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- José Limón Turned O’Neill’s “Emperor Jones” Into Dance
Limón adapted the 1920 play for his company in 1956, and the company’s current artistic director decided it was time for a revival: “The original story is about … a felon who becomes a tyrannical leader. I didn’t feel the imagination had to go far to draw a contemporary parallel.” – The New York Times
- Cultural Boycotts Are Ripping UK Arts Organizations Apart
This fraught debate has pitted artists who are broadly in agreement against each other. “There’s so much energy being spent ripping ourselves to shreds that arguably could be repurposed and deployed to Nigel Farage or Keir Starmer.” – The Guardian
- Taylor Swift Sets Another All-Time Record
Swift broke the record set by Adele’s 25, which sold 3.378 million copies in its first week in 2015. The Life of a Showgirl was released Oct. 3. In its first week, pure album sales totaled 3,479,500 copies. She’s also become the solo artist with the most No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200. – CBC
- Across B.C., Arts Organizations Large And Small Are Struggling
“As rising costs hit British Columbians in all areas of life, advocates say arts organizations across the province are struggling to keep up.” – CBC
- To Be An Artist In Canada Is To Be Prisoner Of Subsidy
Even if an artist can afford to turn up their nose at it, the entire structure that allows them to show, see, and otherwise participate in the arts is so enmeshed with government money that rejecting it individually is as meaningless as refusing to eat Madagascar vanilla to help with your carbon footprint. – The Walrus
- James Wood On László Krasznahorkai
For many ordinary readers, the idea of entering a fictional world constantly teetering on the edge of a revelation that is always imminent but concealed, in which words pace ceaselessly around reference, and whose favored tool is the long, unstopped sentence, one that takes, say, four hundred pages to… – The New Yorker
- At 93, Is Gerhard Richter Our Greatest Living Artist?
That much will certainly be made clear in a massive Richter retrospective opening this month at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris. Comprising some 250 objects, it is the largest survey of his work to date, exceeding MoMA’s landmark Richter show in 2002. – ARTnews
- How Small Arts Organizations Do Fundraisers Without Fancy Gala Soirées
In Houston, smaller groups who can’t afford the big upfront costs of galas get quite inventive with their benefit events. – Houstonia Magazine
- Gertrude Stein’s Language Experiments Were Considered Difficult. But Let’s Reconsider
“Devotees of her cult professed to find her restoring a pristine freshness and rhythm to language. Medical authorities compared her effusions to the rantings of the insane.” – BookForum
- American Education Is In A Desperate State. It Is Failing Its Students
We are now seeing what the lost decade in American education has wrought. By some measures, American students have regressed to a level not seen in 25 years or more. – The Atlantic
- AI Has Been Trained With What’s Online. Not All Knowledge Is Online
These systems may appear neutral, but they are far from it. The most popular models privilege dominant epistemologies (typically Western and institutional) while marginalising alternative ways of knowing, especially those encoded in oral traditions, embodied practice and the languages considered ‘low-resource’ in the computing world. – Aeon
- Toby Talbot, Who Helped Create America’s Art-House Cinema Circuit, Is Dead At 96
“(She and her husband, Dan,) through their distribution company, New Yorker Films, and such prominent Manhattan theaters as … Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, were a prolific force behind the transformation of movies in the 1960s and ‘70s from popular entertainment to an art form regarded with the seriousness of literature or painting.” – AP
- Broadway Musicians Authorize Strike
The musicians’ most recent contract expired August 31, 2025. Since then, the union has been trying to achieve a new contract that includes increased wages, increased healthcare contributions, and employment and income security. – Playbill
- Yelling His Fool Head Off<a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2025/10/yelling-his-fool-head-off.html" title="Yelling His Fool Head Off” rel=”nofollow”><img width="150" height="150"
- Was L’Affaire Jimmy Kimmel A Lesson For The Importance Of Late Night TV?
Amid all the headlines about falling ratings, production cutbacks and monetary losses, it’s easy to forget that late-night TV programs have historically occupied a singular space in pop culture that viewers couldn’t easily find anywhere else. – NPR
- The Museum Specially Built For The Benin Bronzes Has Nothing But Clay Replicas. Why Aren’t The Restituted Sculptures There?
