Today’s AJ highlights the year we just left.
We begin with my own attempt to make sense of it all: From 30,000 Feet: Five Year-end Observations about Arts and Culture in 2025 looks at the more than 6,000 stories we posted this year to find the patterns beneath the noise. The individual incidents—closures in San Francisco, lawsuits in D.C., op-eds on the “death of cinema”—stop looking like isolated events and reveal a broader structural shift (Diacritical Blog).
The Walrus examines the economic and political forces that shaped culture in 2025, charting the decline of the middle-class musician and the digitization of art (The Walrus). Artnet offers a harsher look back with “The Worst Art We Saw In 2025,” noting that some of the bad art isn’t even new—it just keeps looking “god-awful” (Artnet).
Institutional turmoil remains a headline theme to the very end. A report reveals the Kennedy Center board changed its bylaws months before a controversial vote, specifically preventing members designated by Congress from voting—a move legal experts say may conflict with its charter (The Washington Post (MSN)). Meanwhile, the San Antonio Philharmonic has canceled yet another concert, mirroring the financial collapse of its predecessor symphony (Texas Public Radio).
On the technology front, a warning about the danger of letting AI take over entry-level creative work, which deprives young artists of essential skill-building routines (The Atlantic).
Finally, we bid farewell to a legend: Carmen de Lavallade, the pathbreaking dancer and choreographer who beguiled audiences for seven decades, has died at 94 (The Washington Post (MSN)).
All of our stories below.
