ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

Today's Stories

Kurt Cobain, 1994 And The Rise Of “Authenticity”

The embrace of Nirvana showed how the recording industry has changed tactics to embrace what was once underground culture. - 3 Quarks Daily

Marin Alsop In Search Of Her Next Act

At a time when orchestras are eager to connect with a broader swath of their communities, Alsop’s struggle to score a position at the very top of the field attests to the persistent lack of both Americans and women on the country’s most prestigious podiums. - The New York Times

Barenboim: What Beethoven’s 9th Means To Me (On The Piece’s 200th Anniversary)

"Music on its own does not stand for anything except itself. The greatness of music, and the Ninth Symphony, lies in the richness of its contrasts. Music never just laughs or cries; it always laughs and cries at the same time. Creating unity out of contradictions — that is Beethoven for me." - The New York...

Kennicott: When George Washington (The Statue) Is Repurposed For Political Protest

What is most striking is the symbolic incorporation of the statue into the wider messaging of the protest... The students have dressed up Washington like the school mascot, adding new political symbols to existing ones. - Washington Post

So TikTok Might Be Banned In The US. But It’s Already Been In Decline

 “It’s just not hitting like it used to.” I still find some joy on the app. The delight is just less abundant than it was. Something has changed on TikTok. It’s become less serendipitous than before, though I don’t know when. - The Guardian

How Orchestra Conductors Have Changed

The reason conductors have changed is that the musicians they lead have changed. And the reason the musicians they lead have changed is that the societies those musicians inhabit have changed. That doesn’t necessarily render the music-making we experience any less intense or meaningful. - Gramophone

NextDoor: The Art Of Neighborhood Surveillance

Oh, no, there’s no butting out on Nextdoor, only butting in. Somebody posted the other day about the “slow moving vehicle following the school bus every morning.” Alarming! Turned out it was the newspaper delivery guy. - Washington Post

Some Members Of The Bauhaus Were Nazis – And One Designed The Auschwitz Crematoriums

"The Bauhaus, in its American imagining, became a place of heroism, even martyrdom. Nazism was, by definition, something done to the school, not by it.” The reality is, depressingly, quite different. - The Guardian (UK)

The Musicians Suspended From The NY Phil After That Article About Sexual Assault Have Sued To Get Their Jobs Back, Again

"Matthew Muckey, associate principal trumpet, and Liang Wang, principal oboist of the New York Philharmonic, have filed federal lawsuits against both the orchestra and the musicians’ union Local 802.” Their first appeals worked in 2020, which made the New York Magazine story all the more difficult to read. - Broadway World

The Supposedly Centuries Old Society Seeking To Refocus Our Attention Spans

That’s “the Order of the Third Bird—supposedly a secret international fellowship, going back centuries, of artists, authors, booksellers, professors, and avant-gardists. Participants in the Order would converge, flash-mob style, at museums, stare intensely at a work of art for half an hour, and vanish.” - The New Yorker

Chicago’s Improv Theatre Scene Is Expanding

The Revival returns "with the opening of a new theater in the South Loop. And The Home Comedy Theater, conceived by a collective of iO and Second City veterans, is building out a space in Lake View as an artistic residence for displaced long-form improvisers." - Chicago Sun-Times

The Power Of Student Protest Art

Those dismissing the protests as incoherent "should stand back and consider the iconography. … The students may be making inconvenient or even irrational requests of the institution and the country at large, but they are framing those demands as part of a continuum of American values." - Washington Post

Why Seattle’s Bellevue Art Museum Is Emergency Fundraising Again

Interviews show that “dogged by debt, over-optimistic financial forecasting, leadership turnover and overreliance on a small group of funders, the museum patched holes by creating new ones.” And, among small nonprofit museums, it’s far from alone. - Seattle Times

Don’t Blame Screens For The Steep Decline In Kid Reading Joy

OK, blame screens a little, but also the loss of peer hangout time during the pandemic; the right-wing campaign against school libraries and librarians - and the un-delightful experience of being a kid, just trying to read, and having to take quizzes all of the time about "excerpts." - Slate

Why Warner Bros Discovery Stock Took A Steep Hit

It’s not because David Zaslav is a grasping media tycoon who made a zillion dollars while trying to tell writers and actors to accept coal for payment and like it. No, it’s actually a sports issue. - The Businesshttps://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/the-business/pam-grier-comcast/warner-discovery-nba-tv-paramount-merger