“About 150 original bronzes have been returned to Nigeria over the last five years. … Their public display inside the $25m state-of-the-art museum in the city of Benin … was to be the crowning moment of an almost century-long effort to reclaim Africa’s stolen art.” An uplifting story — the reality is messier. – The Guardian
- Marc Maron Talks About The End Of His Podcast, One Of The Most Influential In The Medium’s History
“There’s a part of me that feels a responsibility to these listeners. I get all kinds of emails, stuff that I would never have expected, from people who I helped to get sober, who I helped pull off the ledge of depression. … They live in my head.” – The New York Times
- I Survived The Bombing Of Ukraine’s Largest Book Festival
Fiona Benson, an editor of Exeter University’s Ukrainian Wartime Poetry Project, was invited to BookForum in Lviv by Arthur Dron’, a poet and war hero. On the second day, a siren sounded, everyone went down into a bomb shelter, and Russian missiles struck. – The Guardian
- Easter Islanders Always Said Their Moai Statues Walked To Their Places. New Research Says It’s Probably True.
That’s not to say, mind you, that the moai walked by themselves. A new paper published by two archaeologists lays out, through observation and experiment, how the Rapa Nui people likely rigged up the moai and walked them from the quarry to their platforms. – Artnet
- Public Radio Cuts Could Have A Disastrous Effect On Classical Music In America
Roughly 96% of the classical music on terrestrial radio in the U.S. is broadcast on public radio stations — and those stations often have crucial symbiotic relationships with the classical music scenes in their listening areas. Michael Andor Brodeur considers what’s at stake. – The Washington Post (MSN)
- Born in the DSA*: It’s Time To Outlaw Donor Advised Funds (DAFs)
If you understand “Time Value of Money,” then you’ll understand just how uncharitable these schemes are — and the users know it.
With still more apologies to Bruce Springsteen. (Image produced with AI)
In the second article in the Born in the DSA series, I’d like to introduce you to a business school Econ 101 unit called “Time Value of Money.” In a nutshell, it works like this:
Assume inflation is 3% per year. In 2025, I have $100. For that $100, I can buy $100 worth of stuff.
In 2034, that same stuff will cost me $134.39.
Alternately, in 2025, I have $100. I hold on to it.
In 2034, I will only be able to buy $78.30 worth of stuff with it.
So, in this example, which accounts for no runaway inflation, recessions, depressions, or naked materialistic money-grubbing, my buying power shrank considerably.
Now, in a slightly different scenario, using the same 3% rate and the same chart above, I invest in a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) in 2025 with my local community foundation. I donate $100. The donation tax deduction I get is immediate.
In 2034, when that money is finally given by the foundation to a nonprofit arts organization upon my advice to do so, it can only purchase $78.30 worth of stuff in 2025 dollars. However, the tax deduction is still based on the original $100 “donation,” a donation that didn’t actually get donated for ten years. In fact, in 2034 dollars, that donation is worth $134.39. It’s a bonanza for me; not so much for the charity I supposedly like.
*DSA stands for the Divided States of America (aka “One Nation, Divisible”). Periodically, I’ll be writing more specific takes on issues that are clearly wrong for this country, using the arts as context. If there are issues you’d like to take up (or that you’d like me to take up), let me know.
But wait, there’s more. As money invested in a foundation, with all its advisors and money managers ostensibly involved in community betterment, I cannot use DAF money to lobby. However, if my entire intention was to find a way to lobby for a happier life for me regardless of the community, I can direct the money be donated to a nonprofit organization’s lobbying fund, because a nonprofit can spend up to $1,000,000 on lobbying. In fact, I can even ask the foundation folks for suggestions on which nonprofits I can use for that purpose. And I’ll still get the tax deduction. Yay me.
