AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Managing Director- The Old Globe working with Management Consultants for the Arts
The Old Globe is seeking a Managing Director to co-lead the company as it looks ahead to the landmark celebration of its 100th anniversary over the coming decade. This new leader will arrive at a company committed to building upon the highest level of artistic excellence at the core of its mission as it seeks to grow resources to expand its impact as the most vibrant and active theatre producing organization in the United States. The Managing Director will collaborate with Barry Edelstein, The Old Globe’s Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director on a visionary approach to creating an environment that offers audiences, supporters, artists, and staff the chance to consistently experience the best-of-the-best, a world-class commitment to producing theatre that matters. Management Consultants for the Arts has been engaged to facilitate this search. A full position description may be found here.
The annual salary range for the Managing Director role at The Old Globe starts at $420,000, will be commensurate with the candidate’s specific experience, role, and expertise, and includes a full benefit package similar to other organizations of its size. The Old Globe hopes to make its decision by the early spring of 2026 with the chosen candidate starting shortly thereafter. The Old Globe is committed to fostering a culture of equity, diversity, and inclusion in all areas of our operation, therefore we strongly encourage applications from populations underrepresented in the theatre field. Multilingual candidates are also strongly encouraged to apply.
The Old Globe is a major force in regional theatre in the United States and presents a wide offering of works, from new plays, to classics, to large-scale musicals, to more intimately-scaled productions. As a past recipient of the prestigious Regional Tony Award, The Old Globe’s producing output is extraordinary and includes new works in many genres, Shakespeare’s canon showcased in its annual summer season, and plays and musicals in development prior to commercial Broadway bound production. Located within San Diego’s historic Balboa Park, The Old Globe is currently celebrating its 90th anniversary, guided by a history of pioneering theatre making and inspired by a future where the company envisions an even more profound influence on the American theatre through its commitment to artistic excellence and transformative arts engagement that brings theater experiences to audiences beyond its home stages. More information can be found on their website: https://www.theoldglobe.org/
- Boch Center, VP Marketing & Communications | In Partnership with DHR Global
The Boch Center in Boston seeks a visionary Vice President of Marketing and Communications to lead brand strategy and amplify the impact of one of New England’s most iconic arts institutions. Reporting to the President & CEO, the VP Marketing & Communications will drive integrated marketing and communications for 200+ annual performances, advance nationally recognized initiatives like the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame, and champion community engagement and education programs. The ideal candidate brings expertise in brand storytelling, multi-channel campaigns, digital strategy, and team leadership, with a passion for the performing arts.
Click here to view the full position description. To apply, please submit your resume to Emma Kemper at ekemper@dhrglobal.com.
- Good Morning.
Here are today’s AJ highlights. Hollywood’s “oracle” narrates an industry cruising toward structural collapse, from streaming economics to vanishing theater audiences (The New York Times). The Phillips Collection plans to sell O’Keeffes and Seurats to fund new acquisitions, a move former curators call a betrayal of the founder’s vision (Washington Post). Public media is under strain too: inside the BBC’s latest political crisis and a separate op-ed asking, with some exasperation, “Oh, BBC, what are you doing?”
Music and tech collide on multiple fronts. AI-generated tracks climb charts as The New Yorker and n+1 both chart how a handful of corporations and algorithms reshape what we hear, while an L.A. Times columnist wonders whether software pattern-matching counts as actually “writing” music. Schools become another battleground: a New York Times columnist bluntly connects classroom screens to plummeting performance, while BookRiot traces how “Take Back the Classroom” is weaponizing that anxiety against authors and books.
Editor’s Note: Platforms, governments, and billionaires are busy redesigning the conditions around culture — who gets seen, heard, preserved, or erased. Today’s stories trace the counter-movers: artists, educators, and small institutions insisting that attention, privacy, and imagination are not just product features.
