AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- (no title)
Goodbye to Dolly
Good Afternoon,
Two performers who spent careers refusing to be one thing: Dolly Parton, dead at 80 (AP), and Tim Curry, dead at 80 (Variety). Both were underestimated for decades by people who mistook their costumes for the person.
The AI argument, meanwhile, has moved out of panel discussions and into work. Aszure Barton has staged Pandora’s Box as a parable about artificial intelligence (The Guardian), while an essay in The Point argues for deliberately limiting AI in culture — preservation as a choice rather than a reflex.
The State Department is weighing the sale of a Kehinde Wiley painting for being “too woke” (ARTnews), and in China, sculptor Gao Zhen has been jailed for insulting “heroes and martyrs” (The Guardian).
Boston’s musicians settled and averted the BSO’s looming first strike (WBUR); But V&A staff, echoing unrest at other London museums, voted to walk (BBC).
For fun: in 1939 the BBC broadcast a note played live on Tutankhamun’s trumpet — a 3000-year-old instrument (CNN).
All of our stories below.
- Artists Bring a Narrative to Life: We the People
We wanted to celebrate our nation, because 2026 is our 250th birthday, and also, it feels necessary in this moment. But how would we do it in a moment when celebrating living in the USA feels political, feels fraught with potential pitfalls? What could we do to bring people together across perceived differences? What would […] - Culture: The Real Costs of being Real
It’s getting difficult to trust what (or who) is real in the age of AI. - Actor Tim Curry, Star Of “Rocky Horror” And “It,” Has Died At 80
“Though Curry would forever be the face that launched a thousand Time Warp dances …, he (was) far more than a one-trick pony over a career that spanned more than a half-century.” His roles ranged from Pennywise the Clown (Stephen King’s It) to Mozart (Amadeus ,Olivier and Tony nominations) to King Arthur (Spamalot). – Variety
- The NEA Has Survived. But At What Cost?
The generally inoffensive nature of these selections seems to reveal an agency that has trimmed its sails (not only financially) and ceded ground to conservative demands in order to survive. – American Theatre
ISSUES
- V&A Museum Workers Vote To Strike
A PCS ballot registered 95% in favour of industrial action. The union did not say how many workers would be striking. It called for better pay, a cross-site policy to close public spaces when temperatures reached 30C, and for V&A East Storehouse workers “to drink and carry water at work”. – BBC
- US State Department Wants To Sell Kehinde Wiley Painting: “Too Woke”
On Monday, the New York Times reported that the State Department wants to sell the painting. Campos said in her Instagram post that the “Trump Administration and under my leadership we are turning away from globalist and woke ideologies.” – ARTnews
- Why Labor Unrest Is Sweeping Through Britain’s Museum Sector
“Staff at the V&A voted overwhelmingly to strike; … (workers) at the British Museum, the Science Museum, British Library, and Tate, among others, have all walked out in recent years as unions … coordinate campaigns accusing institutions of mistreating their staff and letting wages fall behind the cost of living.” – Artnet
- Judge Halts Auction Of Titanic Artifacts
A controversial plan to auction off artifacts recovered from the wreck of the Titanic must be put on hold, a federal judge ruled Monday, after the U.S. government and preservationists raised concerns about the sale and the company’s care of the artifacts. – Washington Post
- Report: Museum Heists In Europe Are Becoming More Violent
The report highlights a concerning rise in violent and forceful tactics, alongside a growing focus on high-value items such as precious metals, gemstones, and culturally significant artefacts. – Insight EU
MEDIA
- Trump Administration Threatens To Demolish Kennedy Center If Renovations Don’t Proceed
“Without those efforts,” wrote administration attorneys in a court filing, “the Center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River.” – The Guardian
- Seaside Towns In Brittany Are Fed Up With Parisian Tourists
“The anger is running high across Finistère, where local populations swell to triple their normal size every summer, and heatwave conditions in the south of France have added to the influx this year. … Hostile messages have been scratched on car doors, and holidaymakers from Paris have had insults hurled at them on the street.” – The Telegraph (UK) (MSN)
- Report: Revenue Cratered At The Kennedy Center After Name Change
Ticket sales had already dropped in the10 months following Trump’s takeover, but both ticket sales and donations plunged after the Trump-led board of trustees voted in December to rename the center after him and put his name on the front of the building, according to the records. – Washington Post
- Historic LA Performing Center Reopens After 15-Year Renovation
After a 15-year renovation, South L.A.’s historic Vision Theatre Performing Arts Center is reopening, marking a major milestone for Leimert Park and a $40-million investment in Black arts and culture. – Los Angeles Times
- Elections Flip Control Of Florida School Board At Center Of Book Bans And Culture Wars
“Two Democratic-backed candidates beat out conservatives in Tuesday’s school board election in Sarasota, Florida, flipping the board’s majority. Helmed for the past year by a co-founder of Moms for Liberty, … the board is moving in a new direction, the winners said.” – The Washington Post (Yahoo!)
