AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- The Cecilia Chorus of NY, Carnegie Hall, April 17.
The Cecilia Chorus of New York, Mark Shapiro, Conductor, presents the world premiere of A Call for the Battle to Cease by Robert Sirota and Victoria Sirota, featuring pianist Simone Dinnerstein; the New York premiere of Grammy-nominated Mass in Exile by Mark Buller, Leah Lax, and Beth Greenberg, featuring guitarist David Leisner, baritone Shavon Lloyd, and Every Voice Children’s Chorus; and excerpts from Haydn’s Mass in Time of War. Saturday, April 17 at 8 PM in Carnegie Hall.
- Good Morning
Banksy’s identity is out, and the art world has a counterintuitive take: prices should go up (The Wall Street Journal). Turns out anonymity was the brand, not the precondition for the brand. In the category of DEI-era reckoning: Playwrights Horizons has settled a lawsuit filed by a white ticket buyer who felt excluded by a discount program offered to buyers of color — the joint statement ran six sentences and did not mention money (The New York Times).
In the UK, the Culture Secretary is moving to give the BBC something it has never had in its history: a permanent charter, protecting it from the decennial renegotiations that have left it perpetually exposed to political pressure (The Guardian). SXSW, by contrast, has never recovered from the pandemic, sold a controlling interest to Penske Media, and after last year’s event watched key staff walk out the door. Now serious observers are asking whether it can survive at all (Texas Monthly).
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater has been leaking, essentially, since the day it opened in 1937. A $7 million conservation project is on track for completion next month. The house is called Fallingwater and is built over a waterfall, so we will note this with cautious optimism (The Art Newspaper).
All of today’s stories below.
- St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Adds Another Artistic Partner: Violinist Alina Ibragimova
The Russian-British violinist joins five current artistic partners: harpsichordist and conductor Richard Egarr, pianist Richard Goode, cellist Abel Selaocoe, conductor Gábor Takács-Nagy, and violist Tabea Zimmermann. Ibragimova’s term begins next season. – The Strad
- A Sea Change In Australian Orchestra Programming
Overall, works by women made up 14.6 percent of programming in 2025, an increase on 2024’s 11.9 percent after a dip from 13.2 percent in 2023. – Limelight
- Gen Z Is Returning To The Movie Theatre
Gen Z is buying up a higher percentage of movie tickets, rising from 34% of the overall box office in 2019 to 39% last year. – The Star-Tribune
ISSUES
- Now That We Know Who Banksy Is, The Price Of His Art May Soar
“The art world’s reaction: Go ahead and be known. Rather than undermine any mystique, the revelation could actually give his market a much-needed boost, art-world insiders say.” – The Wall Street Journal (MSN)
- The Leaking Problems At Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater Have Finally Been Fixed
Well, so we hope. “Almost 90 years after the house’s completion, conservators are still working on stabilising Wright’s experimental design — including endemic leaking problems unrelated to the waterfall. The latest in these conservation efforts, a three-year, $7m project to repair and protect the house, is scheduled for completion in April.” – The Art Newspaper
- Man Causes $240K Of Damage To Chihuly Glass At Museum
A security guard found the man damaging colorful glass plant sculptures around 11 p.m. in an outdoor area on the museum’s grounds, according to a police blotter post. – Seattle Times
- Retired Lead Detective On Gardner Museum Robbery Gives Current State Of The Case
The 1990 theft of 13 artworks, collectively worth over $500 million, from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum has never been solved. Former FBI agent Geoffrey Kelly says the “whodunit” part of the crime is solved and he has a probable motive, but that probably nobody now alive knows the artworks’ whereabouts. – CBS News
- Democrats Question Disposal Of Artworks In Federal Buildings Listed For Sale
In the letter, the senators note that the GSA has posted 46 buildings that have been identified for “accelerated disposal,” a process that expedites the sale of the properties, which are home to numerous artworks. – ARTnews
MEDIA
- Inclusivity And The “Elitist” Problem
Many advocates of culture today would proudly describe themselves as anti-elitist. They argue that art should be inclusive. They promote the doctrine of diversity. The reality could not be more different. – The Telegraph (MSN)
- SXSW Never Fully Recovered From The Pandemic. Have The Times Now Passed It By?
