AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Rescued From a Manhattan Dumpster, Now at the Met
Good Morning,
Alejandro Mario Yllanes, a Bolivian protégé of Diego Rivera jailed at home for his paintings of Indigenous labor, disappeared in the early 1950s. By several accounts his work was later pulled from the trash outside his Manhattan studio. The Met and MALBA, Buenos Aires’s Latin American art museum, have since collected him, the Toledo Museum of Art just bought Lake Titicaca (1935), and his paintings sell for up to $1.9 million (The New York Times).
In 1996 Jonathan Franzen complained in Harper’s of the “banal ascendancy of television.” He is now a month from finishing the script for Netflix’s eight-part The Corrections, with Meryl Streep as Enid (The Guardian).
Hong Kong Ballet moves in 2027 into the Dancehouse at West Kowloon, the city’s first venue built for dance, which takes it from seven performance weeks a year to ten (South China Morning Post). The National Theatre of Scotland agreed with Equity to cut rehearsal weeks from six days to five and pay overtime past 40 hours (The Stage).
Hungary’s new government closed Budapest’s House of Terror, the Orbán-era museum of fascist and communist history, and fired its director, a former Orbán adviser (ARTnews). Nova Scotia, now the only Canadian province with no core funding for publishers, is closing five of the Annapolis Valley’s eleven libraries; Rachel Reid, author of the hockey romance Heated Rivalry, gave $300,000 to keep them open (The Walrus).
All of our stories below.
- Hong Kong To Get Its First Dedicated Dance Venue
The “Dancehouse” will be part of the WestK Performing Arts Centre, opening next year in the West Kowloon Cultural District. The theater will be the new home of Hong Kong Ballet, which will be able to increase the length of its season. – South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
- Nova Scotia Closed Libraries. The Backlash Has Been Intense
Persistent provincial underfunding forced the Annapolis Valley Regional Library system to announce plans earlier this year to permanently close five of its ten libraries. Many are tired of—even enraged by—what they perceive as the government’s assault on culture, treaty rights, and the environment. – The Walrus
- Six Artists Who Shaped Modern American Design — And The Bitter WWII Experience Which United Them All
“The (Barnes Foundation) exhibit ‘Noguchi to Asawa: Designing Postwar America’ examines six renowned Japanese-American artists whose work defined modern American art and design in the mid-to-late 20th century — all of whom were severely impacted by mass incarceration” in wartime internment camps. – The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
- Are Debates Over Student AI Use Arguing Over The Wrong Things?
The battle for the role of AI in higher education this fall is being fought over when and where AI and other digital technologies should be used. This combat ignores the larger crisis: how can colleges verify that they are preparing students to become productive members of society in a digital age? – Post Alley
ISSUES
- Six Artists Who Shaped Modern American Design — And The Bitter WWII Experience Which United Them All
“The (Barnes Foundation) exhibit ‘Noguchi to Asawa: Designing Postwar America’ examines six renowned Japanese-American artists whose work defined modern American art and design in the mid-to-late 20th century — all of whom were severely impacted by mass incarceration” in wartime internment camps. – The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
- The “Extraordinary” Bolivian Painter Whose Work Was Discovered In The Trash
“Alejandro Mario Yllanes was a protégé of Diego Rivera, who championed the bravery with which Yllanes made searingly political works. Yllanes … left little trace of his life after 1950, leaving a cache of paintings, engravings and documents in an apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.” – The New York Times
- National Trust For Historic Preservation Announces $10M Fund To Push Back Against Trump
The fund “will provide resources for legal defense, public advocacy, and community action when historic places and the laws that protect them are under threat,” Brent Leggs, the trust’s president, said in an interview on Tuesday. – Washington Post
- Comedy Comes To The Museum Tour
During the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last month, she made her way to the National Galleries of Scotland for what was billed as a “cheeky romp” uncovering the “gossip, glamour and glorious absurdity hiding behind the art.” Gloriously absurd it was. – NPR
- Faced With Soaring Costs, Museums Are Rethinking Their Climate Control Standards
For decades, professionals codified a climate range of plus or minus 2°C and plus or minus 5% humidity into museum practices and loan agreements worldwide, applying these numbers to institutions in environments wildly different from London. In recent years, however, professionals have started to push back against these stringent standards. – The Art Newspaper
MEDIA
- Higher Ed’s AI-Detection Struggle
Four years into the ChatGPT era, colleges may be further from solving AI cheating than they were when it launched. – The Atlantic
- Hungary’s New Government Temporarily Closes Orbán’s House Of Terror Museum
“The museum closure is part of new Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s attempts to rectify his predecessor, Viktor Orbán’s, control of state media and arts and culture entities. … (Culture minister Zoltán) Tarr said that the museum would reopen later this year ‘pending a review of the exhibition’s content.’” – ARTnews
