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- Private Money, Public Retreat
Good Morning:
A $116 million gift from a single billionaire will now indefinitely fund the National Gallery’s program for loaning art to museums across the country (Washington Post). Same week, Cape Cod’s 42-year-old Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater is suspending operations, citing an “increasingly challenging philanthropic environment” (TheaterMania). The top of the pyramid is getting reinforced; the middle is cracking.
The pattern repeats. Brazilian cinema development exists because one philanthropist, Olga Rabinovich, personally funds it (Variety). San Diego, meanwhile, is cutting its arts budget and calling it fiscal discipline (San Diego Magazine). The arts economy is reorganizing around a thinner spine of individual benefactors — and Nashville is about to break ground on a $1B+ Bjarke Ingels-designed performing arts complex that underlines the point (WPLN).
The political weather keeps tightening. Lee Bollinger is proposing a NATO-style defense pact for universities under federal pressure (InsideHigherEd), and the FCC has opened a new probe into gender identity content in children’s TV (Deadline).
LACMA’s new Geffen Galleries open, and the LA Times calls the result a “revisionist fever dream.” In a good way? (Los Angeles Times).
All of our stories below.
- Chief Philanthropy Officer
Reporting to the General Director & President, the Chief Philanthropy Officer (CDO) serves as a visionary partner, actively shaping and carrying out philanthropic strategies and programs of the Development department.
Goal oriented and revenue-focused, the CPO will actively build budgets informed by data for all areas of the department, set annual and long-term projections, and create strategies for sustainable fundraising growth of the Annual Fund and the organization’s comprehensive campaign, a $33 million effort designed to support innovation, community-focused programming, and financial resilience. A mature and sophisticated communicator, the CPO will engage with board members, donors, and external partners, building relationships that inspire transformative giving. As a key collaborator, the CPO will work closely with the Finance and Marketing teams to build cross-functional strategies and develop comprehensive plans that align operations with fundraising goals.
The position requires a combination of high-level strategy and hands-on leadership in frontline fundraising, with the ability to maintain a robust portfolio of major donors and prospects. A strong leader, the CPO will be an inspiring manager who shares a vision for what opera can and should be.
- He Wrote The Hit Torch Songs of The Elizabethan Age
“(John) Dowland was well regarded; (he) was also well-connected, cosmopolitan and at times unusually well-remunerated for his work. Yet his musical expression was dominated by melancholy. With that imbalance comes the sense that Dowland had an acute understanding of his place in the musical market of the time.” – The New York Times
- Competitive Chess Is Wearing Down Its Champions
Life in chess has always been a struggle, never more so than today. During the two-year battle for the 2024 world chess championship, I saw tantrums, I saw tears, I heard one top grandmaster muse about leaving the game for a career in fashion. – The Walrus
- The Best Thing About LACMA’s New Building
In a startling and largely gratifying way, LACMA has done what the poet Audre Lorde, alluding to a different but not unrelated aspect of patriarchal dominance, deemed impossible: used the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house. The change goes far beyond a remodel. It’s a reinvention, a recalibration, a revisionist fever dream. – Los Angeles Times
- The Independent Philanthropist Changing The Future Of Brazilian Filmmaking
The Brazilian film industry has plenty of infrastructure for film production, but there was almost none for the early stages of development. So Olga Rabinovich founded, and singlehandedly funds, Projeto Paradiso to provide that support. During the Bolsonaro years, however, Rabinovich had to expand Projeto Paradiso’s remit. – Variety
- “The Marriage” – Enacting Gustav Mahler’s Demise and Alma’s Indecision
My play The Marriage: The Mahlers in New York was just premiered (as a work-in-progress) at the University of Michigan/Ann Arbor. It’s my good fortune to be working with a terrific actress and director: Esther van Zyl and Jack Tamburri. We next produce the play (this time with lighting design)
- Needed: A NATO Alliance For American Universities
“We need a NATO for universities,” said Lee Bollinger, president emeritus of Columbia University. “When one university is attacked, everyone commits to coming to their defense. We need less capacity of individual institutions to make decisions about where we should go in defending universities and more power in a system.” – InsideHigherEd
- FCC Opens Investigation Into TV Ratings System
- What’s Really Wrong With Trump’s Arch: A Symbol Of Autocracy
What’s really wrong with Trump’s arch isn’t something that is always wrong with victory arches but, rather, something that is always wrong with all the architecture of autocracy. – The New Yorker
- What, Really, Will Result In The Ticketmaster/LiveNation Verdict?
