AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Boston Symphony CEO: Yes, We Handled The Nelsons Thing Poorly. No, We’re Not Changing Our Minds.
Chad Smith: “I can see that it was an abrupt announcement externally. It didn’t represent abrupt decision-making, though. It was a very considered conversation that has been going on for some time. … Our intention was to have a joint statement, but that wasn’t agreed to.” – The New York Times
- Pianist Igor Levit Launches His Own Record Label
The imprint, which will operate within Sony Music, Levit’s longtime label, is called No Silence, and will feature artists other than Levit himself. Among the first three releases, available in October, will be a complete 16-hour performance of Satie’s Vexations. – Gramophone
- Creativity is Dead in the 21st Century? Really?
Good Morning,
A piece in the Yale Review asks whether the 21st century has been a creative blank space — two decades of remixing without inventing (Yale Review). The piece is a review of a book that asserts the notion. But perhaps the invention is happening; it’s just not where we used to look.
A luthier put a carbon-fiber violin onstage next to a Stradivarius and dared listeners to hear the difference (The Strad). Scientists now think metrology — measuring the physical fingerprint of pigment — can flag a forged Van Gogh (Artnet). Same thing, if you think about it: when an object can be copied, value shifts from how it was made and how you prove it.
Back in the more anodyne world, Pace, one of the generation of mega-dealers that defined the market’s top tier, suddenly cut have its staff and half its artists. (ARTnews) — Artnet shows us inside what happened, and it raises concerns about the mega-model itself. And a new study reveals that U.S. authors’ incomes keep sliding, with an Authors Guild study asking why (Publishers Weekly).
Finally, after eight nominations across four decades, Glenn Close is finally getting an Oscar (AP). Persistence eventually rewarded.
All of the rest of our stories below.
Doug
- Northwest Choirs – Executive Director
Northwest Choirs (NWC) seeks a dynamic, mission-centered Executive Director to guide one of the country’s leading youth choral organizations into its next stage of growth, visibility, and sustainability.
Serving approximately 150 young singers from across the Puget Sound region, Northwest Choirs offers rigorous music training, meaningful performance experiences, and a formative community rooted in discipline, belonging, and the pursuit of excellence.
The next Executive Director will work in close partnership with the Board of Directors, Artistic Director Jacob Winkler, staff, faculty, families, and community partners to grow membership, expand performance opportunities, steward contributed and earned revenue, and build on more than five decades of artistic and educational excellence. The ideal candidate will be energized by the opportunity to represent Northwest Choirs throughout the community, serving as a visible ambassador while building meaningful relationships across the region’s arts, cultural, and business sectors.
The organization has an annual operating budget of approximately $1.2 million. The starting salary range is projected at $105,000–$115,000, with benefits and the opportunity for performance-based incentive compensation. The anticipated start date is negotiable through late summer or fall 2026. The search is facilitated by Syrah Gunning of the DeVos Institute of Arts and Nonprofit Management. Learn more and apply at https://tinyurl.com/NWCaj01.
- The Stanford Class Where Students Are Taught To Dance Badly
“’Welcome to bad dancing,’ says Alex Ketley, a choreographer and former member of the San Francisco Ballet who teaches Dance 123: Hot Mess & Deliberate Failure as Practice. Ketley, an advanced lecturer in the department of theater and performance studies and a former Guggenheim Fellow, says it’s his most popular course.” – Stanford Magazine
ISSUES
- Scientists May Have Discovered A New Way To Spot Counterfeit Van Goghs
“By analyzing the surfaces of eight Vincent van Gogh paintings, surface metrology indeed confirmed the veracity of one long-contested but recently confirmed Van Gogh specimen — and correctly flagged another that’s been debunked.” – Artnet
- Why Pace Gallery Imploded
According to several people familiar with the call, Glimcher spent much of the meeting explaining why Pace had reached this point. The gallery had grown too large. Costs had risen too high. The model no longer worked. – ARTnews
- Survey: Nearly Half Of Mid-Career Women Are Considering Leaving The Arts
While the inaugural survey revealed gaps in leadership roles and pay for women, this edition offers a more detailed picture of the structural pressures determining who is—and, crucially, who isn’t—able to build a sustainable long-term career in the arts. – Artnet
- A New Penn Station We Won’t Dread Walking Into?
