AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Trump White House’s Proposed Budget Includes Funding Cuts And Staff Layoffs At Smithsonian
“For fiscal year 2027, the White House has proposed giving the Smithsonian $961.3 million in federal funding, roughly an 11% cut from the $1.08 billion Congress provided to it fiscal year 2026 and the institution’s lowest proposed funding level since at least 2020.” – ARTnews
- London’s Royal Ballet And Opera Says It Needs £60 Million Just To Keep Its Building Open
“The historic Covent Garden venue … has reported a ‘critical’ need to invest in its stage infrastructure and the ‘fabric of our building’. Without doing so, the theatre is at risk of equipment failures and performance cancellations, according to a review of the organisation’s financial health.” – The Times (UK)
- Hirshhorn Museum’s New Sculpture Garden Has Its Opening Date
“After a long period of being fenced off and closed to the public, a reflecting pool will soon be reopening after a major renovation. No, not that one. This reflecting pool is in the center of the Hirshhorn Museum’s sculpture garden, which will reopen Oct. 31.” – The Washington Post (MSN)
- Nobody Boos At A Screen
Good Morning,
The U.S. has lost a fifth of its movie theaters and nearly a third of its bowling alleys since 2001 (Fortune). That’s not a taste story, it’s an infrastructure one — the places where strangers used to end up sitting next to each other are disappearing.
The consequence shows up inside the rooms still standing: moviegoing has stopped being habit meeting spontaneity, and the question of what to see has collapsed into whether to go at all (The Atlantic). Instagram, meanwhile, is building a TV app on the theory that private scrolling becomes a shared activity if you move it to the big screen (The Atlantic).
But a room still does something a feed can’t. Bayreuth audiences booed the AI-assembled projections in a Wagner staging (Los Angeles Times). Some additional evidence: remembering sequences, processing music and staying present with other people is exactly the demand researchers think helps hold dementia off (Harper’s Bazaar).
All of our stories below.
- A Boston Symphony Lesson: Limits Of A Music Critic?
The answer cannot simply be that the critic is more objective. Objectivity is valuable, but proximity matters as well. Critics attend performances. Audiences hear concerts. Administrators oversee institutions. But only the musicians experience the entire artistic relationship. – Orlando Alonso
ISSUES
- Hirshhorn Museum’s New Sculpture Garden Has Its Opening Date
“After a long period of being fenced off and closed to the public, a reflecting pool will soon be reopening after a major renovation. No, not that one. This reflecting pool is in the center of the Hirshhorn Museum’s sculpture garden, which will reopen Oct. 31.” – The Washington Post (MSN)
- There Are 35,000 Museums In The US. Here Is ARTnews’ List Of The Top 30
They’re spread out across the lower 48. – ARTnews
- They’re Re-Gilding Some Statues In DC, For Some Reason
“All four statues were a thank-you gift from Italy following the end of World War II.” – Artforum
- Artists Fight To Save A Women’s Sculpture Park In London
“Of almost 1,500 monuments in London, more than a fifth [are] dedicated to named men and only 4% [are] dedicated to women, half as many as those that celebrated animals. And of all the public sculptures in London, only 13% were created by women.” – The Guardian (UK)
- What David Hockney Learned From The Louvre
“Hockney used visibly different etching techniques in different territories of the image—soft mats of color for the window blind, meticulous linear hatching for the floor, and splotchy, translucent color for the surrounding wall.” – The Atlantic
MEDIA
- Trump White House’s Proposed Budget Includes Funding Cuts And Staff Layoffs At Smithsonian
“For fiscal year 2027, the White House has proposed giving the Smithsonian $961.3 million in federal funding, roughly an 11% cut from the $1.08 billion Congress provided to it fiscal year 2026 and the institution’s lowest proposed funding level since at least 2020.” – ARTnews
- London’s Royal Ballet And Opera Says It Needs £60 Million Just To Keep Its Building Open