“I can’t wait for the judge to get hit with a $45 ‘Verdict Convenience Fee,’ a $30 ‘Gavel Processing Fee,’ and an $80 ‘Digital Print-at-Home Ruling Surcharge,” a Reddit user cracked. (After the verdict, Live Nation said in a statement, “The jury’s verdict is not the last word on this matter.”) – The New Yorker
- “A River Runs Through It” At 50
“In getting to its exalted place, the book had to navigate a tricky set of rapids. Though it sailed through them, a question lingers. … Would a book like this, with its regional setting and its male and outdoorsy focus, face different challenges in today’s publishing world?” – The New York Times
- San Diego Proposes To Cut Its Arts Budget. A Big Mistake
While this may be framed as fiscal discipline, cutting arts and culture is not a serious long-term economic strategy. It is a short-term fix that reduces foot traffic, weakens neighborhood business districts, and chips away at the culture that makes people want to live, work, visit, and invest here in the first place. – San Diego Magazine
- Book Slop By Any Other Name (Or “Blake Whiting”)
Using AI tools and a pseudonym, unknown culprits are now profiting from my work and that of my colleagues. Worse, they are limiting what we can write about in the future. What publisher wants to publish a second book on an archaeological discovery, no matter how significant? – The American Scholar
- John Luther Adams On The Sound Of The World
For me, the subject of music is its sound. And in my music, I want to be in touch with sound that I haven’t heard before, that feels somehow elemental, inevitable. One of the ways I’ve gone about it is, I use mathematics. – NPR
- A Visit To Africa’s Number-One Dance Training Center
“The main studio of the École des Sables (in) Senegal defies every convention of what a professional dance space should be. It has no sprung floor, no mirrored walls, … no walls at all. The dancers work outdoors, under a large, tented canopy. … The floor is unusually treacherous: It’s sand.” – The New York Times
- How Books Reinforced A Colonialist Mindset
The book became a dominant symbol of the age of development through the efforts of the new international institutions, and the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in particular. – The Conversation
- Grappling With What A Soul Is
This soul of yours has obviously come into existence with your body. Yet equally obviously it’s not made of bodily stuff. It lasts through the night when your body sleeps. It wanders off and leaves your body when you dream. – Aeon
- What Does It Mean That Some Respected Creatives In Hollywood Are Okay With AI?
“It may not be realistic to expect lockstep agreement with Guillermo del Toro’s perspective that he would ‘rather die’ than use AI on his films. … But it does prompt questions about determining the right amount of support (or at least agnosticism) that anti-AI advocates can tolerate in their creative heroes.” – The Guardian
- Turns Out Florence Price Wasn’t The Only Black Female Composer The Vienna Phil Slighted Last New Year’s
The arrangement of Price’s Rainbow Waltz the Vienna Philharmonic played at its New Year’s concert in January has been criticized for bearing almost no resemblance to the original. Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin says he commissioned an arrangement from composer Valerie Coleman; the Viennese rejected it as unsuitable. – The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
- Cape Cod Is Losing A Professional Theater Company
After 42 years, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater (WHAT) is suspending its operations as of June 1. The director cited “steadily rising costs in an increasingly challenging philanthropic environment” since the company’s post-COVID reopening in 2021. – TheaterMania
- Nashville Reveals Plans For New Performing Arts Center
Construction on the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, in the redeveloping East Bank neighborhood, begins next year; opening is expected in 2030. The complex, with Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) as lead designer, will include a 2,600-seat hall for touring Broadway shows, a 650-seat dance/opera hall, a black-box theater and a cabaret space. – WPLN (Nashville)
- National Gallery Of Art In Washington Gets $116 Million Gift For Loaning Works Nationwide
“(The donor is) Mitchell Rales, the 69-year-old billionaire art collector and co-founder of health care company Danaher. The contribution is the largest programming-related donation in the NGA’s history and will serve to indefinitely fund the museum’s Across the Nation program, which loans artwork to partner museums.” – The Washington Post (Yahoo!)
