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- Johnny Cash Estate Sues Coca Cola Under New “Elvis Act” For Using His Artistic Personna Without Permission
The case has been filed under the Elvis Act of Tennessee, made effective last year, which protects a person’s voice from exploitation without consent. – The Guardian
- Good Morning:
Here are today’s AJ newsletter highlights: In Tennessee, public libraries are shutting their doors to comply with a state mandate to purge books with LGBTQ+ themes (Common Dreams), while a new survey reveals that 39% of novelists are already seeing their incomes slip due to competition from Generative AI (The Conversation).
Meanwhile, the Detroit Institute of Arts is reimagining the museum as an “instrument of cultural education” rather than just a repository (ARTnews), and the LA Phil has reversed course on cutting its East L.A. youth orchestra program following donor intervention (Los Angeles Times).
Also today: Why museums dramatically underspend on marketing (ARTnews), the cognitive decline linked to constant phone checking (Washington Post), and what it’s actually like to wrangle a giant balloon in the Macy’s parade (Slate).
All of today’s stories below:
- Tennessee Libraries Shut Down For Republicans’ Book Purge
Public libraries in Tennessee have begun to shut down as they carry out an order from state officials to remove children’s books containing LGBTQ+ themes or characters. – Common Dreams
- Detroit Institute Of Arts Reimagines “Museum As Instrument Of Cultural Education”
The DIA has achieved a rare feat with its presentations: making art history feel unexpected, and so, truer to life. What immediate change it chooses for its closest community—that’s a story Detroit won’t forget. – ARTnews
- Apply Now: Canada’s National Arts Centre Mentorship Program
Play in section with Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra: June 8 to June 25, 2026
A side-by-side experience for emerging and early-career instrumentalists and conductors who are on the audition circuit or who have recently started a position with a professional orchestra.
All participants receive an honorarium, accommodation, a meal stipend, and travel subsidies. International applications welcome.
NAC Orchestra rehearsals and concerts will be led by Music Director Alexander Shelley.
The program includes:
- Sectionals
- Masterclasses
- Career mentorship
- Networking opportunities
- Public performances with the Orchestra
Apply by January 26 2026.
For more information contact Kelly.Symons@nac-cna.ca.
- John Oliver’s Benefit Auction For Public Broadcasting Sets Million-Dollar Record For Bob Ross Painting
On Monday, Ross’ Cabin at Sunset, painted for a 1986 episode of PBS’ iconic “The Joy of Painting”, sold for roughly $1,044,000. – ARTnews
- LA Phil Grants Its YOLA Youth Orchestra Program A Reprieve After Pushback
After recently announcing major cuts to its youth orchestra, the L.A. Phil has secured additional donor funding to ensure the East L.A. branch of the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) program will continue at full capacity until the end of the school year. – Los Angeles Times
- The NFL Is A Ratings Juggernaut. While Other Sports Viewership Declines, NFL Keeps Growing
To date, the most-watched game this regular season has been the Week 2 Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl rematch, which averaged 33.8 million viewers, marking one of the most-watched early season games ever. – Deadline
- Survey: Writers Report Income Slipping Because Of AI
39% of novelists reported that their income has already been negatively affected by GenAI. They cited a range of reasons, including competition from AI-generated books, sabotage of sales due to rip-off AI-generated imitations of books, and supplementary streams of income such as copywriting becoming scarce due to increased use of GenAI. – The Conversation
- Did We Make A Mistake When We Separated The Notion of Consciousness From Physical Things?
Ever since Descartes, who split mind from matter and linked thinking and being, we’ve drifted from the very thing that makes us human. We’ve separated ourselves from the natural world, physically and mentally. The mental separation enabled the physical one. We came to see ourselves inhabiting a world of things, ourselves the only conscious element within it. – Harper’s
- What Possesses People To Want To Own More Books Than They Can Possible Read?
Bibliomania, the only hobby which is also a mental health affliction. The person with piles of titles on their nightstand, in their closet, in the trunk of their car. Books in front of books on their bookshelf. “With thought, patience, and discrimination, book passion becomes the signature of a person’s character.” – LitHub
- Hollywood Reporter’s List Of America’s Top Music Schools
- Conservatories made a comeback this year, with several returning to THR‘s annual list of the world’s best music schools. – The Hollywood Reporter
- Why Pop Culture Got Dull
Culprit number one is lucre. For pop stars, Mr Marx argues, the idea of “selling out” has died out. The ultimate measure of value is financial success; distinct musical genres have been squished into “glossy, marketable pop”. – The Economist
- Survey: State Of The Arts In Denver
Artists and cultural workers interviewed ahead of Colorado Creates said they worry about gentrification, burnout, lack of collaboration, the need to bring the younger generations into conversations and the cost of living in Denver. – Westword
- Report: Museums Are Dramatically Underspending On Marketing
Museums have been resistant to spending on marketing at the same levels as other cultural organizations, says the report, which posits that the thinking may go that museums and art might even be demeaned by treating them like any other product. – ARTnews
- What It’s Like To Wrangle A Giant Balloon In The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
Katie Shepherd had wanted to be a balloon handler in the parade since grade school — since, believe it or not, she watched on TV the mess of 1997, when gale-force gusts wrought havoc on the balloons. In 2021 (and in calmer weather), Shepherd finally got her chance. – Slate (MSN)
- A Straightup Thanksgiving — It’s a Tradition<a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2025/11/a-straightup-thanksgiving-its-a-tradition.html" title="A Straightup Thanksgiving — It’s a Tradition” rel=”nofollow”>
- Mamdani Names Culture Transition Team
The 28-member group includes curators, art dealers, journalists, and arts and nonprofit administrators. It ranges from Elizabeth Alexander, the president of the Mellon Foundation, which sits on an endowment of $7.7 billion, to Hannah Traore, who launched a 3,000-square-foot gallery on the Lower East Side not four years ago. – ARTnews
- Making Sense Of Sylvia Plath’s Suicide
Carl Rollyson: “After writing three biographies of Sylvia Plath, what more could I possibly say about her suicide? Yet … in Plath’s case, (there are) very different circumstances that separate her suicide attempt in 1953 from her second, fatal one nearly a decade later.” – The Hedgehog Review
- An Orchestra’s Orchestra: What An Orchestra Ought To Be
It’s no secret, too, that the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra is the orchestras’ orchestra; the ensemble that makes hardened pros go wobbly at the knees, and sends critics spiralling towards Pseud’s Corner. – The Spectator
- AI-Written Children’s Books Are Flooding The Marketplace. Is This Bad?
