Today's Stories

The Messy, Sordid Controversy Underlying The Olympic Ice Dancing Competition

Or, how France’s Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry (who’s actually Canadian) ended up together at all, then became the gold medalists, despite having been together only since March. - AP

Conductor Helmuth Rilling, Last Of The Old-School Bach Specialists, Has Died At 92

With his ensembles Gächinger Kantorei and Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, he undertook the first complete recording project of Bach’s cantatas and major choral works. As the period-instrument movement picked up steam through the 1980s, ‘90s and onward, Rilling was the last remaining Bach specialist to cling strictly to modern instruments. - Moto Perpetuo

Proposed Jersey City Branch Of Pompidou Center Is Officially “Dead”

“After announcing last week that Jersey City is facing a $255 million deficit, Mayor James Solomon removed any doubt about where he stood on Centre Pompidou’s proposed satellite location in New Jersey’s second-largest city. ‘We will not be doing Pompidou, to be clear. It is dead.’” - NJ.com

Kennedy Center Boss Warns Of Job Cuts During Shutdown

In a Tuesday memo obtained by The Associated Press, Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell told staff that ‘departments will obviously function on a much smaller scale with some units totally reduced or on hold until we begin preparations to reopen in 2028,’ promising ‘permanent or temporary adjustments for most everyone.’” - AP

Bud Cort, Star Of “Harold And Maude” And “Brewster Mccloud,” Is Dead At 77

He was discovered by director Robert Altman for the 1970 films M*A*S*H and Brewster McCloud; he subsequently featured in Heat (1995), Dogma (1999) and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). Yet it was his co-starring role in alongside Ruth Gordon in Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude that would establish his place in cinema. - Deadline

Leonard Slatkin Named Music Director Of Nashville Symphony

The 81-year-old conductor has served the orchestra as “Music Advisor” for the past year, following the departure of Giancarlo Guerrero. (He did the same for three years between the death of longtime music director Kenneth Schermerhorn and Guerrero’s arrival.) Slatkin’s contract as music director runs for three years. - Nashville Scene

A Choreographer Adapts Flamenco For Ice Dancing

Antonio Najarro, former director of the Ballet Nacional de España and choreographer of several medal-winning routines in ice dancing: “It seemed very difficult to me. Flamenco is so rooted in the earth that doing it on ice felt almost crazy. But curiosity got the better of me.” - El País in English (Spain)

Permission To Star(e)

Depending on where you stand, the human face has become either a digital ­playground or digital battleground. Your Instagram feed can now produce a diaspora of thousands of faces that uncannily resemble but are not quite Kim Kardashian, a “cyborgian” look best achieved through plastic surgery and Facetune. - The Walrus

Playwright Tracy Letts On Why He Wrote “Bug” (And Why Now’s A Good Time For Reviving It)

“I was studying this issue of conspiracy theories and what makes people susceptible to a conspiracy theory. There’s a real terror of (not conforming) in our culture, and we will gladly believe somebody else’s nonsense if it means we don’t stick out from the group.” - WBEZ (Chicago)

Study: Using AI Doesn’t Reduce Work, It Intensifies It

In an eight-month study of how generative AI changed work habits at a U.S.-based technology company with about 200 employees, we found that employees worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks, and extended work into more hours of the day, often without being asked to do so. - Harvard Business Review

France’s “Inalienable” Problem In Repatriating Museum Art

The principle is currently set out in two French legal codes, including the Heritage Code, which applies to public museum collections. Under the principle, nothing can be permanently removed from these collections without a special law passed by the French parliament in each case, a cumbersome and time-consuming process. - The Art Newspaper

How Sundance’s Move To Boulder Could Reinvent The Festival

Sundance’s move to Boulder is coinciding with a fortuitous moment in the specialty film space, with an uptick in post-pandemic interest from younger moviegoers. - The Hollywood Reporter

You’re About To Release A Novel, And Suddenly A News Event Comes Too Close To Your Plot For Comfort. What Do You Do?