- The Looted Antiquities Trade Continues For The Same Reason The Illegal Drug Trade Does
In a word, demand. – Artnet
MEDIA
- Demand For Workers With Creative Skills Is Growing
Nearly 50% of employers are looking to expand their workforce in the next three to five years. Video games, music, design and fashion were particularly expecting to grow over that time. – The Conversation
- San Diego Mayor’s Budget Eliminates Arts Funding. This New Plan Restores Over 90% Of It.
The plan from City Council members and the Prebys Foundation will have the nonprofit provide $3 million in one-time replacement money, while the city shifts $6 million of hotel occupancy tax money from renovation of the Convention Center to fund arts and culture. – KPBS (San Diego)
- Pennsylvania Reverses Decision Not To Fund Smallest Arts Organizations
“Last year, the (Pennsylvania Council on the Arts) renamed itself Pennsylvania Creative Industries and reorganized its funding criteria, making organizations with budgets under $100,000 ineligible for grants. … (Last Thursday) the council approved a new program called Spotlight, which makes state funding available to organizations with budgets between $10,000 and $100,000.” – WHYY (Philadelphia)
- California Universities Abandoned The SAT. It’s Been A Disaster
A huge share of STEM and economics faculty across the UC system is now in open revolt—demanding that California’s public universities at least look at standardized-test scores before offering admission. – The Atlantic
- Trump Administration Asked National Park Visitors To Report “Negative” History Info. Visitors Did Something Different.
What most respondents considered negative was the effort itself. One visitor called it “un-American.” Another criticized the idea of “having Americans call in and snitch on each other.” One person wrote, “Hey Donald Trump! Trying to erase history doesn’t mean it didn’t still happen!” – AP
MUSIC
- U.S. Authors’ Incomes Are Down. New Study Looks At Why.
“(The Authors Guild research) found that only 25% of print books and e-books read in the past month were bought new or through a paid subscription. … Average author earnings, now pegged at about $10,000 annually, have declined about 42% since 2009, the year Kindles first entered the market.” – Publishers Weekly
- Collateral Damage From Trump’s Iran War: W.H. Smith, The Big Airport-Bookstore Chain
“The retailer, which operates 1,200 outlets globally in airports, railway stations and hospitals, … has already experienced a fall in revenues in its UK airport operation due to the conflict in the Middle East, (and) said North America had now also been affected.” – The Guardian
- Forgotten Manuscript By JRR Tolkien Found In Oxford Library
“The Lord of the Rings author’s translation of a medieval religious text from the early 13th century had lain forgotten in the Bodleian Libraries’ collections until now. His reworking of Sawles Warde, an early Middle English prose homily, which he titled Soul’s Ward …, is to be published for the first time.” – The Telegraph (UK)
- As Russia’s War Rages On, Kyiv Hosts A Busy Literary Festival
“A sign of the nation’s complete engulfing by war was the presence of so many soldiers on the stages; writers who had become soldiers, soldiers who had become writers. The Russia-Ukraine war has dragged on so grievously, and for so long, that entire publishing cycles have turned since 2022.” – The Guardian
- Have You Ever Really Looked Carefully At The Declaration Of Independence?
It’s poetry, philosophy and polemic, all in a little more than 1,300 words and all represented in its second and most famous sentence. – The New York Times
PEOPLE
- Boston Symphony CEO: Yes, We Handled The Nelsons Thing Poorly. No, We’re Not Changing Our Minds.
