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- Brent Ott talks about developing exhibits and programming to celebrate America 250
Brent Ott, Chief Operating Officer of The Henry Ford, talks about their historic exhibits and programming celebrating America 250.
- The battle for humanity
This Week’s Highlights:
With AI flooding the zone, the literary world is struggling to figure out an infrastructure to certify what’s human. The Commonwealth Short Story Prize ran its winners through a forensic review and publicly cleared them as AI-free (The Bookseller), while Granta, rattled by the same anxiety, said it will stop publishing outside prize winners it can’t vet (The Guardian). Meanwhile, The Atlantic produced a map (The Atlantic) of what music has been subsumed into the GenAI models.
Some unexpectedly good news in funding this week. Manhattan’s borough president routed his entire $50 million discretionary budget to the arts (The New York Times); Eugene Ballet woke to an unsolicited $1 million gift (Oregon ArtsWatch). And four small colleges added dance majors even while others have been cutting the humanities (Dance Magazine).
Then there was an account of Smithsonian chief Lonnie Bunch’s diplomacy at lunch with Trump while he spent the week working to keep the Smithsonian functional under political pressure (The Atlantic). Sadly, despite judicial decisions, the poor Kennedy Center still isn’t out of the wood. Leadership declared that while it will stay open (as the judge decreed, it isn’t required to book anyone at all (AP).
All this week’s stories below, organized by topic.
- Music that affects you physically
Good Morning:
Bettina Varwig’s research focuses on how 17th and 18th-century listeners responded to music. “When you read about how music affected listeners in Bach’s time, their testimonies are striking in their bodily intensity. Music contracted their innards and made their hearts leap.” (The Guardian)
The arts world has started spending real effort to prove the obvious. The Commonwealth Short Story Prize ran its winners through a forensic review to certify them AI-free before handing out the award (The Bookseller). The AI music generator Suno, meanwhile, is courting the people it’s accused of replacing with an “incubator” program for artists who use its AI (The Hollywood Reporter) — a peace offering or a laundering operation, depending on your perspective. And A24, the studio that built a brand on handmade cool, torched some of it overnight with a Google DeepMind deal (The Hollywood Reporter). The AI divide is widening.
Chicago’s creative sector is now the city’s third-largest industry (WBEZ) — says a new report. Meanwhile, London’s Royal Ballet and Opera is eliminating 64 positions amid financial turmoil (OperaWire). And after 83 years in private hands, Norman Rockwell’s White House painting finally goes on public view (USA Today).
All of our stories below.
Doug
- Why Ballet Is A Natural Subject For Horror Movies
“Anyone who spends even a day with a professional dancer or a ballet troupe could likely come away and already have the core of a body horror flick ready just from seeing all the injuries strapped up and ignored, or hearing the stories of cut-throat auditions.” – Far Out
- A New Print-On-Demand Books Program For Libraries
Ingram Library Services and Penguin Random House have announced a print-on-demand program designed to supply libraries with popular backlist titles. – Publishers Weekly
- How A24 Blew Its Cool Factor With One Corporate Announcement
The indie movie studio was, for a sizable set of Americans under 40 or so, about as cool as a studio could get. (You never saw anyone wearing a Focus Features hoodie, right?) Then A24 announced a $75 million deal with Google’s AI venture, DeepMind. The fan base is furious. – The Hollywood Reporter
- Crystal Bridges Gets a New Chief Curator
Courtenay Finn is currently chief curator and director of programs at the Orange County Museum of Art, which merged with the University of California, Irvine last year. She has previously served as the chief curator at moCa Cleveland in Ohio, senior curator at the Aspen Art Museum in Colorado, and curator at Art in General in New York.