- Desmond Morris, Author Of “The Naked Ape”, Zoologist And TV Host (And Artist), Has Died At 98
Over 60 years he wrote or co-wrote more than 50 books and fronted several hundred hours of television, starting in 1956 with the British children’s series Zoo Time. … He was an acknowledged authority on mammal behavior, including that of humans, and maintained a separate career as a surrealist painter. – The Guardian
- Smithsonian American Art Museum Names New Director
Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, who begins her term after Labor Day and who is currently CEO of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, in fact began her career at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, where she spent two decades and eventually rose to become chief curator. – ARTnews
- THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL is coming soon . . . It Probes the Secret Prison History of American Music<a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2026/04/the-midnight-special-is-coming-soon-it-probes-the-secret-prison-history-of-american-music.html" title='THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL is coming soon . . .
It Probes the Secret Prison History of American Music‘ rel=”nofollow”>
Colin Asher, author of the critically acclaimed biography of Nelson Algren “Never a Lovely So Real,” now focuses on five emblematic figures — Huddle Ledbetter, Elmo Hope, Johnny Cash, Ike White, and Tupac Shakur — as he explores the influence of incarceration on blues artists, jazz musicians, country singers, rock’n’rollers, - Vancouver Finally Has A Company Focused On Classical Ballet
Ballet BC is an impressive troupe, but it has long specialized in contemporary work; it’s been more than a decade since there was a resident company focused on classical and neoclassical style. That’s why choreographer Joshua Beamish founded Ballet Vancouver, which debuts this week. – The Georgia Straight (Vancouver)
- Japan’s 1,200-Year-Old Record Of Cherry Blossoms Has A New Keeper
Last summer, Prof. Aono, who had meticulously updated the record year after year, died after a battle with cancer. That prompted supporters of his work to start looking for a worthy successor. – The New York Times
- Seattle Nonprofit Buys Downtown Office Building To Convert To Artist Housing
This is happening through the city’s Office to Residential Conversion Program, which allows developers to take empty commercial buildings and turn them into living spaces. The program gives developers a tax deferral as long as 10% of the units in the building are sold or rented below market value. – KNKX
- How Will Hungary’s Arts World Recover From 16 Years Of Viktor Orbán?
“A wave of leadership changes is widely expected across major museums and cultural bodies, which could lead to the return of (figures) who were previously sidelined. There is, however, reason for caution. Magyar is himself a former Fidesz party member and a conservative politician, and some analysts warn against expecting rapid transformation.” – Ocula
- 120,000 Authors File Claims In Anthropic Copyright Settlement
Claims have been filed for 91% of the more than 480,000 works covered by the settlement, according to a court filing
, opens new tab in the case on Thursday. – Reuters - Critics Press V&A Museum To Pay Its Workers A Living Wage
While the V&A complies with all legal minimum-wage requirements, with some workers paid a living wage or above, campaigners say some of the lowest-paid contractors in London are not in receipt of the living wage. The UK minimum wage is £12.71 an hour and the living wage in London is £14.80 an hour. – The Guardian
- Rethinking How Our Brains Process The World Using Categories
“The stimulus, cognition, response model of the brain is wrong. The brain prepares for a response and then perceives a stimulus. A brain is not reactive. It’s predictive. Action planning comes first. Perception comes second, as a function of the action plan.” – Picower Institute
- Lost Poem By García Lorca Discovered
“A previously unknown verse attributed to Federico García Lorca has been discovered 93 years after the celebrated Spanish poet and playwright is believed to have jotted it on the back of one of his manuscripts.” – The Guardian
- Did AI Solve A Longstanding El Greco Mystery?
Using artificial intelligence, researchers analyzed The Baptism of Christ at the microscopic level, looking for trends in the texture of the paint at the resolution of a single paintbrush bristle. The results suggest El Greco painted the majority of The Baptism himself—but some experts caution more research is needed. – Scientific American
