AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Good Morning
LACMA has bet everything on reinvention. The $724-million David Geffen Galleries open this week, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has essentially demolished and rebuilt itself — trading a fragmented campus for a single hovering megastructure (Los Angeles Times). Across the Atlantic, London’s National Gallery has tapped Kengo Kuma to design a $464-million wing that will push the collection into 20th- and 21st-century art — territory the Tate has long considered its own (The Guardian).
Not every institution is building. Salzburg’s festival board, having fired its artistic director two weeks ago, has already installed an interim replacement (Moto Perpetuo). Meanwhile, Spain’s culture minister is refusing to let Picasso’s Guernica travel to the Basque region for the 90th anniversary of the bombing it depicts — a fight less about conservation than about which city gets to claim the painting’s meaning (The Guardian). And the market for reported nonfiction books is contracting, squeezing the kind of deep journalism that doesn’t come with a celebrity name attached (The New Republic).
All of our stories below.
- Celebrating the Heroes behind the Jazz
As jazz — the music, business and culture of it — depends on an intricate and widespread network of activists, altruists and advocates to thrive, and celebrating local doers at least used to be a way to focus attention on the out-of-the-spotlight work necessary to make anything worthwhile happen, the
- The Artist Behind The Banana On The Wall And The Golden Toilet Is Now Hearing Confessions
Maurizio Cattelan has set up a hotline where folks from anywhere can “confess their sins.” Those the artist/father-confessor considers most in need of repentance will be invited to confess to him in real time during an April 23 live-stream. “In a world of sin, absolution has never been so close,” he says. – Euronews
- In The Bay Area, Earlier Curtain Times Are Catching On
From ACT in San Francisco to Berkeley Rep to Stanford Live, producers and presenters are moving starting times from 8:00 to 7:30, 7:00 or even 6:30. So far, there have been lots of favorable comments and very few complaints. – San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)
- Spain’s Culture Minister Refuses Transfer Of Guernica For Basque Loan
The Basque government is already familiar with the Reina Sofía’s condition report—which deems the painting too fragile to travel—and that it is instead requesting a feasibility report from independent technicians on how a transfer to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao could be carried out safely. – ARTnews
ISSUES
- The Artist Behind The Banana On The Wall And The Golden Toilet Is Now Hearing Confessions
Maurizio Cattelan has set up a hotline where folks from anywhere can “confess their sins.” Those the artist/father-confessor considers most in need of repentance will be invited to confess to him in real time during an April 23 live-stream. “In a world of sin, absolution has never been so close,” he says. – Euronews
- Spain’s Culture Minister Refuses Transfer Of Guernica For Basque Loan
The Basque government is already familiar with the Reina Sofía’s condition report—which deems the painting too fragile to travel—and that it is instead requesting a feasibility report from independent technicians on how a transfer to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao could be carried out safely. – ARTnews
- HarperCollins’ Canadian Side-Hustle. Be Wary.
