AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Vatican Begins First-Ever Restoration Of Raphael Frescoes In Apostolic Palace
“The Vatican Museums on Wednesday announced the start of a five-year, $5.5 million project to clean and restore the Raphael Loggia, a 65-meter (yard) long, 4-meter (yard) wide corridor that is considered one of the highest expressions of Renaissance figurative art.” – AP
- Major Hollywood Studios Are Starting To Produce Their Own Microdramas
“While comparatively obscure microdrama companies, with names like DramaBox and GammaTime, have received significant investment in the past year from venture capitalists and entertainment studios, NBCUniversal, BET, A+E Global and Fox have all announced plans to produce microdrama series.” And there’s serious money to be made. – The New York Times
- When TheWrap Used AI To Make A Microdrama
“After four days and $150 worth of digital credits to access the tool, we created four minute-long episodes designed as a take on the popular hockey romance series Off Campus. … The ‘actors,’ the sets and the script were all generated by AI.” Is it any good? Not in this case, but … – TheWrap (Yahoo!)
- The New Republic’s 15 Most Important Artworks In U.S. History
The editors have chosen four movies, six books, two songs, a piece of classical music, a painting, and a monument “whose impact extended beyond culture to society as a whole.” – The New Republic
- Revamp Of Philadelphia’s “Avenue Of The Arts”: The Beta Test Is Complete
“A landscaped median under construction for months in front of the Kimmel Center has reached completion — the down payment on a promised major redo of the Avenue of the Arts streetscape. The leafy ribbon down the middle of Broad Street from Spruce to Pine Streets was officially unveiled Wednesday.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
ISSUES
- Vatican Begins First-Ever Restoration Of Raphael Frescoes In Apostolic Palace
“The Vatican Museums on Wednesday announced the start of a five-year, $5.5 million project to clean and restore the Raphael Loggia, a 65-meter (yard) long, 4-meter (yard) wide corridor that is considered one of the highest expressions of Renaissance figurative art.” – AP
- Warning: European Museums Vulnerable To Cyberattacks
The warning comes less than three years after the British Museum revealed that about 2,000 objects had been stolen, damaged or gone missing from its collections over a period of years, in a scandal that led to the resignation of its director, Hartwig Fischer. – The Guardian
- The Barnes Picks A New Chief Curator
Connie Choi is currently curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem, where she has worked for nearly a decade. At the Studio Museum, she worked closely with Thelma Golden, its director and chief curator, to map out the museum’s curatorial vision, including its recent reopening last fall. – ARTnews
- Is LA’s New AI Art Museum A Whole New Genre Of Contemporary Art?
- Air Conditioned Museums In Europe Become “Refuges From The Heat” During This Week’s Heat Wave
“When I see people taking refuge for an hour in a supermarket, I say to myself: ‘Why shouldn’t the museum be a place of respite, rather than cafés or shops?’ – Le Monde
MEDIA
- The New Republic’s 15 Most Important Artworks In U.S. History
The editors have chosen four movies, six books, two songs, a piece of classical music, a painting, and a monument “whose impact extended beyond culture to society as a whole.” – The New Republic
- Revamp Of Philadelphia’s “Avenue Of The Arts”: The Beta Test Is Complete
“A landscaped median under construction for months in front of the Kimmel Center has reached completion — the down payment on a promised major redo of the Avenue of the Arts streetscape. The leafy ribbon down the middle of Broad Street from Spruce to Pine Streets was officially unveiled Wednesday.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
- Manhattan’s Borough President Directs His Entire Discretionary Budget — $50 Million — To The Arts
“Fifty-five cultural institutions and 28 schools will benefit from grants ranging from $60,000 to $2 million,” with much of the money designated for buildings or infrastructure. “In previous years, the discretionary budget has been divided into small grants … across sectors like the arts, public housing, social services and parks.” – The New York Times
- Is The Smithsonian Next?
From the start of the second Trump administration, the entire Smithsonian had been a target of those on the MAGA right who are preoccupied with expunging what they understand to be “wokeness” from prominent institutions. – The Atlantic
- Lonnie Bunch Works To Keep Smithsonian Independent And Functional Amid Trumpist Turmoil
“Bunch has been cast by many of his admirers as something of a resistance figure — one of the only high-profile leaders standing up to Trump by single-handedly preventing the president from rewriting American history itself.” – The Atlantic
MUSIC
- Too Many Books, Too Quickly: Australia’s Publishing Industry Is Too Prolific For Its Own Good
“Talk to authors, talk to prize judges, talk to critics and to editors and you hear versions of the same story. … What might have been excellent books are marred by shoddy copy editing, flat-out errors, cursory proofreading — and, in some cases, an obvious lack of revision.” – The Guardian
- The Next Bookstore?