The rest of today’s stories below:
- The Oracle Of Hollywood As It Cruises To Disaster
Matthew Belloni has become a narrator of the industry’s troubles during the most transformative period since the birth of television, brought on by the arrival of tech companies and the disappearance of the lucrative cable TV model, followed closely behind by theater audiences. – The New York Times
- Phillips Collection To Controversially Sell Masterpieces To Buy New Art
“Like many of my museum colleagues,” said Eliza Rathbone, chief curator emerita at the Phillips, “I’m deeply saddened and appalled that the Phillips Collection would so irreparably mar the vision of the founder by selling such carefully chosen works.” – Washington Post
ISSUES
- Phillips Collection To Controversially Sell Masterpieces To Buy New Art
“Like many of my museum colleagues,” said Eliza Rathbone, chief curator emerita at the Phillips, “I’m deeply saddened and appalled that the Phillips Collection would so irreparably mar the vision of the founder by selling such carefully chosen works.” – Washington Post
- The Studio Museum In Harlem Reopens, After Seven Years, In Its Own New Home
The museum director: “In many ways I do feel the timing of our opening now is ideal. … We’re opening in a moment that’s very much like the moment when the museum was founded.” – Gothamist
- The Return Of A Night At The Natural History Museum
“Children ran, some of them in stocking feet, through the displays, with abandon. (Running had been discouraged in the safety lecture, but this did not dissuade a young boy who shouted ‘I have to look for the animals that will hunt us in the night.’)” – The New York Times
- Man Who Stole A Banksy Print To Pay Off Drug Debt Sentenced To Prison
He “was seen on CCTV waiting outside the gallery for about 10 minutes on 8 September last year, before repeatedly smashing the glass door with a heavy blunt object.” – The Guardian (UK)
- The Palm Springs Art Museum Trustee Revolt: Just What The Heck Is Happening Here?
Basically, “without consideration of multiple outside candidates, the search committee had in effect become simply a hiring committee for an in-house nominee.” That in-house nominee might be great – but that doesn’t fix the hiring process. – Los Angeles Times (MSN)
MEDIA
- A $500M American Dream Museum?
Visitors to Washington have a new, free attraction: the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream. After a $500 million renovation of two former banks across from the Treasury Department, the center opened in September to explore the past, present and future of this enduring but elusive aspiration. – Washington Post
- How Large Data Sets And AI Analysis Are Absolutely Murdering Our Private Lives
“Personal data isn’t just a record of who we are. It’s our actions, transactions, locations, conversations, preferences, inferences, and vulnerabilities. It’s our identities, our intimate selves, our hopes and dreams, and our fears and flaws.” – Fast Company
- Disney May Be Turning To AI To Help Create ‘User-Generated Content’ On Its Main Streamer
Bob Iger knows it’s, uh, interesting to be suing some AI companies while courting others. “’It’s obviously imperative for us to protect our IP with this new technology,’ Iger said.” – NPR
- How The Internet Became A Misery Machine
“Sometimes you gotta use the dark arts, right? In benevolent ways, and just get people to care.” Ouf. – The Atlantic
- Inside The National Endowment For The Humanities, In The Iron Grip Of The Current Administration
“Many of its nearly 50 grant programs have been paused or ended. … About two thirds of the staff has been laid off and, last month, most members of the scholarly council that must review a majority of grants were abruptly fired by the White House.” – The New York Times
MUSIC
- What Explains Boomers’ Addiction To Ellipses?
There’s an extensive online discourse on the Baby Boomer generation’s penchant for ellipses. ‘OK . . .’ ‘Thanks . . .’ ‘See you next week . . .’ Sometimes they’re a playful way to build suspense, sometimes a form of passive aggression, and sometimes they relay an implication. – Granta
- The Latest Threat To Authors And Books
What is “Take Back the Classroom” – and how did it get so prominent, so quickly? – BookRiot
- Writers On The Gulf Between Books And Screen
Viet Thanh Nguyen: “When poets write, the only thing that it costs a poet is their life. … But when you make a TV show or a film, it costs tens of millions of dollars, and then everybody cares.” – Los Angeles Review of Books
- African Publishers And “The Wakanda Problem”
“When we listen to audiobooks produced in the West, they have a Wakandan accent,” said Eghosa Imasuen, executive director of Narrative Landscape Press in Lagos, Nigeria. “Nobody talks like that on the continent.” – Publishers Weekly
- Hilary Mantel’s Most Notorious Short Story Is Now Being Staged
“’The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher – August 6th 1983’ was published in The Guardian in 2014 and gave the title to Mantel’s collection of short stories that year. … Billed as a psychological thriller, the adaptation is by Alexandra Wood and will be directed by John Young at (Liverpool’s) Everyman Theatre in May.” – The Guardian
PEOPLE
- Managing Director- The Old Globe working with Management Consultants for the Arts
The Old Globe is seeking a Managing Director to co-lead the company as it looks ahead to the landmark celebration of its 100th anniversary over the coming decade. This new leader will arrive at a company committed to building upon the highest level of artistic excellence at the core of its mission as it seeks to grow resources to expand its impact as the most vibrant and active theatre producing organization in the United States. The Managing Director will collaborate with Barry Edelstein, The Old Globe’s Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director on a visionary approach to creating an environment that offers audiences, supporters, artists, and staff the chance to consistently experience the best-of-the-best, a world-class commitment to producing theatre that matters. Management Consultants for the Arts has been engaged to facilitate this search. A full position description may be found here.
