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- What Virgil Thought About Bees
“(The Latin poet) recognized that bees had what we might call social being — co-dependent, organized, enterprising — and he praised them for having all the virtues of a Roman citizen: industrious, hardworking, loyal, and (willing) to die to defend the colony.” – Literary Hub
- Kennedy Center As De-Trumpification Warning
Trump’s threat to walk away from the Kennedy Center suggests an additional danger: He could lose interest and doze off, as if at yet another Cabinet meeting or NBA Finals game, leaving parts of the government to fend for themselves. – The Atlantic
- A Musical About The 1984 Miners-And-Gays Coalition (Wait, What?)
Pride: the Musical, now at the National Theatre in London, is the stage adaptation of a 2014 film about the London-based activist group Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners and the members of a Welsh colliery community whom they supported financially during the 1984-1985 miners’ strike. – The Guardian
- Biggest Hits On Spotify Are From The 70s And 80s
On May 14, almost exactly 43 years later, Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean was No. 1 again, prancing to the top of Spotify’s global chart following the release of the biopic “Michael.” – The Wall Street Journal
- Spotify Ditches Its Much-Hated Disco Ball App Icon
On Thursday an update to the Spotify iOS app switched the icon back to the well-known logo users are familiar with. That did away with the glowing green mirrorball icon for the Spotify app for Apple devices that it introduced the second week of May. – Variety
- David Hockney Liked to Draw by Other Means<a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2026/06/david-hockney-liked-to-draw-by-other-means.html" title="David Hockney Liked to Draw by Other Means“
- Please! Bring Back The Gatekeepers
Gatekeeper, here, doesn’t mean the patriarchal bogeyman of progressive fever dreams. It means the picky curator who maintains a necessary membrane between your half-formed, typo-addled thoughts and the wider world. It means the tastemaker who triages opinions and batters the better ones into readable form. – The Walrus
- National Center For Choreography-Akron Marks 10 Years
“For (a decade NCAAkron) has supported research and development of new work by over 800 dancers from around the United States through dancing labs and residencies. ‘As nobody questions when a scientist goes into a lab, that’s what we believe is possible for a choreographer going into the studio,’ said director Christy Bolingbroke.” – Signal Akron
- Landmark Ruling: German Court Rules Google Is Liable For What Its AI Overview Says In Search Answers
The court also found that the AI overview made claims “that are not even made in the search results.” None of the linked sources drew any connection between the plaintiffs and the shady companies the AI mentioned. The court called these “the defendant’s own statements.” – The Decoder
- What’s Behind The Intense Interest In Celebrity Estate Sales?
The growing trend for auctions of deceased famous people’s personal items – which has boomed ever since the hugely popular Marilyn Monroe estate sale in 1999 – has even attracted its own portmanteau: “deleb” as in dead celebrity. – The Guardian
- Why Impressionists Were So Fascinated With Gardens
One answer lies in the sheer ubiquity and sensory intensity of gardens by the second half of the 19th century, when impressionism came into being. Social change that made leisure gardens accessible to all (no longer just kings and aristocrats). – The Conversation
- Washington National Opera Sues Kennedy Center
“The Washington National Opera (WNO) filed a lawsuit Thursday, alleging that the Kennedy Center failed to return more than $17 million in donations made to the organization after its split from the venue earlier this year.” – The Hill
- The Great Divide: Creativity Before And After AI
On one side are texts produced before the arrival of generative LLMs. On the other, everything that has followed—texts that might still be useful, even compelling, but that will always face a lingering suspicion of not being entirely human, of having been smoothed by systems trained to predict the word that comes next. – LA Review of Books
- Cleveland Museum Of Art Launches $600M Campaign To Sustain Its Future
“Visitors rightly expect exceptional exhibitions, meaningful educational experiences, digital access, welcoming spaces, and opportunities for deeper engagement. Those expectations require sustained investment. That challenge is particularly significant for an institution that remains committed to free general admission for all.” – ARTnews
- Trump Kennedy Center Board Appeals Judge’s Order On Removing Trump’s Name
The board voted Thursday to seek a stay of U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper’s May 29 ruling that said Trump’s name was illegally added to the Kennedy Center. – NPR
- BookTok Is Turning Some Authors Into Bona Fide Stars, And Hollywood Is Noticing
“The streamers are newer. They don’t have established libraries of ‘80s and ‘90s movies to reboot, and yet they’re still looking for familiarity of titles. (Finding hot titles on BookTok to adapt is) one way to compete at an IP level.” – Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
- Are U.S. Public Radio And TV About To Undergo A Wave Of Mergers?