Go with me on this. I only chose ten years as an example. Relatively speaking, this can go on indefinitely, even if the intent is pure and the nonprofit arts organization of choice is in dire need of the funds that have already been promised. In essence, and to borrow a well-worn point of advice, if a DAF walks like a pledge receivable and it talks like a pledge receivable, then it’s…
It counts its money like a pledged receivable, too. Note who still has the money in his eerily human hands. Okay, I’ll admit: DAFs are not as simple as that. And pledge receivables are a different and continuing (if not expanding) problem, or so I keep reading. As Lisa Z. Greer (author of the wonderful trade book, Philanthropy Revolution) wrote way back in 2022, Amber Heard’s $7 million pledge remained just a pledge because that’s all she thought she was required to do. “I use pledge and donation synonymously with one another….They are the same thing….That’s how donations are paid.” If pledges were horses, beggars might ride, except that the pledges would all be unicorns that don’t really exist.
And DAF donations disappear into the mist.
The reason that DAFs exist is wholly because they are complex. Wealthy people can hold onto their own money and reap the benefits at the expense of the poor and underserved. Even the IRS concedes that DAFs might have seemed to be a good idea, but in practice, they’ve been an abusive ruse.
“The IRS is aware of a number of organizations that appeared to have abused the basic concepts underlying donor-advised funds. These organizations, promoted as donor-advised funds, appear to be established for the purpose of generating questionable charitable deductions, and providing impermissible economic benefits to donors and their families (including tax-sheltered investment income for the donors) and management fees for promoters.
- Examinations of these arrangements may result in the following Service actions in appropriate cases:
- disallow deductions for charitable contributions under Internal Revenue Code section 170 for payments to the fund;
- impose section 4966 excise taxes on sponsoring organizations and managers of donor-advised funds;
- impose section 4958 excise taxes on donors or managers of donor advised funds; and/or (d) deny or revoke the charity’s 501(c)(3) exemption.
DAFs weren’t created to be vicious, horrible scams meant for rich people to seem as though they’re being charitable when they’re not. They’re not intended to be subterfuges in which rich people can make more money off their donations and still not have to lose the original donation’s actual worth. And they’re not supposed to be evil tricks intended to widen the wealth gap between the rich and the poor, let alone the middle class that has nearly disappeared.
DAFs were not invented to be a horror on society. But then, neither was Billy Mumy in that old Twilight Zone episode.
Creepy, I know. Next time you see the episode, substitute the little boy for your most toxic donor and their DAF promises. Just don’t get sent to the cornfield for thinking about it. Joyce Beebe, in a balanced report on DAFs for the Baker Institute at Rice University, wrote in 2024 that among the many abuses of DAFs, “DAF to DAF transfers” offered a particularly rotten result:
“…although they were recorded as grants to charities, charitable organizations did not receive funds as a result of these transfers.”
Other abuses include:
- “the funds can remain in the DAF indefinitely because there is no required timeframe for distributions.”
- “counting private foundation to DAF distributions as qualifying distributions has become a way for private foundations to circumvent the 5% minimum distribution requirement”
- “a small group of donors may have disproportional impacts on charitable giving — including the cause, timing, and amounts.”
- “Private foundations are not allowed to lobby, whereas publicly supported entities can spend up to $1 million per year on lobbying without penalty. If funds flow relatedly from DAFs to a variety of recipients, the donors can greatly expand the $1 million threshold.”
Happily, we live in a country that, rather than allowing these shenanigans to continue, can stop them at any time. It’s called “legislation.” But, of course, that would require a steel-spined set of people to look out for the underserved communities at the expense of themselves. They’ll have to understand that as a society, we cannot continue to ramp up wealth for the mega-wealthy on the backs of the poor — or on poor people’s gravestones.
Original photo by KoolShooters on Pexels Pick up a phone. Go to an office. Tell your community foundations to stop crapping up America with this Ponzi scheme of contributions. And tell them (and your legislators) not to fix DAFs; just eliminate them. The abuse is too much.
It’s time to just flat-out outlaw them.
After all, do you really believe that wealthy donors with toxic intentions will suddenly see the abuse (abuse that directly benefits them) and decide that their best path forward is the honorable one? And are you naïve enough to believe that the same people who are abusing $54 billion (with a b) worth of DAFs in the United States at this very moment are in using them to save you?
Let’s put it this way. If you could legally get away with gaining gobs of wealth, even at the expense of charities and the people they serve, would you, even as nice as you are?
I love that you read this column all the way to the end. Could you find it within you to support my caffeine habit, either by clicking or getting together? - What Are The Issues Behind The Threatened Broadway Strike?