- Inside The Capture Of The Kennedy Center
Internal emails and documents obtained by The New York Times demonstrate the political capture of the institution by the whims of Mr. Trump, who at the start of his second term installed a board that made him chairman. Audiences and donors fled, and its finances cratered. – The New York Times
- Why Education Should Be More Like Gym Class
For years, the architecture of higher education quietly encouraged students to believe that the point of a class, and indeed of the entire college experience, was the credential. But if the grade is the goal, and a machine can get you the grade, the machine is not a shortcut; it’s just efficiency. – The New Yorker
- Inside The Kennedy Center’s Real Finances
Now there’s a fuller picture of the finances Trump inherited—and of what happened during his first months in charge. A previously unseen federal tax filing captures an institution in transition. – The Atlantic
MUSIC
- Nova Scotia Closed Libraries. The Backlash Has Been Intense
Persistent provincial underfunding forced the Annapolis Valley Regional Library system to announce plans earlier this year to permanently close five of its ten libraries. Many are tired of—even enraged by—what they perceive as the government’s assault on culture, treaty rights, and the environment. – The Walrus
- Jonathan Franzen’s TV Conversion
Franzen used to think TV was the “enemy” of the serious novelist. But after the HBO series failed, he watched Breaking Bad, Nurse Jackie and Silicon Valley and loved them. In the age of social media, AI and the endless scroll, TV has started to look like a “friend”, he says now. – The Guardian
- Arkansas Ends Effort To Restrict Prisoners’ Access To Hard-Copy Books
“The Department (of Corrections) first proposed banning incarcerated people from receiving physical books last year in order to tamp down on drugs making their way into prisons. … (The focus will be shifted) to ban ‘misbehaving’ third-parties selling publications laced with drugs to incarcerated people.” – Arkansas Advocate
- 2026 Booker Prize Finalists Include “The Disappearers,” “John Of John,” “The Things We Never Say”
“This year’s Booker prize shortlist features some very familiar names – previous winners Marlon James and Douglas Stuart …, along with Pulitzer winner Elizabeth Strout and prominent British speculative fiction writer M John Harrison. Novelist and poet Luke Kennard and debut novelist Rebecca Perry are also in contention for the £50,000 prize.” – The Guardian
- How The American Public Library Model Evolved
When you view the centuries-long history of American librarianship through a Pennsylvania lens, it’s more complex, nuanced and fascinating than many people realize. – The Conversation
PEOPLE
- Rescued From a Manhattan Dumpster, Now at the Met
Good Morning,
Alejandro Mario Yllanes, a Bolivian protégé of Diego Rivera jailed at home for his paintings of Indigenous labor, disappeared in the early 1950s. By several accounts his work was later pulled from the trash outside his Manhattan studio. The Met and MALBA, Buenos Aires’s Latin American art museum, have since collected him, the Toledo Museum of Art just bought Lake Titicaca (1935), and his paintings sell for up to $1.9 million (The New York Times).
In 1996 Jonathan Franzen complained in Harper’s of the “banal ascendancy of television.” He is now a month from finishing the script for Netflix’s eight-part The Corrections, with Meryl Streep as Enid (The Guardian).
Hong Kong Ballet moves in 2027 into the Dancehouse at West Kowloon, the city’s first venue built for dance, which takes it from seven performance weeks a year to ten (South China Morning Post). The National Theatre of Scotland agreed with Equity to cut rehearsal weeks from six days to five and pay overtime past 40 hours (The Stage).
Hungary’s new government closed Budapest’s House of Terror, the Orbán-era museum of fascist and communist history, and fired its director, a former Orbán adviser (ARTnews). Nova Scotia, now the only Canadian province with no core funding for publishers, is closing five of the Annapolis Valley’s eleven libraries; Rachel Reid, author of the hockey romance Heated Rivalry, gave $300,000 to keep them open (The Walrus).
All of our stories below.
- Hong Kong To Get Its First Dedicated Dance Venue
The “Dancehouse” will be part of the WestK Performing Arts Centre, opening next year in the West Kowloon Cultural District. The theater will be the new home of Hong Kong Ballet, which will be able to increase the length of its season. – South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
- Nova Scotia Closed Libraries. The Backlash Has Been Intense
Persistent provincial underfunding forced the Annapolis Valley Regional Library system to announce plans earlier this year to permanently close five of its ten libraries. Many are tired of—even enraged by—what they perceive as the government’s assault on culture, treaty rights, and the environment. – The Walrus
- Six Artists Who Shaped Modern American Design — And The Bitter WWII Experience Which United Them All
“The (Barnes Foundation) exhibit ‘Noguchi to Asawa: Designing Postwar America’ examines six renowned Japanese-American artists whose work defined modern American art and design in the mid-to-late 20th century — all of whom were severely impacted by mass incarceration” in wartime internment camps. – The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
- Are Debates Over Student AI Use Arguing Over The Wrong Things?
