipped the bird at the host, where Topo Gigio found inexplicable fame? - Curbed
“In the quarter-century since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the horror of that day has inspired novels, films, television shows, paintings and sculpture. But the most enduring artistic response has been … Come From Away, about a small town with a big airport where nearly 7,000 travelers were diverted.” - The New York Times
That subject is the Welsh nobleman Owain Glyndŵr, who led a major rebellion against the English in the 15th century. Despite his fame, Sheen says, Glyndŵr’s story wasn’t taught in Welsh schools and nobody had ever staged it on a large scale before. - The Guardian
Last week the principal of Louisville’s performing arts high school told the cast and crew that the school district had cancelled their production due to community concerns about subject matter. The students posted a video online; it quickly tallied a million views — including by members of the current Broadway team. - Playbill
“The company opened in 1992 at the Roswell Cultural Arts Center, served thousands of patrons over the years and collaborated with a ‘who’s who’ of area performers. On April 19 of this year, the Board of Trustees decided to close the company with no fanfare and no public statement.” - ArtsATL
Two credible allegations of sex with teenage girls would by themselves be enough to get Flynn cancelled today, especially since both complainants said that he forced himself on them. Unfortunately, that’s not how it played out in 1942 and ‘43 for Hollywood’s biggest star. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
Those years seemed to be productive and were certainly profitable: she became the highest-priced living female artist, famous all over the world. At the same time, she stopped seeing visitors, fired longtime assistants and was reportedly bedridden. How, and with whom, was she producing her late work? - The New York Times
Wilson’s catalog showcased the full breadth of her native Mississippi’s musical heritage, drawing primarily from jazz but spanning every foundational American genre. - Los Angeles Times
“There’s a real relationship between the way he plays and the way he talks. There’s a sense of gathering the room, gathering a community, and you’re drawn into the emotional experience of his playing.” - The New York Times
A pioneering journalist who became the face of second-wave feminism, she first vaulted to public attention with an exposé for which she went undercover as a Playboy Bunny, then made history as co-founder and editor of Ms., arguably one of the most influential magazines of the 20th century. - The Guardian
Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, leaders of the Weather Underground, raised their kids while blowing up buildings and fleeing the FBI. Their older son, Zayd Ayers Dohrn, is ambivalent about his upbringing but says there was plenty of love. So how did he become an academic and a playwright? - WBEZ (Chicago)
Theater, dance, and live music artists: how is generative AI affecting your work, income, and creative practices? SMU DataArts and artist Annie Dorsen want your voice in the first survey of its kind. Anonymous, open to all roles and career stages, through Sept 8, 2026. Take it here
The Department of Theatre and Dance at UC San Diego http://theatre.ucsd.edu invites theatre artists to apply for a tenured faculty position within the Ladder Rank
“Thieves in Spain have raided the Treasure of Villena – a stunning collection of Bronze Age gold artefacts that has been described as the most important prehistoric trove in Europe – in the latest high-profile smash-and-grab heist on the continent.” - The Guardian
“Tenacious, obsessive and, in the eyes of her critics, relentlessly self-promoting, she became a pop-culture fixture, making brightly colored, instantly recognizable paintings, sculptures and installations that were exhibited at major museums and made her one of the world’s top-selling contemporary artists.” - The Washington Post (MSN)
“Though Curry would forever be the face that launched a thousand Time Warp dances …, he (was) far more than a one-trick pony over a career that spanned more than a half-century.” His roles ranged from Pennywise the Clown (Stephen King’s It) to Mozart (Amadeus, Olivier and Tony nominations) to King Arthur (Spamalot). -...
“Without those efforts,” wrote administration attorneys in a court filing, “the Center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River.” - The Guardian
In a tellingly worded statement, the union president said, “This groundbreaking agreement offers unprecedented artistic collaboration through all aspects of the artistic process. … It is also an innovative and transformative path forward for American orchestras, involving players as never before in the process of artistic decision making and planning.” - WBUR (Boston)
“Known for her curvy physique, massive blond wigs and skin-tight outfits that served her self-deprecating wit, she was among the most beloved personalities in music and beyond — the rare celebrity whose appeal transcended generations, geography and politics.” - AP
Though the union didn’t answer questions — and management press releases can be pressure tactics of their own — the extension seems like a good sign as “the BSO announced Sunday that a ‘ratification vote’ is in the offing.” - Boston Globe
Why do teachers get so many pedestals - and so, so many opportunities for abuse? “Being perpetually curious is hard work. Grappling with an unruly instrument and the infinite subjectivity of music is extremely hard work.” - The New York Times
The contract expires at midnight tonight (Sunday, August 23). That’s not to say there will be a strike, but the musicians are supportive of a potential strike, which would be the first in the BSO’s history. - WGBH
Wow, OK, way to be just obviously evil. “The printed book is destroyed in the process. The logo of the Amazon team that works at this warehouse, called VGT3, is a dinosaur, brandishing its teeth and with a book in its hands." - 404 Media
A Nick Jonas concert “reminded me of an obscure phrase coined by a 19th-century sociologist – Émile Durkheim’s ‘collective effervescence.’ … Individuals who are normally preoccupied with their personal concerns get swept up into a kind of electric, communal intensity.” - The Guardian (UK)