Samir Pail argues that the publishing industry is fundamentally flawed insofar as publishers and authors generate consumer demand, then hand buyers off to companies like Amazon, which takes a significant cut and then owns the customer relationship. – Publishers Weekly
- Benjamin Franklin’s Library Given 1,500 Rare Books About Sex
The collection is the latest donation to the Library Company of Philadelphia, founded by Franklin in 1731, by Charles Rosenberg, a now-retired historian of science at Harvard University. He described this collection, including volumes dating to the late 1600s, as largely “how-to-run-your-sex-life books.” – The New York Times
- With Book Reviews Disappearing From Newspapers, This Bookstore Decided To Start Doing Its Own
“The Porter Square Review of Books launched this month. The (Cambridge, Mass.) store’s booksellers and writers-in-residence have begun publishing weekly(ish) book reviews on its website, on Thursdays; at about 500 words, these are deeper looks at books than the couple of sentences you’ll find describing ‘staff picks’ in-store.” – Nieman Lab
- Who Is America’s Great Poet?
Do we have a great poet who captures the American spirit, the American story, the American identity? We asked a posse of authors and poets to send us their votes. – Plough
PEOPLE
- Vatican Begins First-Ever Restoration Of Raphael Frescoes In Apostolic Palace
“The Vatican Museums on Wednesday announced the start of a five-year, $5.5 million project to clean and restore the Raphael Loggia, a 65-meter (yard) long, 4-meter (yard) wide corridor that is considered one of the highest expressions of Renaissance figurative art.” – AP
- Major Hollywood Studios Are Starting To Produce Their Own Microdramas
“While comparatively obscure microdrama companies, with names like DramaBox and GammaTime, have received significant investment in the past year from venture capitalists and entertainment studios, NBCUniversal, BET, A+E Global and Fox have all announced plans to produce microdrama series.” And there’s serious money to be made. – The New York Times
- When TheWrap Used AI To Make A Microdrama
“After four days and $150 worth of digital credits to access the tool, we created four minute-long episodes designed as a take on the popular hockey romance series Off Campus. … The ‘actors,’ the sets and the script were all generated by AI.” Is it any good? Not in this case, but … – TheWrap (Yahoo!)
- The New Republic’s 15 Most Important Artworks In U.S. History
The editors have chosen four movies, six books, two songs, a piece of classical music, a painting, and a monument “whose impact extended beyond culture to society as a whole.” – The New Republic
- Revamp Of Philadelphia’s “Avenue Of The Arts”: The Beta Test Is Complete
“A landscaped median under construction for months in front of the Kimmel Center has reached completion — the down payment on a promised major redo of the Avenue of the Arts streetscape. The leafy ribbon down the middle of Broad Street from Spruce to Pine Streets was officially unveiled Wednesday.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
PEOPLE
- Vatican Begins First-Ever Restoration Of Raphael Frescoes In Apostolic Palace
“The Vatican Museums on Wednesday announced the start of a five-year, $5.5 million project to clean and restore the Raphael Loggia, a 65-meter (yard) long, 4-meter (yard) wide corridor that is considered one of the highest expressions of Renaissance figurative art.” – AP
- Major Hollywood Studios Are Starting To Produce Their Own Microdramas
“While comparatively obscure microdrama companies, with names like DramaBox and GammaTime, have received significant investment in the past year from venture capitalists and entertainment studios, NBCUniversal, BET, A+E Global and Fox have all announced plans to produce microdrama series.” And there’s serious money to be made. – The New York Times
- When TheWrap Used AI To Make A Microdrama
“After four days and $150 worth of digital credits to access the tool, we created four minute-long episodes designed as a take on the popular hockey romance series Off Campus. … The ‘actors,’ the sets and the script were all generated by AI.” Is it any good? Not in this case, but … – TheWrap (Yahoo!)
- The New Republic’s 15 Most Important Artworks In U.S. History
The editors have chosen four movies, six books, two songs, a piece of classical music, a painting, and a monument “whose impact extended beyond culture to society as a whole.” – The New Republic
- Revamp Of Philadelphia’s “Avenue Of The Arts”: The Beta Test Is Complete
“A landscaped median under construction for months in front of the Kimmel Center has reached completion — the down payment on a promised major redo of the Avenue of the Arts streetscape. The leafy ribbon down the middle of Broad Street from Spruce to Pine Streets was officially unveiled Wednesday.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
THEATRE
VISUAL
- How AI Prompting Poses The Classic Writer’s Challenge
This is one novel frustration of the AI age, yet millions of users searching for the “right prompt” are engaging in an old literary practice: turning mental images, vague desires and atmospheric intuitions into precise language. – The Conversation
- Has Blogging Ceased To Matter?
Anyway, the reason I’m writing all of this is not to brag, but to complain. Over the last two years, I’ve felt like my job has become a bit less important than it used to be, for three reasons. – Noahpinion
- Why Meritocracy Is A Deeply Flawed Idea
Zhuangzi insists that even in idealised situations where values can be straightforward, the idea that hierarchies and institutions can reflect that moral map is a profound misunderstanding of how power actually works. – Aeon
- The Philosophers Attempting To Explain This Baffling Time
That must have been revelatory at a time when most people seemed to believe that science was infallible. But expertise has been downgraded—and more people are getting their information from podcasters and influencers. Who could help us understand this shift? – The Atlantic
- A Monolith Built To Record The End Of Planet Earth
“The purpose of the device is to provide an unbiased account of the events that lead to the demise of the planet, hold accountability for future generations, and inspire urgent action,” the Earth’s Black Box website states. “How the story ends is completely up to us.” – Gizmodo
