Just in case you’ve missed multiple strains of philosophy, ethics, and “happiness studies” over the years, not to mention Buddhist thought, well: "When we encounter something new, we get a dopamine hit. … But sometimes novelty seduces us without offering anything meaningful.” - Fast Company
“Williams is rarely spotted without a book in his hand. He’s now name-checked multiple Joan Didion titles in interviews, and was once photographed next to a copy of Knausgaard’s My Struggle. His personal motto comes from Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables.” And his selections sell very well. - LitHub
Bessy was "a graceful French ballet star whose firm hand at the helm of the Paris Opera Ballet School for three decades made it one of the world’s top dance institutions, though her rigorous methods eventually drew stinging criticism.” - The New York Times
“Under the totalitarian Age-Appropriate Materials Act — a Tennessee law passed in 2022 that, along with an addendum passed two years later, has permitted the removal of hundreds of books from libraries throughout the state — the Knox County school district recently ordered the removal of Alex Haley’s novel.” - Salon
He’s also said he wants to headline it himself. But “a senior administration official described the rollout of the concerts as ‘a mess’ and suggested that someone would most likely be fired over how the invitations to the event had been handled.” - The New York Times
Kim Petras was not happy with her experience of “what can happen when the general corporate powers that be force you to sideline your artistry for the company line.” So, she left. - The Fader
Sheung was "deeply invested in crafting an image of female autonomy and audacity at a time when women’s lives were constrained by traditional expectations.” - The New York Times
“Rather than an exit point, this new wave of merchandising is quickly turning museum gift shops into a desirable entry point. Curated edits ... are now beginning to treat them as a stand-alone shopping destination, marking a shift from cultural institution to cultural retailer.” - The Guardian (UK)
Remember when Jonah Peretti of Buzzfeed seemed like a good guy? That was a long time ago, and we were all so much more innocent, including the creator of Good Advice Cupcake: "I trusted them, though naively, when they said they had no interest in continuing Cuppy without me." - Wired
Lucas not only co-edited the first movie and Return of the Jedi but also made various Spielberg, Scorsese, and many other movies far, far better through her mad skills. - The Hollywood Reporter
“For years, illustrators have been overlooked, seen as people who come in and do the decorating after the house has been built. But this couldn’t be further from the truth.” - The Guardian (UK)
The prose - whether in a text or fiction submission - is “perfectly clean, without a stray comma; uniform in length, with evenly paced paragraphs and a distinctive tone that is simultaneously breezy and grandiose.” - The Atlantic
Those belt buckles sure aren’t handmade. And: “Nearly all aspects of the accounts appear to be AI-generated — from the ‘person’ in the video to automated responses to comments, which in some cases attempt to mimic African American vernacular.” - The Verge
“If you work on a book for twenty years—whatever we mean by work—people really act like you’re very neurotic. Like there’s something wrong with you, or you’re doing something wrong—and it’s easy to internalize that.” - Paris Review
Slowly, in front of star-studded crowds that included the rockers Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt and Boz Scaggs, Toussaint reinvented himself. - The New York Times
Probably it’s Tokyo - Australian record shops go on record-buying trips there to prop up their own inventory - but there is the new statistic that says "Melbourne has the most vinyl record stores per capita in the world (5.9 stores per 100,000 residents).” - The Guardian (UK)
A federal judge Friday ordered that President Donald Trump’s name be removed from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and that officials halt its plan to close the venue for two years. - Washington Post
Just in case you’ve missed multiple strains of philosophy, ethics, and “happiness studies” over the years, not to mention Buddhist thought, well: "When we encounter something new, we get a dopamine hit. … But sometimes novelty seduces us without offering anything meaningful.” - Fast Company
The prose - whether in a text or fiction submission - is “perfectly clean, without a stray comma; uniform in length, with evenly paced paragraphs and a distinctive tone that is simultaneously breezy and grandiose.” - The Atlantic
This seems to be especially true for students. A.I.’s smooth sentences, elegant transitions and rich vocabulary give the illusion of expansive creativity and individuality. But the underlying ideas often converge into a few homogenized categories. - The New York Times
