I’m a neuroscientist with four children, and I wondered whether children might be losing more than just the pleasure of listening to books read aloud. In particular, I wondered whether it affected their empathy and creativity. - The Conversation
Gaza showed how power brokers from the White House on down seem eager for pretexts to punish dissent in ways that create a chilling effect, and that the hottest rhetoric from activists can be exactly that pretext. - The Atlantic
Playwright Ray Lawler’s most famous work, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1955), was a turning point in Australian theatre history. In the 1970s, Lawler wrote two prequel plays – Kid Stakes and Other Times – to form The Doll Trilogy. Melbourne’s small-but-ambitious Red Stitch is staging them together for the first time since 1985. - ArtsHub (Australia)
The book section you really wanted to get your hands on was the Washington Post Book World. To put it bluntly, you read the Times Book Review because you had to, but you read Book World because you wanted to. - LitHub
Since my own fandom has grown, I’ve noticed, at least anecdotally, many more friends and acquaintances talking about their love for audiobooks, not just as a passing interest but as something verging on obsession. Is this a trend? - Washington Post
There is satisfaction in pressing a button or cranking a dial that no touchscreen will ever replicate. There is also certainty; if I reach for my car’s temperature control, I know it will be there, without taking my eyes off the road to click through six sub-menus. - The Guardian
“Shahrbanoo Sadat … wrote, directed and stars in the daring, genre-bending film No Good Men, about a budding love affair in a Kabul newsroom on the eve of the Taliban’s return to power in 2021 and the West’s chaotic withdrawal.” - The Guardian
It’s true that Chinese universities have made remarkable strides, and some of them host superb centers of research and education. However, they aren’t nearly as dominant as those rankings suggest. - The New York Times
The embarrassment comes in what can all too easily happen when classical music tries to get down with the kids with new formats. Visuals! Apps! Short excerpts instead of whole symphonies! All of which can patronisingly say: we’re just like the pop cultures you love: we’re groovy too! - The Guardian
Tina Rivers Ryan had stepped into the leadership role at Artforum after a tumultuous year. It had just fired David Velasco, at the time its editor in chief, after he had signed and published an open letter calling for Palestinian liberation. - The New York Times
Yes, of course the fact that the Motion Picture Academy has made a conscious effort to internationalize its membership is part of it. Yet the key factor (yes, for all categories) has been a change in the way nominations for Best International Film are made. - The Hollywood Reporter
Or, how France’s Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry (who’s actually Canadian) ended up paired at all, then became the gold medalists despite having been together only since March. - AP
With his ensembles Gächinger Kantorei and Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, he undertook the first complete recording project of Bach’s cantatas and major choral works. As the period-instrument movement picked up steam through the 1980s, ‘90s and onward, Rilling was the last remaining Bach specialist to cling strictly to modern instruments. - Moto Perpetuo
“After announcing last week that Jersey City is facing a $255 million deficit, Mayor James Solomon removed any doubt about where he stood on Centre Pompidou’s proposed satellite location in New Jersey’s second-largest city. ‘We will not be doing Pompidou, to be clear. It is dead.’” - NJ.com
In a Tuesday memo obtained by The Associated Press, Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell told staff that ‘departments will obviously function on a much smaller scale with some units totally reduced or on hold until we begin preparations to reopen in 2028,’ promising ‘permanent or temporary adjustments for most everyone.’” - AP
He was discovered by director Robert Altman for the 1970 films M*A*S*H and Brewster McCloud; he subsequently featured in Heat (1995), Dogma (1999) and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). Yet it was his co-starring role in alongside Ruth Gordon in Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude that would establish his place in cinema. - Deadline
The 81-year-old conductor has served the orchestra as “Music Advisor” for the past year, following the departure of Giancarlo Guerrero. (He did the same for three years between the death of longtime music director Kenneth Schermerhorn and Guerrero’s arrival.) Slatkin’s contract as music director runs for three years. - Nashville Scene
