Today's Stories

People Pray For Hot Concert Tickets At This 1,000-Year-Old Tokyo Shrine

For many pop concerts in Japan, “fans enter (a lottery) for the chance to buy tickets and can only purchase them in limited quantities if they are selected. … If praying at Fukutoku is believed to work for winning scratch-off lottery tickets, fans hope it might bring luck with concert tickets, too.” - BBC

The Many Controversies Dogging This Year’s Venice Biennale

The 2026 Venice Biennale has experienced waves of uncertainty that have only grown in strength as the public opening of the world’s most prestigious international art exhibition nears on Saturday morning. - The New York Times

Media Mogul Ted Turner, 87

The media business is full of big-talking executives. But Turner’s outsized public persona — some called him the “Mouth from the South” for his free-wheeling trash talk — actually matched his influence on news, politics, sports and entertainment in the late 20th century. Over and over again, Turner shook up established industries. - Los Angeles Times...

“The Devil Wears Prada” And The Rise And Fall Of Chick Lit

“Before it was a movie, Lauren Weisberger’s The Devil Wears Prada, published by Broadway Books in 2003, marked the absolute high point of that once-ubiquitous genre. … Soon after the success of the novel, chick lit started to fall apart,” with dedicated imprints long since discontinued. - Publishers Weekly

Can The UK Theatre Touring Model Be Saved?

“It doesn’t feel as though we have recovered any meaningful ground since the pandemic, and the fact that venues and their teams remain under such pressure is evident in terms of morale, energy, staff turnover and sector knowledge.” - The Stage

What Research Tells Us About How Memory Works

The idea of photographic memory is simple and powerful: Experience is captured objectively, stored completely and retrieved perfectly. See it once, keep it forever. There’s just one problem. There’s no scientific evidence it exists. - The Conversation

“Death Of A Salesman” Director Joe Mantello On Working With Disgraced Broadway Producer Scott Rudin

“I would be lying if I said … I didn’t grapple with making that decision. … I will say I do believe in accountability, and I think Scott has spoken about taking responsibility. ... I believe in second chances. I know other people don’t share that belief, and that’s their right.” - Variety

How A Change In SEC Reporting Might Change How Hollywood Studios Behave

The SEC is proposing to change its rules, allowing for public companies to report financials semi-annually rather than quarterly. Will major studios buy in? - The Hollywood Reporter

In An AI Economy, Human-Made Becomes Luxury Good

We don’t value human creations solely for their beauty or their price tag. We also value them because they embody deliberate labour and expertise. - The Conversation

Indianapolis Symphony CEO to Step Down

James Johnson began his tenure with the symphony in 2018 after serving as president and CEO of the Omaha Symphony Association. Since then, Johnson has overseen several changes in the Indianapolis orchestra. - Indianapolis Star

For Her Second Choreography Commission From NY City Ballet, Tiler Peck Is Going Big

It’s George Balanchine’s company, after all, and he had a special gift for coordinating and synchronizing large casts. Peck particularly admires that achievement and was frustrated by how few choreographers today do the same. So, in her new Symphonie Espagnole, she’s deploying 40 dancers. - The New York Times

Big Book Publishers Band Together To Sue Meta Over AI Plundering

Five leading publishers and a best-selling author filed a class-action lawsuit against Meta and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, on Tuesday, alleging that the tech giant violated copyright law by training its generative artificial intelligence platform on millions of illegally pirated books and articles. - Washington Post

The Met Gala Was A Failed Opportunity To Make The Case For Art

“Fashion is art” was meant to encourage attendees to think about how every human body is a canvas, and about how making an item of clothing—the precision that goes into selecting textiles, creating shapes, and combining colors—requires the same kind of artistry deployed by the painters and sculptors featured throughout the museum. - The Atlantic

What This Year’s Tony Nominations Say About International Theatre

While it’s too early to tell which of the nominated shows will go on to have an international life, we can find some hints of the possibilities with a look at the title pages of their Playbills. - Jaques