It’s not the kind of knowledge that you gain from reading a textbook or listening to a lecture, nor is it the kind of knowledge that subjects report when they try to describe their experiences to others. It can’t be expressed in natural language – at least, not fully. - Psyche
Yes, we are standing to sound like LLMs in our writings. This may not be as bad if this was just restricted to how people write. This is now also impacting how people think! - 3 Quarks Daily
The science of memory has been shifting. A re-evaluation of real-world criminal cases and laboratory experiments suggests that an eyewitness’s confidence in a specific memory can be a strong indicator of the veracity of their account, at least in certain circumstances. - Nature
Remember when Jonah Peretti of Buzzfeed seemed like a good guy? That was a long time ago, and we were all so much more innocent, including the creator of Good Advice Cupcake: "I trusted them, though naively, when they said they had no interest in continuing Cuppy without me." - Wired
Those belt buckles sure aren’t handmade. And: “Nearly all aspects of the accounts appear to be AI-generated — from the ‘person’ in the video to automated responses to comments, which in some cases attempt to mimic African American vernacular.” - The Verge
A federal judge Friday ordered that President Donald Trump’s name be removed from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and that officials halt its plan to close the venue for two years. - Washington Post
“We now observe preparation gaps so severe that instructors must reteach middle-school mathematics while simultaneously teaching the material students need for sciences, engineering, economics, and other quantitatively demanding fields,” the professors write in an open letter to the Board of Regents. - The Wall Street Journal
“(He) did not set out to make the exhibit American Aspirations his swan song. But he said that his organizing of an exhibition that honors America’s 250th anniversary could well be among his final acts as secretary. ‘It’s probably the last exhibit I will curate, there’s no doubt about that.’” - The New York Times
He’s also said he wants to headline it himself. But “a senior administration official described the rollout of the concerts as ‘a mess’ and suggested that someone would most likely be fired over how the invitations to the event had been handled.” - The New York Times
Kim Petras was not happy with her experience of “what can happen when the general corporate powers that be force you to sideline your artistry for the company line.” So, she left. - The Fader
Slowly, in front of star-studded crowds that included the rockers Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt and Boz Scaggs, Toussaint reinvented himself. - The New York Times
Probably it’s Tokyo - Australian record shops go on record-buying trips there to prop up their own inventory - but there is the new statistic that says "Melbourne has the most vinyl record stores per capita in the world (5.9 stores per 100,000 residents).” - The Guardian (UK)
Unlike his immediate predecessor, Esa-Pekka Salonen, who also served as the Philharmonic’s music director for 17 seasons, Mr. Dudamel seems not to have matured on the podium. - The Wall Street Journal
“Rather than an exit point, this new wave of merchandising is quickly turning museum gift shops into a desirable entry point. Curated edits ... are now beginning to treat them as a stand-alone shopping destination, marking a shift from cultural institution to cultural retailer.” - The Guardian (UK)
“For years, illustrators have been overlooked, seen as people who come in and do the decorating after the house has been built. But this couldn’t be further from the truth.” - The Guardian (UK)
Latchford’s success depended not just on criminal networks that supplied and transported these objects, but on the willingness of museums, dealers, collectors, and scholars to accept fragmented or problematic provenance so long as the objects themselves retained the aura of rarity and beauty. - Hyperallergic
Gehry Partners will design a variety of upgrades to the Getty Center — including a major revamp of its entry experience — during its upcoming year-long closure, the museum announced Thursday. - Los Angeles Times
“What, exactly, defines America? It’s a question that’s been asked for more than two centuries, and it’s unlikely to be conclusively answered anytime soon. But, with the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding fast approaching, we took the occasion to hash out a response to that query, using art as a guide.” - ARTnews
“We started working on this list over a year ago and spent more than a month alone wrestling with how best to define its purview. We decided this would not be a list of the best American artworks, which is both too challenging an exercise and too wide a net to cast.” - ARTnews