That’s the dilemma that faced Simon & Schuster last fall, when right-wing media star Charlie Kirk was assassinated not long before the scheduled publication of Rebecca Novack’s satirical novel Murder Bimbo. - The New York Times

Paramount Sweetens Its Offer To Buy Warner

On Tuesday, the Skydance-owned company said it would pay Warner shareholders an added “ticking fee” if its deal doesn’t go through by the end of the year — amounting to 25 cents per share, or a total of $650 million, for every quarter after Dec. 31. - AP News

Report: Trump “Obsessed” With Kennedy Center Makeover

Overhauling the Kennedy Center has become a fixation for Trump—and no detail is too small for the real-estate-developer-turned-president. - The Wall Street Journal

France’s Le Pen Planning Makeover Of French Arts Scene

Marine Le Pen’s party is concocting plans to replace a vital, vibrant arts scene with a retrograde movement that would glorify the country’s past. - The Guardian

Philippe Gaulier, Clown School Professor With A Galaxy Of Movie-Star Alumni, Is Dead At 82

“The influential founder of France’s École Philippe Gaulier … taught the art of clowning for decades and his students included Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Thompson, Rachel Weisz and Geoffrey Rush.” - The Guardian

A New Iron Curtain Between Russian And American Dance

A new iron curtain now separates American dance and Russian dance, bringing an abrupt end to a rich dialogue that spanned centuries. Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, two crown jewels in the American repertoire, would not exist without Petipa’s original stagings; meanwhile, Russian ballet was bolstered by American influence. - The Atlantic

LACMA’s New Galleries To Open April 19

That Sunday, a ribbon-cutting ceremony will kick off two weeks of priority member access to the galleries, with general admission beginning May 4. - Los Angeles Times

How Washington National Opera Left The Kennedy Center

“It has nothing to do with the name change. It is strictly dollars and cents, and the Kennedy Center’s inability to understand the economics of how opera works.” - Washington Post

By Topic

Study: Using AI Doesn’t Reduce Work, It Intensifies It

In an eight-month study of how generative AI changed work habits at a U.S.-based technology company with about 200 employees, we found that employees worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks, and extended work into more hours of the day, often without being asked to do so. - Harvard Business Review

If I Can Write A Novel In A Day With AI And It Takes You Six Months, Who Wins?

Through Hart’s teaching business, Plot Prose, she’s working on a proprietary piece of software that can “generate a book based on an outline in less than an hour, and costs between $80 and $250 a month.” - Gizmodo

We’re Not Ready For The Ways AI Will Disrupt Jobs

The immediate risk to employment may not be AI itself, but the way companies, seduced by its promise, overinvest before they understand what it can actually do. - The Atlantic

Let’s End The Justification Impulse: Art Is Water

Art has inherent value, and public and private investment in the arts should not require a strong demand for continuous justification. The social benefits of the arts are self-evident, supported by extensive research and experienced by humanity since the dawn of time. - New England Foundation for the Arts

Bedoya: The Imagination Of Democracy

We already carry muscle memory: voting, organizing for fairness and equity, creating the beauty of art expressed in what we share between us — images, songs, movements, designs, or letters — shapes the will of the people and creates knowledges and visions of a fully manifested democracy. - GIA Arts

If You Want To Keep Full Access To Discord, You’ll Have To Give Them Some Of Your Biometric Details

The (very) popular social media and community site will now require a facial scan or government ID scan for age verification. After an incident in October where a third-party vendor breach exposed thousands of government IDs, it’s possible that not every user will trust this plan. - The Verge

Kennedy Center Boss Warns Of Job Cuts During Shutdown

In a Tuesday memo obtained by The Associated Press, Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell told staff that ‘departments will obviously function on a much smaller scale with some units totally reduced or on hold until we begin preparations to reopen in 2028,’ promising ‘permanent or temporary adjustments for most everyone.’” - AP

Report: Trump “Obsessed” With Kennedy Center Makeover

Overhauling the Kennedy Center has become a fixation for Trump—and no detail is too small for the real-estate-developer-turned-president. - The Wall Street Journal

France’s Le Pen Planning Makeover Of French Arts Scene

Marine Le Pen’s party is concocting plans to replace a vital, vibrant arts scene with a retrograde movement that would glorify the country’s past. - The Guardian

Ireland Makes Its Basic-Income-For-Artists Program Permanent

“The Basic Income for the Arts initiative will provide €325 ($386) a week to 2,000 eligible artists based in the Republic in three-year cycles. ... The (pilot) scheme recouped more than its net cost of €72 million through increases in arts-related expenditure, productivity gains and reduced reliance on other welfare payments.” - The Guardian