At Last, Berlin’s Pergamon Museum Has A (Partial) Reopening Date

“Traditionally one of the German capital’s top tourist attractions, (the Pergamon) will reopen next year after the first part of a painstaking restoration effort. ... The Pergamon Museum has been closed altogether since October 2023. The part of the building containing the Pergamon Altar has been closed for far longer, since 2014.” - AP

María Nieves Rego, Co-Creator Of Worldwide Hit “Tango Argentino,” Has Died At 91

“With her dance partner and onetime husband, Juan Carlos Copes” — described as the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers of tango — “(she) formed a duo that, despite their often-painful personal relationship, helped spark a tango revival in Argentina that spread worldwide.” - The New York Times

L.A.’s Holocaust Museum To Reopen As Part Of New Cultural Center

“The Holocaust Museum LA, the first survivor-founded and oldest Holocaust museum in the United States, will reopen after a 10-month closure as part of the new Goldrich Cultural Center — a $70-million campus expansion set to debut June 14 in Pan Pacific Park (near downtown).” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)

Having Canceled Most Of Its Concerts, San Antonio Philharmonic Schedules A Couple Of New Ones

In mid-February, the precarious orchestra called off the remainder of this season and lost its music director. In what may be a surprising development, the SA Phil has just announced two performances of a program of Moncayo, Ravel and Tchaikovsky, scheduled for the last weekend of this month. - Texas Public Radio

A Visit To Russia’s Exhibition At The Venice Biennale

“There weren’t any paintings or sculptures in Russia’s pale green building, which dates to before the Revolution. Instead, … the Toloka Ensemble, a folk group, sat below a bulbous flower arrangement and sang traditional songs to a cluster of reporters eager to witness the country’s controversial comeback at the Biennale.” - The New York Times

Publishers And Authors Sue Meta And Mark Zuckerberg (Personally) For AI-Related Copyright Infringement

Five large publishing houses, along with Scott Turow representing authors as a class, allege in their filing that Zuckerberg himself “personally authorized and actively encouraged the infringement” of copyrights by Meta, which used countless books and articles to train Llama, its AI language system. - AP

By Topic

What Research Tells Us About How Memory Works

The idea of photographic memory is simple and powerful: Experience is captured objectively, stored completely and retrieved perfectly. See it once, keep it forever. There’s just one problem. There’s no scientific evidence it exists. - The Conversation

In An AI Economy, Human-Made Becomes Luxury Good

We don’t value human creations solely for their beauty or their price tag. We also value them because they embody deliberate labour and expertise. - The Conversation

The Tiniest Particles In The Universe Don’t Tell You What The Universe Is

We are taught from a young age that matter is made of atoms, built from particles such as electrons, and electrons are not built from anything else. For this reason, these particles are sometimes said to be fundamental. But are they? Is the Universe really made from the smallest constituents? - Aeon

So Maybe That AI Bubble Wasn’t Real After All

The worry that the country is building too many data centers now coexists with the fear that we won’t have enough of them to satisfy the public’s growing appetite for these products. And the company previously known as OpenAI’s junior competitor has become possibly the fastest-growing business in the history of capitalism.  - The Atlantic

When AI Surrounds Us, What’s The Point Of Human Minds?

“As great as humans are, we can still be impressed by how birds navigate, how ants cooperate, and how spiders hunt. Each of these animals has been shaped by its environment to be smart in a different way.” - The Guardian (UK)

Stop Saying Satire Is Dead

“Can satire really change anything? Isn’t it a limp, almost quaint kind of protest?” - LitHub

L.A.’s Holocaust Museum To Reopen As Part Of New Cultural Center

“The Holocaust Museum LA, the first survivor-founded and oldest Holocaust museum in the United States, will reopen after a 10-month closure as part of the new Goldrich Cultural Center — a $70-million campus expansion set to debut June 14 in Pan Pacific Park (near downtown).” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)

Study: Relocating New Orleans Needs To Start Now Because Of Climate Change

The process of relocating people from New Orleans should start immediately, as the city has reached a “point of no return” that will see it surrounded by the ocean within decades due to the climate crisis, a stark new study has concluded. - The Guardian

Just How Long Should An Arts Leader Stay?