“The historic Covent Garden venue … has reported a ‘critical’ need to invest in its stage infrastructure and the ‘fabric of our building’. Without doing so, the theatre is at risk of equipment failures and performance cancellations, according to a review of the organisation’s financial health.” – The Times (UK)
- Hollywood’s Open, Horrible Secrets, Such As The Whisper Network Concerning Jared Leto
“When a lot of people make a percentage off the earnings of one famous individual, the capacity for denial is vast” — and now there’s a huge, “well-oiled anti-accountability machine” that cranks up as well. – The New York Times
- The Report From Interlochen Might Help Change Michigan’s Laws Around Statute Of Limitations
Current bills “would extend the civil statute of limitations for criminal sexual conduct claims, create a one-year revival window for lawsuits that are currently time-barred and eliminate the civil statute of limitations when a criminal case results in a conviction.” – Detroit Free Press
- The Firestorm Over Emily Wilson’s Review Of The Odyssey
It was a strongly worded review, and Joyce Carol Oates, for one, isn’t having it. “Oates said she would have expected a translator, whose role she described as having subjectivity, to be more tolerant.” – The New York Times
MUSIC
- Australian Library Waives Fine For Book Returned After 150 Years
The book, The Antiquities of Athens, published in 1858, “was discovered inside a tea crate bricked into a sealed fireplace.” Normal place to put a book down and then never see it again, right? – Salon
- Writers Just Can’t Resist Writing From The POV Of A Dog
Virginia Woolf with Flush, Paul Auster with Timbuktu, Garth Stein with The Art of Racing in the Rain, and now another Paul – Yoon – with Etna. Why? Yoon says, “I deeply believe dogs have superpowers and secrets.” – The New York Times
- People Aren’t Reading As Much, But Perhaps This Will Spur Them On
That’s right: It’s a couch-to-5K, except for books. – The Guardian (UK)
- What Happens When Two Partners Working Writers Suddenly Write Together
“‘We’d always been very wary of working together because we’d quite like to stay together,’ says Sharp wryly. She looks at her partner of 13 years. ‘You don’t generally like to work with others.’” – The Guardian (UK)
- If You Need A Good Laugh
Try one of Andrew Sean Greer’s comic novel recommendations, even though he says, “nobody knows what a comic novel is. And once you start discussing it, all the fun runs out.” – The Guardian (UK)
PEOPLE
- Trump White House’s Proposed Budget Includes Funding Cuts And Staff Layoffs At Smithsonian
“For fiscal year 2027, the White House has proposed giving the Smithsonian $961.3 million in federal funding, roughly an 11% cut from the $1.08 billion Congress provided to it fiscal year 2026 and the institution’s lowest proposed funding level since at least 2020.” – ARTnews
- London’s Royal Ballet And Opera Says It Needs £60 Million Just To Keep Its Building Open
“The historic Covent Garden venue … has reported a ‘critical’ need to invest in its stage infrastructure and the ‘fabric of our building’. Without doing so, the theatre is at risk of equipment failures and performance cancellations, according to a review of the organisation’s financial health.” – The Times (UK)
- Hirshhorn Museum’s New Sculpture Garden Has Its Opening Date
“After a long period of being fenced off and closed to the public, a reflecting pool will soon be reopening after a major renovation. No, not that one. This reflecting pool is in the center of the Hirshhorn Museum’s sculpture garden, which will reopen Oct. 31.” – The Washington Post (MSN)
- Nobody Boos At A Screen
Good Morning,
The U.S. has lost a fifth of its movie theaters and nearly a third of its bowling alleys since 2001 (Fortune). That’s not a taste story, it’s an infrastructure one — the places where strangers used to end up sitting next to each other are disappearing.
The consequence shows up inside the rooms still standing: moviegoing has stopped being habit meeting spontaneity, and the question of what to see has collapsed into whether to go at all (The Atlantic). Instagram, meanwhile, is building a TV app on the theory that private scrolling becomes a shared activity if you move it to the big screen (The Atlantic).
