AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Free, free, free. It matters!
Good Morning,
Sadiq Khan defends free museum admission with a number that’s hard to argue: London visits to formerly paid institutions rose about 151% in the decade after the charges came off (LBC). Access as a core strategy.
The same logic surfaces twice more today. San Diego is launching an arts pass covering 40-plus organizations across the county and metro Tijuana (The San Diego Union-Tribune). And bands watching the average top-tour ticket climb from $84 to $130 in a decade have started offering their own $20 seats (The Wall Street Journal).
The return on that isn’t only attendance. The Smithsonian is absorbing a sustained White House pressure campaign, but the public’s love of the museums is holding it up — including among people otherwise receptive to the attack. This runs straight through free entry (The Atlantic).
Which makes Justin Davidson’s verdict on building hyperflexible theatres sting. Moving walls, precision lifts, rooms that expand on command — and the revolution arrives as anticlimactic and overpriced (Curbed).
All of our stories below.
- Taking John Cage’s “As SLow aS Possible” Into A Whole Other Dimension
“A rare chord change on Wednesday — from seven notes to eight once an A4 pipe was added — represented the completion of about 4% of the 639-year endeavor of the John Cage Organ Project Halberstadt. … The’“ORGAN²/ASLSP (As SLow aS Possible)’ composition is scheduled to finish on Sept. 4, 2640.” – AP
- What We Lost When Video Rental Stores Went Away
The early video store was often a place to talk as well as to shop, and the persona and expertise of retailers and clerks structured the consumer experience of home video as much as the shelves on the wall. – MIT Press
- 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)
- 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
ISSUES
- Fra Angelico’s First Major Altarpiece Restored After Five Centuries Of Disrepair
The Fiesole Altarpiece, painted in the 1420s, suffered its first damage during an updating in 1501; it was subsequently broken up, had some of its parts looted or sold off, and was gnawed by wood-boring insects. The work has now been restored to roughly its 1501 condition with an ingenious spring-fitted wood frame. – Artnet
- London Mayor Sadiq Khan Writes Defense Of Free Museum Admission
“Until 2001, many of the capital’s most important cultural institutions required visitors to pay for entry. … It’s impossible to overstate just how revolutionary this (change) was. In the decade after free admission was introduced, visits to formerly paid-for museums in London increased by around 151%.” – LBC (UK)
- Are These The 25 Most Significant Sculptures Of The Modern Age?
To choose the 25 most important works of sculpture made since 1945, we asked a panel of experts to gather at the New York Times building in March. – The New York Times
- Founding Donor Of Human Rights Museum Suspends Funding Over Palestinian Exhibition
She complained of a “lack of context” in the exhibition about the forced displacement of Palestinians during the creation of Israel, such as the omission of information about the Palestinian rejection of a state that was offered in the United Nations’ 1947 partition plan and about Jews displaced in Arab lands. – The Art Newspaper
- Why New York Historical Is Deliberately Displaying Copies In Its Latest Show
“This is because it was only as the exhibition — ‘Democracy Matters’ — was about to open on June 18 that the museum fully reckoned with the fact that windows in the new gallery would shower sunshine on some very light-sensitive artworks.” – The New York Times
MEDIA
- 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
- San Diego To Launch An Arts Pass Program
The San Diego Arts Pass — inspired by New York City’s Culture Pass, Britain’s National Art Pass, and the like — will offer purchasers reduced-price or free admission to over 40 organizations, including the Old Globe, San Diego Symphony, and La Jolla Playhouse, in San Diego County and metro Tijuana. – The San Diego Union-Tribune (MSN)
- A Small Arts Project Supporting Emerging Artists Hits A Home Run. What Can We Learn?
