AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Restoring “America’s Notre-Dame” — Which Is In, Of All Places, Kentucky
The Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington (across the Ohio River from Cincinnati) is a scaled-down copy of Notre-Dame de Paris on the outside, while the interior is modeled on the French cathedral in St.-Denis. It’s a product of America’s turn-of-the-20th-century Gothic Revival, getting its first restoration in its 125 years. – AP
- Darren Walker, Who Headed The Ford Foundation, Is Heading To Hollywood
“On Friday, Walker, 66, was named president and chief executive of Anonymous Content, the production and management company” which produced, among others, the Oscar-winning film Spotlight and “whose lead investor is Emerson Collective, a company steered by the entrepreneur and philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs.” – The New York Times
- Comic Con Bans AI Art
“Material created by Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) either partially or wholly, is not allowed in the art show. If there are questions, the Art Show coordinator will be the sole judge of acceptability.” – Artnet
- Curator Resigns After Nan Goldin Acquisition Voted Down
A senior curator and two collections committee volunteers have resigned their posts at the Art Gallery of Ontario after the institution voted against acquiring a new slideshow work by the artist Nan Goldin. The purchase was defeated after several members expressed concern about Goldin’s remarks denouncing Israel’s attacks on Gaza as genocide. – Artnet
- Dallas Opera Raises Record $54M
More than 100 donors contributed to the campaign, with recent significant gifts from the Perot family, the Hamon Foundation, the Vansickle Family Foundation, Cece and Ford Lacy, an anonymous donor and the TDO board, trustees and honorary directors. – Dallas Morning News
ISSUES
- Restoring “America’s Notre-Dame” — Which Is In, Of All Places, Kentucky
The Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington (across the Ohio River from Cincinnati) is a scaled-down copy of Notre-Dame de Paris on the outside, while the interior is modeled on the French cathedral in St.-Denis. It’s a product of America’s turn-of-the-20th-century Gothic Revival, getting its first restoration in its 125 years. – AP
- Comic Con Bans AI Art
“Material created by Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) either partially or wholly, is not allowed in the art show. If there are questions, the Art Show coordinator will be the sole judge of acceptability.” – Artnet
- Curator Resigns After Nan Goldin Acquisition Voted Down
A senior curator and two collections committee volunteers have resigned their posts at the Art Gallery of Ontario after the institution voted against acquiring a new slideshow work by the artist Nan Goldin. The purchase was defeated after several members expressed concern about Goldin’s remarks denouncing Israel’s attacks on Gaza as genocide. – Artnet
- The Remarkable Art In A Building The Federal Government Has Marked For Sale
What would happen to the murals is an open question, as removing them may prove difficult. Advocates for the building fear that without protections put in place ahead of a sale, the buyer would have no incentive to maintain the historical features inside. – Washington Post
- The Real Battle For The Smithsonian
Americans argue about the Smithsonian far more than we would if only its possessions mattered. When our museums of record tell us a story, that story matters enormously. – The Atlantic
MEDIA
- Minneapolis Arts Organizations Join General Strike Today
“We’re pausing operations to recognise the weight of this moment in our community and to care for our employees and people in the Twin Cities community.” – The Art Newspaper
- Should Struggling Artists And Performers Get Preference In New York City’s Affordable Housing Programs?
After all, large numbers of creatives have been fleeing the city, driven away mostly by the high cost of apartments. But would such a preference be fair to other struggling New Yorkers? – Gothamist
- Chaos At One Of San Francisco’s Beloved Indie Performance Venues
“CounterPulse … is in crisis caused by financial strain, leadership collapse and a bitter labor conflict. With just one show on its calendar for all of 2026 and no one at the helm, its predicament raises questions about sustainability, power and labor in small arts organizations.” – San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)
- Hundreds Of Artists Warn About AI Slop
Around 800 artists, writers, actors, and musicians signed on to a new campaign against what they call “theft at a grand scale” by AI companies. The signatories call the campaign “Stealing Isn’t Innovation.” – The Verge
- Trump Administration Just Won’t Let Its Court Fight Against Institute Of Museums And Library Services Go
“Although the IMLS restored discretionary grant funding in December and just last week reopened to grant proposals for FY 2026 — in compliance with a November court order — defendants in State of Rhode Island v. Trump have filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.” – Publishers Weekly
MUSIC
- Author Declares Culture Dead, Publishers Still Printing Books
W. David Marx diagnoses 25 years of creative stagnation in a new cultural history. Presumably the irony of launching a fresh cultural critique about the death of cultural innovation isn’t lost on anyone involved. — Artnet
- The Heart Of Small-Market Weekly Newspapers? The Obituaries
“It has long been recognized that newspaper obituaries hold value for communities, documenting lives and preserving local history. Their significance is rarely debated. Their value to the business of news and in sustaining local newsrooms is far less understood.” – Reynolds Journalism Institute
- Amazon’s AI Authors Lack What Writers Need Most: Attitude