After the financial hit the organizers took in 2020 and 2021, they sold a controlling interest to Penske Media — which, after last year’s event, fired the chief programming officer and other staffers, losing a lot of institutional knowledge. Now many observers are wondering if SXSW can survive at all. – Texas Monthly
- How Manhattan Is Trying To Design Itself Into Better Climate Resilience
Inspired by the vulnerabilities revealed by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, ESCR features a series of protective features — walls, earthen berms and sliding doors — that wiggle along the East River shoreline, taking different forms as they encounter a head-scratching number of conditions. – Bloomberg
- Why Trump Dumped Ric Grenell From The Kennedy Center
“Trump still fully intends to remake the center in his image; he’d just like to limit the backlash. Whatever his talents, Grenell is not a no-backlash guy.” – The Atlantic
- Kennedy Center Board Votes To Close For Two Years
The full scope of the renovations is not entirely clear. But Mr. Trump has said that both structural and internal work was needed, noting on Monday that the building’s heating system would be “ripped out in its entirety,” and that new theater seating and new marble would be installed. – The New York Times
MUSIC
- There’s Now An Official BookTok Chart
“(The) chart is set to launch later this year in the UK, offering a monthly rundown of the most popular titles on (the) social media platform. The ranking will combine verified retail sales data with social media engagement. … The charts were first trialled in Germany and are being expanded to the UK.” – The Guardian
- Jack Kerouac’s 120-Foot-Long Typescript For “On The Road” Sells For $12.1 Million
“It’s one of the most mythic icons in American letters — and now the most valuable. The 120-foot-long scroll on which Jack Kerouac hammered out the 1957 Beat Generation classic On the Road has realized an astounding $12.1 million at auction, setting a record for a literary manuscript.” – Artnet
- The Benefits Of Audiobooks
Audiobooks offer significant benefits, primarily increasing reading accessibility, enabling multitasking during daily chores or commutes, and boosting comprehension for auditory learners. – Good E-Reader
- Dictionary/Encyclopedias Sue AI Companies Over Copyright
Britannica, which owns Merriam-Webster, retains the copyright to nearly 100,000 online articles, which have been scraped and used to train OpenAI’s LLMs without permission, the publisher alleges in the lawsuit. – TechCrunch
- Grammarly Apologized For Turning Live And Dead Writers And Teachers Into So-Called Experts
But what the CEO “failed to mention was that the company wasn’t just dealing with hundreds of furious writers — it was facing litigation as well.” – Futurism
PEOPLE
- The Cecilia Chorus of NY, Carnegie Hall, April 17.
The Cecilia Chorus of New York, Mark Shapiro, Conductor, presents the world premiere of A Call for the Battle to Cease by Robert Sirota and Victoria Sirota, featuring pianist Simone Dinnerstein; the New York premiere of Grammy-nominated Mass in Exile by Mark Buller, Leah Lax, and Beth Greenberg, featuring guitarist David Leisner, baritone Shavon Lloyd, and Every Voice Children’s Chorus; and excerpts from Haydn’s Mass in Time of War. Saturday, April 17 at 8 PM in Carnegie Hall.
- Good Morning
Banksy’s identity is out, and the art world has a counterintuitive take: prices should go up (The Wall Street Journal). Turns out anonymity was the brand, not the precondition for the brand. In the category of DEI-era reckoning: Playwrights Horizons has settled a lawsuit filed by a white ticket buyer who felt excluded by a discount program offered to buyers of color — the joint statement ran six sentences and did not mention money (The New York Times).
In the UK, the Culture Secretary is moving to give the BBC something it has never had in its history: a permanent charter, protecting it from the decennial renegotiations that have left it perpetually exposed to political pressure (The Guardian). SXSW, by contrast, has never recovered from the pandemic, sold a controlling interest to Penske Media, and after last year’s event watched key staff walk out the door. Now serious observers are asking whether it can survive at all (Texas Monthly).
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater has been leaking, essentially, since the day it opened in 1937. A $7 million conservation project is on track for completion next month. The house is called Fallingwater and is built over a waterfall, so we will note this with cautious optimism (The Art Newspaper).
All of today’s stories below.