Antonio Najarro, former director of the Ballet Nacional de España and choreographer of several medal-winning routines in ice dancing: “It seemed very difficult to me. Flamenco is so rooted in the earth that doing it on ice felt almost crazy. But curiosity got the better of me.” - El País in English (Spain)
Depending on where you stand, the human face has become either a digital playground or digital battleground. Your Instagram feed can now produce a diaspora of thousands of faces that uncannily resemble but are not quite Kim Kardashian, a “cyborgian” look best achieved through plastic surgery and Facetune. - The Walrus
There is satisfaction in pressing a button or cranking a dial that no touchscreen will ever replicate. There is also certainty; if I reach for my car’s temperature control, I know it will be there, without taking my eyes off the road to click through six sub-menus. - The Guardian
It’s true that Chinese universities have made remarkable strides, and some of them host superb centers of research and education. However, they aren’t nearly as dominant as those rankings suggest. - The New York Times
In an eight-month study of how generative AI changed work habits at a U.S.-based technology company with about 200 employees, we found that employees worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks, and extended work into more hours of the day, often without being asked to do so. - Harvard Business Review
Through Hart’s teaching business, Plot Prose, she’s working on a proprietary piece of software that can “generate a book based on an outline in less than an hour, and costs between $80 and $250 a month.” - Gizmodo
The immediate risk to employment may not be AI itself, but the way companies, seduced by its promise, overinvest before they understand what it can actually do. - The Atlantic
In a Tuesday memo obtained by The Associated Press, Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell told staff that ‘departments will obviously function on a much smaller scale with some units totally reduced or on hold until we begin preparations to reopen in 2028,’ promising ‘permanent or temporary adjustments for most everyone.’” - AP
Overhauling the Kennedy Center has become a fixation for Trump—and no detail is too small for the real-estate-developer-turned-president. - The Wall Street Journal
Marine Le Pen’s party is concocting plans to replace a vital, vibrant arts scene with a retrograde movement that would glorify the country’s past. - The Guardian
“The Basic Income for the Arts initiative will provide €325 ($386) a week to 2,000 eligible artists based in the Republic in three-year cycles. ... The (pilot) scheme recouped more than its net cost of €72 million through increases in arts-related expenditure, productivity gains and reduced reliance on other welfare payments.” - The Guardian
“Trading financial gain for lasting impact, several older artists have donated the houses they bought decades ago to community land trusts, legal entities that can break the cycle of displacement by ensuring properties are handed down from one artist to another at affordable prices.” - The New York Times
New research published in the Australian Journal of Education this week found fewer students in high school and university were choosing to study the creative arts. At the same time, it found, dozens of tertiary courses were being slashed. - The Guardian
Gaza showed how power brokers from the White House on down seem eager for pretexts to punish dissent in ways that create a chilling effect, and that the hottest rhetoric from activists can be exactly that pretext. - The Atlantic
The embarrassment comes in what can all too easily happen when classical music tries to get down with the kids with new formats. Visuals! Apps! Short excerpts instead of whole symphonies! All of which can patronisingly say: we’re just like the pop cultures you love: we’re groovy too! - The Guardian
The 81-year-old conductor has served the orchestra as “Music Advisor” for the past year, following the departure of Giancarlo Guerrero. (He did the same for three years between the death of longtime music director Kenneth Schermerhorn and Guerrero’s arrival.) Slatkin’s contract as music director runs for three years. - Nashville Scene
“It has nothing to do with the name change. It is strictly dollars and cents, and the Kennedy Center’s inability to understand the economics of how opera works.” - Washington Post
The ensemble, founded in 1946, was believed to be the longest-running chamber orchestra in the US. While it has faced the same post-COVID financial problems that have plagued many performing-arts organizations, the PCO’s biggest difficulty has been recovering from the sudden death in 2023 of popular artistic director Yaacov Bergman. - Willamette Week (Portland)
Derrer — who came to The Dallas Opera in 2018 and then steered the company through COVID, raised $54.5 million and doubled the endowment, and commissioned and staged multiple new works — will take the helm at the COC in Toronto as of July 1. - CultureMap Dallas
