AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- World Monuments Fund: Funding Is The Biggest Threat To World Heritage
Of 372 nominations for the 2027 Watch list, 65% of nominators cited funding shortages and economic development as a primary challenge, up from 55% in 2024. – The Art Newspaper
- By Biological Definition, AI Is Life
There is nothing artificial about systems built from real atoms, powered by real electricity, running in real machines. The systems reproduce, vary, adapt, undergo selection and gather energy from their environment. By any working definition that draws on biology rather than philosophy or religion, that is life. – Noema
- Choreographer Pam Tanowitz, Contemporary Dance Star, On Working With Ballet Companies
“Yes, I am a ballet outsider. I don’t have all the ballet steps at my fingertips but I have a list of ballet steps and I go through them like a laundry list and experiment. … It’s hard to separate the two systems now. I have my own ideas no matter what.” – The Times (UK)
- Together Again: Back for More Stupid
<a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2026/10/together-again-back-for-more-stupid.html" title="Together Again: Back for More Stupid” rel=”nofollow”>Musk and - After 40 Years, Segerstrom Center Is Thriving, Bringing L.A.-Level Performing Arts To Orange County
Building a Lincoln Center-style multi-venue arts center in a county that was a byword for conservative suburbia seemed improbable in 1986, but philanthropist Henry Segerstrom pulled it off. Now, after getting hit hard by the pandemic, the complex is back on track, with a $14.6 million surplus last year. – Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
ISSUES
- World Monuments Fund: Funding Is The Biggest Threat To World Heritage
Of 372 nominations for the 2027 Watch list, 65% of nominators cited funding shortages and economic development as a primary challenge, up from 55% in 2024. – The Art Newspaper
- It Was Challenge After Challenge To Get Calder’s Clouds Back In Place At The Senate Office Building
They came down in the first place because they were too heavy, so they were remade. Restorers had to find a motor to move them the way Calder intended. Installing them in a Congressional building meant extra bureaucratic hurdles. And the particular black paint Calder used had been discontinued. – The New York Times
- Blind Man Sues British Museum Over Lack Of Bayeux Tapestry Audio Guide
“Dr. Yusuf Ali Osman alleges that the museum is breaching equality laws by failing to provide audio-described tours of the exhibition for blind visitors.” – The Independent (UK)
- How The Architecture Of Sound Is Changing Cities
The sounds of the city weren’t just decorative, musical — they could define the physical contours of a space as dramatically as a concrete wall or an open door to the street. – Reasons to be Cheerful
- Uzbekistan Now Has Its First Contemporary Art Museum Since Independence From The USSR
“Tashkent is reinventing itself. The Uzbek capital, which is home to 3 million, was once the fourth-largest city in the Soviet Union and has long been a cultural hub in Central Asia. … The Center for Contemporary Arts Tashkent has opened. It’s a watershed moment for the nation as it expands its cultural ambitions.” – Artnet
MEDIA
- After 40 Years, Segerstrom Center Is Thriving, Bringing L.A.-Level Performing Arts To Orange County
Building a Lincoln Center-style multi-venue arts center in a county that was a byword for conservative suburbia seemed improbable in 1986, but philanthropist Henry Segerstrom pulled it off. Now, after getting hit hard by the pandemic, the complex is back on track, with a $14.6 million surplus last year. – Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
- Can Trump Really Demolish The Kennedy Center?
The legal fight over Mr. Trump’s takeover of the center has revolved largely around one important statute, first passed by Congress in 1958. It established a National Cultural Center and then was amended in 1964 to dedicate the institution to President Kennedy after his assassination. – The New York Times
- Republican Senator Blocks Passage Of Bill To Prevent Demolishing The Kennedy Center
A bipartisan effort to ban the demolition of presidential memorials — including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — was blocked Monday night in the Senate by an objection from Sen.Mike Lee (R-Utah). – Washington Post
- The Numbers Are Clear: Kennedy Center’s Finances Were Fine Before Trump, And They’re Disastrous Now
“In the 19 months since President Trump took over the Kennedy Center, the institution has borrowed everything its bank would lend it, dipped into money donors had given on condition it never be spent, and written off pledges from supporters who stopped paying.” – The Washington Post (MSN)
- Carnegie-Mellon University Gets $3 Billion Gift To Build Campus In Miami
“The staggering amount (pledged by hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin) is the largest-ever gift by an individual in higher education, surpassing Michael Bloomberg’s $1.8 billion donation to Johns Hopkins in 2018. Griffin’s donation will be split: $1 billion will support CMU’s original campus in Pittsburgh and $2 billion will help launch CMU’s Miami campus.” – CNN
MUSIC
- It Seems Queen Elizabeth I Did Not Write All Her Letters — Particularly The Furious Ones
A researcher has analyzed more than 500 of her “scribal letters” — correspondence from the queen but in the handwriting of her secretaries, notably principal royal secretary Francis Walsingham — and found that they sometimes altered the queen’s own language for strategic reasons, including to make her appear even angrier than she was. – Smithsonian Magazine
- Fresno Considering Privatizing Its Libraries
“Our public libraries are public and should stay public. We don’t need private corporations coming in and laying people off and censoring material.” – ABC Fresno
- “Jane Eyre” Is Now Part Of China’s Official High School Curriculum
“(Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel) has long been popular in China and was already recommended reading for schoolchildren. But this fall, ninth-grade students across the country are being required to read (it) in full. … One report in an official newspaper held it up as an anti-materialistic love story young people could learn from.” – The New York Times
- Has The Kids Scholastic Book Fair Been Ruined?
