AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Louvre’s New President Outlines His Plans For Museum Post-Heist
“With the search for France’s crown jewels still ongoing, … plans are afoot for a new display of Empress Eugénie’s diamond-and-emerald crown. … In time, Christophe Leribault recently (said), the crown Emperor Napoleon III commissioned for his wife will become a new highlight, one only surpassed by the Mona Lisa.” – Artnet
- San Francisco’s Notorious Brutalist Fountain Bursts Into Flames As It’s Being Disassembled
“A small fire broke out Wednesday during the removal of San Francisco’s Vaillancourt Fountain, sending flames and dark smoke from a section of the massive concrete sculpture as crews dismantled the controversial artwork at Embarcadero Plaza.” – San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)
- As City Of San Diego Prepares To Slash Arts Funding, County Sets Up $2.75 Million Program
This despite the fact that the San Diego County government is facing a budget cliff of its own, just as the city is. – The San Diego Union-Tribune (MSN)
- Of Course They Did: Pussy Riot Stormed Russian Pavilion At Venice Biennale
“Wearing pink balaclavas, the protesters ran towards the Russian pavilion where they gathered outside and lit pink, blue and yellow flares while playing punk music and shouting slogans, including ‘Blood is Russia’s Art’. At one stage about 40 activists … attempted to enter the Russian pavilion but were pushed back by police.” – The Guardian
- Due To Fire, Broadway’s “The Book Of Mormon” To Be Closed For Two Weeks
“The long-running Broadway hit … will close its doors through May 17 as its theater undergoes repairs. … The blaze, which began May 4 in an electrical room, caused ‘substantial damage’ to the Eugene O’Neill Theatre.” – AP
ISSUES
- Louvre’s New President Outlines His Plans For Museum Post-Heist
“With the search for France’s crown jewels still ongoing, … plans are afoot for a new display of Empress Eugénie’s diamond-and-emerald crown. … In time, Christophe Leribault recently (said), the crown Emperor Napoleon III commissioned for his wife will become a new highlight, one only surpassed by the Mona Lisa.” – Artnet
- San Francisco’s Notorious Brutalist Fountain Bursts Into Flames As It’s Being Disassembled
“A small fire broke out Wednesday during the removal of San Francisco’s Vaillancourt Fountain, sending flames and dark smoke from a section of the massive concrete sculpture as crews dismantled the controversial artwork at Embarcadero Plaza.” – San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)
- Of Course They Did: Pussy Riot Stormed Russian Pavilion At Venice Biennale
“Wearing pink balaclavas, the protesters ran towards the Russian pavilion where they gathered outside and lit pink, blue and yellow flares while playing punk music and shouting slogans, including ‘Blood is Russia’s Art’. At one stage about 40 activists … attempted to enter the Russian pavilion but were pushed back by police.” – The Guardian
- The Many Controversies Dogging This Year’s Venice Biennale
The 2026 Venice Biennale has experienced waves of uncertainty that have only grown in strength as the public opening of the world’s most prestigious international art exhibition nears on Saturday morning. – The New York Times
- The Met Gala Was A Failed Opportunity To Make The Case For Art
“Fashion is art” was meant to encourage attendees to think about how every human body is a canvas, and about how making an item of clothing—the precision that goes into selecting textiles, creating shapes, and combining colors—requires the same kind of artistry deployed by the painters and sculptors featured throughout the museum. – The Atlantic
MEDIA
- As City Of San Diego Prepares To Slash Arts Funding, County Sets Up $2.75 Million Program
This despite the fact that the San Diego County government is facing a budget cliff of its own, just as the city is. – The San Diego Union-Tribune (MSN)
- L.A.’s Holocaust Museum To Reopen As Part Of New Cultural Center
“The Holocaust Museum LA, the first survivor-founded and oldest Holocaust museum in the United States, will reopen after a 10-month closure as part of the new Goldrich Cultural Center — a $70-million campus expansion set to debut June 14 in Pan Pacific Park (near downtown).” – Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
- Study: Relocating New Orleans Needs To Start Now Because Of Climate Change
The process of relocating people from New Orleans should start immediately, as the city has reached a “point of no return” that will see it surrounded by the ocean within decades due to the climate crisis, a stark new study has concluded. – The Guardian
- Just How Long Should An Arts Leader Stay?
As one artist told ArtsHub: ‘Artistic director and executive director jobs are so few and far between in Australia that it is no wonder that when someone is appointed to one, they hold on to them for more than 10 years. – ArtsHub
- Backstage Workers’ Union Files Charges Against Kennedy Center Over Layoffs
“The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) has filed charges (with the National Labor relations Board) against the Kennedy Center, accusing management of permanently cutting union jobs as it prepares to close for a two-year renovation at the behest of President Trump.” – TheWrap (Yahoo!)