How Frank Stella Kept Abstract Expressionism Alive

"Today, in our era of figuration and socially conscious painting, Stella’s 60-year devotion to abstract art might sound academic or even antediluvian. By his own admission, he did not see art as an efficient vehicle for improving society or combating injustice." - The New York Times

UCLA Faculty Protest At The Hammer Museum Gala

The faculty "protested Saturday night outside the UCLA Hammer Museum’s celebrity-heavy gala, calling for amnesty to be granted to pro-Palestinian students arrested on campus this week and demanding that Chancellor Gene Block resign immediately." - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

In Britain, Bristol’s Floating Music Venue Turns 40

The Thekla "started life as a cargo ship transporting timber around the Baltic Sea,” but now it’s had four decades of hosting music - and even becoming a canvas for Banksy. - The Guardian (UK)

When Kim Godwin Was Hired To Head Up ABC News, She – And Disney – Made History

But that history has ended. Godwin, in her goodbye note to her staff: “I understood and appreciated the profound significance of being the first Black woman to lead a national broadcast news network when I accepted the role as president of ABC News a little over three years ago.” - Los Angeles Times

What One Author Thinks About The Way A Movie Changed The Ending Of Her Book

This may not shock you, but The Idea of You author Robinne Lee agrees that the movie of her book fundamentally alters the ending. (Spoilers for both at the link.) - Vulture

By Topic

Kurt Cobain, 1994 And The Rise Of “Authenticity”

The embrace of Nirvana showed how the recording industry has changed tactics to embrace what was once underground culture. - 3 Quarks Daily

The Supposedly Centuries Old Society Seeking To Refocus Our Attention Spans

That’s “the Order of the Third Bird—supposedly a secret international fellowship, going back centuries, of artists, authors, booksellers, professors, and avant-gardists. Participants in the Order would converge, flash-mob style, at museums, stare intensely at a work of art for half an hour, and vanish.” - The New Yorker

What One Author Thinks About The Way A Movie Changed The Ending Of Her Book

This may not shock you, but The Idea of You author Robinne Lee agrees that the movie of her book fundamentally alters the ending. (Spoilers for both at the link.) - Vulture

Dear Kids, AI Is Not Your Real Friend

The teens know it. Still, “‘sometimes it’s nice to vent or blow off steam to something that’s kind of human-like,’ agreed Hawk, a 17-year-old Character.AI user from Idaho. 'But not actually a person, if that makes sense.’" - The Verge

The Fans Who Saved The Original Star Wars

“If you want to see the original Star Wars trilogy — as they were shown in theaters, a bit softer and grainier (and with Han Solo definitely shooting the bounty hunter Greedo first, not in self-defense, as he now does) — you’ll have to rely on some rebel fans." - The New York Times

When They’re Done Right, Playgrounds Are For Everybody

It just takes some thought, and some very good design. “'We are social animals, and play fosters social relationships,’ says landscape architect Meghan Talarowski, executive director of Studio Ludo, who is also a certified playground safety inspector.” - Bloomberg

NextDoor: The Art Of Neighborhood Surveillance

Oh, no, there’s no butting out on Nextdoor, only butting in. Somebody posted the other day about the “slow moving vehicle following the school bus every morning.” Alarming! Turned out it was the newspaper delivery guy. - Washington Post

UCLA Faculty Protest At The Hammer Museum Gala

The faculty "protested Saturday night outside the UCLA Hammer Museum’s celebrity-heavy gala, calling for amnesty to be granted to pro-Palestinian students arrested on campus this week and demanding that Chancellor Gene Block resign immediately." - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

Bollywood Increasingly Toes – And Broadcasts – The Ruling Party Line

"Since Mr Modi first came to power in 2014, the Hindi film industry has produced several films referencing government policies. But in the past four years, experts say a lot them have begun to explicitly steer towards propaganda." - BBC

Canada’s Top Documentary Festival Keeps Sending Increasingly Dire Emails About Its Survival

The chaos is "just a symptom of wider uncertainty and a quiet but growing panic in the feature-length documentary world." - CBC

The Crafts Of Making Kilts, Bagpipes, Cricket Bats And Balls Are Dying In Britain

"There’s less support for training, and government-funded apprenticeships are very hard to access in the UK. They’re not set up for our sector – which is ironic, as apprenticeships were developed by craft guilds in medieval times.” - The Observer (UK)