San Francisco Is Trying A Novel Approach To Securing Affordable Housing For Artists

“Trading financial gain for lasting impact, several older artists have donated the houses they bought decades ago to community land trusts, legal entities that can break the cycle of displacement by ensuring properties are handed down from one artist to another at affordable prices.” - The New York Times

Report: Enrollment At Australian Art Schools Has Plummeted

New research published in the Australian Journal of Education this week found fewer students in high school and university were choosing to study the creative arts. At the same time, it found, dozens of tertiary courses were being slashed. - The Guardian

Leonard Slatkin Named Music Director Of Nashville Symphony

The 81-year-old conductor has served the orchestra as “Music Advisor” for the past year, following the departure of Giancarlo Guerrero. (He did the same for three years between the death of longtime music director Kenneth Schermerhorn and Guerrero’s arrival.) Slatkin’s contract as music director runs for three years. - Nashville Scene

How Washington National Opera Left The Kennedy Center

“It has nothing to do with the name change. It is strictly dollars and cents, and the Kennedy Center’s inability to understand the economics of how opera works.” - Washington Post

Oregon’s Portland Chamber Orchestra Abruptly Closes Down

The ensemble, founded in 1946, was believed to be the longest-running chamber orchestra in the US. While it has faced the same post-COVID financial problems that have plagued many performing-arts organizations, the PCO’s biggest difficulty has been recovering from the sudden death in 2023 of popular artistic director Yaacov Bergman. - Willamette Week (Portland)

Dallas Opera Chief Ian Derrer Appointed General Director Of Canadian Opera Company

Derrer — who came to The Dallas Opera in 2018 and then steered the company through COVID, raised $54.5 million and doubled the endowment, and commissioned and staged multiple new works — will take the helm at the COC in Toronto as of July 1. - CultureMap Dallas

Can English National Opera’s New Leader Revive The Company’s Fortunes?

“I like this construction of London and Manchester,” he tells me, at the Coliseum. “And I like the spirit of pioneering, of becoming an opera company in a city that previously hasn’t had a resident opera company.” - The Guardian

A Campaign To Prohibit UK Police From Using Lyrics As Evidence In Court

Campaign groups want a change to the victims and courts bill, which is currently making its way through parliament, to stop police from being able to present lyrics as evidence except when they are “literal, rather than figurative or fictional”. - The Guardian

Proposed Jersey City Branch Of Pompidou Center Is Officially “Dead”

“After announcing last week that Jersey City is facing a $255 million deficit, Mayor James Solomon removed any doubt about where he stood on Centre Pompidou’s proposed satellite location in New Jersey’s second-largest city. ‘We will not be doing Pompidou, to be clear. It is dead.’” - NJ.com

Permission To Star(e)

Depending on where you stand, the human face has become either a digital ­playground or digital battleground. Your Instagram feed can now produce a diaspora of thousands of faces that uncannily resemble but are not quite Kim Kardashian, a “cyborgian” look best achieved through plastic surgery and Facetune. - The Walrus

France’s “Inalienable” Problem In Repatriating Museum Art

The principle is currently set out in two French legal codes, including the Heritage Code, which applies to public museum collections. Under the principle, nothing can be permanently removed from these collections without a special law passed by the French parliament in each case, a cumbersome and time-consuming process. - The Art Newspaper

LACMA’s New Galleries To Open April 19

That Sunday, a ribbon-cutting ceremony will kick off two weeks of priority member access to the galleries, with general admission beginning May 4. - Los Angeles Times

London’s “Brutalist Monstrosity” Southbank Centre Given Landmark Status

“The Southbank Centre in London, which includes the Hayward Gallery, Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Undercroft skatepark and was once voted ‘Britain's ugliest building’, has been heritage-listed. Completed along the River Thames in the 1960s, the post-war landmark has now been Grade II-listed by the Department for Culture Media and Sport.” - Dezeen

Antiquities-Trafficking Prosecutor Wins Art History Award

Matthew Bogdanos, founder and chief of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit in the New York District Attorney’s office, has been awarded the Marica Vilcek Prize in Art History, which is usually given to curators or scholars and includes a $100,000 purse. - ARTnews

You’re About To Release A Novel, And Suddenly A News Event Comes Too Close To Your Plot For Comfort. What Do You Do?

