Banksy’s identity is out, and the art world has a counterintuitive take: prices should go up (The Wall Street Journal). Turns out anonymity was the brand, not the precondition for the brand. In the category of DEI-era reckoning: Playwrights Horizons has settled a lawsuit filed by a white ticket buyer who felt excluded by a discount program offered to buyers of color — the joint statement ran six sentences and did not mention money (The New York Times).
In the UK, the Culture Secretary is moving to give the BBC something it has never had in its history: a permanent charter, protecting it from the decennial renegotiations that have left it perpetually exposed to political pressure (The Guardian). SXSW, by contrast, has never recovered from the pandemic, sold a controlling interest to Penske Media, and after last year’s event watched key staff walk out the door. Now serious observers are asking whether it can survive at all (Texas Monthly).
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater has been leaking, essentially, since the day it opened in 1937. A $7 million conservation project is on track for completion next month. The house is called Fallingwater and is built over a waterfall, so we will note this with cautious optimism (The Art Newspaper).
All of today’s stories below.
