AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Mao Weitao Shaved Her Head for Opera
Good Morning,
Ian McKellen, 87, will appear as a hologram in Simon Stephens’s play An Ark, filmed by 52 cameras, at Manchester’s Factory International from March 27 (BBC).
Mary Duggan was asked to design 80 council homes on a Croydon hillside and instead fit in 157 among five brick towers and a bluebell wood. Lion Green Road has just won Britain’s Stirling Prize for architecture, after a planning application that drew 257 objections (The Guardian).
The Centre Pompidou’s first outpost in the Americas, in Paraná, Brazil, now opens in 2029 and construction hasn’t begun; architect Solano Benítez says he was given six months to finish the design and took a year (The Art Newspaper).
Writer Snigdha Poonam accepted a book-club invitation and joined a Zoom of 20 people with cameras off, all addressing her as “Professor” (The Dial). Of course: it was all a scam. Why are scammers targeting book authors?
Tom Di Nardo, who has died at 89, spent 36 years designing high-voltage wiring for Peco, Philadelphia’s electric utility, and reviewed music at night, filing more than 1,000 stories for the Daily News and Inquirer until 2017 (The Philadelphia Inquirer).
All the stories we collected today are below, organized by topic. see you tomorrow.
Doug
- Ice Dancing Champion Tessa Virtue Makes Her Professional Debut Dancing On Dry Land
“In the studio, Virtue has found new freedom in the ‘ability to get grounded with the floor,’ she says. ‘I’m not just gliding across the surface, but I’m actually using the floor as an impetus to step and move and turn.’” – Dance Magazine
- London’s Art Market May Be Damaged But Small Galleries Are Sharpening Their Edge
Though Brexit and reforms to wealthy international residents’ tax arrangements have damaged the Britain’s art market, the depth and quality of London’s midsize and smaller gallery offerings still give the city’s art scene an edge. – The New York Times
- How Ukrainians Are Fighting Back Against Russia’s Destruction Of Their Books
“The Ukrainian response has been a renewal of patriotism and engagement with national culture, along with enthusiastic defiance: the queues outside bookshops that formed in response to … the destruction, the orders that flooded in for e-books, or customers content to wait months for physical copies.” – The Bookseller (UK)
- New from Moloko Print It Is Written: Times with Brion Gysin
<a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2026/10/new-from-moloko-print-it-is-written-times-with-brion-gysin.html" title="New from Moloko Print
It Is Written: Times
ISSUES
- London’s Art Market May Be Damaged But Small Galleries Are Sharpening Their Edge
Though Brexit and reforms to wealthy international residents’ tax arrangements have damaged the Britain’s art market, the depth and quality of London’s midsize and smaller gallery offerings still give the city’s art scene an edge. – The New York Times
- Opening Of New Brazil Pompidou Museum Delayed Until 2029
“The project is currently working toward an opening in 2029 and is in the technical preparatory stages for the bidding process,” a Pompidou spokesperson tells The Art Newspaper. – The Art Newspaper
- Louvre Robbery Was A Preview For A Year Of The Art Heists
Police are still looking for the Louvre’s stolen trove of 19th-century jewelry, though French authorities arrested eight people in connection with the crime last October. But the subsequent heists across Europe suggest the Louvre heist wasn’t a one-off and might have emboldened copycats. – The Wall Street Journal
- Public Housing Project Wins Stirling Prize For Britain’s Best New Building
Lion Green Road, designed by Mary Duggan Architects with Ruff Architects in the outer London borough of Croydon, “demonstrates how more homes than you might imagine can be constructed on the most unpromising of sites in a sympathetic way, without sacrificing greenery, views and public access – and keeping plenty of parking, too.” – The Guardian
- Karachi Biennale Abruptly Canceled
It is not yet clear what specific circumstances or events in the region contributed to the cancellation, which reportedly occurred without the input of the biennale’s curator, Noor Ahmed, according to the Pakistani newspaper Dawn’s cultural imprint, Images. – Hyperallergic
MEDIA
- How Florida’s New College Was Neutered By DeSantis’ Culture War
The report shows that NCF, with about eight hundred students, had both the largest administrative personnel and the highest operating expenses of any public college in Florida. – n+1