MUSIC
- Why Is So Much New Literary Fiction So Boring?
The question driving these opening pages is not: “What does it mean to live a good life?” or “What do we owe to people?” or “What can be saved from the ravages of time?” The question I hear is: “Have I impressed you yet?” – Devon Halliday
- HarperCollins Now Has A Manga Imprint, Kazé
“The publisher is rolling out the imprint in partnership with the existing Kazé publishers in France and Germany, which distribute manga for the European market and were acquired by HarperCollins last year. Kazé US will build on that brand for American readers of all ages.” – Publishers Weekly
- UK Publisher To Release Jason Arday’s Memoir Despite Questions About Its Veracity
Simon & Schuster UK made no comment beyond a statement from Arday’s family: “Jason was clear that he wanted his memoir to be published and it is only right that we honour his wishes. … We (will) allow the book to speak for itself and won’t comment further on its content.” – The Telegraph (UK) (Yahoo!)
- Can Poetry Help Make People More Ecologically Aware?
Researchers have argued that eco-poetry can influence how we experience a place, what we notice and what it might become in the future. They suggest that by “sounding” environmental change, speculative poetry offers us a tangible way to engage with, interpret and navigate the uncertainty of the climate crisis. – The Conversation
- UK Looks Headed For Record Year In Print Book Sales
According to NielsenIQ BookScan, sales of print books across the British consumer market have passed £1 billion at the earliest point in the calendar year since records began. – The Bookseller (UK)
PEOPLE
- (no title)
Goodbye to Dolly
Good Afternoon,
Two performers who spent careers refusing to be one thing: Dolly Parton, dead at 80 (AP), and Tim Curry, dead at 80 (Variety). Both were underestimated for decades by people who mistook their costumes for the person.
The AI argument, meanwhile, has moved out of panel discussions and into work. Aszure Barton has staged Pandora’s Box as a parable about artificial intelligence (The Guardian), while an essay in The Point argues for deliberately limiting AI in culture — preservation as a choice rather than a reflex.
The State Department is weighing the sale of a Kehinde Wiley painting for being “too woke” (ARTnews), and in China, sculptor Gao Zhen has been jailed for insulting “heroes and martyrs” (The Guardian).
Boston’s musicians settled and averted the BSO’s looming first strike (WBUR); But V&A staff, echoing unrest at other London museums, voted to walk (BBC).
For fun: in 1939 the BBC broadcast a note played live on Tutankhamun’s trumpet — a 3000-year-old instrument (CNN).
All of our stories below.
- Artists Bring a Narrative to Life: We the PeopleWe wanted to celebrate our nation, because 2026 is our 250th birthday, and also, it feels necessary in this moment. But how would we do it in a moment when celebrating living in the USA feels political, feels fraught with potential pitfalls? What could we do to bring people together across perceived differences? What would […]
- Culture: The Real Costs of being RealIt’s getting difficult to trust what (or who) is real in the age of AI.