- St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Adds Another Artistic Partner: Violinist Alina Ibragimova
The Russian-British violinist joins five current artistic partners: harpsichordist and conductor Richard Egarr, pianist Richard Goode, cellist Abel Selaocoe, conductor Gábor Takács-Nagy, and violist Tabea Zimmermann. Ibragimova’s term begins next season. – The Strad
- A Sea Change In Australian Orchestra Programming
Overall, works by women made up 14.6 percent of programming in 2025, an increase on 2024’s 11.9 percent after a dip from 13.2 percent in 2023. – Limelight
- Gen Z Is Returning To The Movie Theatre
Gen Z is buying up a higher percentage of movie tickets, rising from 34% of the overall box office in 2019 to 39% last year. – The Star-Tribune
PEOPLE
- The Cecilia Chorus of NY, Carnegie Hall, April 17.
The Cecilia Chorus of New York, Mark Shapiro, Conductor, presents the world premiere of A Call for the Battle to Cease by Robert Sirota and Victoria Sirota, featuring pianist Simone Dinnerstein; the New York premiere of Grammy-nominated Mass in Exile by Mark Buller, Leah Lax, and Beth Greenberg, featuring guitarist David Leisner, baritone Shavon Lloyd, and Every Voice Children’s Chorus; and excerpts from Haydn’s Mass in Time of War. Saturday, April 17 at 8 PM in Carnegie Hall.
- Good Morning
Banksy’s identity is out, and the art world has a counterintuitive take: prices should go up (The Wall Street Journal). Turns out anonymity was the brand, not the precondition for the brand. In the category of DEI-era reckoning: Playwrights Horizons has settled a lawsuit filed by a white ticket buyer who felt excluded by a discount program offered to buyers of color — the joint statement ran six sentences and did not mention money (The New York Times).
In the UK, the Culture Secretary is moving to give the BBC something it has never had in its history: a permanent charter, protecting it from the decennial renegotiations that have left it perpetually exposed to political pressure (The Guardian). SXSW, by contrast, has never recovered from the pandemic, sold a controlling interest to Penske Media, and after last year’s event watched key staff walk out the door. Now serious observers are asking whether it can survive at all (Texas Monthly).
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater has been leaking, essentially, since the day it opened in 1937. A $7 million conservation project is on track for completion next month. The house is called Fallingwater and is built over a waterfall, so we will note this with cautious optimism (The Art Newspaper).
All of today’s stories below.
- St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Adds Another Artistic Partner: Violinist Alina Ibragimova
The Russian-British violinist joins five current artistic partners: harpsichordist and conductor Richard Egarr, pianist Richard Goode, cellist Abel Selaocoe, conductor Gábor Takács-Nagy, and violist Tabea Zimmermann. Ibragimova’s term begins next season. – The Strad
- A Sea Change In Australian Orchestra Programming
Overall, works by women made up 14.6 percent of programming in 2025, an increase on 2024’s 11.9 percent after a dip from 13.2 percent in 2023. – Limelight
- Gen Z Is Returning To The Movie Theatre
Gen Z is buying up a higher percentage of movie tickets, rising from 34% of the overall box office in 2019 to 39% last year. – The Star-Tribune
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Can Wisdom Be Taught?
The study of wisdom dates to antiquity, but only in the past 40 years have researchers begun to apply the scientific method to probe what wisdom is and how it develops. – Knowable
- Reconsidering Dopamine’s Effects On The Brain
Where once there was a simple model that explained how dopamine works in the brain, now there are challenges that seek to amend the theory — or even to overturn it. – Nature
- What Is Philosophy In The Age Of AI?
Understanding language as something defined by public use—rather than private intention—helps us grasp how simply scraping text from around the web and finding patterns in the way words fit together can form the basis for passably imitating a human. – Prospect
- Scholars See Serious Threat Of AI In The Humanities
In the “humanities” – most scholars see AI as a unique threat, one that extends far beyond cheating on homework and casts doubt on the future of higher education itself in a fast-approaching machine-dominated future. – The Guardian
- How Do We Calibrate The Use Of AI In Education?
So what does “getting learning right” look like in the age of generative AI? It involves a lot of experimentation and leaning in with students as a co-learner when I don’t have all of the answers, while remaining staunchly committed to sharing my expertise in writing, critical thinking and learning. – The Conversation