Chad Smith: “I can see that it was an abrupt announcement externally. It didn’t represent abrupt decision-making, though. It was a very considered conversation that has been going on for some time. … Our intention was to have a joint statement, but that wasn’t agreed to.” – The New York Times
- Pianist Igor Levit Launches His Own Record Label
The imprint, which will operate within Sony Music, Levit’s longtime label, is called No Silence, and will feature artists other than Levit himself. Among the first three releases, available in October, will be a complete 16-hour performance of Satie’s Vexations. – Gramophone
- Creativity is Dead in the 21st Century? Really?
Good Morning,
A piece in the Yale Review asks whether the 21st century has been a creative blank space — two decades of remixing without inventing (Yale Review). The piece is a review of a book that asserts the notion. But perhaps the invention is happening; it’s just not where we used to look.
A luthier put a carbon-fiber violin onstage next to a Stradivarius and dared listeners to hear the difference (The Strad). Scientists now think metrology — measuring the physical fingerprint of pigment — can flag a forged Van Gogh (Artnet). Same thing, if you think about it: when an object can be copied, value shifts from how it was made and how you prove it.
Back in the more anodyne world, Pace, one of the generation of mega-dealers that defined the market’s top tier, suddenly cut have its staff and half its artists. (ARTnews) — Artnet shows us inside what happened, and it raises concerns about the mega-model itself. And a new study reveals that U.S. authors’ incomes keep sliding, with an Authors Guild study asking why (Publishers Weekly).
Finally, after eight nominations across four decades, Glenn Close is finally getting an Oscar (AP). Persistence eventually rewarded.
All of the rest of our stories below.
Doug
- Northwest Choirs – Executive Director
Northwest Choirs (NWC) seeks a dynamic, mission-centered Executive Director to guide one of the country’s leading youth choral organizations into its next stage of growth, visibility, and sustainability.
Serving approximately 150 young singers from across the Puget Sound region, Northwest Choirs offers rigorous music training, meaningful performance experiences, and a formative community rooted in discipline, belonging, and the pursuit of excellence.
The next Executive Director will work in close partnership with the Board of Directors, Artistic Director Jacob Winkler, staff, faculty, families, and community partners to grow membership, expand performance opportunities, steward contributed and earned revenue, and build on more than five decades of artistic and educational excellence. The ideal candidate will be energized by the opportunity to represent Northwest Choirs throughout the community, serving as a visible ambassador while building meaningful relationships across the region’s arts, cultural, and business sectors.
The organization has an annual operating budget of approximately $1.2 million. The starting salary range is projected at $105,000–$115,000, with benefits and the opportunity for performance-based incentive compensation. The anticipated start date is negotiable through late summer or fall 2026. The search is facilitated by Syrah Gunning of the DeVos Institute of Arts and Nonprofit Management. Learn more and apply at https://tinyurl.com/NWCaj01.
- The Stanford Class Where Students Are Taught To Dance Badly
“’Welcome to bad dancing,’ says Alex Ketley, a choreographer and former member of the San Francisco Ballet who teaches Dance 123: Hot Mess & Deliberate Failure as Practice. Ketley, an advanced lecturer in the department of theater and performance studies and a former Guggenheim Fellow, says it’s his most popular course.” – Stanford Magazine
PEOPLE
- Boston Symphony CEO: Yes, We Handled The Nelsons Thing Poorly. No, We’re Not Changing Our Minds.
Chad Smith: “I can see that it was an abrupt announcement externally. It didn’t represent abrupt decision-making, though. It was a very considered conversation that has been going on for some time. … Our intention was to have a joint statement, but that wasn’t agreed to.” – The New York Times
- Pianist Igor Levit Launches His Own Record Label
The imprint, which will operate within Sony Music, Levit’s longtime label, is called No Silence, and will feature artists other than Levit himself. Among the first three releases, available in October, will be a complete 16-hour performance of Satie’s Vexations. – Gramophone
- Creativity is Dead in the 21st Century? Really?