The battle for the role of AI in higher education this fall is being fought over when and where AI and other digital technologies should be used. This combat ignores the larger crisis: how can colleges verify that they are preparing students to become productive members of society in a digital age? – Post Alley
PEOPLE
- Rescued From a Manhattan Dumpster, Now at the Met
Good Morning,
Alejandro Mario Yllanes, a Bolivian protégé of Diego Rivera jailed at home for his paintings of Indigenous labor, disappeared in the early 1950s. By several accounts his work was later pulled from the trash outside his Manhattan studio. The Met and MALBA, Buenos Aires’s Latin American art museum, have since collected him, the Toledo Museum of Art just bought Lake Titicaca (1935), and his paintings sell for up to $1.9 million (The New York Times).
In 1996 Jonathan Franzen complained in Harper’s of the “banal ascendancy of television.” He is now a month from finishing the script for Netflix’s eight-part The Corrections, with Meryl Streep as Enid (The Guardian).
Hong Kong Ballet moves in 2027 into the Dancehouse at West Kowloon, the city’s first venue built for dance, which takes it from seven performance weeks a year to ten (South China Morning Post). The National Theatre of Scotland agreed with Equity to cut rehearsal weeks from six days to five and pay overtime past 40 hours (The Stage).
Hungary’s new government closed Budapest’s House of Terror, the Orbán-era museum of fascist and communist history, and fired its director, a former Orbán adviser (ARTnews). Nova Scotia, now the only Canadian province with no core funding for publishers, is closing five of the Annapolis Valley’s eleven libraries; Rachel Reid, author of the hockey romance Heated Rivalry, gave $300,000 to keep them open (The Walrus).
All of our stories below.
- Hong Kong To Get Its First Dedicated Dance Venue
The “Dancehouse” will be part of the WestK Performing Arts Centre, opening next year in the West Kowloon Cultural District. The theater will be the new home of Hong Kong Ballet, which will be able to increase the length of its season. – South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
- Nova Scotia Closed Libraries. The Backlash Has Been Intense
Persistent provincial underfunding forced the Annapolis Valley Regional Library system to announce plans earlier this year to permanently close five of its ten libraries. Many are tired of—even enraged by—what they perceive as the government’s assault on culture, treaty rights, and the environment. – The Walrus
- Six Artists Who Shaped Modern American Design — And The Bitter WWII Experience Which United Them All
“The (Barnes Foundation) exhibit ‘Noguchi to Asawa: Designing Postwar America’ examines six renowned Japanese-American artists whose work defined modern American art and design in the mid-to-late 20th century — all of whom were severely impacted by mass incarceration” in wartime internment camps. – The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
- Are Debates Over Student AI Use Arguing Over The Wrong Things?
The battle for the role of AI in higher education this fall is being fought over when and where AI and other digital technologies should be used. This combat ignores the larger crisis: how can colleges verify that they are preparing students to become productive members of society in a digital age? – Post Alley
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Are Debates Over Student AI Use Arguing Over The Wrong Things?
The battle for the role of AI in higher education this fall is being fought over when and where AI and other digital technologies should be used. This combat ignores the larger crisis: how can colleges verify that they are preparing students to become productive members of society in a digital age? – Post Alley
- Looking Back On What The Literary Theory Generation Wrought
A half-century after poststructuralism broke out of Parisian lecture halls and stumbled into unexpected acclaim and vitriol in the English-speaking world, we now have enough distance from the culture wars of the 1980s and ’90s to look back on theory with clearer vision. Or so it would seem. – Hedgehog Review
- The Real Qualities Of A Skeptic
‘Sceptic’ comes from the Greek skeptikos, meaning enquirer, and has a long and serious pedigree in philosophy. Yet, since the 1990s, the term has been hijacked by science-denial movements, giving us oxymorons like ‘climate sceptic’, ‘vaccine sceptic’, and ‘evolution sceptic’. – Aeon
- New UK Company Will Recreate Famous Concerts With Hyper-Realistic Digital Avatars In Any Space
The former chief executive of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s entertainment group has obtained a near-£15m investment for his UK music tech startup that hopes to recreate classic concerts by manifesting musicians as digital avatars. – The Guardian
- Turns Out The Lucas Museum Provides A Great Backdrop For Jedi-Themed Protests
At the event, about workers’ rights and the upcoming Olympics in L.A., “protesters from the Fair Games Coalition — wearing Jedi robes and Jar Jar Binks masks and carrying lightsabers — rallied together outside the new museum.” – Los Angeles Times (MSN)