How big a threat is AI to quality children’s publishing, and does it also threaten children’s learning? In a sense, my questions—not all of which are answerable—boil down to this: What makes a good children’s book, and how much does it matter if a children’s book is good? – Mother Jones
- Study: Constant Checking Of Your Phone Feeds Cognitive Decline
A study by the Singapore Management University found that frequent interruptions to check our devices lead to more attention and memory lapses. Unlike total screen time, the frequency of smartphone checks is a much stronger predictor of daily cognitive failures. – Washington Post
- How Choreographers Are Using AI As A Subject
“As AI technologies proliferate and become an increasingly inescapable fact of modern life, choreographers are not only experimenting with AI tools, but they’re also creating works that grapple with the potential repercussions of artificial intelligence and the existential questions it raises.” – Dance Magazine
- A “Mass-Piano” Event
A group of more than 130 musicians played in unison at Sherwood Phoenix piano shop in Mansfield on Saturday. Organisers believe the performance surpassed a previous UK record for the most pianos played at once, but said there was no “official” attempt made to verify their musical effort. – BBC
- Scientist: AI Creativity Is Mathematically Limited To Amateur Status
The study provides evidence that large language models, such as ChatGPT, are mathematically constrained to a level of creativity comparable to an amateur human. – Psypost
- Study: Our Brains Have Five Major Eras In Our Lifetimes
The study mapped neural connections and how they evolve during our lives. This revealed five broad phases, split up by four pivotal “turning points” in which brain organisation moves on to a different trajectory, at around the ages of nine, 32, 66 and 83 years. – The Guardian
- Suddenly, The People Who Precipitated The Crisis At The BBC Can’t Say What The Problem Is
When they were called to Parliament and questioned by the House of Commons Media Culture and Sport Committee on Monday, they minimized the allegations of bias at the network which they had spent the past few weeks trumpeting. – Prospect (UK)
- The Art Market Is Designed To Inflate Markets. But Here’s What Artists Need To Know
The structure itself is tilted toward collectors, dealers, and institutions. It is not designed to support artists. But artists who understand the language of the market can sometimes turn that knowledge into a form of protection. – Hyperallergic
- Comment threads
To anyone who has posted in the comments lately: my old email address has returned to dust, and I did not realize that notifications to me about comments were be sent to that old address. I have updated it, and will be better about approving and responding to your thoughts. Sorry!
- Warner Music Makes Landmark AI Deal With Suno, Settling Copyright Claims
Artists and songwriters, according to the companies, “will have full control over whether and how their names, images, likenesses, voices, and compositions are used in new AI-generated music”. – Music Business Worldwide
- Exactly What Is This Odd New Group That Just Picked America’s Venice Biennale Artist?
If no one has heard of the Tampa-based AAC, this is because it was founded only in July of this year. The press release is so poorly edited that it repeats the same quote by executive director Jenni Parido twice. – Artnet
- “Sharp Decline” In Stagings Of New Plays In UK Post-COVID
“The British Theatre Consortium report, titled ‘British Theatre Before & After Covid’, examines 2019, the last full year before the pandemic, and 2023, the first full year after theatres reopened. It draws on anonymised data from 139 theatres across the UK.” – WhatsOnStage (UK)
- “El Mesías” — Translating Handel’s Oratorio Into Spanish
“That has become our key bit of outreach,” says Ruben Valenzuela, director of the Bach Collegium San Diego. And with no complete Spanish version available, Valenzuela and Tijuana-based choral conductor Mario Montenegro translated the libretto themselves. – Early Music America
- Writers At The New Yorker Are Furious Over The Firing Of A Fact-Checker
“The abrupt firing earlier this month of a senior fact-checker and New Yorker union member, Jasper Lo, has set off a swell of outrage among magazine staffers and contributors, including some of the most famous writers in America.” – The Washington Post (MSN)
- Texas State Leaders Are Literally Rewriting The History Of The Alamo
“Months before top Republicans forced out the widely respected leader of the Alamo’s $500 million redevelopment for being too ‘woke,’ a close political aide to Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick undertook a literal rewrite of the heritage site’s three-hundred-year history.” – Texas Monthly
