AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Behind The Scenes At Second City, Watching A New Show Get Made
“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)
- What It Costs These Days To Produce A Show In London’s West End
“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)
- Barn At Oscar Hammerstein II’s Pennsylvania Farmstead Collapses In Storm
Highland Farm, just outside Doylestown in Bucks County, was where Hammerstein wrote the words for many of the musicals he created with Richard Rodgers. It is now the site of the Oscar Hammerstein Museum and Theatre Education Center, which plans to rebuild the barn as an exhibition space and education center. – PhillyVoice
- Since It Gave Up Government Funding, Finances At London’s Wigmore Hall Are Stronger Than Ever
The city’s most respected chamber music venue has seen a 25% increase year-on-year in ticket sales since it left the funding portfolio of Arts Council England, artistic director John Gilhooly said. – The Stage
- “The World’s Greatest Orchestra” — Take Two: Today’s Metropolitan Opera
ISSUES
- How The Big Art Auction Houses Engineered Their Roaring Comeback
“The houses leaned into spectacle — including a promotional video featuring Nicole Kidman dancing around a bronze Brancusi head — and prearranged deals … that reduced their risk. The result was a season with a few flashy records — and … a broader return to deliberate bidding, quality material and logical prices.” – The New York Times
- Paris’ Pont Neuf Becomes A Stone Grotto
French artist JR has taken over Paris’s Pont Neuf—the oldest bridge over the Seine, and the city’s first built from stone, not wood. JR’s hotly awaited hometown installation La Caverne du Pont Neuf (2026) measures 120 meters long, 20 meters wide, and, in some spots, 18 meters tall. – Artnet
- 4,500-year-old Structure Recreated Close To Stonehenge
Reaching more than 20 feet in height, the hall was built over the course of nine months by a team of more than 100 volunteers who relied on the tools and techniques of their Neolithic ancestors. – Artnet
- What Impact Does Free Admission Make On Museums?
“What we have seen, across the country, is that institutions that have eliminated admissions have generally not seen an increase in visitation in any meaningful way,” says Daniel Weiss. – The Art Newspaper
- Ansel Adams Trust Slams Gallery Over AI Image
The artwork, which still appears on Danziger’s website, does not contain a title but is headlined A.I. GENERATED, From the prompt: Make a realistic color version of Ansel Adams’ iconic “Moonrise Over Hernandez”. – ARTnews
MEDIA
- Colleges Are Hemorrhaging Student Enrollment. One Oregon College Hits The Wall
According to the plan released, “We are maintaining an infrastructure built for 30,000 students while currently serving 20,000.” Other options “have been exhausted” and “incrementalism” has failed, it says. – InsideHigherEd
- Russia Bombs Many Of Kyiv’s Major Cultural And Historical Sites
The National Art Museum, National Philharmonic of Ukraine, Kyiv Opera Theater, National Chornobyl Museum, Valeriy Lobanovskyi Dynamo Stadium and Hinaus Gallery were among sites hit in what the Minister of Culture called the “largest series of damages” to cultural institutions in Kyiv since Russia’s war in all of Ukraine began in 2022. – CBC
- The Enrollment Cliff Is Here For American Colleges
Last year, at least sixteen nonprofit colleges and universities announced that they would close and seven more announced that they would merge with or be acquired by other schools. – The New Yorker
- New Zealand To Decentralize Arts Funding, Awarding Most Grants Regionally
The national government’s arts agency, Creative New Zealand, plans to have most funding decisions (excepting international projects and national companies such as the NZ Symphony and Royal NZ Ballet) made by up to 16 independent regional organizations. – The Big Idea (New Zealand)
- Universities Are Canceling Commencement Speakers Who Might Be Controversial
Some students only want people who hold similar views to address them at their graduation. They exercise what free speech law experts call a “heckler’s veto,” meaning when an audience’s reaction, or anticipated response, stops someone from speaking. – The Conversation
MUSIC
- How The Cherokee Bible Reveals Differences Between European And Native American Worldviews
One can learn quite a bit by noticing which English words and phrases had no Cherokee equivalent — and in how translators chose to render those words and phrases in Cherokee. – The Conversation
- Booktok Sells Tons Of Books. Its Reviews, Though…
While TikTok’s stunted critical language sells legions more books—even good ones—than the literary critics who dismiss the platform, as a doubtfully salable fiction writer I’m less interested in how a book goes viral than in what this costs the reader. – The Point
- Behind Book Bans In The Digital Age
I think the library feels like a place where you can do something concrete. You can go to an actual library; you can pull books off the shelves. And I think maybe that’s behind this strange resurgence of book banning. – The Walrus
- Weird Writing Advice (It’s The Best)
Writers have a bevy of mantras—“show don’t tell,” “kill your darlings”—that mainly help by giving the writer a sense that there are rules. But the rules can’t govern the place the work comes from. – The New Yorker
- Chicago Tribune Strikes Last-Minute Agreement To Buy Suburban Paper Daily Herald
The Tribune, owned by finance firm Alden Global Capital, landed the deal to purchase the employee-owned Herald (based in northwestern suburb Arlington Heights) after several full-page ads, an 11th-hour bid and (probably) a premium price. – Chicago Tribune (Yahoo!)