The Broadway League, which represents Broadway producers and landlords, is currently in tense negotiations with two different unions: Actors’ Equity (performers and stage managers) and AFM Local 802 (musicians). Here’s an explainer covering what’s at issue and what could happen if an actual strike is called. – TheaterMania
- Unpublished Jack Kerouac Story Discovered In Mafia Boss’s Papers
“The two-page typewritten manuscript signed by Kerouac in green ink is titled ‘The Holy, Beat, and Crazy Next Thing’ and is dated 15 April 1957, five months before … On the Road was published. It was discovered last year during the disposal of items owned by (mafia don) Paul Castellano.” – The Guardian
- Texas Ballet Theater seeks Director of Development Via Sweibel Arts
Texas Ballet Theater seeks a strategic, relationship-driven Director of Development to lead fundraising and donor engagement as the company launches a $40 million capital campaign. The ideal candidate brings 5+ years in nonprofit or arts development experience, success with major gifts and campaigns, and strong leadership and communication skills.
- How AI Could Change The Way We Listen To Music
As AI becomes more embedded in music creation, the challenge is balancing its legitimate creative use with the ethical and economic pressures it introduces. Disclosure is essential not just for accountability, but to give listeners transparent and user-friendly choices in the artists they support. – The Conversation
- How To Understand What We Used To Call The Idiot Savant
In the past (autism became a diagnostic category only in 1943), the ‘idiot savant’ was a paradox, who confounded categorisation because there was no unified way of comprehending how such exceptional musical and numerical skills might co-exist alongside their polar opposite: profound disability. – Aeon
- Online Sales Are Changing The Market For Native American Art
An estimated one-third of Navajo Nation members make and sell art for a living, and in Zuni Pueblo, as many as 85 percent of households include a working artist. Yet for more than a century, Native artists have been subject to a marketplace that undervalues their work and rips off their designs. – Mother Jones
- Smithsonian Museums Have Now Shut Down
The Smithsonian manages 21 museums around Washington, DC, and in New York, as well as the National Zoo and 14 research facilities. It had previously said it could rely on remaining funds from past fiscal years to remain open, originally for “at least” five days past the 1 October shutdown. – The Art Newspaper
- What Happened to Kevin Costner?
The Oscar-winning director and actor with the most iconic American screen presence since Gary Cooper is now brawling with his castmates, getting sued by his crewmembers and, in recent months, giving paid keynote speeches at bakery and veterinarian conventions. – The Hollywood Reporter
- My Letter To AI Tilly On The Meaning Of Being An Actress
Tilly, you never had to be 14, so I’ll tell you what Google can’t. It feels like your soul gets a broken glass enema. You go from curious about this marvelous world to drowning in un-marvelous you. Who am I? How should I be? Am I alone? Your human brain answers “no one,” “invisible” and “yes.” – The Hollywood Reporter
- Zadie Smith Ponders The Point Of Essay-Writing
My entire future rested on a few essays written in the school hall under a three-hour time constraint? Really? In the nineties, this was what we called “the meritocracy.” – The New Yorker
- Libraries Scramble To Replace Industry’s Biggest Book Distributor
Given the complicated nature of library wholesaling and its existing position in the market, Ingram is well positioned to pick up a sizable chunk of B&T’s business. – Publishers Weekly
- Scientist Used Sensors To Discover How Pianists’ Touch Changes Timbre
A team led by Dr. Shinichi Furuya at the NeuroPiano Institute and Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc. has provided the first scientific evidence showing how pianists’ touch on the keys can actually change a piano’s timbre—the tonal character of its sound. – SciTech Daily
- Will AI Create A Permanent Underclass?
The idea of a permanent underclass has recently been embraced in part as an online joke and in part out of a sincere fear about how A.I. automation will upend the labor market and create a new norm of inequality. – The New Yorker
- Warner Bros Discovery Rejects Paramount’s First Offer, But The Talks Are Far From Over
Chat, is this less than ideal? “The merger would lead to the elimination of one of the original Hollywood film studios, and could see the consolidation of CNN with Paramount-owned CBS News.” – Los Angeles Times