The annual salary range for the Managing Director role at The Old Globe starts at $420,000, will be commensurate with the candidate’s specific experience, role, and expertise, and includes a full benefit package similar to other organizations of its size. The Old Globe hopes to make its decision by the early spring of 2026 with the chosen candidate starting shortly thereafter. The Old Globe is committed to fostering a culture of equity, diversity, and inclusion in all areas of our operation, therefore we strongly encourage applications from populations underrepresented in the theatre field. Multilingual candidates are also strongly encouraged to apply.
The Old Globe is a major force in regional theatre in the United States and presents a wide offering of works, from new plays, to classics, to large-scale musicals, to more intimately-scaled productions. As a past recipient of the prestigious Regional Tony Award, The Old Globe’s producing output is extraordinary and includes new works in many genres, Shakespeare’s canon showcased in its annual summer season, and plays and musicals in development prior to commercial Broadway bound production. Located within San Diego’s historic Balboa Park, The Old Globe is currently celebrating its 90th anniversary, guided by a history of pioneering theatre making and inspired by a future where the company envisions an even more profound influence on the American theatre through its commitment to artistic excellence and transformative arts engagement that brings theater experiences to audiences beyond its home stages. More information can be found on their website: https://www.theoldglobe.org/
- Boch Center, VP Marketing & Communications | In Partnership with DHR Global
The Boch Center in Boston seeks a visionary Vice President of Marketing and Communications to lead brand strategy and amplify the impact of one of New England’s most iconic arts institutions. Reporting to the President & CEO, the VP Marketing & Communications will drive integrated marketing and communications for 200+ annual performances, advance nationally recognized initiatives like the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame, and champion community engagement and education programs. The ideal candidate brings expertise in brand storytelling, multi-channel campaigns, digital strategy, and team leadership, with a passion for the performing arts.
Click here to view the full position description. To apply, please submit your resume to Emma Kemper at ekemper@dhrglobal.com.
- Good Morning.
Here are today’s AJ highlights. Hollywood’s “oracle” narrates an industry cruising toward structural collapse, from streaming economics to vanishing theater audiences (The New York Times). The Phillips Collection plans to sell O’Keeffes and Seurats to fund new acquisitions, a move former curators call a betrayal of the founder’s vision (Washington Post). Public media is under strain too: inside the BBC’s latest political crisis and a separate op-ed asking, with some exasperation, “Oh, BBC, what are you doing?”
Music and tech collide on multiple fronts. AI-generated tracks climb charts as The New Yorker and n+1 both chart how a handful of corporations and algorithms reshape what we hear, while an L.A. Times columnist wonders whether software pattern-matching counts as actually “writing” music. Schools become another battleground: a New York Times columnist bluntly connects classroom screens to plummeting performance, while BookRiot traces how “Take Back the Classroom” is weaponizing that anxiety against authors and books.
Editor’s Note: Platforms, governments, and billionaires are busy redesigning the conditions around culture — who gets seen, heard, preserved, or erased. Today’s stories trace the counter-movers: artists, educators, and small institutions insisting that attention, privacy, and imagination are not just product features.
The rest of today’s stories below:
- The Oracle Of Hollywood As It Cruises To Disaster
Matthew Belloni has become a narrator of the industry’s troubles during the most transformative period since the birth of television, brought on by the arrival of tech companies and the disappearance of the lucrative cable TV model, followed closely behind by theater audiences. – The New York Times
- Phillips Collection To Controversially Sell Masterpieces To Buy New Art
“Like many of my museum colleagues,” said Eliza Rathbone, chief curator emerita at the Phillips, “I’m deeply saddened and appalled that the Phillips Collection would so irreparably mar the vision of the founder by selling such carefully chosen works.” – Washington Post
PEOPLE
- Managing Director- The Old Globe working with Management Consultants for the Arts
The Old Globe is seeking a Managing Director to co-lead the company as it looks ahead to the landmark celebration of its 100th anniversary over the coming decade. This new leader will arrive at a company committed to building upon the highest level of artistic excellence at the core of its mission as it seeks to grow resources to expand its impact as the most vibrant and active theatre producing organization in the United States. The Managing Director will collaborate with Barry Edelstein, The Old Globe’s Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director on a visionary approach to creating an environment that offers audiences, supporters, artists, and staff the chance to consistently experience the best-of-the-best, a world-class commitment to producing theatre that matters. Management Consultants for the Arts has been engaged to facilitate this search. A full position description may be found here.
The annual salary range for the Managing Director role at The Old Globe starts at $420,000, will be commensurate with the candidate’s specific experience, role, and expertise, and includes a full benefit package similar to other organizations of its size. The Old Globe hopes to make its decision by the early spring of 2026 with the chosen candidate starting shortly thereafter. The Old Globe is committed to fostering a culture of equity, diversity, and inclusion in all areas of our operation, therefore we strongly encourage applications from populations underrepresented in the theatre field. Multilingual candidates are also strongly encouraged to apply.