PEOPLE
- Behind The Scenes At Second City, Watching A New Show Get Made
“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)
- What It Costs These Days To Produce A Show In London’s West End
“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)
- Barn At Oscar Hammerstein II’s Pennsylvania Farmstead Collapses In Storm
Highland Farm, just outside Doylestown in Bucks County, was where Hammerstein wrote the words for many of the musicals he created with Richard Rodgers. It is now the site of the Oscar Hammerstein Museum and Theatre Education Center, which plans to rebuild the barn as an exhibition space and education center. – PhillyVoice
- Since It Gave Up Government Funding, Finances At London’s Wigmore Hall Are Stronger Than Ever
The city’s most respected chamber music venue has seen a 25% increase year-on-year in ticket sales since it left the funding portfolio of Arts Council England, artistic director John Gilhooly said. – The Stage
- “The World’s Greatest Orchestra” — Take Two: Today’s Metropolitan Opera
PEOPLE
- Behind The Scenes At Second City, Watching A New Show Get Made
“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)
- What It Costs These Days To Produce A Show In London’s West End
“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)
- Barn At Oscar Hammerstein II’s Pennsylvania Farmstead Collapses In Storm
Highland Farm, just outside Doylestown in Bucks County, was where Hammerstein wrote the words for many of the musicals he created with Richard Rodgers. It is now the site of the Oscar Hammerstein Museum and Theatre Education Center, which plans to rebuild the barn as an exhibition space and education center. – PhillyVoice
- Since It Gave Up Government Funding, Finances At London’s Wigmore Hall Are Stronger Than Ever
The city’s most respected chamber music venue has seen a 25% increase year-on-year in ticket sales since it left the funding portfolio of Arts Council England, artistic director John Gilhooly said. – The Stage
- “The World’s Greatest Orchestra” — Take Two: Today’s Metropolitan Opera
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Why Has The World Stopped Making Babies?
Some blame technology, particularly smartphones and social media. Others blame a kind of 21st-century weltschmerz—a sadness about the state of the world and our uncertain future in it. – The Atlantic
- Gandhi And His Notion Of Micro- And Macro-Morality
Gandhi demonstrated that micro-morality is essential, but not good enough. We have to be morally good people used to looking inside and judging what we do before we do it, but also people who look seriously at the flawed systems that surround us and think about what we can do to oppose them. – 3 Quarks Daily
- Maybe We’re Thinking About Ecosystems The Wrong Way
Why do we keep thinking ecosystems have functions they could fail to perform? – Aeon
- What Happens When You Give Artists A Guaranteed Income
The extent to which AI will upend creative work remains unsettled. But that uncertainty has made guaranteeing income for creatives a more viable policy idea. – The Conversation
- Is Arts Criticism A Moral Good?
We no longer argue about whether art as such is a matter of life and death—we assume that it’s not. Consequently, critics aren’t prompted to ask about the political valence of their own activity: Is criticism itself a moral good? – Artforum
