Switzerland is asking UNESCO to add yodeling to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list — a local practice seeking global certification — AP. In New York, Sotheby’s has taken over the old Whitney, its Breuer angles now the patina of market power rather than public service — NYT.
Opera in Australia is showing growth among first-time audiences, the kind of data point that disrupts the “opera is dying” narrative — ArtsHub. Chicago is heading toward a cut in cultural funding at the same moment its largest institutions are largely declining to account for their diversity pledges — WBEZ: budget / WBEZ: DEI.
And the mood is shifting: a piece on doomerism frames fatalism not as a stance but as a baseline — Drift — while “vibe coding” enters the dictionary as if intuition and automation were already normal companions — The Guardian.
These aren’t disconnected. They’re all about who gets to declare meaning, who gets to measure commitment, and who is quietly rewriting the terms. The rest of today’s stories below.
