“If the odds are against parents who disapprove of artificial intelligence, it’s because there’s an entire ecosystem of AI services designed to insert real children into books … and some relatives can’t resist their ads for specially curated storybooks.” - Wired
As happened in defendant Hadi Matar’s New York state trial for attempted murder (for which he was convicted in February 2025), he declined to testify himself and his attorney called no witnesses. - AP
The bureaucrat sent an email to him with a dread warning. The books must go, it decreed. There was nothing healthy nor wise in the practice, for the keeping of books on bookshelves is now “the unnecessary storing of combustible materials.” - The Critic
This strategy of manufacturing a froth of interest around a given subject, from Nicki Minaj’s political perspectives to Sydney Sweeney’s jean ads, has recently been especially effective, and has moved culture-war fights from the trenches of bot-infested social networks into more mainstream channels. - The New Yorker
In this new media landscape, the rigid divides between pure cinema and genre cinema collapsed. Show business no longer creates value solely by selling a single commodity. Instead, it thrives on building interconnected “media ecologies,” creatively connecting film production with TV, toys, games, tourism, platforms, brands, live events, local practices and new technologies. - The Conversation
Artistic director Marcello Angelini and assistant artistic director Daniela Buson (who are married) announced they will retire from their positions at the end of the 2026-27 season, the company’s 70th. Among the couple’s crowning achievements is this spring’s tour to London, for which the company received glowing reviews. - Tulsa Flyer
The point is that art is linked to dialectical movement. In most societies at most points in time, art is decoration or religious offering — the lyric is also possible. But to actually have artistic evolution, you really need a movement of historical forces that art, essentially, is keeping pace with. - Castalia
“Utilizing a bullshit job to pursue other projects isn’t easy. It requires judgment and determination to take time that’s been first flattened and homogenized … then broken randomly into unpredictably large fragments.” - Arrowsmith Press
Federal investigators said high-ranking administrators at the New York State Museum in Albany directed a subordinate to falsify time sheets, allowing the state to improperly draw down $597,624 in federal grants from 2020 to 2022. - The New York Times
He founded the Camerata in 1968 and directed it for 40 years, performing and recording (on over 50 discs) a repertoire ranging from 12th-century troubadour sings through large-scale French Baroque sacred works to 19th-century American spirituals and Shaker songs. He retired in 2008, succeeded by his wife, soprano Anne Azéma. - That Eric Alper
Meeting in Busan, South Korea, for its 48th session from July 19 to 29, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee inscribed 19 cultural sites, five natural environments, and one property exhibiting both cultural and ecological significance. - Artnet
The union alleges that Universal and Warner licensed recordings made by its members to the two AI companies “without compensation or credit.” - MusicBusinessWorldwide
Every time you sit down to write, you’re doing something your brain registers as socially risky. Translating private thoughts into language means exposing yourself to judgment and for most of human history, judgment wasn’t just uncomfortable, it was dangerous. - LitHub
Lili Elbe, which gets its US premiere this weekend at Santa Fe Opera, is based on the trans woman whose story was told in the film The Danish Girl. Picker wrote the title role for baritone Lucia Lucas, the first active opera singer to come out as trans. - The New York Times
“Members of the Hollywood Foreign Press, which founded and for decades owned the Golden Globe Awards, have sued Penske Media Corporation and others, alleging they engaged in fraud to acquire the valuable awards show in an attempt to create an entertainment industry monopoly.” - AP
The AT&T Performing Arts Center — which includes the Winspear Opera House, Wyly Theatre, Annette Strauss Square, and Sammons Park — and one of its five resident companies, Dallas Theater Center, plan to combine administration and many operations, with DTC becoming ATTPAC’s producing arm. - KERA (Dallas)
“These aspirants arrived by plane, by bus, by subway, in braids and vests and milkmaid dresses, clutching headshots and binders and gigantic water bottles. ... A few dozen joined the line before dawn. By noon, more than a thousand sat and stood and swayed.” - The New York Times