That’s the dilemma that faced Simon & Schuster last fall, when right-wing media star Charlie Kirk was assassinated not long before the scheduled publication of Rebecca Novack’s satirical novel Murder Bimbo. - The New York Times

How Has India Managed To Develop Over 100 Literary Festivals?

“The answer is that festivals in India are only partly about books. They are a ‘spectacle’ offering music, dance, handicraft sales and food. Even the T.rex of them all, the Jaipur literature festival (which attracted 400,000 visitors last month according to its marketing team), would almost certainly attract fewer people without these extras.” - The Guardian

The Enormous Power Of Small Book Shops

How, against all odds, has City Lights managed to remain a vital symbol of literary dissent and free speech? How, after more than seventy years, has City Lights survived economic and industry changes? How, decade after decade, has it managed to respond to the forces that threaten to silence us? - LitHub

Indians Don’t Buy Books. So Why Do They Have So Many Literary Festivals?

If most middle-class homes are devoid of book-- if you can sit in an airport departure lounge or train all day and not see anyone reading--then why, come winter, do more than 100 literature festivals bloom every year, even in the smallest and unlikeliest of towns? - The Guardian

Spotify Adds Physical Books To Its Service

The tech platform is launching Page Match, a tool that will allow readers to scan a page of a printed or e-book using their phone and continue listening to the audiobook version where they left off. - The Hollywood Reporter

The Books Ecosystem Is Dying

In a sense, the decline of book reviews, like the decline of newspapers themselves, is a story about disaggregation. Newspapers used to bundle several functions together in a way that made them both useful and profitable. - The Atlantic

How Sundance’s Move To Boulder Could Reinvent The Festival

Sundance’s move to Boulder is coinciding with a fortuitous moment in the specialty film space, with an uptick in post-pandemic interest from younger moviegoers. - The Hollywood Reporter

Paramount Sweetens Its Offer To Buy Warner

On Tuesday, the Skydance-owned company said it would pay Warner shareholders an added “ticking fee” if its deal doesn’t go through by the end of the year — amounting to 25 cents per share, or a total of $650 million, for every quarter after Dec. 31. - AP News

Inside The Dismantling Of Voice Of America (As Recounted By One Of The Dismantled)

“An international media outlet employing hundreds of foreign journalists with the stated mission of promoting civil liberties abroad was bound to be incompatible with an administration that was attacking the same liberties at home and had made xenophobic nationalism central to its political platform.” - The Point

BBC World Service Will Run Out Of Funding By April If Government Doesn’t Step Up

Most of the World Service’s £400 million budget comes from the licence fee which funds the entire BBC, though the Foreign Office contributes a sizable amount, £137 million in the last year. BBC director general Tim Davie has just warned that the government must not delay further in deciding on Foreign Office funding. -...

Master Cinematographer Roger Deakins On His Half-Century Behind The Camera

“Deakins – cinematographer to the Coen brothers, Martin Scorsese and Sam Mendes, whose work has earned him 14 Oscar nominations and two wins, five BAFTAs, a knighthood and a reputation for being the greatest practitioner of his craft alive – is struggling to explain just exactly what he does.” - The Guardian

Hollywood Unions Begin New Contract Negotiations

The sides will be negotiating in a Hollywood far different from 2023. Production has slowed significantly industrywide, as many entertainment companies struggle to adjust to the streaming world. Work has dried up for many actors, writers and directors. At the same time, the rise of generative artificial intelligence has become more central. - The...

The Messy, Sordid Controversy Underlying The Olympic Ice Dancing Competition

Or, how France’s Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry (who’s actually Canadian) ended up together at all, then became the gold medalists, despite having been together only since March. - AP

A Choreographer Adapts Flamenco For Ice Dancing

Antonio Najarro, former director of the Ballet Nacional de España and choreographer of several medal-winning routines in ice dancing: “It seemed very difficult to me. Flamenco is so rooted in the earth that doing it on ice felt almost crazy. But curiosity got the better of me.” - El País in English (Spain)

A New Iron Curtain Between Russian And American Dance

A new iron curtain now separates American dance and Russian dance, bringing an abrupt end to a rich dialogue that spanned centuries. Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, two crown jewels in the American repertoire, would not exist without Petipa’s original stagings; meanwhile, Russian ballet was bolstered by American influence. - The Atlantic