This innovative new venture is perhaps best described as a super-smart business strategy that could also be a blueprint for other entrepreneurs to ignite arts spaces in their own communities, boost social connectedness and give young, emerging artists some much-needed financial support. – ArtsHub
- 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
MUSIC
- 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
- Russian Airstrikes Have Destroyed Almost Three-Quarters Of Ukraine’s Book Output This Year
Just since May 1, Russian drones and bombs have damaged or burned at least 9.65 million books. That equals 74% of the Ukrainian publishing industry’s output so far in 2026 and nearly 29% of books printed throughout the country in all of 2025. – United24 Media (Ukraine)
- Torn To Shreds: The Writers Workshop
Joyce Carol Oates is known for her strict style. One of her students once described her crossing through the first several pages of a story and asking: “What’s the point?” I commiserated with him, but he looked at me and said: “No, that’s what I want. To be ripped to shreds.” – The Guardian
- Looks Like An Educational-AI Company Scraped The Poetry Foundation’s Website For Content
“According to its website, Giggle Academy is a nonprofit and was started by cryptocurrency mogul and Binance founder Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao in 2024. It also claims to have one million users in 182 countries.” Hundreds of poems, evidently copied from the Poetry Foundation’s website, are on Giggle Academy’s website without permission. – Publishers Weekly
- 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
PEOPLE
- Free, free, free. It matters!
Good Morning,
Sadiq Khan defends free museum admission with a number that’s hard to argue: London visits to formerly paid institutions rose about 151% in the decade after the charges came off (LBC). Access as a core strategy.
The same logic surfaces twice more today. San Diego is launching an arts pass covering 40-plus organizations across the county and metro Tijuana (The San Diego Union-Tribune). And bands watching the average top-tour ticket climb from $84 to $130 in a decade have started offering their own $20 seats (The Wall Street Journal).
The return on that isn’t only attendance. The Smithsonian is absorbing a sustained White House pressure campaign, but the public’s love of the museums is holding it up — including among people otherwise receptive to the attack. This runs straight through free entry (The Atlantic).
Which makes Justin Davidson’s verdict on building hyperflexible theatres sting. Moving walls, precision lifts, rooms that expand on command — and the revolution arrives as anticlimactic and overpriced (Curbed).
All of our stories below.
- Taking John Cage’s “As SLow aS Possible” Into A Whole Other Dimension
“A rare chord change on Wednesday — from seven notes to eight once an A4 pipe was added — represented the completion of about 4% of the 639-year endeavor of the John Cage Organ Project Halberstadt. … The’“ORGAN²/ASLSP (As SLow aS Possible)’ composition is scheduled to finish on Sept. 4, 2640.” – AP
- What We Lost When Video Rental Stores Went Away
The early video store was often a place to talk as well as to shop, and the persona and expertise of retailers and clerks structured the consumer experience of home video as much as the shelves on the wall. – MIT Press
- 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)
- 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
PEOPLE
- Free, free, free. It matters!
Good Morning,
Sadiq Khan defends free museum admission with a number that’s hard to argue: London visits to formerly paid institutions rose about 151% in the decade after the charges came off (LBC). Access as a core strategy.
The same logic surfaces twice more today. San Diego is launching an arts pass covering 40-plus organizations across the county and metro Tijuana (The San Diego Union-Tribune). And bands watching the average top-tour ticket climb from $84 to $130 in a decade have started offering their own $20 seats (The Wall Street Journal).
The return on that isn’t only attendance. The Smithsonian is absorbing a sustained White House pressure campaign, but the public’s love of the museums is holding it up — including among people otherwise receptive to the attack. This runs straight through free entry (The Atlantic).
Which makes Justin Davidson’s verdict on building hyperflexible theatres sting. Moving walls, precision lifts, rooms that expand on command — and the revolution arrives as anticlimactic and overpriced (Curbed).
All of our stories below.
- Taking John Cage’s “As SLow aS Possible” Into A Whole Other Dimension
“A rare chord change on Wednesday — from seven notes to eight once an A4 pipe was added — represented the completion of about 4% of the 639-year endeavor of the John Cage Organ Project Halberstadt. … The’“ORGAN²/ASLSP (As SLow aS Possible)’ composition is scheduled to finish on Sept. 4, 2640.” – AP
- What We Lost When Video Rental Stores Went Away
The early video store was often a place to talk as well as to shop, and the persona and expertise of retailers and clerks structured the consumer experience of home video as much as the shelves on the wall. – MIT Press
- 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)
- 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
THEATRE
VISUAL
- 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
- 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