The Company Behind The Coming Army Of Voice Clones

It’s all too “easy to imagine the potential carnage: scammers targeting parents by using their children’s voice to ask for money, a nefarious October surprise from a dirty political trickster.”  - The Atlantic (MSN)

Marin Alsop In Search Of Her Next Act

At a time when orchestras are eager to connect with a broader swath of their communities, Alsop’s struggle to score a position at the very top of the field attests to the persistent lack of both Americans and women on the country’s most prestigious podiums. - The New York Times

Barenboim: What Beethoven’s 9th Means To Me (On The Piece’s 200th Anniversary)

"Music on its own does not stand for anything except itself. The greatness of music, and the Ninth Symphony, lies in the richness of its contrasts. Music never just laughs or cries; it always laughs and cries at the same time. Creating unity out of contradictions — that is Beethoven for me." - The...

How Orchestra Conductors Have Changed

The reason conductors have changed is that the musicians they lead have changed. And the reason the musicians they lead have changed is that the societies those musicians inhabit have changed. That doesn’t necessarily render the music-making we experience any less intense or meaningful. - Gramophone

The Musicians Suspended From The NY Phil After That Article About Sexual Assault Have Sued To Get Their Jobs Back, Again

"Matthew Muckey, associate principal trumpet, and Liang Wang, principal oboist of the New York Philharmonic, have filed federal lawsuits against both the orchestra and the musicians’ union Local 802.” Their first appeals worked in 2020, which made the New York Magazine story all the more difficult to read. - Broadway World

In Britain, Bristol’s Floating Music Venue Turns 40

The Thekla "started life as a cargo ship transporting timber around the Baltic Sea,” but now it’s had four decades of hosting music - and even becoming a canvas for Banksy. - The Guardian (UK)

Meet The Boston Symphony’s Newish President, A Guy With A Plan For Transformation

Chad Smith: "The critical decisions we’re going to make will set us up for the next 50 years.” - Boston Globe (MSN)

Kennicott: When George Washington (The Statue) Is Repurposed For Political Protest

What is most striking is the symbolic incorporation of the statue into the wider messaging of the protest... The students have dressed up Washington like the school mascot, adding new political symbols to existing ones. - Washington Post

Some Members Of The Bauhaus Were Nazis – And One Designed The Auschwitz Crematoriums

"The Bauhaus, in its American imagining, became a place of heroism, even martyrdom. Nazism was, by definition, something done to the school, not by it.” The reality is, depressingly, quite different. - The Guardian (UK)

The Power Of Student Protest Art

Those dismissing the protests as incoherent "should stand back and consider the iconography. … The students may be making inconvenient or even irrational requests of the institution and the country at large, but they are framing those demands as part of a continuum of American values." - Washington Post

Why Seattle’s Bellevue Art Museum Is Emergency Fundraising Again

Interviews show that “dogged by debt, over-optimistic financial forecasting, leadership turnover and overreliance on a small group of funders, the museum patched holes by creating new ones.” And, among small nonprofit museums, it’s far from alone. - Seattle Times

How Frank Stella Kept Abstract Expressionism Alive

"Today, in our era of figuration and socially conscious painting, Stella’s 60-year devotion to abstract art might sound academic or even antediluvian. By his own admission, he did not see art as an efficient vehicle for improving society or combating injustice." - The New York Times

Is Los Angeles Ready For Meow Wolf?

“'We are undefinable in so many ways, and it makes people think, ‘It’s just entertainment,’’ says Meow Wolf curator Han Santana-Sayles, 31, sitting in her newly rented Pasadena home. 'But I truly believe we are a wild art experiment.’” - Los Angeles Times

Don’t Blame Screens For The Steep Decline In Kid Reading Joy

OK, blame screens a little, but also the loss of peer hangout time during the pandemic; the right-wing campaign against school libraries and librarians - and the un-delightful experience of being a kid, just trying to read, and having to take quizzes all of the time about "excerpts." - Slate

The Issues With Translation Technology

In short: A human is better, but live translation programs are already pretty great (if the world you want is machine learning, “universal” translations without enough subtlety, and great works of literature altered in AI-specific ways). - Wired

Pitches To Save The Literary Internet

In the spirit of the Joanna Coles profile in New York Magazine, some ideas:“• 7,000 typos that somehow made it into the finished copy of your book • 31 most unlikeable female memoirists.” - LitHub

The Asian American Literature Festival Returns, Big – Without The Smithsonian

The collective putting it on could use an equivalent funder, but they don’t trust the Smithsonian after last year’s sudden, unexplained cancellation weeks before the kick-off. - Washington Post (MSN)