As one artist told ArtsHub: ‘Artistic director and executive director jobs are so few and far between in Australia that it is no wonder that when someone is appointed to one, they hold on to them for more than 10 years. - ArtsHub

Backstage Workers’ Union Files Charges Against Kennedy Center Over Layoffs

“The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) has filed charges (with the National Labor relations Board) against the Kennedy Center, accusing management of permanently cutting union jobs as it prepares to close for a two-year renovation at the behest of President Trump.” - TheWrap (Yahoo!)

The New Workplace Surveillance Wants To Keep Your Emotions In Check

“It is not that hard for me to imagine a near future in which workers in all industries are pushed to work not only harder and more, but more happily and more agreeably. This is the new era of employee surveillance: invisible, AI-supercharged, always on.” - The Atlantic

All The President’s Men Is Now Fifty

Why does that matter? Robert Redford, for one, “insisted that fearless owners were every bit as important in preserving democracy as the reporters he and Hoffman helped glamorize.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

People Pray For Hot Concert Tickets At This 1,000-Year-Old Tokyo Shrine

For many pop concerts in Japan, “fans enter (a lottery) for the chance to buy tickets and can only purchase them in limited quantities if they are selected. … If praying at Fukutoku is believed to work for winning scratch-off lottery tickets, fans hope it might bring luck with concert tickets, too.” - BBC

Indianapolis Symphony CEO to Step Down

James Johnson began his tenure with the symphony in 2018 after serving as president and CEO of the Omaha Symphony Association. Since then, Johnson has overseen several changes in the Indianapolis orchestra. - Indianapolis Star

Having Canceled Most Of Its Concerts, San Antonio Philharmonic Schedules A Couple Of New Ones

In mid-February, the precarious orchestra called off the remainder of this season and lost its music director. In what may be a surprising development, the SA Phil has just announced two performances of a program of Moncayo, Ravel and Tchaikovsky, scheduled for the last weekend of this month. - Texas Public Radio

Conductor Fired From Venice’s Opera House Speaks Out

Beatrice Venezi’s appointment as music director of Teatro La Fenice was greeted with an avalanche of criticism that she was unqualified, hired only because she’s a protégée of Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni. Now Venezi says, “The (political) Right needed my clean face; they used me and then threw me away.” - Moto Perpetuo

Personal Encounter: Music That Reflects Back Grief

"Having my own churning emotions echoed back to me in this way was a stunning experience, one that, perhaps paradoxically, lifted me out of my own pain for a time. Catharsis was the last thing I expected going in, but it’s precisely what I experienced." - San Francisco Classical Voice

Gabriela Lena Frank’s “Picaflor” Wins 2026 Pulitzer Prize For Music

“The work, … premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra with conductor Marin Alsop in March 2025. … is based on an original story inspired by Andean Peruvian mythology and reimagined in a futuristic setting. … Its 10 movements follow a hummingbird as it attempts to escape cataclysm.” - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

The Many Controversies Dogging This Year’s Venice Biennale

The 2026 Venice Biennale has experienced waves of uncertainty that have only grown in strength as the public opening of the world’s most prestigious international art exhibition nears on Saturday morning. - The New York Times

The Met Gala Was A Failed Opportunity To Make The Case For Art

“Fashion is art” was meant to encourage attendees to think about how every human body is a canvas, and about how making an item of clothing—the precision that goes into selecting textiles, creating shapes, and combining colors—requires the same kind of artistry deployed by the painters and sculptors featured throughout the museum. - The Atlantic