“Williams is rarely spotted without a book in his hand. He’s now name-checked multiple Joan Didion titles in interviews, and was once photographed next to a copy of Knausgaard’s My Struggle. His personal motto comes from Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables.” And his selections sell very well. - LitHub
“Under the totalitarian Age-Appropriate Materials Act — a Tennessee law passed in 2022 that, along with an addendum passed two years later, has permitted the removal of hundreds of books from libraries throughout the state — the Knox County school district recently ordered the removal of Alex Haley’s novel.” - Salon
“If you work on a book for twenty years—whatever we mean by work—people really act like you’re very neurotic. Like there’s something wrong with you, or you’re doing something wrong—and it’s easy to internalize that.” - Paris Review
Sure, there are some other languages whose speakers have spelling contests, but there are plenty — Italian, Finnish, Malay, etc. — whose words are spelled exactly as they’re pronounced. But English? In what other language could “ough” be pronounced eight different ways, depending on the word? - The New York Times Magazine
The book-publishing industry had already been wrestling with the prospect of a flood of AI-authored texts in the fiction market, and now the Rosenbaum scandal was showing the way AI could blow a hole in the nonfiction sector, too. - New York Magazine
Spotify announced that the total number of hours of audiobooks listened to on the service are up 60% year-over-year, with one million people having paid for Audiobooks+, an add-on launched last year that allows listeners to unlock additional hours of audiobooks on top of those already included with its premium service. - Publishers Weekly
The total compensation for the top executives surged a stunning 51% from a year earlier, based on a tally of $615 million vs. $408.5 million in 2024. - The Wrap
“The order is inconsistent with a legitimate exercise of investigative authority and is plainly incompatible with the First Amendment,” Disney said in its Thursday filing. Carr has insisted the early renewal order is strictly about DEI. - The Wall Street Journal
YouTube is making AI-generated content labels more prominent for viewers — and it’s going to start automatically applying the labels if it detects that a video includes “significant photorealistic AI use.” - Variety
“Local TV stations owned by ABC across the United States blasted the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday for launching an 'unlawful, arbitrary and unconstitutional' early review of their broadcast licenses as a dispute between the network and the Trump-controlled agency intensifies.” - AP
A network spokesperson argued that producing its own programming for the late-night talk-show slot is now “cost-prohibitive” — and that, by leasing that airtime to comedian/TV mogul Byron Allen, CBS will turn a $40 million annual loss into a $55 million annual profit. - Variety
“Maceo Harrison deftly designs routines that emphasize charisma over technical precision and spotlight the teams' natural showmen while camouflaging the players with two left feet. ... Sometimes he has mere hours to choreograph and just as little time to teach his routines to the players.” - ESPN
Alice Topp, a former principal dancer and choreographer-in-residence at the Australian Ballet, already had the idea of basing her first commission for Houston Ballet on the Finnish concept of sisu (stubbornly determined resilience). Then, this past January, came unhappy inspiration: bushfires struck her rural hometown 75 miles northwest of Melbourne. - Houston Chronicle (Yahoo!)
Despite reaching new artistic heights, Australia’s leading contemporary dance troupe has posted four annual deficits in a row, totaling $5.2 million (US$3.7 million) and attributable mostly to the higher running costs of its revamped headquarters. Luckily, paying students are flocking to SDC’s new classes. - Australian Financial Review
Ashley Ferro-Murray of the Doris Duke Foundation: I’m interested in … funding resilient models for the future as well as legacy models that ... value the labor of the artist. One way the Doris Duke Foundation is doing this is by combining our grant-making capacity with other resources like marketing and communications. - Dance...
What is the International Dance League? The N.B.A. of dance. The W.W.E. of dance. Formula 1 racing meets the TV show “America’s Best Dance Crew.” These are some of the analogies that came up in conversations with the league’s founders and participants. - The New York Times
Designed by award-winning architects Studio Gang, the 451-seat Scripps Theater Center — in Garrison, NY, 60 miles north of New York City — is a curved mass-timber structure with open sides, set on 98 landscaped acres overlooking the Hudson River. Year-round facilities will let the festival expand beyond a summer schedule. - Time Out...