There is every reason to be wary when a foreign-owned corporation stakes a claim to defending Canada’s cultural sovereignty, but the case of HarperCollins calls for particular skepticism. – The Walrus
- LACMA Reinvented: Inside LA’s New Museum
No L.A. institution has taken as risky a leap in this century as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. With the opening of the $724-million David Geffen Galleries, LACMA has effectively erased and reinvented itself, trading a fragmented campus core for a sinuous, hovering concrete megastructure. – Los Angeles Times
- Regional Governments In Madrid And Basque Country Are Fighting Over Picasso’s “Guernica”
The town whose bombing the painting depicts is in the Basque region, and politicians there want to borrow Picasso’s canvas and display it in the Guggenheim Bilbao to commemorate the atrocity’s 90th anniversary. Meanwhile, Madrid’s president insists that Guernica remain where it is now, the Reina Sofía Museum. – The Guardian
MEDIA
- In The Bay Area, Earlier Curtain Times Are Catching On
From ACT in San Francisco to Berkeley Rep to Stanford Live, producers and presenters are moving starting times from 8:00 to 7:30, 7:00 or even 6:30. So far, there have been lots of favorable comments and very few complaints. – San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)
- The City Of Boston Gets A New Arts Chief
“Many cities are facing affordability crises, lack of access to physical space for creative work, and tighter budgets. It’s more important than ever to have leaders who can engage planning and policy systems and ensure the creative sector is at the table.” – WBUR
- Inside The Project To Remake Paris’ Catacombs
Over the past five months, architects, designers, technicians and masons have been renovating this vast tomb — installing new lighting and ventilation systems, restoring the bone walls, and preparing new audio guides. – The New York Times
- Alternative Conservative Entrance Exam Gains Traction In US Schools
The CLT stands out because it mainly features passages from noted philosophers, religious scholars, scientists and authors in the canon of Western literature, including Plato, St. Augustine, Dante and Shakespeare. Students can take the test at a traditional testing site or online at home. – Washington Post
- Major Arts Institutions In Minneapolis-St. Paul Are (Mostly) Bouncing Back
After some very challenging years, the Walker Art Center, Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis Institute of Art, and Minnesota Opera have all posted budget surpluses; while the Minnesota Orchestra’s deficit has grown, earned income and attendance are both up. – The Minnesota Star Tribune (MSN)
MUSIC
- Eco-Dystopian Novels From Africa And Asia Push The Form
Speculative and futuristic visions of environmental calamity are being imagined globally through environmental fiction. Eco-dystopian novels can help people process their fears or mourn the loss of a more stable climate. – The Conversation
- The Market For Non-Fiction Reporting In Books Is Contracting
These developments suggest a rough future for a certain kind of writing: nonfiction that’s based on reportage more than on personal experience or celebrity—a.k.a. long fact, literary nonfiction, or narrative nonfiction. – The New Republic
- Does There Even Need To Be A Separate New York Times Magazine Anymore?
In ink-on-dead-trees print, sure. But a large majority of the newspaper’s readers consume the Times online or on an app, where the difference between the magazine’s articles and those of the regular newspaper is barely visible. – New York Magazine (MSN)
- Fact-Checker Jasper Lo On His Illegal Firing From The New Yorker
“Why me? I wondered. I had finished my three-year term as the first vice chair of the New Yorker Union the week prior. Condé Nast had violated our collective bargaining agreement and broken labor law dozens of times, but it had never attempted something as reckless as illegally firing union leaders.” – The Nation
- How Two Recent AI Publishing “Scandals” Will Changing The Books Industry
Stories like Shy Girl and The New York Times’ profile of AI romance author Coral Hart, who boasted of using AI to write and self-publish 200 hundred books across 21 pen names, demonstrate that theoretical disputes did not prepare us to be confronted with the reality of AI. – The Conversation
PEOPLE
- Good Morning
LACMA has bet everything on reinvention. The $724-million David Geffen Galleries open this week, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has essentially demolished and rebuilt itself — trading a fragmented campus for a single hovering megastructure (Los Angeles Times). Across the Atlantic, London’s National Gallery has tapped Kengo Kuma to design a $464-million wing that will push the collection into 20th- and 21st-century art — territory the Tate has long considered its own (The Guardian).
Not every institution is building. Salzburg’s festival board, having fired its artistic director two weeks ago, has already installed an interim replacement (Moto Perpetuo). Meanwhile, Spain’s culture minister is refusing to let Picasso’s Guernica travel to the Basque region for the 90th anniversary of the bombing it depicts — a fight less about conservation than about which city gets to claim the painting’s meaning (The Guardian). And the market for reported nonfiction books is contracting, squeezing the kind of deep journalism that doesn’t come with a celebrity name attached (The New Republic).
All of our stories below.