At Last, Berlin’s Pergamon Museum Has A (Partial) Reopening Date

“Traditionally one of the German capital’s top tourist attractions, (the Pergamon) will reopen next year after the first part of a painstaking restoration effort. ... The Pergamon Museum has been closed altogether since October 2023. The part of the building containing the Pergamon Altar has been closed for far longer, since 2014.” - AP

A Visit To Russia’s Exhibition At The Venice Biennale

“There weren’t any paintings or sculptures in Russia’s pale green building, which dates to before the Revolution. Instead, … the Toloka Ensemble, a folk group, sat below a bulbous flower arrangement and sang traditional songs to a cluster of reporters eager to witness the country’s controversial comeback at the Biennale.” - The New York...

Trends In Biennale Artists And Their Work

The most-visible type is an artist who digs into the history of colonialism, surfaces some charged document or symbol, and highlights it by doing something poetic with it. The tone is more reflective than truly didactic. Often, the art is channeling the look of an exhibit in a science or history museum. - Artnet

Days Before Opening, Iran Withdraws From Venice Biennale

“On Monday, in a statement, Biennale organizers announced that Iran had dropped out and would no longer be exhibiting its planned pavilion. The announcement comes … amid a fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran. Organizers offered no information as to why Iran had decided to bow out.” - Artforum

“The Devil Wears Prada” And The Rise And Fall Of Chick Lit

“Before it was a movie, Lauren Weisberger’s The Devil Wears Prada, published by Broadway Books in 2003, marked the absolute high point of that once-ubiquitous genre. … Soon after the success of the novel, chick lit started to fall apart,” with dedicated imprints long since discontinued. - Publishers Weekly

Big Book Publishers Band Together To Sue Meta Over AI Plundering

Five leading publishers and a best-selling author filed a class-action lawsuit against Meta and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, on Tuesday, alleging that the tech giant violated copyright law by training its generative artificial intelligence platform on millions of illegally pirated books and articles. - Washington Post

Publishers And Authors Sue Meta And Mark Zuckerberg (Personally) For AI-Related Copyright Infringement

Five large publishing houses, along with Scott Turow representing authors as a class, allege in their filing that Zuckerberg himself “personally authorized and actively encouraged the infringement” of copyrights by Meta, which used countless books and articles to train Llama, its AI language system. - AP

2026 Pulitzer Prizes For Books Go To Jill Lepore, Yiyun Lin, Amanda Vaill, Daniel Kraus, Brian Goldstone, Juliana Spahr

Kraus’s Angel Down took fiction honors; Goldstone’s There Is No Place for Us won for general nonfiction; Lepore’s We the People took history honors; Vaill’s study of the Schuyler sisters, Pride and Pleasure, won for biography; Li’s Things In Nature Merely Grow won for memoir; Spahr’s Ars Poetica was honored for poetry. - Literary...

Mass Author Walkout Imperils Prestigious Australian Publisher

At least 17 authors have ended their contracts with UQP or vowed not to work with the publisher again, after a series of events stemming from responses to the Israel-Gaza war culminated in last week’s cancellation of a children’s book by the Indigenous poet Jazz Money. - The Guardian

How Booker-Nominated Author Katie Kitamura Reads

“Even a book that I know I wouldn’t enjoy now would still be interesting to read, to figure out how both it and I had changed. And there is always the possibility that I would enjoy it after all. Books are always surprising you.” - The Guardian (UK)

How A Change In SEC Reporting Might Change How Hollywood Studios Behave

The SEC is proposing to change its rules, allowing for public companies to report financials semi-annually rather than quarterly. Will major studios buy in? - The Hollywood Reporter

James Murdoch Is Looking To Buy New York Magazine And Its Podcasts

“Media investor James Murdoch is in advanced talks to buy Vox Media’s New York magazine and podcast division, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal, which is through Murdoch’s Lupa Systems investment company, isn’t yet final, and could still fall apart, they said.” - The Wall Street Journal (MSN)