But a room still does something a feed can’t. Bayreuth audiences booed the AI-assembled projections in a Wagner staging (Los Angeles Times). Some additional evidence: remembering sequences, processing music and staying present with other people is exactly the demand researchers think helps hold dementia off (Harper’s Bazaar).
All of our stories below.
- A Boston Symphony Lesson: Limits Of A Music Critic?
The answer cannot simply be that the critic is more objective. Objectivity is valuable, but proximity matters as well. Critics attend performances. Audiences hear concerts. Administrators oversee institutions. But only the musicians experience the entire artistic relationship. – Orlando Alonso
PEOPLE
- Trump White House’s Proposed Budget Includes Funding Cuts And Staff Layoffs At Smithsonian
“For fiscal year 2027, the White House has proposed giving the Smithsonian $961.3 million in federal funding, roughly an 11% cut from the $1.08 billion Congress provided to it fiscal year 2026 and the institution’s lowest proposed funding level since at least 2020.” – ARTnews
- London’s Royal Ballet And Opera Says It Needs £60 Million Just To Keep Its Building Open
“The historic Covent Garden venue … has reported a ‘critical’ need to invest in its stage infrastructure and the ‘fabric of our building’. Without doing so, the theatre is at risk of equipment failures and performance cancellations, according to a review of the organisation’s financial health.” – The Times (UK)
- Hirshhorn Museum’s New Sculpture Garden Has Its Opening Date
“After a long period of being fenced off and closed to the public, a reflecting pool will soon be reopening after a major renovation. No, not that one. This reflecting pool is in the center of the Hirshhorn Museum’s sculpture garden, which will reopen Oct. 31.” – The Washington Post (MSN)
- Nobody Boos At A Screen
Good Morning,
The U.S. has lost a fifth of its movie theaters and nearly a third of its bowling alleys since 2001 (Fortune). That’s not a taste story, it’s an infrastructure one — the places where strangers used to end up sitting next to each other are disappearing.
The consequence shows up inside the rooms still standing: moviegoing has stopped being habit meeting spontaneity, and the question of what to see has collapsed into whether to go at all (The Atlantic). Instagram, meanwhile, is building a TV app on the theory that private scrolling becomes a shared activity if you move it to the big screen (The Atlantic).
But a room still does something a feed can’t. Bayreuth audiences booed the AI-assembled projections in a Wagner staging (Los Angeles Times). Some additional evidence: remembering sequences, processing music and staying present with other people is exactly the demand researchers think helps hold dementia off (Harper’s Bazaar).
All of our stories below.
- A Boston Symphony Lesson: Limits Of A Music Critic?
The answer cannot simply be that the critic is more objective. Objectivity is valuable, but proximity matters as well. Critics attend performances. Audiences hear concerts. Administrators oversee institutions. But only the musicians experience the entire artistic relationship. – Orlando Alonso
THEATRE
VISUAL
- 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
- America Is Losing Its Public Gathering Spaces
According to its Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages—which counts business establishments by industry down to the county level going back to 1990—the U.S. has lost a fifth of its movie theaters and nearly a third of its bowling alleys since 2001. – Fortune
- Google Briefly Allowed AI Manipulation Of Google Earth Satellite Images. Bad Idea
Google briefly allowed anyone to create AI-modified versions of satellite imagery available in Google Earth—before quickly reversing its decision as people shared examples of AI-generated pictures that illustrated the potential for misinformation and disinformation. – Ars Technica
- Question: Is It Even Possible To Make Non-Creepy Smart Glasses?
Sure, everyone has phones, but “the phone still needs to be pulled out, held up, and have its camera activated to capture a photo or film a video. Smart glasses, with small built-in cameras and the user’s ability to obfuscate the recording notification, are much sneakier.” – Wired
- The Power Of Images, Or, How Fake Towns On Maps Sometimes Became Real
“The logic is simple: two cartographers might easily draw the same real town, but two cartographers can’t independently dream up the same fake one. So if a rival’s map contains the same invented place, it all but proves they copied the map.” – Open Culture