- Celebrating the Heroes behind the Jazz
As jazz — the music, business and culture of it — depends on an intricate and widespread network of activists, altruists and advocates to thrive, and celebrating local doers at least used to be a way to focus attention on the out-of-the-spotlight work necessary to make anything worthwhile happen, the
- The Artist Behind The Banana On The Wall And The Golden Toilet Is Now Hearing Confessions
Maurizio Cattelan has set up a hotline where folks from anywhere can “confess their sins.” Those the artist/father-confessor considers most in need of repentance will be invited to confess to him in real time during an April 23 live-stream. “In a world of sin, absolution has never been so close,” he says. – Euronews
- In The Bay Area, Earlier Curtain Times Are Catching On
From ACT in San Francisco to Berkeley Rep to Stanford Live, producers and presenters are moving starting times from 8:00 to 7:30, 7:00 or even 6:30. So far, there have been lots of favorable comments and very few complaints. – San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)
- Spain’s Culture Minister Refuses Transfer Of Guernica For Basque Loan
The Basque government is already familiar with the Reina Sofía’s condition report—which deems the painting too fragile to travel—and that it is instead requesting a feasibility report from independent technicians on how a transfer to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao could be carried out safely. – ARTnews
PEOPLE
- Good Morning
LACMA has bet everything on reinvention. The $724-million David Geffen Galleries open this week, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has essentially demolished and rebuilt itself — trading a fragmented campus for a single hovering megastructure (Los Angeles Times). Across the Atlantic, London’s National Gallery has tapped Kengo Kuma to design a $464-million wing that will push the collection into 20th- and 21st-century art — territory the Tate has long considered its own (The Guardian).
Not every institution is building. Salzburg’s festival board, having fired its artistic director two weeks ago, has already installed an interim replacement (Moto Perpetuo). Meanwhile, Spain’s culture minister is refusing to let Picasso’s Guernica travel to the Basque region for the 90th anniversary of the bombing it depicts — a fight less about conservation than about which city gets to claim the painting’s meaning (The Guardian). And the market for reported nonfiction books is contracting, squeezing the kind of deep journalism that doesn’t come with a celebrity name attached (The New Republic).
All of our stories below.
- Celebrating the Heroes behind the Jazz
As jazz — the music, business and culture of it — depends on an intricate and widespread network of activists, altruists and advocates to thrive, and celebrating local doers at least used to be a way to focus attention on the out-of-the-spotlight work necessary to make anything worthwhile happen, the
- The Artist Behind The Banana On The Wall And The Golden Toilet Is Now Hearing Confessions
Maurizio Cattelan has set up a hotline where folks from anywhere can “confess their sins.” Those the artist/father-confessor considers most in need of repentance will be invited to confess to him in real time during an April 23 live-stream. “In a world of sin, absolution has never been so close,” he says. – Euronews
- In The Bay Area, Earlier Curtain Times Are Catching On
From ACT in San Francisco to Berkeley Rep to Stanford Live, producers and presenters are moving starting times from 8:00 to 7:30, 7:00 or even 6:30. So far, there have been lots of favorable comments and very few complaints. – San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)
- Spain’s Culture Minister Refuses Transfer Of Guernica For Basque Loan
The Basque government is already familiar with the Reina Sofía’s condition report—which deems the painting too fragile to travel—and that it is instead requesting a feasibility report from independent technicians on how a transfer to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao could be carried out safely. – ARTnews
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Wrestling For The Soul Of The Machine
This is a war over whether technology will merely optimise calculations or eliminate a quintessentially human element such calculations can’t capture. But beneath these debates, the question still lurks: what makes us so special? And can it be computed? – Aeon
- How The Humanities Declined Into Crisis
A combination of technological, economic, political, and cultural forces, at work both within and without the university, had by the early 2020s effectively pummeled the tradition of universitarian humanism into unconsciousness. – Chronicle of Higher Education
- Why It’s So Difficult To Get Our Heads Around AI
Artificial intelligence is both a technology and a theology, and in its latter aspect, it too often resembles a doctrinal dispute among an assortment of shrieking priests. – The Nation
- It’s Our Phones That Have Caused Our Brains To Rot. Not AI
Even if you spend very little time online, there’s little you can do outside the logic of the internet. It is a force that warps our reality, a cosmic background noise that is everywhere and nowhere — something inhuman that’s subtly reshaping our language, our politics, even our minds. – The New York Times
- The Industrial Revolution Killed Jobs. To Fill Idle Time With What, Was The Question
It might repay us to take a moment, not just from our jobs but also from our leisures, to make some to-do about doing nothing. – The American Scholar