Tina Rivers Ryan had stepped into the leadership role at Artforum after a tumultuous year. It had just fired David Velasco, at the time its editor in chief, after he had signed and published an open letter calling for Palestinian liberation. - The New York Times
“After announcing last week that Jersey City is facing a $255 million deficit, Mayor James Solomon removed any doubt about where he stood on Centre Pompidou’s proposed satellite location in New Jersey’s second-largest city. ‘We will not be doing Pompidou, to be clear. It is dead.’” - NJ.com
Depending on where you stand, the human face has become either a digital playground or digital battleground. Your Instagram feed can now produce a diaspora of thousands of faces that uncannily resemble but are not quite Kim Kardashian, a “cyborgian” look best achieved through plastic surgery and Facetune. - The Walrus
The principle is currently set out in two French legal codes, including the Heritage Code, which applies to public museum collections. Under the principle, nothing can be permanently removed from these collections without a special law passed by the French parliament in each case, a cumbersome and time-consuming process. - The Art Newspaper
That Sunday, a ribbon-cutting ceremony will kick off two weeks of priority member access to the galleries, with general admission beginning May 4. - Los Angeles Times
“The Southbank Centre in London, which includes the Hayward Gallery, Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Undercroft skatepark and was once voted ‘Britain's ugliest building’, has been heritage-listed. Completed along the River Thames in the 1960s, the post-war landmark has now been Grade II-listed by the Department for Culture Media and Sport.” - Dezeen
I’m a neuroscientist with four children, and I wondered whether children might be losing more than just the pleasure of listening to books read aloud. In particular, I wondered whether it affected their empathy and creativity. - The Conversation
The book section you really wanted to get your hands on was the Washington Post Book World. To put it bluntly, you read the Times Book Review because you had to, but you read Book World because you wanted to. - LitHub
Since my own fandom has grown, I’ve noticed, at least anecdotally, many more friends and acquaintances talking about their love for audiobooks, not just as a passing interest but as something verging on obsession. Is this a trend? - Washington Post
That’s the dilemma that faced Simon & Schuster last fall, when right-wing media star Charlie Kirk was assassinated not long before the scheduled publication of Rebecca Novack’s satirical novel Murder Bimbo. - The New York Times
“The answer is that festivals in India are only partly about books. They are a ‘spectacle’ offering music, dance, handicraft sales and food. Even the T.rex of them all, the Jaipur literature festival (which attracted 400,000 visitors last month according to its marketing team), would almost certainly attract fewer people without these extras.” - The Guardian
How, against all odds, has City Lights managed to remain a vital symbol of literary dissent and free speech? How, after more than seventy years, has City Lights survived economic and industry changes? How, decade after decade, has it managed to respond to the forces that threaten to silence us? - LitHub
“Shahrbanoo Sadat … wrote, directed and stars in the daring, genre-bending film No Good Men, about a budding love affair in a Kabul newsroom on the eve of the Taliban’s return to power in 2021 and the West’s chaotic withdrawal.” - The Guardian
Yes, of course the fact that the Motion Picture Academy has made a conscious effort to internationalize its membership is part of it. Yet the key factor (yes, for all categories) has been a change in the way nominations for Best International Film are made. - The Hollywood Reporter
Sundance’s move to Boulder is coinciding with a fortuitous moment in the specialty film space, with an uptick in post-pandemic interest from younger moviegoers. - The Hollywood Reporter
On Tuesday, the Skydance-owned company said it would pay Warner shareholders an added “ticking fee” if its deal doesn’t go through by the end of the year — amounting to 25 cents per share, or a total of $650 million, for every quarter after Dec. 31. - AP News
“An international media outlet employing hundreds of foreign journalists with the stated mission of promoting civil liberties abroad was bound to be incompatible with an administration that was attacking the same liberties at home and had made xenophobic nationalism central to its political platform.” - The Point
Most of the World Service’s £400 million budget comes from the licence fee which funds the entire BBC, though the Foreign Office contributes a sizable amount, £137 million in the last year. BBC director general Tim Davie has just warned that the government must not delay further in deciding on Foreign Office funding. -...