“The Book of Mormon, one of Broadway’s biggest hits, resumed performances on Wednesday night after a three-week shutdown prompted by a damaging three-alarm electrical fire at the theater where the musical comedy has been running for 15 years.” - The New York Times
Arts Council England, the national funding body, gave the RSC £2 million for two large-scale Shakespeare tours in 2028 and 2030 to regional theatres in Blackpool, Norwich, Newcastle, Bradford-Leeds, Nottingham, Canterbury, Truro (Cornwall), and York. - British Theatre Guide
“What people don’t know about the process is that when the old cast is done, on their final day, usually a Sunday, the new cast comes in on a Tuesday,” director Carisa Barreca says. “That night, the new cast has to put up a show — the old show.” - WBEZ (Chicago)
“Mounting a play in the West End now requires between £1 million and £2 million pounds in upfront investment, while staging a musical requires between £3 million and £10 million. This is before weekly costs" — £120,000 to £200,000 before royalties for a play and £300,000 to £400,000 for a musical. - WhatsOnStage (UK)
“The new and sole artistic director is Lindsay Smiling, who has been one of the company’s three co-artistic directors for the past three years; … the other two, Yury Urnov and Morgan Green, are moving on to other roles and pursuits.” - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
Bessy was "a graceful French ballet star whose firm hand at the helm of the Paris Opera Ballet School for three decades made it one of the world’s top dance institutions, though her rigorous methods eventually drew stinging criticism.” - The New York Times
Sheung was "deeply invested in crafting an image of female autonomy and audacity at a time when women’s lives were constrained by traditional expectations.” - The New York Times
Lucas not only co-edited the first movie and Return of the Jedi but also made various Spielberg, Scorsese, and many other movies far, far better through her mad skills. - The Hollywood Reporter
Harpo (né Arthur) developed his silent persona due to his own stage fright; in later years he said he didn’t want to “tear down a character it took me decades to build.” On rare occasions, though, he did speak in public, though not when microphones were around — except for this one time. -...
“During her seven-year tenure (as executive director of the Municipal Art Society), she led pioneering campaigns to form historic landmark districts, renovate blighted blocks and rescue threatened edifices like Radio City Music Hall. … Saving Grand Central was her crowning achievement.” - The New York Times
Some musicians evolve, others effect personal revolutions. Rollins is in the latter category, and his work bears the shuddering force of his drastic, self-imposed transitions. To hear Rollins in the late fifties is to hear the lion roar. - The New Yorker
The next Chief Executive Officer will drive a forward-looking vision that integrates artistic excellence with meaningful educational and community impact.
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Saint Louis Art Museum seeks Chief Exhibitions and Collections Officer. Salary range is between $210,000 and $240,000. Please visit the link for full job description.
He’s also said he wants to headline it himself. But “a senior administration official described the rollout of the concerts as ‘a mess’ and suggested that someone would most likely be fired over how the invitations to the event had been handled.” - The New York Times
Remember when Jonah Peretti of Buzzfeed seemed like a good guy? That was a long time ago, and we were all so much more innocent, including the creator of Good Advice Cupcake: "I trusted them, though naively, when they said they had no interest in continuing Cuppy without me." - Wired
A federal judge Friday ordered that President Donald Trump’s name be removed from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and that officials halt its plan to close the venue for two years. - Washington Post
“What, exactly, defines America? It’s a question that’s been asked for more than two centuries, and it’s unlikely to be conclusively answered anytime soon. But, with the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding fast approaching, we took the occasion to hash out a response to that query, using art as a guide.” - ARTnews
“We started working on this list over a year ago and spent more than a month alone wrestling with how best to define its purview. We decided this would not be a list of the best American artworks, which is both too challenging an exercise and too wide a net to cast.” - ARTnews
The 50-year-old British conductor and part-time Air France pilot is currently chief conductor at Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and has held similar positions at the Orchestre de Paris, Swedish Radio Symphony, and Mahler Chamber Orchestra. He begins his initial six-year term in 2027. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
Joshua Kosman: “In appointing Elim Chan as its next music director, the San Francisco Symphony has tapped the most inexperienced, unproven new artistic leader the organization has had in more than 40 years. The choice could not have been wiser or more opportune.” - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
As the troubled San Antonio Philharmonic, which has canceled more concerts than it has played this year, appears to edge toward collapse, Jeffrey Kahane, who resigned as the Philharmonic’s music director in February, has announced the founding of a new orchestra and education initiative called Harmonium of Texas. - San Antonio Express-News
“Across TikTok and Instagram, videos centred on Rothko’s work are accumulating hundreds of thousands of views. One creator has begun styling outfits inspired by individual Rothko canvases; another assigns Rothko works to personality archetypes.” - The Guardian (UK)
“Gelb, who is paid $1.2 million annually, oversees a $326 million budget. … Beyond the often caustic scrutiny of opera critics and patrons, Gelb must reckon with the demands of 3,000 full- and part-time employees, 15 labor unions and a 144-member board of directors.” - The New York Times