The Vesuvius Challenge: How Three Young Researchers Figured Out How To Use AI To Read The Carbonized Herculaneum Scrolls

This episode of the podcast There's More to That tells the whole story, from how these papyruses buried by the Vesuvius eruption of 79 CE were discovered were rediscovered in the 1700s to how a trio of scientists solved the problem and won a $700,000 prize. (audio plus transcript) - Smithsonian Magazine

The Complications Of Collecting Rare Books

A book’s demand, condition, publishing history, whether it is signed or inscribed, and even the timing of when a book enters the market are all factors that affect its value. - The Atlantic

So TikTok Might Be Banned In The US. But It’s Already Been In Decline

 “It’s just not hitting like it used to.” I still find some joy on the app. The delight is just less abundant than it was. Something has changed on TikTok. It’s become less serendipitous than before, though I don’t know when. - The Guardian

Why Warner Bros Discovery Stock Took A Steep Hit

It’s not because David Zaslav is a grasping media tycoon who made a zillion dollars while trying to tell writers and actors to accept coal for payment and like it. No, it’s actually a sports issue. - The Businesshttps://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/the-business/pam-grier-comcast/warner-discovery-nba-tv-paramount-merger

When Kim Godwin Was Hired To Head Up ABC News, She – And Disney – Made History

But that history has ended. Godwin, in her goodbye note to her staff: “I understood and appreciated the profound significance of being the first Black woman to lead a national broadcast news network when I accepted the role as president of ABC News a little over three years ago.” - Los Angeles Times

SAG-AFTRA Strikes A Deal With Nielsen For Streaming Data

How else could the union hold the producers to account? The streamers, but … er … “The Nielsen deal suggests that the union wants to be sure there is another party involved for ‘forecasting and enforcement.’” - The Hollywood Reporter

Directing Is ‘Angry Sex Between Art And Commerce,’ Says Director Jane Schoenbrun

Schoenbrun, who directed I Saw the TV Glow, says, "I worked really hard to make this film weird, like a provocation. … I’m structuring my life in a way where I can keep my values and my gaze outside of a system.” - Variety

Paramount’s Options Are Narrowing As The Window To Buy Closes

The thing is, "Since reports surfaced in January that Ellison’s Skydance was exploring an all-cash deal to acquire National Amusements Inc. — the company that holds 77% of Paramount Global’s voting stock — things have gotten messy." - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

The Ballet Of Elvis Presley

Choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa: “He seemed caged because of the fame he encountered at a very young age. … I decided to make a mosaic portrait of his persona, music, inspirations, beliefs and struggles. Ultimately, fame alienated him from reality and destroyed him.” - Bay City News

Does The Life Of Broadway Dancers Depicted In “A Chorus Line” Still Ring True Today?

There aren't many open calls anymore; the first audition today is usually a self-shot video. Otherwise? "Please, God, I need this job" is as true-to-life as it was 50 years ago. The difference nowadays, says one former dancer, is that "we’re trying to make the industry a better place." - The Guardian

Why The Twin Cities’ Leading Dance Venue Closed Down

"Reasons for the closure (of the Cowles Center) … include the lingering financial effects of the pandemic shutdown, lower ticket sales since 2020, and changes­ in funding priorities from both individual philanthropy and the education world. But the biggest factor? The owner of the building." - Dance Magazine

Study: A Neuroscience Technique To Learn Choreography

The technique uses a wave-like visualization of model dancers, enabling learners to anticipate and execute dance moves without prior rehearsal. - Neuroscience News

The Entire Country’s Different Styles Of Roller Skating Have Descended Upon Atlanta

"That commingling has Atlanta’s stalwart skaters concerned about keeping their distinctly energetic and percussive style alive. They say Atlanta’s newer skaters, who have wide access to regional variants, increasingly practice a hybridized type of skating that’s not rooted in any one tradition." - The New York Times

Why Cathy Marston Turned Ian McEwan’s Novel “Atonement” Into Ballet

"Briony’s idea of being able to rewrite someone’s life for the better is, for any sensible brain, a ridiculous notion. Yet there's scientific evidence that we feel our experiences differently according to the stories we tell about them. … Whether we change the truth through stories we tell is a very relevant topic." -...