American Tap Dance Meets Indian Kathak — And The Rhythms And Sparks Fly

“In Speak, American tap dancers collaborate with their counterparts in kathak, a classical Indian percussive dance form. While these genres have been crossed before, rarely have the participants been such masters of their art.” - The New York Times

The Ice Dancers With Possibly The Olympics’ Biggest Challenge

“The most decorated ice dance pair in U.S. figure skating history wants more than a team medal in Milan — they want the ice dance gold medal. ... But while they did so much heavy lifting for their team, their competition got extra rest.” - USA Today

An Ambitious Project To Document Dance

The ambitious project was five years in the making and culled street dance resources from a wide-ranging array of sources spanning mediums. - Fjord Review

Playwright Tracy Letts On Why He Wrote “Bug” (And Why Now’s A Good Time For Reviving It)

“I was studying this issue of conspiracy theories and what makes people susceptible to a conspiracy theory. There’s a real terror of (not conforming) in our culture, and we will gladly believe somebody else’s nonsense if it means we don’t stick out from the group.” - WBEZ (Chicago)

Broadway Musical Fans Are Recreating Favorite Dance Numbers On TikTok

“These content creators are not just copycats; they are attempting and sometimes mastering the complicated dance moves and distinctive performances of shows they may never see live, let alone be cast in. Sharing the result with the world, they are making TikTok a theater of their own.” - The New York Times

The Wooster Group Actress Who Disappeared

Libby Howes, who was central to the group’s avant-garde breakthrough Rumstick Road, left the theatre during a psychotic breakdown. “For decades, Howes’s location has been a mystery; she has been an unquiet absence, one of the ghosts in the avant-garde’s machine.” - The New York Times

Woodie King, Who Died In January At 88, Was A Major Figure Steering Black Theatre In The US

“Woodie, as artistic director and producer, understood and respected the sanctity of the director. … Woodie, even faced with the challenges of inequitable funding for New Federal Theatre, and sometimes no funding at all, always persevered and prevailed.” - American Theatre

It’s Not Easy Designing The World’s Biggest Stage

At the halftime show for the Super Bowl, “the stage must be assembled in about eight minutes, using rolling carts equipped with pneumatic tires. The field … can hold only so much additional weight. After the 12-minute performance, the stage must be torn down quickly.” - The New York Times

“& Juliet” — How A Jukebox Shakespeare Musical That Flopped In Britain Became An Unlikely Broadway Hit

“Today, (after almost four years in New York,) the musical is still packing in crowds, a feat for a show that isn’t a revival or a movie adaptation and lacks big stars or Tony wins. It’s ... one of only four new musicals since the pandemic to recoup their investments.” - Variety

Conductor Helmuth Rilling, Last Of The Old-School Bach Specialists, Has Died At 92

With his ensembles Gächinger Kantorei and Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, he undertook the first complete recording project of Bach’s cantatas and major choral works. As the period-instrument movement picked up steam through the 1980s, ‘90s and onward, Rilling was the last remaining Bach specialist to cling strictly to modern instruments. - Moto Perpetuo

Bud Cort, Star Of “Harold And Maude” And “Brewster Mccloud,” Is Dead At 77

He was discovered by director Robert Altman for the 1970 films M*A*S*H and Brewster McCloud; he subsequently featured in Heat (1995), Dogma (1999) and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). Yet it was his co-starring role in alongside Ruth Gordon in Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude that would establish his place in cinema. - Deadline

Philippe Gaulier, Clown School Professor With A Galaxy Of Movie-Star Alumni, Is Dead At 82

“The influential founder of France’s École Philippe Gaulier … taught the art of clowning for decades and his students included Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Thompson, Rachel Weisz and Geoffrey Rush.” - The Guardian

Three Sexual Assault Lawsuits Against Author Neal Gaiman Are Dismissed

“Scarlett Pavlovich filed a lawsuit against Gaiman and his wife, Amanda Palmer, in Wisconsin in February 2025, accusing Gaiman of multiple sexual assaults while she worked as the family’s nanny in 2022. She filed lawsuits against Palmer in Massachusetts and in New York on the same day she filed the Wisconsin action.” - AP

Wallace Shawn May Be The Only Playwright To Be Recognized And Shouted Out Across New York

