AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Culture’s Business Models, Both on Trial
Good Morning,
The French are fighting for their cultural model in the street: an estimated 1,800 people protested arts funding cuts in front of Avignon’s Papal Palace, turning the festival into a month-long argument over what the state owes its artists (The New York Times). America had that argument 35 years ago, and The New Yorker revisits how it got ignited — an NEA chairman who believed in artistic freedom, flip-flopping between his principles and his politics. The most durable American answer turns out to be local: Cleveland just ranked first among ten U.S. cities for arts-organization revenue growth, on the strength of Cuyahoga County’s public funding (Ideastream).
The market model is hitting its ceiling at the same time. Artnet asks whether the mega-gallery era was the art world’s march on Moscow, and the auction houses’ half-year reports read less like art sales than financial-services prospectuses — a significant shift in the business model (ARTnews). The counterintuitive retail lesson comes from Costco, thriving as the anti-Amazon by selling less choice, not more (The Walrus).
And the World Cup staged its first-ever halftime show. “Well, that happened” is a review (The New York Times).
All of our stories below.
- Judge Pauses Paramount/Warner Deal
“This is a critical first win in our case to ensure this megamerger never sees the light of day,” California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, a Democrat who is leading the states’ lawsuit, said in a statement. A spokeswoman for Paramount did not immediately respond to a request for comment. – The New York Times
- Large Protests In France Over Arts Funding Cuts
In Avignon, where artists, programmers and theatergoers rub shoulders for a month every summer, the announcement has ignited fierce debates and protests. Last week, an estimated 1,800 people demonstrated in front of the Papal Palace. – The New York Times
- Auction House Sales Reports Show A Fundamental Change In The Art Business
This year, the houses devoted nearly as much space to private sales, lending, financial services, luxury goods, hospitality, and advisory work as they did to paintings and sculptures. Read together, they suggest that the biggest transformation in the auction business isn’t the recovery itself. It’s the transformation of the auction houses’ businesses. – ARTnews
- A Bill In Congress To Protect Art Owned by The Federal Government
The PRESERVE Act (“Protecting Resources and Ensuring Stewardship of Enduring Records of Visual Expression Act”) would require the General Services Administration, which manages federal agencies, to identify any artworks contained within government buildings deemed “surplus property” and form a committee to oversee the future of said artworks. – ARTnews
ISSUES
- Auction House Sales Reports Show A Fundamental Change In The Art Business
This year, the houses devoted nearly as much space to private sales, lending, financial services, luxury goods, hospitality, and advisory work as they did to paintings and sculptures. Read together, they suggest that the biggest transformation in the auction business isn’t the recovery itself. It’s the transformation of the auction houses’ businesses. – ARTnews
- A Bill In Congress To Protect Art Owned by The Federal Government
The PRESERVE Act (“Protecting Resources and Ensuring Stewardship of Enduring Records of Visual Expression Act”) would require the General Services Administration, which manages federal agencies, to identify any artworks contained within government buildings deemed “surplus property” and form a committee to oversee the future of said artworks. – ARTnews
- The End Of The Mega Gallery
“Are we witnessing the art world’s Napoleonic march to Moscow, an over-expansion propelled by hubris that is now inevitably falling to its knees?” – Artnet
- Renoir Sure Painted A Lot Of Young Girls
Who were they? – LitHub
- Ghana’s Handpainted, Sensationalist, Often Inaccurate Film Posters Have Become Collectible Art
“Heavy J was creating a poster … for the animated fairytale The Little Mermaid. The man with the knife wasn’t a killer but the film’s kind-hearted prince, Eric. The skull was also unrelated to the story. ‘We add more to make people interested,’ said Heavy J.” – The Guardian (UK)
MEDIA
- What Touched Off The Culture Wars
Frohnmayer’s dilemma was that he believed in artistic freedom and didn’t think Congress should dictate what the N.E.A. funded, but he also felt obliged, as a political appointee, to avoid funding work that Congress and the President found offensive. The result was flip-flopping. – The New Yorker
- Cleveland Comes Out On Top For Public Funding Of The Arts
The report ranked Cleveland No. 1 revenue growth among arts organizations from 2019 to 2024 in a cohort of 10 U.S. cities. The others were Atlanta, Des Moines, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento and Seattle. – Ideastream
- Music Publishers Drop Lawsuits Against X, Which Drops Lawsuits Against Music Publishers
Why? No one’s saying: “In their legal papers, the companies gave no reason for the stipulation of dismissal and did not mention any settlement.” – The New York Times
- Nebraska’s Cultural Endowment Did Decades Of Great Work, But The State’s Finances May Kill It Off
“This unusual, public-private fund is made up of philanthropic donations matched dollar-for-dollar by the state” – and now the state has snatched back one third of the endowment to help balance the budget. – NPR
- Why Trump Is Fixated On Smithsonian History
People often joke about how Trumpism would like to return us to some version of the 1950s, when America supposedly was “great.” In this report, the administration has done just that. The report would prefer that nothing had ever happened since the ’50s to mar the White House’s polished, superficial, puerile version of America’s past. – The New York Times
MUSIC
- When Is It Okay To Let A Language Die?