MUSIC
- “The Devil Wears Prada” And The Rise And Fall Of Chick Lit
“Before it was a movie, Lauren Weisberger’s The Devil Wears Prada, published by Broadway Books in 2003, marked the absolute high point of that once-ubiquitous genre. … Soon after the success of the novel, chick lit started to fall apart,” with dedicated imprints long since discontinued. – Publishers Weekly
- Big Book Publishers Band Together To Sue Meta Over AI Plundering
Five leading publishers and a best-selling author filed a class-action lawsuit against Meta and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, on Tuesday, alleging that the tech giant violated copyright law by training its generative artificial intelligence platform on millions of illegally pirated books and articles. – Washington Post
- Publishers And Authors Sue Meta And Mark Zuckerberg (Personally) For AI-Related Copyright Infringement
Five large publishing houses, along with Scott Turow representing authors as a class, allege in their filing that Zuckerberg himself “personally authorized and actively encouraged the infringement” of copyrights by Meta, which used countless books and articles to train Llama, its AI language system. – AP
- 2026 Pulitzer Prizes For Books Go To Jill Lepore, Yiyun Lin, Amanda Vaill, Daniel Kraus, Brian Goldstone, Juliana Spahr
Kraus’s Angel Down took fiction honors; Goldstone’s There Is No Place for Us won for general nonfiction; Lepore’s We the People took history honors; Vaill’s study of the Schuyler sisters, Pride and Pleasure, won for biography; Li’s Things In Nature Merely Grow won for memoir; Spahr’s Ars Poetica was honored for poetry. – Literary Hub
- Mass Author Walkout Imperils Prestigious Australian Publisher
At least 17 authors have ended their contracts with UQP or vowed not to work with the publisher again, after a series of events stemming from responses to the Israel-Gaza war culminated in last week’s cancellation of a children’s book by the Indigenous poet Jazz Money. – The Guardian
PEOPLE
- Louvre’s New President Outlines His Plans For Museum Post-Heist
“With the search for France’s crown jewels still ongoing, … plans are afoot for a new display of Empress Eugénie’s diamond-and-emerald crown. … In time, Christophe Leribault recently (said), the crown Emperor Napoleon III commissioned for his wife will become a new highlight, one only surpassed by the Mona Lisa.” – Artnet
- San Francisco’s Notorious Brutalist Fountain Bursts Into Flames As It’s Being Disassembled
“A small fire broke out Wednesday during the removal of San Francisco’s Vaillancourt Fountain, sending flames and dark smoke from a section of the massive concrete sculpture as crews dismantled the controversial artwork at Embarcadero Plaza.” – San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)
- As City Of San Diego Prepares To Slash Arts Funding, County Sets Up $2.75 Million Program
This despite the fact that the San Diego County government is facing a budget cliff of its own, just as the city is. – The San Diego Union-Tribune (MSN)
- Of Course They Did: Pussy Riot Stormed Russian Pavilion At Venice Biennale
“Wearing pink balaclavas, the protesters ran towards the Russian pavilion where they gathered outside and lit pink, blue and yellow flares while playing punk music and shouting slogans, including ‘Blood is Russia’s Art’. At one stage about 40 activists … attempted to enter the Russian pavilion but were pushed back by police.” – The Guardian
- Due To Fire, Broadway’s “The Book Of Mormon” To Be Closed For Two Weeks
“The long-running Broadway hit … will close its doors through May 17 as its theater undergoes repairs. … The blaze, which began May 4 in an electrical room, caused ‘substantial damage’ to the Eugene O’Neill Theatre.” – AP
PEOPLE
- Louvre’s New President Outlines His Plans For Museum Post-Heist
“With the search for France’s crown jewels still ongoing, … plans are afoot for a new display of Empress Eugénie’s diamond-and-emerald crown. … In time, Christophe Leribault recently (said), the crown Emperor Napoleon III commissioned for his wife will become a new highlight, one only surpassed by the Mona Lisa.” – Artnet
- San Francisco’s Notorious Brutalist Fountain Bursts Into Flames As It’s Being Disassembled
“A small fire broke out Wednesday during the removal of San Francisco’s Vaillancourt Fountain, sending flames and dark smoke from a section of the massive concrete sculpture as crews dismantled the controversial artwork at Embarcadero Plaza.” – San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)
- As City Of San Diego Prepares To Slash Arts Funding, County Sets Up $2.75 Million Program
This despite the fact that the San Diego County government is facing a budget cliff of its own, just as the city is. – The San Diego Union-Tribune (MSN)
- Of Course They Did: Pussy Riot Stormed Russian Pavilion At Venice Biennale
“Wearing pink balaclavas, the protesters ran towards the Russian pavilion where they gathered outside and lit pink, blue and yellow flares while playing punk music and shouting slogans, including ‘Blood is Russia’s Art’. At one stage about 40 activists … attempted to enter the Russian pavilion but were pushed back by police.” – The Guardian
- Due To Fire, Broadway’s “The Book Of Mormon” To Be Closed For Two Weeks
“The long-running Broadway hit … will close its doors through May 17 as its theater undergoes repairs. … The blaze, which began May 4 in an electrical room, caused ‘substantial damage’ to the Eugene O’Neill Theatre.” – AP
THEATRE
VISUAL
- What Research Tells Us About How Memory Works
The idea of photographic memory is simple and powerful: Experience is captured objectively, stored completely and retrieved perfectly. See it once, keep it forever. There’s just one problem. There’s no scientific evidence it exists. – The Conversation
- In An AI Economy, Human-Made Becomes Luxury Good
We don’t value human creations solely for their beauty or their price tag. We also value them because they embody deliberate labour and expertise. – The Conversation
- The Tiniest Particles In The Universe Don’t Tell You What The Universe Is
We are taught from a young age that matter is made of atoms, built from particles such as electrons, and electrons are not built from anything else. For this reason, these particles are sometimes said to be fundamental. But are they? Is the Universe really made from the smallest constituents? – Aeon
- So Maybe That AI Bubble Wasn’t Real After All
The worry that the country is building too many data centers now coexists with the fear that we won’t have enough of them to satisfy the public’s growing appetite for these products. And the company previously known as OpenAI’s junior competitor has become possibly the fastest-growing business in the history of capitalism. – The Atlantic
- When AI Surrounds Us, What’s The Point Of Human Minds?
“As great as humans are, we can still be impressed by how birds navigate, how ants cooperate, and how spiders hunt. Each of these animals has been shaped by its environment to be smart in a different way.” – The Guardian (UK)