Of course, that’s usually because of his acting career (especially his iconic role in The Princess Bride). - The New York Times

What Hudson Williams Does When He’s Not Busy Promoting Heated Rivalry

The man loves reading and writing, basically. “I love Joan Didion, and she once said she journals so that when she gets really old, she can pick up her books and find her way back to herself again.” - CBC

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Quantum Theatre – Artistic Director

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Large Software Analysis Says Turin And Philly Paintings Aren’t Actually By Van Eyck

The AI-supported “findings supported scholars who had suggested that both versions were studio paintings – produced in the artist’s workshop but not necessarily by him,” but surprised some art historians, who now wonder whether an original exists somewhere. - The Guardian (UK)

It’s Not Easy Being The One Charged With Creating New Stained Glass Windows For Notre Dame

Tabouret: “It’s not very French to change stuff, so I thought that interesting as well as brave and fresh. They specifically wanted figurative painting, which also isn’t very French.” But church authorities eventually gave her a lot of artistic freedom. - The Guardian (UK)

How Bach Helped This Abuse Victim Stay Alive

“Every night, I would sit in my room listening to recordings of Bach, then Horowitz and Ashkenazy, pretending to play along. It was pure escape, pure fantasy. I could hide inside the music. ... The Chaconne specifically was like an ancient key that slid into my heart.” - The Guardian (UK)

How Did Milan’s Olympics Opening Ceremony Measure Up, Artistically Speaking?

“Do you know what’s more tubular than snowboarding? Giant tubes of paint descending from the ceiling! More sweeping than curling? A beautiful recital of a poem by a man in a long coat! More thrilling than a hockey brawl? A dance-off between two competing clusters of contemporary dancers!” - Vulture

Toronto’s Royal Conservatory Of Music Accused Of Enabling A Predatory Piano Educator

“I was left with a feeling of tremendous shame. Even after gathering the courage to speak up, I was ashamed that I was a victim, ashamed that I was unable to stop it. Ashamed that even after finally speaking up, I was disregarded, ignored, discarded.” - Toronto Star

A.O. Scott Annotates The Court Order Freeing The Five-Year-Old Held By ICE

“Judge Biery’s decision … is much more than dry judicial reasoning. It’s a passionate, erudite, at times mischievous piece of prose. … In fewer than 500 words, Judge Biery marshals literature, history, folk wisdom and Scripture to challenge the theory of executive power that has defined Trump’s second presidency.” - The New York Times

This Opera Lampooning Trump Features Zombies, Vampires, And A Libretto By A Nobel Prizewinner

Elfriede Jelinek, winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize for Literature, and composer Olga Neuwirth, who received the 2022 Grawemeyer Award, have created Monster’s Paradise — now premiering at the Hamburg Opera — with an Ubu-like President-King who looks very familiar and gets eaten by the monster Gorgonzilla. (Yes, there are also zombies and vampires.)...

Washington Post Begins Sweeping Layoffs, Drops Sports and Books Sections

“Executive Editor Matt Murray … said the Post will shutter its sports desk, while keeping some sports writers who will write feature stories. It will likewise close its Books section and suspend the signature podcast Post Reports. The international desk will shrink dramatically,” as will the Metro desk. - NPR

Three Men From Oscar-Nominated Documentary Moved To Solitary In Alabama Prison

“Family members of the three men said they fear for their loved ones’ safety and are concerned the moves to solitary confinement are a form of retaliation for outspokenness about problems within the prison system.” - The Guardian (UK)

After Numerous Artist Cancellations, Trump Says He’s Closing The Kennedy Center For Years For Renovations

Trump wrote on Truth Social that “he would shut it down this summer, on July 4, arguing that a dramatic step was necessary to safeguard one of Washington’s most treasured cultural institutions.” - The New York Times

The Latest ‘Restoration’ Scandal Is An Angel Possibly Painted To Resemble The Italian Prime Minister

“Italy’s culture minister and the diocese of Rome have launched investigations after claims were made that an angel in a landmark church in Rome was restored in the likeness of the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.” - The Guardian (UK)

How The Kennedy Center Forced The National Opera Out With Economics

The “uniquely American” model of funding opera meant that the National Opera had to leave, thanks to “a new mandate set forth by the Kennedy Center that every performance break even through only ticket sales and corporate sponsorships.” - The New York Times

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