“It’s clear that” — with the cuts in federal funding for public broadcasting likely being permanent — “there’s vulnerability in being a small, independent public media broadcaster, financial or otherwise, which makes merging with a larger organization appealing.” – Editor and Publisher
- International African-American Museum Institutes Rolling Furloughs For All Employees
Just under three years after opening, the museum on Charleston’s waterfront is facing financial troubles severe enough that all staffers, including senior executives, are taking mandatory 20-day unpaid furloughs on a staggered schedule from July through December. The IAAM will remain open throughout this period. – WCIV (Charleston)
- Pittsburgh Symphony Extends Manfred Honeck’s Music Director Contract To 2033
“The renewal will give Honeck a 25-year tenure with the orchestra, making him the longest-serving music director in the Pittsburgh Symphony’s 131-year history. Honeck, who began his tenure in the 2008/09 season, has overseen a period of significant artistic growth and international visibility for the orchestra.” – Moto Perpetuo
- David Hockney, 88
“Over a seven-decade career, Hockney explored and reimagined classical portraiture, landscape painting and pop art, working in painting, collage, photography and digital drawing. … One of the most popular and critically lauded British artists of his” — and perhaps any — “generation, his works sold for record prices at auction.” – AP
- Boston Symphony CEO: Yes, We Handled The Nelsons Thing Poorly. No, We’re Not Changing Our Minds.
Chad Smith: “I can see that it was an abrupt announcement externally. It didn’t represent abrupt decision-making, though. It was a very considered conversation that has been going on for some time. … Our intention was to have a joint statement, but that wasn’t agreed to.” – The New York Times
- Pianist Igor Levit Launches His Own Record Label
The imprint, which will operate within Sony Music, Levit’s longtime label, is called No Silence, and will feature artists other than Levit himself. Among the first three releases, available in October, will be a complete 16-hour performance of Satie’s Vexations. – Gramophone
- Creativity is Dead in the 21st Century? Really?
Good Morning,
A piece in the Yale Review asks whether the 21st century has been a creative blank space — two decades of remixing without inventing (Yale Review). The piece is a review of a book that asserts the notion. But perhaps the invention is happening; it’s just not where we used to look.
A luthier put a carbon-fiber violin onstage next to a Stradivarius and dared listeners to hear the difference (The Strad). Scientists now think metrology — measuring the physical fingerprint of pigment — can flag a forged Van Gogh (Artnet). Same thing, if you think about it: when an object can be copied, value shifts from how it was made and how you prove it.
Back in the more anodyne world, Pace, one of the generation of mega-dealers that defined the market’s top tier, suddenly cut have its staff and half its artists. (ARTnews) — Artnet shows us inside what happened, and it raises concerns about the mega-model itself. And a new study reveals that U.S. authors’ incomes keep sliding, with an Authors Guild study asking why (Publishers Weekly).
Finally, after eight nominations across four decades, Glenn Close is finally getting an Oscar (AP). Persistence eventually rewarded.
All of the rest of our stories below.
Doug
- Northwest Choirs – Executive Director
Northwest Choirs (NWC) seeks a dynamic, mission-centered Executive Director to guide one of the country’s leading youth choral organizations into its next stage of growth, visibility, and sustainability.
Serving approximately 150 young singers from across the Puget Sound region, Northwest Choirs offers rigorous music training, meaningful performance experiences, and a formative community rooted in discipline, belonging, and the pursuit of excellence.