- Kennedy Center’s New Artistic Director Has Been Working With Trump’s People There From The Beginning
Since April 2025, two months after Trump’s takeover, Rick Canny has been a senior adviser to the Center, which has now amended his consulting contract to appoint him artistic director “in a designated executive consulting capacity.” Memos indicate that Canny wants authority to make a lot of changes. – The Washington Post (MSN)
- San Francisco Looks To Start New Arts District Along Market Street
“The Market Street Arts & Theater District will initially focus on the 900 block of Market Street between Fifth and Sixth streets, with plans to activate one to two vacant or underused spaces; add lighting, banners and public art as part of beautification efforts; fund pop-up performances and other arts programming.” – San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)
- Trump Insider Alleges Donations To Kennedy Center Went Missing Under Ric Grenell’s Watch
Former Trump attorney Alina Habba told the president that another one of his top advisers — former Kennedy Center leader Ric Grenell — failed to deposit a multimillion-dollar donation that her billionaire husband made to the center a year ago. – Axios
- Philadelphia’s Jewish Museum Could Become Part Of The Smithsonian
“The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia is being considered as a potential new member of the Smithsonian museum network, with members of a new congressional commission sworn in on Tuesday set to study the matter.” It would be the only Smithsonian museum outside metro DC or New York. – ARTnews
MUSIC
- How Ukrainians Are Fighting Back Against Russia’s Destruction Of Their Books
“The Ukrainian response has been a renewal of patriotism and engagement with national culture, along with enthusiastic defiance: the queues outside bookshops that formed in response to … the destruction, the orders that flooded in for e-books, or customers content to wait months for physical copies.” – The Bookseller (UK)
- Why Are Scammers Targeting Book Authors?
I’m not the only author to have found myself stuck in a Zoom book club with fake readers. Countless writers with published books have been receiving invitations from reading communities that start to unravel after a basic Google search. – The Dial
- Writers Are Being Deluged With Scams, Even Though Most Don’t Have Much Money. How Come?
Because these scammers have hit on an M.O. to which writers are particularly susceptible, that’s why. And there are a lot of hopeful writers out there, so the scammers can ask for small amounts of money (making it look low-risk to the targets), and make bank on volume. – The Dial
- seriously? we’re writing in all lower case?
the stylistic choice to write in lowercase is a dead horse that’s been beaten, flogged, and beaten again—what my generation calls ran through. and yet, it’s having a moment. i had to investigate. – Wired
- The Essential Anne Carson: Fragments Across Time
Fragmentation is frequently associated with the crisis of representation in 20th-century literature. Carson reveals that the ancient textual tradition already contains discontinuities that resist the modern desire for completeness. – The Conversation
PEOPLE
- Mao Weitao Shaved Her Head for Opera
Good Morning,
Ian McKellen, 87, will appear as a hologram in Simon Stephens’s play An Ark, filmed by 52 cameras, at Manchester’s Factory International from March 27 (BBC).
Mary Duggan was asked to design 80 council homes on a Croydon hillside and instead fit in 157 among five brick towers and a bluebell wood. Lion Green Road has just won Britain’s Stirling Prize for architecture, after a planning application that drew 257 objections (The Guardian).
The Centre Pompidou’s first outpost in the Americas, in Paraná, Brazil, now opens in 2029 and construction hasn’t begun; architect Solano Benítez says he was given six months to finish the design and took a year (The Art Newspaper).
Writer Snigdha Poonam accepted a book-club invitation and joined a Zoom of 20 people with cameras off, all addressing her as “Professor” (The Dial). Of course: it was all a scam. Why are scammers targeting book authors?
Tom Di Nardo, who has died at 89, spent 36 years designing high-voltage wiring for Peco, Philadelphia’s electric utility, and reviewed music at night, filing more than 1,000 stories for the Daily News and Inquirer until 2017 (The Philadelphia Inquirer).
All the stories we collected today are below, organized by topic. see you tomorrow.
