AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Former Steppenwolf Head Anna D. Shapiro To Lead Juilliard’s Drama Division
Shapiro, who won a Tony in 2008 for directing August: Osage County and was Steppenwolf’s artistic director from 2015 to 2021, currently runs the graduate directing program at Northwestern University. At Juilliard, where her tenure begins next July, she succeeds Evan Yionoulis, who is now dean at Yale’s School of Drama. – The Hollywood Reporter
- San Antonio Philharmonic To Pay $232,000 To Settle Lawsuits
“The dispute began in September 2024, when (David) Wood and (Colette) Holt sued the Philharmonic, saying it had failed to repay a $150,000 loan to secure a collection of the former San Antonio Symphony’s orchestra instruments and its music library. … The agreement does not include any admission of liability or wrongdoing.” – Texas Public Radio
- Readers Prefer AI-Generated Stories To Human-Written Ones — As Long As They Don’t Know About The AI Part: Study
“Readers gave AI-generated stories they believed to be written by humans the highest ratings in a new study published by Cambridge University Press, … with researchers noting that ‘participants generally seemed to have poor instincts about how to tell which story was AI-generated’.” – The Bookseller (UK)
- Uffizi Galleries In Florence Reveal Plans For Two-Year, $57 Million Renovation
“The (€50 million) revamp includes dozens of projects in the Gallery of Statues and Paintings, the nearby Palazzo Pitti, and the Boboli Gardens, some of which have already begun, while others are scheduled to start in the coming months, allowing the museum to remain open.” – ARTnews
- Simon & Schuster Will Go Ahead With Embattled Academic Jason Arday’s Memoir
Arday is the sociologist who just resigned from Cambridge after accusations of plagiarism and of being, basically, the British George Santos. Despite the possibility that some of what he recounts in his book is untrue, S&S is “proceeding with the publication of Great and Unfortunate Things by Jason Arday as planned.” – The Guardian
ISSUES
- Uffizi Galleries In Florence Reveal Plans For Two-Year, $57 Million Renovation
“The (€50 million) revamp includes dozens of projects in the Gallery of Statues and Paintings, the nearby Palazzo Pitti, and the Boboli Gardens, some of which have already begun, while others are scheduled to start in the coming months, allowing the museum to remain open.” – ARTnews
- Company Turns AI On Art Fraud
In practical terms, that means a knowledge graph representing thousands of artworks, with billions of nodes detailing the complex relationships its algorithms have identified between them. – Didginomica
- The Big Estate Sales That Are Reshaping The Art Market
The list of collectors whose art has arrived at auction over the past two years reads like the society pages of decades past. Some died; others have merely reached an age when keeping several hundred million dollars’ worth of paintings around no longer seems quite as important as it once did. – ARTnews
- Major Museums Are Forming Partnerships To Buy And Share Artworks
“Pooling resources now reflects a broader shift away from the competitive collection building of the 19th and 20th centuries. Increasing financial pressure plays an undeniable role, but so does a growing appetite for deeper institutional ties and shared expertise.” – Artnet
- Contemporary Art Museum Of Raleigh Is Selling Its Building
The museum paused its exhibitions and other activities last year due to financial troubles. The board and management have not announced any permanent closure; their statements indicate that they hope to keep operating without a permanent home. – The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC)
MEDIA
- Seven Smithsonian Museums Closed Due To HVAC Issue
The museums, all on the south side of the National Mall, share one of the General Service Administration’s HVAC plants; the chilled water supply at that facility was disrupted on Thursday, leaving the museums without air conditioning during a heat wave. The buildings will reopen once the issue is resolved. – Washington City Paper
- Do The People Of This Slovakian Village Really Want To Lose UNESCO World Heritage Status?
That’s what all the headlines said, but the people of the well-preserved medieval village of Vlkolínec say it’s not that simple. They want to protect their small, still-living community from the pressures of overtourism, which could easily overwhelm it. – Deutsche Welle
- Dallas’s Perot Museum Of Nature And Science Seems To Be Planning A Big Expansion It Hasn’t Announced
The news comes from a filing the museum made last week with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation; management has also filed with the city of Dallas for a construction permit. Work is expected to start early next year. – The Dallas Morning News (MSN)
- The Problem With Super-Flexible High-Tech Performance Venues
Justin Davidson on New York’s Perelman Arts Center and The Shed: “Now the boldest experimenters can take advantage of walls that move at the touch of a button, precision lifts, rooms that shrink and expand, projected images (on) moving surfaces. … Yet the revolution, now that it’s here, feels anticlimactic and overpriced.” – Curbed (MSN)
- Sure, Attack The Smithsonian. But Americans Really Love It
Even now, as the museum complex continues to face a pressure campaign from the White House, public fondness for the Smithsonian—for its free entry and eclectic collections—is hard to break among those otherwise receptive to President Trump’s anti-institutionalism. – The Atlantic
MUSIC
- Readers Prefer AI-Generated Stories To Human-Written Ones — As Long As They Don’t Know About The AI Part: Study
“Readers gave AI-generated stories they believed to be written by humans the highest ratings in a new study published by Cambridge University Press, … with researchers noting that ‘participants generally seemed to have poor instincts about how to tell which story was AI-generated’.” – The Bookseller (UK)
- Simon & Schuster Will Go Ahead With Embattled Academic Jason Arday’s Memoir
Arday is the sociologist who just resigned from Cambridge after accusations of plagiarism and of being, basically, the British George Santos. Despite the possibility that some of what he recounts in his book is untrue, S&S is “proceeding with the publication of Great and Unfortunate Things by Jason Arday as planned.” – The Guardian
- The Mystic Poet-Saints Of Kashmir, One Hindu And One Muslim
The 14th-century Hindu poetess Lal Ded and the 15th-century Sufi Muslim poet Nund Rishi wrote not in the elegant, aristocratic court language, Persian, but with simple words and phrases in Kashmiri, the everyday language of ordinary people These mystics are seen by many Kashmiris as spiritual grandmother and grandfather, even today. – The Conversation
- Who Is Buying Massive Quantities Of Books?