Machine-generated novels and coloring books are flooding the marketplace, but they’re missing literature’s secret ingredient—artistic ego. Turns out readers might actually miss all that human neurosis and creative self-importance after all. — LitHub
- Science Peer Review Journals Are Being Swamped By AI Slop
For more than a century, scientific journals have been the pipes through which knowledge of the natural world flows into our culture. Now they’re being clogged with AI slop. – The Atlantic
- Unique, “Priceless” Medieval Manuscript Discovered In English School Library
The book is the only surviving complete original manuscript of Richard Rolle’s Emendatio vitae, written circa 1340. – BBC (MSN)
PEOPLE
- Restoring “America’s Notre-Dame” — Which Is In, Of All Places, Kentucky
The Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington (across the Ohio River from Cincinnati) is a scaled-down copy of Notre-Dame de Paris on the outside, while the interior is modeled on the French cathedral in St.-Denis. It’s a product of America’s turn-of-the-20th-century Gothic Revival, getting its first restoration in its 125 years. – AP
- Darren Walker, Who Headed The Ford Foundation, Is Heading To Hollywood
“On Friday, Walker, 66, was named president and chief executive of Anonymous Content, the production and management company” which produced, among others, the Oscar-winning film Spotlight and “whose lead investor is Emerson Collective, a company steered by the entrepreneur and philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs.” – The New York Times
- Comic Con Bans AI Art
“Material created by Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) either partially or wholly, is not allowed in the art show. If there are questions, the Art Show coordinator will be the sole judge of acceptability.” – Artnet
- Curator Resigns After Nan Goldin Acquisition Voted Down
A senior curator and two collections committee volunteers have resigned their posts at the Art Gallery of Ontario after the institution voted against acquiring a new slideshow work by the artist Nan Goldin. The purchase was defeated after several members expressed concern about Goldin’s remarks denouncing Israel’s attacks on Gaza as genocide. – Artnet
- Dallas Opera Raises Record $54M
More than 100 donors contributed to the campaign, with recent significant gifts from the Perot family, the Hamon Foundation, the Vansickle Family Foundation, Cece and Ford Lacy, an anonymous donor and the TDO board, trustees and honorary directors. – Dallas Morning News
PEOPLE
- Restoring “America’s Notre-Dame” — Which Is In, Of All Places, Kentucky
The Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington (across the Ohio River from Cincinnati) is a scaled-down copy of Notre-Dame de Paris on the outside, while the interior is modeled on the French cathedral in St.-Denis. It’s a product of America’s turn-of-the-20th-century Gothic Revival, getting its first restoration in its 125 years. – AP
- Darren Walker, Who Headed The Ford Foundation, Is Heading To Hollywood
“On Friday, Walker, 66, was named president and chief executive of Anonymous Content, the production and management company” which produced, among others, the Oscar-winning film Spotlight and “whose lead investor is Emerson Collective, a company steered by the entrepreneur and philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs.” – The New York Times
- Comic Con Bans AI Art
“Material created by Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) either partially or wholly, is not allowed in the art show. If there are questions, the Art Show coordinator will be the sole judge of acceptability.” – Artnet
- Curator Resigns After Nan Goldin Acquisition Voted Down
A senior curator and two collections committee volunteers have resigned their posts at the Art Gallery of Ontario after the institution voted against acquiring a new slideshow work by the artist Nan Goldin. The purchase was defeated after several members expressed concern about Goldin’s remarks denouncing Israel’s attacks on Gaza as genocide. – Artnet
- Dallas Opera Raises Record $54M
More than 100 donors contributed to the campaign, with recent significant gifts from the Perot family, the Hamon Foundation, the Vansickle Family Foundation, Cece and Ford Lacy, an anonymous donor and the TDO board, trustees and honorary directors. – Dallas Morning News
THEATRE
VISUAL
- AI Art’s Predictable Problem: The Cliché Machine Cranks On
As algorithms churn out endless variations on tired themes, human artists are discovering their secret weapon isn’t perfection—it’s the beautiful, messy unpredictability that no code can replicate. — Aeon
- Justice System Meets Its Deepfake Moment
When seeing is no longer believing, Canadian courts face an existential crisis: how do you prove what’s real when reality itself can be manufactured? The legal system’s analog truth tests meet digital deception. — The Walrus
- Why Movies Launch And Music Drops
A key reason why it’s now more complicated to promote an album than, say, a theatrically released film, is the ephemeral, immaterial nature of contemporary music consumption. By comparison, most films that see a theatrical release maintain a predictable, streamlined promotional schedule. – The New Yorker
- How We Lost The Art Of Paying Attention
Most of us are by now familiar with the broad mechanisms of the “attention economy” – the hijacking and monetising of consumer attention through addictive channels. The ravages of this system are ever more apparent. – The Observer
- The Death Of The 20th Century Mono-Culture (And What It Means)
The implications for the battered-and-bruised entertainment industry are obvious. The impacts on our culture are just starting to fully materialize, but will be more significant. Instead of pulling us together, pop culture is another force dragging us apart. – The Wall Street Journal