The 83-year-old director — one of the few to have won the top prize at both Cannes (Secrets and Lies) and Venice (Vera Drake) — has the autoimmune disorder myositis and says he’s physically unable to make another movie after Tender Loving Care, to be released this fall. - IndieWire
"The 97-page report spells out some 70 instances of sexual misconduct by multiple former faculty and staff spanning seven decades. … None of the 47 people accused in the report is currently employed by Interlochen. And owing to the amount of time that has passed, about a third of those accused are now dead.” - Interlochen Public Radio
“After a slew of delays and controversies, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi has finally narrowed down its big debut to a single day: December 11. The winter inauguration keeps the museum (just about) on track to open in 2026, as previously promised, but arrives two decades after the mammoth museum project was first announced in 2006.” - Artnet
This strategy of manufacturing a froth of interest around a given subject, from Nicki Minaj’s political perspectives to Sydney Sweeney’s jean ads, has recently been especially effective, and has moved culture-war fights from the trenches of bot-infested social networks into more mainstream channels. - The New Yorker
The point is that art is linked to dialectical movement. In most societies at most points in time, art is decoration or religious offering — the lyric is also possible. But to actually have artistic evolution, you really need a movement of historical forces that art, essentially, is keeping pace with. - Castalia
“Utilizing a bullshit job to pursue other projects isn’t easy. It requires judgment and determination to take time that’s been first flattened and homogenized … then broken randomly into unpredictably large fragments.” - Arrowsmith Press
The de facto equation of ‘ancient history’ with ancient Mediterranean history, at least in most of the Anglosphere, has endured for many generations. But we are on the cusp of a dramatic shift in perspective that is producing a much bigger, broader and more exciting view of ‘the ancient world’. - Aeon
If we think of intelligence as the ability to extract information from data, then even an infinitely advanced model endowed with infinite compute will be limited by the fact that there’s a limited amount of information that can be extracted from the data. - Noahpinion
For anyone with an Internet connection and a little discretionary income, the contemporary moment offers a superabundance of seductive distractions. Why then the pervasive mood of emptiness? Why are so many at once overstimulated and bored? - The Guardian
Meeting in Busan, South Korea, for its 48th session from July 19 to 29, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee inscribed 19 cultural sites, five natural environments, and one property exhibiting both cultural and ecological significance. - Artnet
The AT&T Performing Arts Center — which includes the Winspear Opera House, Wyly Theatre, Annette Strauss Square, and Sammons Park — and one of its five resident companies, Dallas Theater Center, plan to combine administration and many operations, with DTC becoming ATTPAC’s producing arm. - KERA (Dallas)
"The 97-page report spells out some 70 instances of sexual misconduct by multiple former faculty and staff spanning seven decades. … None of the 47 people accused in the report is currently employed by Interlochen. And owing to the amount of time that has passed, about a third of those accused are now dead.” - Interlochen...
Four of Australia’s leading regional performing arts organisations have joined forces to establish a new national pathway for developing and presenting large-scale Australian theatre, backed by funding from Creative Australia. - Limelight
“In a dogged demonstration of love and loyalty for an institution that has elevated life for her and millions of visitors, (Sandy Weisswasser) still arrives every Monday for her tour day, knowing she may soon find the doors locked.” - The New York Times
Visitors who pass these signs on the way into the museum may find them concerning; when they pass them on the way out, they will probably find them laughably at odds with what they have just experienced. - Washington Post
The union alleges that Universal and Warner licensed recordings made by its members to the two AI companies “without compensation or credit.” - MusicBusinessWorldwide
Lili Elbe, which gets its US premiere this weekend at Santa Fe Opera, is based on the trans woman whose story was told in the film The Danish Girl. Picker wrote the title role for baritone Lucia Lucas, the first active opera singer to come out as trans. - The New York Times
The venues — Teatro Amazonas in Manaus, the port in the central Amazon basin, and Theatro da Paz (sic) in Belem, the port at the mouth of the river — date from the late 19th-century rubber boom, which made those cities wealthy enough (for a while) to bring in major artists from Europe. -...