The Old Globe is a major force in regional theatre in the United States and presents a wide offering of works, from new plays, to classics, to large-scale musicals, to more intimately-scaled productions. As a past recipient of the prestigious Regional Tony Award, The Old Globe’s producing output is extraordinary and includes new works in many genres, Shakespeare’s canon showcased in its annual summer season, and plays and musicals in development prior to commercial Broadway bound production. Located within San Diego’s historic Balboa Park, The Old Globe is currently celebrating its 90th anniversary, guided by a history of pioneering theatre making and inspired by a future where the company envisions an even more profound influence on the American theatre through its commitment to artistic excellence and transformative arts engagement that brings theater experiences to audiences beyond its home stages. More information can be found on their website: https://www.theoldglobe.org/
- Boch Center, VP Marketing & Communications | In Partnership with DHR Global
The Boch Center in Boston seeks a visionary Vice President of Marketing and Communications to lead brand strategy and amplify the impact of one of New England’s most iconic arts institutions. Reporting to the President & CEO, the VP Marketing & Communications will drive integrated marketing and communications for 200+ annual performances, advance nationally recognized initiatives like the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame, and champion community engagement and education programs. The ideal candidate brings expertise in brand storytelling, multi-channel campaigns, digital strategy, and team leadership, with a passion for the performing arts.
Click here to view the full position description. To apply, please submit your resume to Emma Kemper at ekemper@dhrglobal.com.
- Good Morning.
Here are today’s AJ highlights. Hollywood’s “oracle” narrates an industry cruising toward structural collapse, from streaming economics to vanishing theater audiences (The New York Times). The Phillips Collection plans to sell O’Keeffes and Seurats to fund new acquisitions, a move former curators call a betrayal of the founder’s vision (Washington Post). Public media is under strain too: inside the BBC’s latest political crisis and a separate op-ed asking, with some exasperation, “Oh, BBC, what are you doing?”
Music and tech collide on multiple fronts. AI-generated tracks climb charts as The New Yorker and n+1 both chart how a handful of corporations and algorithms reshape what we hear, while an L.A. Times columnist wonders whether software pattern-matching counts as actually “writing” music. Schools become another battleground: a New York Times columnist bluntly connects classroom screens to plummeting performance, while BookRiot traces how “Take Back the Classroom” is weaponizing that anxiety against authors and books.
Editor’s Note: Platforms, governments, and billionaires are busy redesigning the conditions around culture — who gets seen, heard, preserved, or erased. Today’s stories trace the counter-movers: artists, educators, and small institutions insisting that attention, privacy, and imagination are not just product features.
The rest of today’s stories below:
- The Oracle Of Hollywood As It Cruises To Disaster
Matthew Belloni has become a narrator of the industry’s troubles during the most transformative period since the birth of television, brought on by the arrival of tech companies and the disappearance of the lucrative cable TV model, followed closely behind by theater audiences. – The New York Times
- Phillips Collection To Controversially Sell Masterpieces To Buy New Art
“Like many of my museum colleagues,” said Eliza Rathbone, chief curator emerita at the Phillips, “I’m deeply saddened and appalled that the Phillips Collection would so irreparably mar the vision of the founder by selling such carefully chosen works.” – Washington Post
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Have Screens Actually – We Mean It, This Time – Destroyed Education, Worldwide?
“It seems ridiculous to have to say this, but digital distraction is terrible for academic performance.” – The New York Times
- Netflix House Is Temu Disneyland, In A Mall
“Let’s say you are a Netflix fan, as anyone making a pilgrimage to Netflix House is sure to be. What, then, are you a fan of? … Netflix has been on a relentless campaign to become a fandom hub, a never-ending Comic-Con celebrating itself.” – Slate
- British Church Architecture Is, Frankly, Cold On The Inside
How to solve this problem? Heat pumps, of course. – Wired
- Creator Of The AI Actress Tilly Speaks Out
“As a creative, I have really enjoyed creating her,” she says. “It’s been just like a writer creating characters. You fall in love with your characters when you’re writing them. It’s a wonderful process. It wasn’t like I just made her in a second, and that was it. You know, it took a long time.” – Variety
- Has 21st Century Culture Lost Its Creativity?
Music without instruments and lyrics without meaning. Endless reboots, sequels and superheroes in the cinema. After a burst of magnificent TV dramas in the noughties, every glitzy new show is hailed as a must-see when most are mediocre. The algorithm has vanquished imagination. – The Economist