Preserve this language (or species or building or mine) or else surrender to indifference, cynicism, and nihilism. But is that ever the choice we face? – The New Yorker
- How Publishers Fight For Sweet, Sweet ‘Odyssey’ Money
New covers – foil-stamped! Or colorfully graphic-novel-esque! – famous translators, deckled edges, and marketing moves try to set apart various versions of The Odyssey for the surprisingly robust market. – The New York Times
- In The UK, Fifty Years Of Post-Punk, Radical Fanzines See A Massive Resurgence
Why? “Digital attention span is at an all-time low. … You’re almost definitely going to spend more time looking at a zine than anything you see scrolling. It’s more interesting and more real.” – The Guardian (UK)
- The Irish Times Catches Up On BookTok And Bookstagram
“Contemporary readers remain as eccentric as ever. Some buy two copies of each book: one to read messily and another to display smartly on the shelf. … And many, many of them annotate. Furiously. Dedicatedly. Fanatically.” – Irish Times
- Inside The Beloved Art Deco Library Of Los Angeles
A”fter outgrowing several smaller downtown locations, the municipal dream of a monumental downtown library was financed through a $2.5m municipal bond measure approved in 1921” – and now it houses 89 miles of books. – The Guardian (UK)
PEOPLE
- Culture’s Business Models, Both on Trial
Good Morning,
The French are fighting for their cultural model in the street: an estimated 1,800 people protested arts funding cuts in front of Avignon’s Papal Palace, turning the festival into a month-long argument over what the state owes its artists (The New York Times). America had that argument 35 years ago, and The New Yorker revisits how it got ignited — an NEA chairman who believed in artistic freedom, flip-flopping between his principles and his politics. The most durable American answer turns out to be local: Cleveland just ranked first among ten U.S. cities for arts-organization revenue growth, on the strength of Cuyahoga County’s public funding (Ideastream).
The market model is hitting its ceiling at the same time. Artnet asks whether the mega-gallery era was the art world’s march on Moscow, and the auction houses’ half-year reports read less like art sales than financial-services prospectuses — a significant shift in the business model (ARTnews). The counterintuitive retail lesson comes from Costco, thriving as the anti-Amazon by selling less choice, not more (The Walrus).
And the World Cup staged its first-ever halftime show. “Well, that happened” is a review (The New York Times).
All of our stories below.