Chicago’s Improv Theatre Scene Is Expanding

The Revival returns "with the opening of a new theater in the South Loop. And The Home Comedy Theater, conceived by a collective of iO and Second City veterans, is building out a space in Lake View as an artistic residence for displaced long-form improvisers." - Chicago Sun-Times

Vulture’s Nominees For The Phonys

Welcome to the theatre awards for things like “The I’ve Seen Fire and I’ve Seen Rain.” - Vulture

After Agonizing Months, A Map For The Future Of LA’s Center Theatre Group

Snehal Desai: "It’s not that CTG doesn’t have folks coming; we have tens of thousands of folks, it’s just that we’re not necessarily getting folks to move within our venues.” - American Theatre

Eddie Redmayne Has Some Things To Say About Audience Interaction In The New Cabaret

Redmayne, just nominated for a Tony, explains, “We’ve had sort of moments where the audience interaction can get a bit too vocal ... and we’ll have to sort of clamber through and improvise around the situation but that, again, keeps us on our toes.” - The Hollywood Reporter

At The Royal Shakespeare Company, New Directors Know The Summer Stratford Audience Loves Tradition

"The hope must be that the more traditional audiences will move with the times, and come around to new visions. You can’t please all of the people all of the time — but you can do your best to take them with you." - The New York Times

Will This New Play About Jesus Of Nazareth’s Family Cause Believers To Freak Out? Maybe, But Not So Far.

Playwright Eleanor Burgess's "Galilee, 34" at SoCal's South Coast Rep depicts Jesus's family and followers months after the Crucifixion as they try to figure out — sometimes arguing and frequently cussing — what to do next and whether to continue the preaching that got Jesus executed. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)

Barbara O Jones, Whose Acting Led A Generation Of Black Filmmakers, Has Died At 82

"Budding filmmakers like Charles Burnett, Julie Dash and Haile Gerima eschewed polished scripts and linear narratives in search of an authentic Black cinematic language. They relied on actors like Mrs. Jones, drawn from far outside the mainstream, to bring their work to life." - The New York Times

Laura Linney’s Favorite Part Of Central Park

"Bethesda Fountain was one of the first major commissioned works by a female artist . And it was built to commemorate fresh water that was brought into the city for the first time. It always takes my breath away." - The New York Times

CJ Sansom, Mystery Writer Who Created The Tudor English Detective Shardlake, Has Died At 71

"He died just days before the May 1 streaming debut of the series Shardlake, on Disney+, an adaptation of his novels starring Arthur Hughes in the title role and Sean Bean as Cromwell.” - The New York Times

Frank Stella, Master Of Artistic Reinvention, Has Died At 87

"Stella was a dominant figure in postwar American art, a restless, relentless innovator whose explorations of color and form made him an outsize presence, endlessly discussed and constantly on exhibit." - The New York Times

Salman Rushdie Describes What He Experienced During The 27 Seconds He Was Attacked With A Knife

"What I didn’t do was lose consciousness. People who were there have said that I was ... screaming with pain. Inside my head, I was not aware of the pain, ... so there was a strange disconnect between my inside feeling and my outside behaviour." - The New Statesman (UK)

Keith Haring And Defining Art And Artists

“I arrived in New York at a time when the most beautiful paintings being shown in the city were on wheels,” Haring wrote. This was 1978. His infatuation with the graffiti enveloping the city’s trains and buildings was hardly anomalous. - BookForum

AJ Premium Classifieds

Executive Director – Opening Act

The Executive Director will steward the organization with a love for theater and arts education combined with a talent for strategic leadership.

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The Executive Director will collaborate with the Artistic Director and program chairs to ensure successful program delivery and with the Board of Directors

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2 Arts Marketing, Development & Ticketing Conferences to Choose From! Deadline: May 17

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund seeks Executive Director of The Pocantico Center

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) advances social change that contributes to a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world.

Executive Director – Ballet Idaho

The Executive Director will work in a shared leadership relationship with the Artistic Director with both positions reporting to and working collaboratively with the Board of Directors.

CFO- Arena Stage

The CFO is a critical member of the Senior Management Team and important ally to Arena’s co-leaders providing operational leadership and oversight in all matters of ongoing financial management, accounting and strategic business development.

Premier Vocal Ensemble Seeks Dynamic VP of Marketing & Communications

As a member of the Master Chorale’s leadership team, the VP of Marketing and Communications (VPMC) plays the lead role in a broad range of deadline-driven and detail-oriented projects designed to extend the Master Chorale’s influence.