Doug
- Ice Dancing Champion Tessa Virtue Makes Her Professional Debut Dancing On Dry Land
“In the studio, Virtue has found new freedom in the ‘ability to get grounded with the floor,’ she says. ‘I’m not just gliding across the surface, but I’m actually using the floor as an impetus to step and move and turn.’” – Dance Magazine
- London’s Art Market May Be Damaged But Small Galleries Are Sharpening Their Edge
Though Brexit and reforms to wealthy international residents’ tax arrangements have damaged the Britain’s art market, the depth and quality of London’s midsize and smaller gallery offerings still give the city’s art scene an edge. – The New York Times
- How Ukrainians Are Fighting Back Against Russia’s Destruction Of Their Books
“The Ukrainian response has been a renewal of patriotism and engagement with national culture, along with enthusiastic defiance: the queues outside bookshops that formed in response to … the destruction, the orders that flooded in for e-books, or customers content to wait months for physical copies.” – The Bookseller (UK)
- New from Moloko Print It Is Written: Times with Brion Gysin<a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2026/10/new-from-moloko-print-it-is-written-times-with-brion-gysin.html" title="New from Moloko Print
It Is Written: Times
PEOPLE
- Mao Weitao Shaved Her Head for Opera
Good Morning,
Ian McKellen, 87, will appear as a hologram in Simon Stephens’s play An Ark, filmed by 52 cameras, at Manchester’s Factory International from March 27 (BBC).
Mary Duggan was asked to design 80 council homes on a Croydon hillside and instead fit in 157 among five brick towers and a bluebell wood. Lion Green Road has just won Britain’s Stirling Prize for architecture, after a planning application that drew 257 objections (The Guardian).
The Centre Pompidou’s first outpost in the Americas, in Paraná, Brazil, now opens in 2029 and construction hasn’t begun; architect Solano Benítez says he was given six months to finish the design and took a year (The Art Newspaper).
Writer Snigdha Poonam accepted a book-club invitation and joined a Zoom of 20 people with cameras off, all addressing her as “Professor” (The Dial). Of course: it was all a scam. Why are scammers targeting book authors?
Tom Di Nardo, who has died at 89, spent 36 years designing high-voltage wiring for Peco, Philadelphia’s electric utility, and reviewed music at night, filing more than 1,000 stories for the Daily News and Inquirer until 2017 (The Philadelphia Inquirer).
All the stories we collected today are below, organized by topic. see you tomorrow.
Doug
- Ice Dancing Champion Tessa Virtue Makes Her Professional Debut Dancing On Dry Land
“In the studio, Virtue has found new freedom in the ‘ability to get grounded with the floor,’ she says. ‘I’m not just gliding across the surface, but I’m actually using the floor as an impetus to step and move and turn.’” – Dance Magazine
- London’s Art Market May Be Damaged But Small Galleries Are Sharpening Their Edge
Though Brexit and reforms to wealthy international residents’ tax arrangements have damaged the Britain’s art market, the depth and quality of London’s midsize and smaller gallery offerings still give the city’s art scene an edge. – The New York Times
- How Ukrainians Are Fighting Back Against Russia’s Destruction Of Their Books
“The Ukrainian response has been a renewal of patriotism and engagement with national culture, along with enthusiastic defiance: the queues outside bookshops that formed in response to … the destruction, the orders that flooded in for e-books, or customers content to wait months for physical copies.” – The Bookseller (UK)
- New from Moloko Print It Is Written: Times with Brion Gysin<a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2026/10/new-from-moloko-print-it-is-written-times-with-brion-gysin.html" title="New from Moloko Print
It Is Written: Times
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Bernie Sanders: Let’s Not Let Big Tech Dictate The Future Of Humanity
If these were the fantasies of teenage boys obsessed with science fiction, we could laugh them off. They are not. These are the foundational beliefs of the most powerful people in the world, who are mobilizing trillions of dollars to turn them into reality. – The Atlantic
- Is Their A Limit To Human Knowledge? Or Do We Keep Moving The Goalposts?
Are certain questions closed to the human mind? Are there truths about the world that we can never know? – Aeon
- Yes, Reading Has Changed. Adapt.
“We have everything we need to be happy,” the hero of Fahrenheit 451 observes, “but we aren’t happy.” Maybe that’s the ultimate lever to pull: the growing awareness that our devices are exhausting and eroding us. – The American Scholar
- We’re Losing Our Skills As We Lean Into Technology
We have fallen into habits that are steadily deskilling the human body, eroding capacities honed by evolution to support our wellbeing as we move through the world. Some of these capacities are weakening through disuse: we have come to rely on our phones, for example, and now, increasingly, on AI. – Aeon
- Complicating The Morality Of Colonialism?
“My pessimism is reinforced by the zero-sum view of economics that typically accompanies the zero-sum view of moral agency around colonialism. A major piece of evidence for the ‘colonisation explains everything’ thesis is economic.” – 3 Quarks Daily