Media’s “Find Us” Problem

Broadcast once provided a predictable, repeated structure built into daily life. As the “tune-in” habit has eroded, we haven’t been deliberate enough in designing something to take its place. - Greater Public

What We Lose When “The Late Show” Goes Away

 The cancellation of Colbert’s show right before a deal that needed government approval has given his exit an additional resonance. - The New York Times

Boston, Cape Cod, Central Mass. Public Radio Outlets To Merge

“WGBH Educational Foundation and New England Public Media plan to formally merge operations by the summer of 2026. ... The merger will combine Boston-based GBH, Springfield-based NEPM and Cape Cod’s CAI into what executives describe as one of Massachusetts’s largest statewide public media networks, reaching more than 1.3 million people weekly.” - Inside Radio

AI Actors, Scripts Won’t Be Eligible For Oscars

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said that only performances “credited in the film’s legal billing and demonstrably performed by humans with their consent” will be eligible for Academy Awards. Similarly, the academy said that screenplays must be “human-authored” to be eligible. - TechCrunch

For Her Second Choreography Commission From NY City Ballet, Tiler Peck Is Going Big

It’s George Balanchine’s company, after all, and he had a special gift for coordinating and synchronizing large casts. Peck particularly admires that achievement and was frustrated by how few choreographers today do the same. So, in her new Symphonie Espagnole, she’s deploying 40 dancers. - The New York Times

A Visit To Africa’s Largest Contemporary Dance Festival

“Founded in 1997, the African Dance Biennial has spent three decades rotating across African cities — most recently Maputo, Mozambique, in 2023 — with the aim of raising the visibility of choreographic work on the continent. The three-day event, which closed Sunday, was held at the École des Sables … in Toubab Dialao, Senegal.”...

What Happened To The Viral Kid Dance Stars?

Watching these dancers online was like looking into a crystal ball: There was the future of dance. But did that promise bear out? - The New York Times

They Became The First Viral Dance Prodigies As Kids

But the career path post-Dance Moms or TikTok fame isn’t exactly clear. - The New York Times

Six Elite Ballet Dancers On What They Did After Retiring From The Stage

One became a kindergarten teacher and social worker; another became a midwife. One lucky fellow got to be artistic director of a company; another studied music and started conducting ballet orchestras. One got appointed to Britain’s House of Lords. And one, of course, became a consultant. - The Guardian

70-Year-Old Evelyn Hart Returns To Dance With The Royal Winnipeg — 50 Years After She Joined It

“I keep waking up every day, pinching myself, thinking I’m so lucky. It feels, literally, as if I’ve just been transported back in time,” says Hart, 70, who joined the company 50 years ago, in 1976. - Winnipeg Free Press

Can The UK Theatre Touring Model Be Saved?

“It doesn’t feel as though we have recovered any meaningful ground since the pandemic, and the fact that venues and their teams remain under such pressure is evident in terms of morale, energy, staff turnover and sector knowledge.” - The Stage

“Death Of A Salesman” Director Joe Mantello On Working With Disgraced Broadway Producer Scott Rudin

“I would be lying if I said … I didn’t grapple with making that decision. … I will say I do believe in accountability, and I think Scott has spoken about taking responsibility. ... I believe in second chances. I know other people don’t share that belief, and that’s their right.” - Variety

What This Year’s Tony Nominations Say About International Theatre

While it’s too early to tell which of the nominated shows will go on to have an international life, we can find some hints of the possibilities with a look at the title pages of their Playbills. - Jaques

2026 Pulitzer Prize For Drama Goes To Bess Wohl’s “Liberation”

“Liberation centers on a group of women who gather to talk, during the second wave feminist movement of the 1970s, about changing their own lives and the world. Fifty years later, one of their daughters looks to the past for answers when she finds history repeating itself.” - Playbill