On social media, fans don’t just follow an era – they help bring it to life. Through videos, memes, fashion, conversations and creative interpretations, they shape the meanings that come to define a project and extend an album beyond the music itself. - The Conversation
A coalition of 32 performing arts organizations has unveiled an ambitious vision to create four new and/or substantially renovated performance venues in Downtown Vancouver, with four possible location options identified. - Daily Hive
“The aulos appears throughout Greek art, depicted in military and domestic scenes alike. To modern eyes it looks like two recorders that come together at a player’s mouth, blown at the same time.” - The New York Times
Federal investigators said high-ranking administrators at the New York State Museum in Albany directed a subordinate to falsify time sheets, allowing the state to improperly draw down $597,624 in federal grants from 2020 to 2022. - The New York Times
“After a slew of delays and controversies, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi has finally narrowed down its big debut to a single day: December 11. The winter inauguration keeps the museum (just about) on track to open in 2026, as previously promised, but arrives two decades after the mammoth museum project was first announced in 2006.” - Artnet
The etching, L’Acrobate au violon (1924), and another work were confiscated from a shipment of art being taken from France to Switzerland in 2005 after French agents determined that the items weren’t authorized to leave the country. The pieces were rediscovered after two decades, and the Chagall is now on display in Besançon. - Artnet
Archaeologists in Pompeii, the ancient city buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, have unveiled the partially reconstructed frescoed ceiling vault of a banquet hall featuring detailed images of Greek mythology. - AP News
“The founding member of Guerrilla Girls known by the pseudonym Liubov Popova has revealed her true identity: she is 83-year-old US-based painter and sculptor, Joyce Kozloff, a major figure in the Pattern and Decoration movement of the 1970s.” - Ocula
“Cathleen Chaffee, who currently serves as … Chief Curator, is the museum’s incoming artistic director, while Jillian Jones, AKG’s deputy director, will become executive director. Under a new co-leadership structure, Chaffee will oversee the museum’s exhibitions and public-facing programs. Jones will guide overall strategy, operations and finances.” - Buffalo Toronto Public Media
“If the odds are against parents who disapprove of artificial intelligence, it’s because there’s an entire ecosystem of AI services designed to insert real children into books … and some relatives can’t resist their ads for specially curated storybooks.” - Wired
The bureaucrat sent an email to him with a dread warning. The books must go, it decreed. There was nothing healthy nor wise in the practice, for the keeping of books on bookshelves is now “the unnecessary storing of combustible materials.” - The Critic
Every time you sit down to write, you’re doing something your brain registers as socially risky. Translating private thoughts into language means exposing yourself to judgment and for most of human history, judgment wasn’t just uncomfortable, it was dangerous. - LitHub
“Freedom Letters … (is) one of a growing number of cultural organizations that have joined forces with bookstores, wholesalers and book-fair organizers to build a literary resistance among the Russian diaspora. Together, they publish, sell and distribute books that can’t get through Russia’s restrictive new censorship laws.” - Bloomberg
I don’t want to totally wave away the issues these pieces are gesturing towards, but I’d argue the fear that we’re sliding into a post-literate society rests on a category error that feels endemic at this point. - Becoming Literary
In this new media landscape, the rigid divides between pure cinema and genre cinema collapsed. Show business no longer creates value solely by selling a single commodity. Instead, it thrives on building interconnected “media ecologies,” creatively connecting film production with TV, toys, games, tourism, platforms, brands, live events, local practices and new technologies. -...