Or, how France’s Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry (who’s actually Canadian) ended up paired at all, then became the gold medalists despite having been together only since March. - AP
Antonio Najarro, former director of the Ballet Nacional de España and choreographer of several medal-winning routines in ice dancing: “It seemed very difficult to me. Flamenco is so rooted in the earth that doing it on ice felt almost crazy. But curiosity got the better of me.” - El País in English (Spain)
A new iron curtain now separates American dance and Russian dance, bringing an abrupt end to a rich dialogue that spanned centuries. Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, two crown jewels in the American repertoire, would not exist without Petipa’s original stagings; meanwhile, Russian ballet was bolstered by American influence. - The Atlantic
“In Speak, American tap dancers collaborate with their counterparts in kathak, a classical Indian percussive dance form. While these genres have been crossed before, rarely have the participants been such masters of their art.” - The New York Times
“The most decorated ice dance pair in U.S. figure skating history wants more than a team medal in Milan — they want the ice dance gold medal. ... But while they did so much heavy lifting for their team, their competition got extra rest.” - USA Today
The ambitious project was five years in the making and culled street dance resources from a wide-ranging array of sources spanning mediums. - Fjord Review
Playwright Ray Lawler’s most famous work, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1955), was a turning point in Australian theatre history. In the 1970s, Lawler wrote two prequel plays – Kid Stakes and Other Times – to form The Doll Trilogy. Melbourne’s small-but-ambitious Red Stitch is staging them together for the first time since 1985. - ArtsHub (Australia)
“I was studying this issue of conspiracy theories and what makes people susceptible to a conspiracy theory. There’s a real terror of (not conforming) in our culture, and we will gladly believe somebody else’s nonsense if it means we don’t stick out from the group.” - WBEZ (Chicago)
“These content creators are not just copycats; they are attempting and sometimes mastering the complicated dance moves and distinctive performances of shows they may never see live, let alone be cast in. Sharing the result with the world, they are making TikTok a theater of their own.” - The New York Times
Libby Howes, who was central to the group’s avant-garde breakthrough Rumstick Road, left the theatre during a psychotic breakdown. “For decades, Howes’s location has been a mystery; she has been an unquiet absence, one of the ghosts in the avant-garde’s machine.” - The New York Times
“Woodie, as artistic director and producer, understood and respected the sanctity of the director. … Woodie, even faced with the challenges of inequitable funding for New Federal Theatre, and sometimes no funding at all, always persevered and prevailed.” - American Theatre
At the halftime show for the Super Bowl, “the stage must be assembled in about eight minutes, using rolling carts equipped with pneumatic tires. The field … can hold only so much additional weight. After the 12-minute performance, the stage must be torn down quickly.” - The New York Times
With his ensembles Gächinger Kantorei and Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, he undertook the first complete recording project of Bach’s cantatas and major choral works. As the period-instrument movement picked up steam through the 1980s, ‘90s and onward, Rilling was the last remaining Bach specialist to cling strictly to modern instruments. - Moto Perpetuo
He was discovered by director Robert Altman for the 1970 films M*A*S*H and Brewster McCloud; he subsequently featured in Heat (1995), Dogma (1999) and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). Yet it was his co-starring role in alongside Ruth Gordon in Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude that would establish his place in cinema. - Deadline
“The influential founder of France’s École Philippe Gaulier … taught the art of clowning for decades and his students included Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Thompson, Rachel Weisz and Geoffrey Rush.” - The Guardian
“Scarlett Pavlovich filed a lawsuit against Gaiman and his wife, Amanda Palmer, in Wisconsin in February 2025, accusing Gaiman of multiple sexual assaults while she worked as the family’s nanny in 2022. She filed lawsuits against Palmer in Massachusetts and in New York on the same day she filed the Wisconsin action.” - AP
The man loves reading and writing, basically. “I love Joan Didion, and she once said she journals so that when she gets really old, she can pick up her books and find her way back to herself again.” - CBC
The next Director of Development will lead all fundraising efforts for the Illinois Symphony Orchestra to strengthen the ISO’s visibility and supporter relationships.