3-Alarm Fire At Broadway’s Eugene O’Neill Theatre This Morning

It is unknown if the fire has had or will have any affect on the production or future performances. No one was inside the theatre when the fire happened, and the show is not scheduled to perform until the evening of May 5. - Playbill

Slightly Too Early Tony Awards Predictions

“Lincoln Center Theatre’s revival of Ragtime will likely lead the nomination field, with the possibility of six performers getting nods, mirroring its season-leading eight Drama Desk bids.” But there’s a lot of competition out there in a strong year. - Variety

Media Mogul Ted Turner, 87

The media business is full of big-talking executives. But Turner’s outsized public persona — some called him the “Mouth from the South” for his free-wheeling trash talk — actually matched his influence on news, politics, sports and entertainment in the late 20th century. Over and over again, Turner shook up established industries. - Los...

María Nieves Rego, Co-Creator Of Worldwide Hit “Tango Argentino,” Has Died At 91

“With her dance partner and onetime husband, Juan Carlos Copes” — described as the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers of tango — “(she) formed a duo that, despite their often-painful personal relationship, helped spark a tango revival in Argentina that spread worldwide.” - The New York Times

Leon Botstein To Retire As Bard College’s President Following Epstein Revelations

The 79-year-old music historian and conductor will step down in June after 51 years leading the small liberal arts college in New York’s Hudson Valley. Botstein is not accused of any involvement in Epstein’s sex abuse of young women, but he maintained much closer ties to Epstein than he had previously admitted. - AP

Nicole Hollander, The Acerbic Cartoonist Who Created Sylvia, Has Died At 86

“Hollander made Sylvia, who got her own strip in 1980, a tart-tongued, witty, loquacious single mother who held court — sometimes from her bathtub — on sex and relationships as well as politics, health care reform, the environment and other hot-button issues.” - The New York Times

Irish Actor Gary Lydon, Of Banshees Of Inisherin, Has Died Suddenly At 61

"Gary had honed his craft as one of the finest actors in Ireland on the Wexford Arts Centre stage in many of Billy Roche's plays. He forged a stellar career performing across Ireland and the UK.” - BBC (AOL)

The Pianist Who Cut Short His Career Because Of Stage Fright, And Then Became A Movie Star For Ethan Hawke, Has Died At 99

“Although he managed to perform well despite his stage fright, Bernstein eventually decided to quit. He gave his final public concert in 1977, at the age of 50.” - The New York Times

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Executive Producer-Tacoma Musical Playhouse working with Management Consultants for the Arts

Tacoma Musical Playhouse seeks Executive Producer to lead the organization on an exciting journey to celebrate musical theater & build community in Tacoma, WA region.

Lisa Anita Wegner Longlisted for Johnny Depp’s The People’s Artist

Haus of Dada asks that you take a moment to vote for the astonishing Lisa Anita Wegner to be recognized as The People’s Artist.

The State Museum of Pennsylvania – Director

The State Museum of Pennsylvania seeks a strategic, collaborative Director to lead a major transformation, inspire public engagement, and steward a premier state collection.

2 Arts Marketing, Development & Ticketing Conferences Devoted to Solutions for...

Get Concrete Solutions for Chaotic Times. Join us in Toronto, July 14-15 or Seattle, August 11-12. Sign up by May 21 to get 3-for-1 registration!

Director of Production-Seattle Children’s Theatre working with Management Consultants for the...

Seattle Children’s Theatre, one of the nation’s premiere organizations for theatre-for-young audiences, invites applications from dedicated and collaborative leaders for its Director of Production position.

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Texas Ballet Theater (TBT) serving Dallas, Fort Worth, & all of North Texas, seeks a dynamic strategist to serve as its next Executive Director.

Director of Production – Union Arts Center

Union Arts Center, home of ACT Contemporary Theatre & Seattle Shakespeare Company, is excited to announce an opening for a Director of Production (DOP).