“Members of the Hollywood Foreign Press, which founded and for decades owned the Golden Globe Awards, have sued Penske Media Corporation and others, alleging they engaged in fraud to acquire the valuable awards show in an attempt to create an entertainment industry monopoly.” - AP
The 83-year-old director — one of the few to have won the top prize at both Cannes (Secrets and Lies) and Venice (Vera Drake) — has the autoimmune disorder myositis and says he’s physically unable to make another movie after Tender Loving Care, to be released this fall. - IndieWire
Its listenership has grown since the change. WLRH is ranked as the No. 4 most listened-to station on its most recent Nielsen report, according to Brukner. It usually ranks around No. 10. - Alabama.com
After the federal funding loss, the industry saw that it hadn’t plateaued but instead “found a whole new level of support,” Chinn said. Stations saw record giving, with some even raising enough to cover the loss of federal funding. - Current
With a $7 million-per-day ticking fee that kicks in starting Oct. 1 -- which would cost Paramount $650 million a quarter -- why would Paramount agree to such a delay? The key lies in the nine words preceding the June 1 target date: "until five days after the outcome in a trial." - The Wrap (MSN)
Artistic director Marcello Angelini and assistant artistic director Daniela Buson (who are married) announced they will retire from their positions at the end of the 2026-27 season, the company’s 70th. Among the couple’s crowning achievements is this spring’s tour to London, for which the company received glowing reviews. - Tulsa Flyer
“To be a shoe colorist for New York City Ballet, as Tim Foster has been for 15 years, is to occupy a small yet important niche. Most pointe shoes and ballet slippers are manufactured in a pale pink. But the company’s repertoire requires a rainbow of hues.” - The New York Times
In Argentina, they call her the Messi of ballet – although when it comes to who has the finest footwork, they should really be calling him the Núñez of football. - The Guardian
“As with many ballet companies, PNB’s school provides significant funding for the organization. Tucker said the school’s income is approximately 18% of the organization’s annual revenue. The school also serves as a feeder both for audience members and eventual company members.” - Seattle Times
Yoko Morishita, who will turn 78 in December, is the prima ballerina in Japan’s storied Matsuyama Ballet Company. One of Japan’s most-celebrated dancers, she performed with Rudolf Nureyev 200 times and toured with Margot Fonteyn. - The Wall Street Journal
Ultimately dating back to 1991 and in its current form — four choreographers working with 16 professional dancers, creating pieces for three weeks and then performing for an audience which gives direct feedback, taking place each July at UCal-Irvine — since 2004. This year’s final edition features work by four alumni. - Pointe Magazine
“These aspirants arrived by plane, by bus, by subway, in braids and vests and milkmaid dresses, clutching headshots and binders and gigantic water bottles. ... A few dozen joined the line before dawn. By noon, more than a thousand sat and stood and swayed.” - The New York Times
“Ticketholders for five preview performances of the play, Game of Thrones: The Mad King, were more than a little dismayed last week when the shows, scheduled for July 20-24, were canceled. ... A show on Saturday, July 25, was also called off just hours before the curtain was set to rise.” - The New...