The Executive Director serves as chief executive of the Louisville Orchestra and, with the Music Director and Board of Directors, is responsible for its success.
Quantum Theatre seeks a visionary Artistic Director to build on an experimental legacy, shape ambitious programming, and lead Quantum into its next era of impact.
The next Chief Advancement Officer will lead the organization’s fundraising, institutional marketing, and external engagement efforts during a significant period of institutional growth and evolution.
Seattle Theatre Group (STG) is seeking an experienced, innovative Chief Marketing and Communications Officer (CMCO). The CMCO is a vital member of STG's senior leadership.
Managing Director opportunity at NYTB, leading growth, operations, partnerships, governance, and teams, delivering expansion, innovation, and compliance across the dance community.
The Columbia Museum of Art (CMA), in Columbia, South Carolina, an AAM-accredited institution, seeks an Executive Director to build upon its 75-year legacy.
The Knights seek a Director of Artistic Operations to work with the Artistic Directors and Executive Director on high-level artistic planning and program implementation.
The AI-supported “findings supported scholars who had suggested that both versions were studio paintings – produced in the artist’s workshop but not necessarily by him,” but surprised some art historians, who now wonder whether an original exists somewhere. - The Guardian (UK)
Tabouret: “It’s not very French to change stuff, so I thought that interesting as well as brave and fresh. They specifically wanted figurative painting, which also isn’t very French.” But church authorities eventually gave her a lot of artistic freedom. - The Guardian (UK)
“Every night, I would sit in my room listening to recordings of Bach, then Horowitz and Ashkenazy, pretending to play along. It was pure escape, pure fantasy. I could hide inside the music. ... The Chaconne specifically was like an ancient key that slid into my heart.” - The Guardian (UK)
“Do you know what’s more tubular than snowboarding? Giant tubes of paint descending from the ceiling! More sweeping than curling? A beautiful recital of a poem by a man in a long coat! More thrilling than a hockey brawl? A dance-off between two competing clusters of contemporary dancers!” - Vulture
“I was left with a feeling of tremendous shame. Even after gathering the courage to speak up, I was ashamed that I was a victim, ashamed that I was unable to stop it. Ashamed that even after finally speaking up, I was disregarded, ignored, discarded.” - Toronto Star
“Judge Biery’s decision … is much more than dry judicial reasoning. It’s a passionate, erudite, at times mischievous piece of prose. … In fewer than 500 words, Judge Biery marshals literature, history, folk wisdom and Scripture to challenge the theory of executive power that has defined Trump’s second presidency.” - The New York Times
Elfriede Jelinek, winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize for Literature, and composer Olga Neuwirth, who received the 2022 Grawemeyer Award, have created Monster’s Paradise — now premiering at the Hamburg Opera — with an Ubu-like President-King who looks very familiar and gets eaten by the monster Gorgonzilla. (Yes, there are also zombies and vampires.)...
“Executive Editor Matt Murray … said the Post will shutter its sports desk, while keeping some sports writers who will write feature stories. It will likewise close its Books section and suspend the signature podcast Post Reports. The international desk will shrink dramatically,” as will the Metro desk. - NPR
“Family members of the three men said they fear for their loved ones’ safety and are concerned the moves to solitary confinement are a form of retaliation for outspokenness about problems within the prison system.” - The Guardian (UK)
Trump wrote on Truth Social that “he would shut it down this summer, on July 4, arguing that a dramatic step was necessary to safeguard one of Washington’s most treasured cultural institutions.” - The New York Times
“Italy’s culture minister and the diocese of Rome have launched investigations after claims were made that an angel in a landmark church in Rome was restored in the likeness of the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.” - The Guardian (UK)
The “uniquely American” model of funding opera meant that the National Opera had to leave, thanks to “a new mandate set forth by the Kennedy Center that every performance break even through only ticket sales and corporate sponsorships.” - The New York Times