If the goal is to celebrate books and reading and get kids excited… is a for-profit book fair the best way to do that? – LitHub
- Novelist Louise Erdrich Wins $250K Dorothy And Lillian Gish Prize
The award, established by the estate of the silent film stars, is given for “an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life.” Among previous winners are Gustavo Dudamel, Isabelle Allende, Merce Cunningham, Ava DuVernay, Laurie Anderson, Tricia Brown, Maya Lin, and Meredith Monk. – AP
PEOPLE
- World Monuments Fund: Funding Is The Biggest Threat To World Heritage
Of 372 nominations for the 2027 Watch list, 65% of nominators cited funding shortages and economic development as a primary challenge, up from 55% in 2024. – The Art Newspaper
- By Biological Definition, AI Is Life
There is nothing artificial about systems built from real atoms, powered by real electricity, running in real machines. The systems reproduce, vary, adapt, undergo selection and gather energy from their environment. By any working definition that draws on biology rather than philosophy or religion, that is life. – Noema
- Choreographer Pam Tanowitz, Contemporary Dance Star, On Working With Ballet Companies
“Yes, I am a ballet outsider. I don’t have all the ballet steps at my fingertips but I have a list of ballet steps and I go through them like a laundry list and experiment. … It’s hard to separate the two systems now. I have my own ideas no matter what.” – The Times (UK)
- Together Again: Back for More Stupid<a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2026/10/together-again-back-for-more-stupid.html" title="Together Again: Back for More Stupid” rel=”nofollow”>Musk and
- After 40 Years, Segerstrom Center Is Thriving, Bringing L.A.-Level Performing Arts To Orange County
Building a Lincoln Center-style multi-venue arts center in a county that was a byword for conservative suburbia seemed improbable in 1986, but philanthropist Henry Segerstrom pulled it off. Now, after getting hit hard by the pandemic, the complex is back on track, with a $14.6 million surplus last year. – Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
PEOPLE
- World Monuments Fund: Funding Is The Biggest Threat To World Heritage
Of 372 nominations for the 2027 Watch list, 65% of nominators cited funding shortages and economic development as a primary challenge, up from 55% in 2024. – The Art Newspaper
- By Biological Definition, AI Is Life
There is nothing artificial about systems built from real atoms, powered by real electricity, running in real machines. The systems reproduce, vary, adapt, undergo selection and gather energy from their environment. By any working definition that draws on biology rather than philosophy or religion, that is life. – Noema
- Choreographer Pam Tanowitz, Contemporary Dance Star, On Working With Ballet Companies
“Yes, I am a ballet outsider. I don’t have all the ballet steps at my fingertips but I have a list of ballet steps and I go through them like a laundry list and experiment. … It’s hard to separate the two systems now. I have my own ideas no matter what.” – The Times (UK)
- Together Again: Back for More Stupid<a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2026/10/together-again-back-for-more-stupid.html" title="Together Again: Back for More Stupid” rel=”nofollow”>Musk and
- After 40 Years, Segerstrom Center Is Thriving, Bringing L.A.-Level Performing Arts To Orange County
Building a Lincoln Center-style multi-venue arts center in a county that was a byword for conservative suburbia seemed improbable in 1986, but philanthropist Henry Segerstrom pulled it off. Now, after getting hit hard by the pandemic, the complex is back on track, with a $14.6 million surplus last year. – Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
THEATRE
VISUAL
- By Biological Definition, AI Is Life
There is nothing artificial about systems built from real atoms, powered by real electricity, running in real machines. The systems reproduce, vary, adapt, undergo selection and gather energy from their environment. By any working definition that draws on biology rather than philosophy or religion, that is life. – Noema
- It’s Getting More And More Difficult To Tell What’s Real
Life on the internet has become, among other things, a test of patience and an experience of gruelling duration; the ad somehow continued for more than three minutes. A captive audience, it turns out, gets crude digital puppetry as its just deserts. – The New Yorker
- Humanists Versus AI
The vibes, less pollable but perhaps no less palpable, are noxious. Students boo speakers who extol A.I. in commencement addresses, and consumers deride celebrities and brands that embrace the technology. – The New Yorker
- What The Latest Studies Say About How Our Brains Change Using AI
Across millions of math sessions by a group that ranged from fifth graders to college students, the researchers compared performance from before 2022, when ChatGPT first came out, with the work that followed its arrival. – The New York Times
- Middle Schoolers, Blocked From Most Social Media, Turn Comments On An NPR Podcast Into A Hangout Spot
“When Glass asked one of the kids why they picked this particular podcast, they said, ‘We just, like, looked for podcasts that didn’t have many comments.’” Ouch. But also, creative as heck. – The Verge