- Actor Tim Curry, Star Of “Rocky Horror” And “It,” Has Died At 80
“Though Curry would forever be the face that launched a thousand Time Warp dances …, he (was) far more than a one-trick pony over a career that spanned more than a half-century.” His roles ranged from Pennywise the Clown (Stephen King’s It) to Mozart (Amadeus ,Olivier and Tony nominations) to King Arthur (Spamalot). – Variety
- The NEA Has Survived. But At What Cost?
The generally inoffensive nature of these selections seems to reveal an agency that has trimmed its sails (not only financially) and ceded ground to conservative demands in order to survive. – American Theatre
PEOPLE
- (no title)
Goodbye to Dolly
Good Afternoon,
Two performers who spent careers refusing to be one thing: Dolly Parton, dead at 80 (AP), and Tim Curry, dead at 80 (Variety). Both were underestimated for decades by people who mistook their costumes for the person.
The AI argument, meanwhile, has moved out of panel discussions and into work. Aszure Barton has staged Pandora’s Box as a parable about artificial intelligence (The Guardian), while an essay in The Point argues for deliberately limiting AI in culture — preservation as a choice rather than a reflex.
The State Department is weighing the sale of a Kehinde Wiley painting for being “too woke” (ARTnews), and in China, sculptor Gao Zhen has been jailed for insulting “heroes and martyrs” (The Guardian).
Boston’s musicians settled and averted the BSO’s looming first strike (WBUR); But V&A staff, echoing unrest at other London museums, voted to walk (BBC).
For fun: in 1939 the BBC broadcast a note played live on Tutankhamun’s trumpet — a 3000-year-old instrument (CNN).
All of our stories below.
- Artists Bring a Narrative to Life: We the PeopleWe wanted to celebrate our nation, because 2026 is our 250th birthday, and also, it feels necessary in this moment. But how would we do it in a moment when celebrating living in the USA feels political, feels fraught with potential pitfalls? What could we do to bring people together across perceived differences? What would […]
- Culture: The Real Costs of being RealIt’s getting difficult to trust what (or who) is real in the age of AI.
- Actor Tim Curry, Star Of “Rocky Horror” And “It,” Has Died At 80
“Though Curry would forever be the face that launched a thousand Time Warp dances …, he (was) far more than a one-trick pony over a career that spanned more than a half-century.” His roles ranged from Pennywise the Clown (Stephen King’s It) to Mozart (Amadeus ,Olivier and Tony nominations) to King Arthur (Spamalot). – Variety
- The NEA Has Survived. But At What Cost?
The generally inoffensive nature of these selections seems to reveal an agency that has trimmed its sails (not only financially) and ceded ground to conservative demands in order to survive. – American Theatre
THEATRE
VISUAL
- A Case For Limiting AI In Culture
If we fail to think through and delimit the role of AI in our lives, we risk undermining the intelligibility of our own guiding cultural concepts, and thus initiating a period in our own society of which it may someday be possible to say that “nothing happened.” – The Point
- The Worst Year Ever To Be Alive
A massive volcanic eruption in AD536 has led historians to describe it as the “worst year to be alive”. Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia were plunged into darkness for 18 months. Temperatures in the summer months fell by 1.5˚C to 2.5˚C, initiating one of the coldest decades in the past two millennia. – The Conversation
- Our Misconceptions Of What Consciousness Is
Perceiving, experiencing and thinking are inherently embodied activities. The body is not just a physical object, it is a living organism that is in constant flux. It is also part of the social, cultural and material world. – Nature
- The Warnings From The Digital Age That Should Inform The AI Age
The adoption and diffusion of such technologies led to wild-eyed speculation about their possible social and political consequences, a discussion that, characteristically, ricocheted between dreams of a technological utopia and fears of an artificial state. – The Guardian
- Is The Next Gen City A Marriage Of Tech And Nature?
If the Anthropocene began when the Industrial Revolution set industry against the living world, the Symbiocene imagines what should follow: interspecies democracy, life within Earth’s limits, and ecological reciprocity. – Aeon