“A Chorus Line celebrates artists’ commitment while demonstrating — both at the story level and in the way the script itself was assembled — how easy it is to bully or exploit them.” - The New York Times
“His time in Stratford was professionally formative, but rocky. Branagh tangled with the management over workloads and pay, and eventually felt that he had to move on to flourish.” That worked out pretty well for him, too. - The New York Times
Wilson “discovered Bearden in 1977, when The Prevalence of Ritual, a 1964 series of Bearden’s collages collected in a volume, captured his attention.” - The New York Times
As happened in defendant Hadi Matar’s New York state trial for attempted murder (for which he was convicted in February 2025), he declined to testify himself and his attorney called no witnesses. - AP
He founded the Camerata in 1968 and directed it for 40 years, performing and recording (on over 50 discs) a repertoire ranging from 12th-century troubadour sings through large-scale French Baroque sacred works to 19th-century American spirituals and Shaker songs. He retired in 2008, succeeded by his wife, soprano Anne Azéma. - That Eric Alper
Unlike other culture czars for the administration who have quickly come and gone, Mr. Taylor has an artistic background that makes him a distinct and persistent champion of the president’s vision. - The New York Times
“(She) transformed collections of bigoted bric-a-brac — Sambo dolls, ceramic mammies and crude renderings of pickaninnies — into potent works of assemblage that mined the searing history of race in the United States,” most famously in her 1972 piece The Liberation of Aunt Jemima. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
“Digital avian databases like eBird were far in the future when Mr. Tudor first set about documenting swaths of the avian world in watercolors and gouaches renowned for their delicacy and precision, and for the artist’s singular knack for capturing the quiddities of winged creatures.” - The New York Times
“It was very clear from the word go that his heart was in classics, and it became clear fairly quickly to me that he really loved Greek tragedy, and that is a nice bridge to his acting career.” - The New York Times
Studio Theatre seeks its next Artistic Director to co-lead one of the premiere producing organizations in Washington, DC as it approaches its 50th Anniversary.
Syracuse Stage, Central New York’s premier professional theatre, seeks its next Artistic Director, to join Managing Director Carly DiFulvio Allen to lead...
The Town Hall (Town Hall), the storied performance hall in the heart of New York City’s theater district, invites applications for its Executive Director position.
The Flint School of Performing Arts (FSPA) is seeking its next Director to lead this celebrated and impactful division of the Flint Institute of Music.
"The 97-page report spells out some 70 instances of sexual misconduct by multiple former faculty and staff spanning seven decades. … None of the 47 people accused in the report is currently employed by Interlochen. And owing to the amount of time that has passed, about a third of those accused are now dead.” - Interlochen...
“(She) transformed collections of bigoted bric-a-brac — Sambo dolls, ceramic mammies and crude renderings of pickaninnies — into potent works of assemblage that mined the searing history of race in the United States,” most famously in her 1972 piece The Liberation of Aunt Jemima. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
The FOMO is real. “Complicating things further for The Odyssey is that it’s available in so many premium formats—six, altogether—that the film’s official website includes a guide to their various strengths and aspect ratios.” - Wired
“In the complaint, Warner says that ‘Amazon has chosen to ride on the coattails of other well-established Hollywood mainstays,’ and that it engaged in a ‘lawless employee shopping spree.’” - The Verge
His long career included stints as a trombonist (Philadelphia Orchestra and Pittsburgh Symphony) and conductor (Kansas City Symphony, among others), but he was best-known to public radio listeners as the host of St. Paul Sunday (1980-2007) and Exploring Music (2003 until earlier this year). - WWFM
“Are we witnessing the art world’s Napoleonic march to Moscow, an over-expansion propelled by hubris that is now inevitably falling to its knees?” - Artnet
“In advance of The Odyssey’s release, Imax contracted 130 experienced projectionists and required each to attend an intensive, weeklong training program.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
“In the opinion of Martha Nussbaum, now 79, …opera can help to fix Western societies that have become nasty, brutish and narcissistic. In particular, we need more men like Cherubino, the cross-dressing boy of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro … than we do Putins, Hegseths, Trumps and Tates.” - The Telegraph (UK) (MSN)
Satire makes fun of something to expose its truth in a way that can be notoriously difficult to decode. What is often misread in Twain’s most famous novel is this: he satirically uses racism to ridicule racism. - Adi Magazine
The actor was a warm internet presence and a proud producer of wine from his vineyard. “At 11, he changed his name to Sam, taking inspiration from characters in Western movies. It was, he added, ‘probably the best decision I made in my life.’” - The New York Times
Personal testimony is paramount on BookTok; a book is deemed successful if it ‘breaks’ or ‘destroys’ a “reader. The most common book-review content on the app understands books as pleasure-spiking torment factories.” - The New Yorker