Good Morning,
A piece in the Yale Review asks whether the 21st century has been a creative blank space — two decades of remixing without inventing (Yale Review). The piece is a review of a book that asserts the notion. But perhaps the invention is happening; it’s just not where we used to look.
A luthier put a carbon-fiber violin onstage next to a Stradivarius and dared listeners to hear the difference (The Strad). Scientists now think metrology — measuring the physical fingerprint of pigment — can flag a forged Van Gogh (Artnet). Same thing, if you think about it: when an object can be copied, value shifts from how it was made and how you prove it.
Back in the more anodyne world, Pace, one of the generation of mega-dealers that defined the market’s top tier, suddenly cut have its staff and half its artists. (ARTnews) — Artnet shows us inside what happened, and it raises concerns about the mega-model itself. And a new study reveals that U.S. authors’ incomes keep sliding, with an Authors Guild study asking why (Publishers Weekly).
Finally, after eight nominations across four decades, Glenn Close is finally getting an Oscar (AP). Persistence eventually rewarded.
All of the rest of our stories below.
Doug
- Northwest Choirs – Executive Director
Northwest Choirs (NWC) seeks a dynamic, mission-centered Executive Director to guide one of the country’s leading youth choral organizations into its next stage of growth, visibility, and sustainability.
Serving approximately 150 young singers from across the Puget Sound region, Northwest Choirs offers rigorous music training, meaningful performance experiences, and a formative community rooted in discipline, belonging, and the pursuit of excellence.
The next Executive Director will work in close partnership with the Board of Directors, Artistic Director Jacob Winkler, staff, faculty, families, and community partners to grow membership, expand performance opportunities, steward contributed and earned revenue, and build on more than five decades of artistic and educational excellence. The ideal candidate will be energized by the opportunity to represent Northwest Choirs throughout the community, serving as a visible ambassador while building meaningful relationships across the region’s arts, cultural, and business sectors.
The organization has an annual operating budget of approximately $1.2 million. The starting salary range is projected at $105,000–$115,000, with benefits and the opportunity for performance-based incentive compensation. The anticipated start date is negotiable through late summer or fall 2026. The search is facilitated by Syrah Gunning of the DeVos Institute of Arts and Nonprofit Management. Learn more and apply at https://tinyurl.com/NWCaj01.
- The Stanford Class Where Students Are Taught To Dance Badly
“’Welcome to bad dancing,’ says Alex Ketley, a choreographer and former member of the San Francisco Ballet who teaches Dance 123: Hot Mess & Deliberate Failure as Practice. Ketley, an advanced lecturer in the department of theater and performance studies and a former Guggenheim Fellow, says it’s his most popular course.” – Stanford Magazine
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Has The 21st Century Been A Creative Blank Space?
The years from 2000 to 2025 as a period of creative emptiness and stagnation so intractable that it will be remembered (or, rather, is being remembered, through the anticipation of remembrance) as voided time, a dark age. – Yale Review
- If It’s Art And People Like It, Then…
Our reigning cultural ideology has been poptimism—the idea that if a lot of people like a work of art, then it has to be good. Now sloptimism, which holds that if there’s a lot of art out there and people are engaging with it then how bad can it be? – The New Yorker
- How Good Is AI At Spotting Talent? Soccer Teams Are Working On It
For decades, the beautiful game depended on the human eye: a scout on the sideline, attentively watching, waiting for that something special. That process, however, is becoming increasingly data-driven. – The Conversation
- Why We Crave Social Interaction
Among humans, “you can feel lonely at a party, or you can feel fine alone in your office.” Whatever the ideal degree of togetherness, Tye and others think that an animal’s need to balance time alone and time with others represents a kind of homeostasis: an equilibrium that’s critical for survival. – Knowable
- We Have Entered The Imagination Era
We have moved beyond the Information Age and are now firmly rooted in what I call the Imagination Era, a time when ideas and thinking differently are our primary currency. In this landscape, technology is not replacing our humanity; it is demanding that we deepen it. – Fast Company