The next Executive Director will work in close partnership with the Board of Directors, Artistic Director Jacob Winkler, staff, faculty, families, and community partners to grow membership, expand performance opportunities, steward contributed and earned revenue, and build on more than five decades of artistic and educational excellence. The ideal candidate will be energized by the opportunity to represent Northwest Choirs throughout the community, serving as a visible ambassador while building meaningful relationships across the region’s arts, cultural, and business sectors.
The organization has an annual operating budget of approximately $1.2 million. The starting salary range is projected at $105,000–$115,000, with benefits and the opportunity for performance-based incentive compensation. The anticipated start date is negotiable through late summer or fall 2026. The search is facilitated by Syrah Gunning of the DeVos Institute of Arts and Nonprofit Management. Learn more and apply at https://tinyurl.com/NWCaj01.
- The Stanford Class Where Students Are Taught To Dance Badly
“’Welcome to bad dancing,’ says Alex Ketley, a choreographer and former member of the San Francisco Ballet who teaches Dance 123: Hot Mess & Deliberate Failure as Practice. Ketley, an advanced lecturer in the department of theater and performance studies and a former Guggenheim Fellow, says it’s his most popular course.” – Stanford Magazine
- AMC Postpones Interactive Movie Theatre Concert Series
The chain is partnering with live entertainment company Arena One to bring new technology to theaters. This tech would allow artists on a remote stage to see, hear and respond to the theater audience, in effect turning your local cinema into a stadium, the companies said. – Los Angeles Times
- Scientists May Have Discovered A New Way To Spot Counterfeit Van Goghs
“By analyzing the surfaces of eight Vincent van Gogh paintings, surface metrology indeed confirmed the veracity of one long-contested but recently confirmed Van Gogh specimen — and correctly flagged another that’s been debunked.” – Artnet
- Demand For Workers With Creative Skills Is Growing
Nearly 50% of employers are looking to expand their workforce in the next three to five years. Video games, music, design and fashion were particularly expecting to grow over that time. – The Conversation
- Has The 21st Century Been A Creative Blank Space?
The years from 2000 to 2025 as a period of creative emptiness and stagnation so intractable that it will be remembered (or, rather, is being remembered, through the anticipation of remembrance) as voided time, a dark age. – Yale Review
- Why Pace Gallery Imploded
According to several people familiar with the call, Glimcher spent much of the meeting explaining why Pace had reached this point. The gallery had grown too large. Costs had risen too high. The model no longer worked. – ARTnews
- San Diego Mayor’s Budget Eliminates Arts Funding. This New Plan Restores Over 90% Of It.
The plan from City Council members and the Prebys Foundation will have the nonprofit provide $3 million in one-time replacement money, while the city shifts $6 million of hotel occupancy tax money from renovation of the Convention Center to fund arts and culture. – KPBS (San Diego)
- Wigmore Hall And Apple Music Launch New Digital Platform For Artists
Under a new artist-first model, Wigmore Hall will pay the full production costs for every release and will take no share of the recording income, passing on 100% of royalties received directly to the performing artists. – Gramophone
- EU Investigating Paramount/Warner Financing
The European Commission is investigating the $111 billion Paramount-WBD deal under the EU’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation, looking at the approximately $24 billion being fronted for the takeover by the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. – Variety
- After Strikes And Fiery Rhetoric Last Time, Why Were Hollywood Contracts So Easy This Year?
The top factor, perhaps, was the ongoing fallout from Hollywood’s contraction. It’s no small thing that, since 2022, studios have tightened their belts and downsized their slates, reducing the job opportunities available for average industry workers. – The Hollywood Reporter
- Pennsylvania Reverses Decision Not To Fund Smallest Arts Organizations
“Last year, the (Pennsylvania Council on the Arts) renamed itself Pennsylvania Creative Industries and reorganized its funding criteria, making organizations with budgets under $100,000 ineligible for grants. … (Last Thursday) the council approved a new program called Spotlight, which makes state funding available to organizations with budgets between $10,000 and $100,000.” – WHYY (Philadelphia)