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Indianapolis Ballet (IB) seeks its next Artistic Director, who will carry the organization’s mission forward, embracing the history and future of classical ballet through dynamic

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Seeking a Vice President of Human Resources to lead TPAC’s strategic growth, culture, and talent while guiding staff through complex, transformative organizational evolution.

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The Fresno Philharmonic is seeking a fundraising professional to join us in making great music thrive in California’s Central Valley.

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The Chief Philanthropy Officer will be an inspiring manager who shares a vision for what opera can and should be.

Publishers And Authors Sue Meta And Mark Zuckerberg (Personally) For AI-Related Copyright Infringement

Five large publishing houses, along with Scott Turow representing authors as a class, allege in their filing that Zuckerberg himself “personally authorized and actively encouraged the infringement” of copyrights by Meta, which used countless books and articles to train Llama, its AI language system. - AP

If You Want Privacy, Never Watch TV

Why? “Your TV and smartphone are far more interoperable and indistinguishable than ever before, and an inescapable user-tracking singularity is developing, accordingly, in your own living room.” - Slate

Wait, Portland Has Another New Analysis Saying Two Concert Halls Would Be Just Fine

Competing studies find that Portland can support one performing arts center or maybe two performing arts centers, or not. And of course, "Portland has appointed a number of advisory committees to study the choices more closely before holding public hearings to make a final decision.” - Oregon ArtsWatch

The Epic Journey Of Ukraine’s Origami Concrete Deer To The Venice Biennale

The journey began in 2018. “Over time became a landmark, a well-known feature of the city. It was a peaceable, delicate creature to replace a symbol of military domination and violence. Fast forward to the summer of 2024.” - The Guardian (UK)

Check Out The Plans For Putting An Actual Park In The Middle Of Park Avenue

“A century ago, the median down ... Park Avenue was much more welcoming than it is today, a place with seating and substantial plantings where you’d consider spending time. … In 2024, (New York City) announced a call for proposals wherein those two lanes would be reclaimed from traffic for leisure and greenery.” -...

Venice’s Opera House Fires Controversial New Music Director Over Interviews

After months of protests from musicians and others over the slender qualifications of conductor Beatrice Venezi, the board of La Fenice confirmed her appointment and it looked like she was all set. Then she trash-talked the opera house and its audience to an Argentine newspaper. - The Guardian

The Art Of Writing An Opera Libretto

"As a librettist, I’m always aware that I’m serving the music. It’s a humbling experience. Coming from the world of theater is a good thing, because theater is all about collaboration and interpretation—you place the work in the hands of others, and it begins to transform.” - Paris Review

How LEGO Became The World’s Most Powerful Art Medium

“Lego’s appeal, represented by its zillions of plastic blocks and many movies and TV series, transcends nations. It is one of the planet’s top-selling toy brands, and the toy’s singular pixelated appearance is instantly recognizable on any screen.” - Salon

The Next Director Of The Tate Has To Confront An Unwieldy ‘Beast’ Of An Institution

“Visitor numbers have indeed recovered after falling from their peak in 2019, but finances were hit hard during the pandemic. Those financial headwinds have led to multiple rounds of redundancies, restructures and several ‘culture war’ battles.” - The Guardian (UK)

But Opera Will Die If We Can’t Wrest It Back From Big Tech

“There is something in the embodied expression of a trained singer, on stage, in a room with other human beings, that no synthetic content can touch. But in an age when AI generates infinite aesthetic stuff at effectively zero cost, ‘irreplaceable’ needs to be made explicit.” - Opera America

The Death Of Opera Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

"Opera has had to adapt to survive, and the truth is it has done so successfully.” - New York Sun

Michael Tilson Thomas Is Dead At 81

“He was widely considered one of the most distinguished American conductors of his generation” — most notably for his 25 years as music director of the San Francisco Symphony. “In addition to making more than 100 recordings of both rare and familiar classical repertory, he created valuable instructional series for television and radio.” - The Washington Post (Yahoo)

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