We know that something mysterious is afoot. Someone—if not more than one group or company—has been snapping up massive volumes of books from shops around the world. – The Atlantic
- Author Denies He Used AI To Write Book That He Sold For Millions
The author accused of using artificial intelligence to craft the debut novel that landed him a multimillion-dollar book deal said he was innocent and that the claims against him were racially motivated. – The Wall Street Journal
PEOPLE
- Former Steppenwolf Head Anna D. Shapiro To Lead Juilliard’s Drama Division
Shapiro, who won a Tony in 2008 for directing August: Osage County and was Steppenwolf’s artistic director from 2015 to 2021, currently runs the graduate directing program at Northwestern University. At Juilliard, where her tenure begins next July, she succeeds Evan Yionoulis, who is now dean at Yale’s School of Drama. – The Hollywood Reporter
- San Antonio Philharmonic To Pay $232,000 To Settle Lawsuits
“The dispute began in September 2024, when (David) Wood and (Colette) Holt sued the Philharmonic, saying it had failed to repay a $150,000 loan to secure a collection of the former San Antonio Symphony’s orchestra instruments and its music library. … The agreement does not include any admission of liability or wrongdoing.” – Texas Public Radio
- Readers Prefer AI-Generated Stories To Human-Written Ones — As Long As They Don’t Know About The AI Part: Study
“Readers gave AI-generated stories they believed to be written by humans the highest ratings in a new study published by Cambridge University Press, … with researchers noting that ‘participants generally seemed to have poor instincts about how to tell which story was AI-generated’.” – The Bookseller (UK)
- Uffizi Galleries In Florence Reveal Plans For Two-Year, $57 Million Renovation
“The (€50 million) revamp includes dozens of projects in the Gallery of Statues and Paintings, the nearby Palazzo Pitti, and the Boboli Gardens, some of which have already begun, while others are scheduled to start in the coming months, allowing the museum to remain open.” – ARTnews
- Simon & Schuster Will Go Ahead With Embattled Academic Jason Arday’s Memoir
Arday is the sociologist who just resigned from Cambridge after accusations of plagiarism and of being, basically, the British George Santos. Despite the possibility that some of what he recounts in his book is untrue, S&S is “proceeding with the publication of Great and Unfortunate Things by Jason Arday as planned.” – The Guardian
PEOPLE
- Former Steppenwolf Head Anna D. Shapiro To Lead Juilliard’s Drama Division
Shapiro, who won a Tony in 2008 for directing August: Osage County and was Steppenwolf’s artistic director from 2015 to 2021, currently runs the graduate directing program at Northwestern University. At Juilliard, where her tenure begins next July, she succeeds Evan Yionoulis, who is now dean at Yale’s School of Drama. – The Hollywood Reporter
- San Antonio Philharmonic To Pay $232,000 To Settle Lawsuits
“The dispute began in September 2024, when (David) Wood and (Colette) Holt sued the Philharmonic, saying it had failed to repay a $150,000 loan to secure a collection of the former San Antonio Symphony’s orchestra instruments and its music library. … The agreement does not include any admission of liability or wrongdoing.” – Texas Public Radio
- Readers Prefer AI-Generated Stories To Human-Written Ones — As Long As They Don’t Know About The AI Part: Study
“Readers gave AI-generated stories they believed to be written by humans the highest ratings in a new study published by Cambridge University Press, … with researchers noting that ‘participants generally seemed to have poor instincts about how to tell which story was AI-generated’.” – The Bookseller (UK)
- Uffizi Galleries In Florence Reveal Plans For Two-Year, $57 Million Renovation
“The (€50 million) revamp includes dozens of projects in the Gallery of Statues and Paintings, the nearby Palazzo Pitti, and the Boboli Gardens, some of which have already begun, while others are scheduled to start in the coming months, allowing the museum to remain open.” – ARTnews
- Simon & Schuster Will Go Ahead With Embattled Academic Jason Arday’s Memoir
Arday is the sociologist who just resigned from Cambridge after accusations of plagiarism and of being, basically, the British George Santos. Despite the possibility that some of what he recounts in his book is untrue, S&S is “proceeding with the publication of Great and Unfortunate Things by Jason Arday as planned.” – The Guardian
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Rise Of The Neo-Luddites
The label of “neo-Luddism” or “digital Luddite” is also being reclaimed by people concerned about labour conditions, society and democracy in an era of AI expansion twinned with personal profit. – The Conversation
- The Edinburgh Fringe Is Huge. But Is Success Just Getting Bigger?
Edinburgh has wrestled with for years: what is tourism actually for? If the answer is simply “more visitors, more spending”, the city will keep winning by numbers while residents feel they are losing by experience. – The Conversation
- The Difficulties Of An AI For Africa
- Our Complicated Relationship With Boredom
Boredom isn’t merely the result of a boring external environment, as a schoolchild might think, or inadequate mental resources, as my mother suggested. It is either a mysterious nexus of dysfunction or a healthy adaptive function (it’s complicated) that afflicts both individuals and societies at large. – Portico Quarterly
- Guardrails For AI Didn’t Work. So Bring In The Philosophers
“Efforts [to stop the generation of harmful content] were initially focused around putting in simple black-and-white guardrails, such as forbidding a model from talking about bombs entirely. But these proved clumsy and easy to circumvent. Now, companies are pursuing methods that lean heavily on a philosophical understanding of right and wrong.” – The AI Humanist