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Biggs Museum seeks their next Executive Director

The Biggs achieves its vision and goals within the standards and best practices as an American Alliance of Museums accredited institution, including championing the next phase of expansion.

Senior Director of Communications – Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Known for its artistic excellence for more than 120 years, today the PSO is the region’s national and international cultural ambassador.

Vice Dean for Finance and Administration, The New School

Imagine, develop, and implement overall vision, strategy, and tactics for the College along with the Dean’s Council, faculty, and staff.

Outreach Coordinator-Dance Data Project®

Founded in 2015, Dance Data Project® (DDP) is a global resource for the study and analysis of major national and international dance companies, venues, and choreographic awards.

Chief Executive Officer, Motown Museum

The CEO will be a dynamic, high-energy leader with a minimum of 10 years of strategic leadership experience.

San Francisco Conservatory of Music seeks VP of Advancement

The VPA will direct and lead annual fundraising of $8 million, as well as demonstrate progress toward the longer-term funding plans for SFCM.

The Supposedly Centuries Old Society Seeking To Refocus Our Attention Spans

That’s “the Order of the Third Bird—supposedly a secret international fellowship, going back centuries, of artists, authors, booksellers, professors, and avant-gardists. Participants in the Order would converge, flash-mob style, at museums, stare intensely at a work of art for half an hour, and vanish.” - The New Yorker

The Power Of Student Protest Art

Those dismissing the protests as incoherent "should stand back and consider the iconography. … The students may be making inconvenient or even irrational requests of the institution and the country at large, but they are framing those demands as part of a continuum of American values." - Washington Post

UCLA Faculty Protest At The Hammer Museum Gala

The faculty "protested Saturday night outside the UCLA Hammer Museum’s celebrity-heavy gala, calling for amnesty to be granted to pro-Palestinian students arrested on campus this week and demanding that Chancellor Gene Block resign immediately." - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

Frank Stella, Master Of Artistic Reinvention, Has Died At 87

"Stella was a dominant figure in postwar American art, a restless, relentless innovator whose explorations of color and form made him an outsize presence, endlessly discussed and constantly on exhibit." - The New York Times

The Asian American Literature Festival Returns, Big – Without The Smithsonian

The collective putting it on could use an equivalent funder, but they don’t trust the Smithsonian after last year’s sudden, unexplained cancellation weeks before the kick-off. - Washington Post (MSN)

The Vesuvius Challenge: How Three Young Researchers Figured Out How To Use AI To Read The Carbonized Herculaneum Scrolls

This episode of the podcast There's More to That tells the whole story, from how these papyruses buried by the Vesuvius eruption of 79 CE were discovered were rediscovered in the 1700s to how a trio of scientists solved the problem and won a $700,000 prize. (audio plus transcript) - Smithsonian Magazine

At The Royal Shakespeare Company, New Directors Know The Summer Stratford Audience Loves Tradition

"The hope must be that the more traditional audiences will move with the times, and come around to new visions. You can’t please all of the people all of the time — but you can do your best to take them with you." - The New York Times

Gustavo Dudamel Talks About Why He Resigned From The Paris Opera

"I had reached a point where I didn't have the physical time to digest everything that was going on in my professional and personal life. I wasn't happy, and I think that was the main reason I made the decision I did." - Le Monde (in English)

Author Paul Auster Dead At 77

"Called the 'dean of American post-modernists' and 'the most meta of American meta-fictional writers,' Auster blended history, politics, genre experiments, existential quests and self-conscious references to writers and writing. ... Starting in the 1970s, Auster completed more than 30 books, translated into dozens of languages." - AP

This New Award Is Dance’s Equivalent Of The Turner Prize

The £40,000 Rose International Dance Prize, administered by Sadler's Wells in London, will be awarded biennially starting in February 2025. As with the Turner, all of the finalists (four have been named for this cycle) will be on view (for two weeks at Sadler's Wells) before the winner is announced. - BBC

“Hell’s Kitchen” And “Stereophonic” Lead 2024 Tony Nominations

"The musical Hell’s Kitchen, fueled by Alicia Keys songs, and the play Stereophonic, about a ‘70s rock band at the edge of stardom, each earned a leading 13 Tony Award nominations Tuesday, a list that also saw a record number of women nominated for best director." - AP

Colleges Are Adding ‘Value’ With Massive Museum Expansions

The extreme college workout facility is passé - now it’s cool, newly renovated and/or expanded museums that attract undergrads and their tuition-paying parents. - The New York Times
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