- Judge Pauses Paramount/Warner Deal
“This is a critical first win in our case to ensure this megamerger never sees the light of day,” California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, a Democrat who is leading the states’ lawsuit, said in a statement. A spokeswoman for Paramount did not immediately respond to a request for comment. – The New York Times
- Large Protests In France Over Arts Funding Cuts
In Avignon, where artists, programmers and theatergoers rub shoulders for a month every summer, the announcement has ignited fierce debates and protests. Last week, an estimated 1,800 people demonstrated in front of the Papal Palace. – The New York Times
- Auction House Sales Reports Show A Fundamental Change In The Art Business
This year, the houses devoted nearly as much space to private sales, lending, financial services, luxury goods, hospitality, and advisory work as they did to paintings and sculptures. Read together, they suggest that the biggest transformation in the auction business isn’t the recovery itself. It’s the transformation of the auction houses’ businesses. – ARTnews
- A Bill In Congress To Protect Art Owned by The Federal Government
The PRESERVE Act (“Protecting Resources and Ensuring Stewardship of Enduring Records of Visual Expression Act”) would require the General Services Administration, which manages federal agencies, to identify any artworks contained within government buildings deemed “surplus property” and form a committee to oversee the future of said artworks. – ARTnews
PEOPLE
- Culture’s Business Models, Both on Trial
Good Morning,
The French are fighting for their cultural model in the street: an estimated 1,800 people protested arts funding cuts in front of Avignon’s Papal Palace, turning the festival into a month-long argument over what the state owes its artists (The New York Times). America had that argument 35 years ago, and The New Yorker revisits how it got ignited — an NEA chairman who believed in artistic freedom, flip-flopping between his principles and his politics. The most durable American answer turns out to be local: Cleveland just ranked first among ten U.S. cities for arts-organization revenue growth, on the strength of Cuyahoga County’s public funding (Ideastream).
The market model is hitting its ceiling at the same time. Artnet asks whether the mega-gallery era was the art world’s march on Moscow, and the auction houses’ half-year reports read less like art sales than financial-services prospectuses — a significant shift in the business model (ARTnews). The counterintuitive retail lesson comes from Costco, thriving as the anti-Amazon by selling less choice, not more (The Walrus).
And the World Cup staged its first-ever halftime show. “Well, that happened” is a review (The New York Times).
All of our stories below.
- Judge Pauses Paramount/Warner Deal
“This is a critical first win in our case to ensure this megamerger never sees the light of day,” California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, a Democrat who is leading the states’ lawsuit, said in a statement. A spokeswoman for Paramount did not immediately respond to a request for comment. – The New York Times
- Large Protests In France Over Arts Funding Cuts
In Avignon, where artists, programmers and theatergoers rub shoulders for a month every summer, the announcement has ignited fierce debates and protests. Last week, an estimated 1,800 people demonstrated in front of the Papal Palace. – The New York Times
- Auction House Sales Reports Show A Fundamental Change In The Art Business
This year, the houses devoted nearly as much space to private sales, lending, financial services, luxury goods, hospitality, and advisory work as they did to paintings and sculptures. Read together, they suggest that the biggest transformation in the auction business isn’t the recovery itself. It’s the transformation of the auction houses’ businesses. – ARTnews
- A Bill In Congress To Protect Art Owned by The Federal Government
The PRESERVE Act (“Protecting Resources and Ensuring Stewardship of Enduring Records of Visual Expression Act”) would require the General Services Administration, which manages federal agencies, to identify any artworks contained within government buildings deemed “surplus property” and form a committee to oversee the future of said artworks. – ARTnews
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Why Costco Is Thriving As The Antithesis Of Amazon
While most retailers today assume that consumers want ever greater assortment, Costco’s popularity speaks to a countervailing desire for less choice. Indeed, the pre-selection of items for sale in their warehouses is part of the value proposition. – The Walrus
- A Short History Of Being Burned Out
Burnout’s meaning shifted from literal to figurative over time. It began as a description of candles burning out or fuel being used up, then shifted to a barn burning down and a worker’s energy or body being depleted in the rebuilding. Eventually it came to simply describe a worker’s exhaustion. – The Conversation
- Why Is Everything Weird? Blame The Uni-Context
How do all other norms—our morals, our ethics, our sense of what is good for us and for others—change when we continually imagine ourselves to be living in a universal room with everybody else? – Derek Thompson
- How Indigenous Communities In Brazil Are Dealing With Threats From The Internet
Using Nhandeflix, “users can find Guarani cultural productions like Roda Cutia (a Guarani children’s song), Bicicletas de Nhanderú (a documentary about a Guarani-Mbya town in southern Brazil), … and Como a noite apareceu (a fictional film based on a Guarani legend).” – El País English
- There’s A Big Plot Twist At The End Of The Odyssey
Don’t blame Homer for this one, and don’t read this story if you don’t want spoilers. – Slate