- Mel Brooks At 100
“I wanted to keep the party going. I wanted to keep the happiness and joy and explosions of laughter going into a dour part of our lives, not our childhood anymore,” Brooks recalled. “ – AP News
- Why “Music You Can See” May Be The Future
I playfully ask them, “Why do you have to see it?” But I know why. They have grown up seeing music as much as hearing it. With iPhones steeping the modern human being in images 24/7, listening to extended forms of music without visual illustration will appeal ever less. – The New York Times
- After 83 Years, Norman Rockwell’s White House Painting Is Finally On Public View
In 1943, Rockwell painted a four-panel portrait of people waiting to see President Roosevelt. The artwork, called So You Want to See the President!, spent 40 years hanging in the West Wing; last year the White House Historical Association purchased the piece, which is now in a nearby museum. – USA Today
- HBO’s “The Pitt” Gives Hollywood Production Hope
The Emmy Award-winning drama has also become an urgently needed Hollywood success story at a time when much of the local film and TV industry has left California for other states and countries. – Los Angeles Times (MSN)
- Report: Chicago’s Creative Sector Is The City’s Third-Largest Industry
The creative sector is Chicago’s third-largest industry and accounts for nearly 213,000 jobs, according to a new economic impact study released Thursday by Arts Alliance Illinois, a statewide advocacy organization. – WBEZ
- The Thinking Style That’s Susceptible To Extremism
I’ve found that some of the most rigid thinkers describe themselves as spectacularly flexible while the most flexible people are often unaware of their own adaptability. This is why, instead of relying on asking people how rigid they think they are, I began studying people’s unconscious thinking styles. – Psyche
- Broadway’s Most Famous Restaurant Has Been Bought By Broadway’s Biggest Theater Owner
After almost a century as a small private business, Sardi’s was officially acquired this week by the company that was already the restaurant’s landlord — the Shubert Organization, owner of 17 Broadway theaters. The legendary eatery has now closed for renovations and is expected to reopen in November. – Eater
- Getting Back To When Music Induced Physical Reaction In Your Body
Bettina Varwig’s research focuses on how 17th and 18th-century listeners responded to music. “When you read about how music affected listeners in Bach’s time, their testimonies are striking in their bodily intensity. Music contracted their innards and made their hearts leap.” – The Guardian
- Suno Offers “Incubator” Program For Artists Using AI For Music
The new program, called Spark, will include grants, mentorship and marketing support, Suno said, as the company said it’s looking to “help more artists turn ideas into finished projects, connect those projects with fans, and build new opportunities to grow their careers both on and beyond Suno.” – The Hollywood Reporter
- New Festival Redefines Lincoln Center Dance
For years, there has been too much ballet at Lincoln Center, which I say as someone who loves the form. Modern dance is part of the center’s history, too, and now it is finally being given a stage. – The New York Times
- Actress Ann Blyth, The Dastardly Veda In “Mildred Pierce,” Is Dead At 98
A former child actor who trained as an operatic soprano, Blyth had a busy career in Hollywood through the 1940s and ‘50s and worked in television in the ‘70s. She’s best remembered for her Oscar-nominated performance as the “cheap and horrible” daughter of Joan Crawford’s character in Mildred Pierce. – The Hollywood Reporter
- Unpublished Sacred Music By Donizetti Discovered In Archive
A researcher cataloguing the music collections of the Diocese of Bergamo discovered a four-page setting of the Vespers psalm Dixit Dominus, scored for three male voices a cappella, written by the young Donizetti sometime between 1818 and 1821. – Gramilano (Milan)
- Arkansans Raised Millions To Keep PBS On The Air There. Now Arkansas Is Cutting Some PBS Shows Anyway.
“Arkansas TV, formerly Arkansas PBS, is cutting and moving PBS news programming to make room for homegrown shows filmed in Arkansas, once again pulling the old switcheroo on folks who hoped their generous donations would prevent this very thing from happening.“ – Arkansas Times
- Soprano Erie Mills Has Died At 73
From the late 1970s, she had a glittering 25-year career as a coloratura, from the Met to La Scala to Santa Fe and beyond. Mills then became an admired teacher and diction coach; from 2016, she was artistic director of the Livermore Valley Opera in the Bay Area. – San Francisco Classical Voice
- How Commonwealth Short Story Prize Determined That This Year’s Winners Are All AI-Free
“The Commonwealth Foundation asked writers to provide drafts, story outlines, manuscripts and other evidence of their creative process when investigating allegations of AI use surrounding this year’s Commonwealth Short Story Prize, director-general Razmi Farook has (said).” – The Bookseller (UK)
- Royal Ballet And Opera In London To Eliminate 64 Staff Positions
“The reductions amount to roughly five percent of the organization’s current workforce of 1,169 staff. Nine of the cuts will involve compulsory redundancies, with the remainder expected to come from unfilled vacancies, voluntary departures, and natural turnover.” – OperaWire
- New York Will Not Pursue Another Retrial Of Harvey Weinstein
“The movie mogul still stands convicted of another sexual felony in New York and others in California, and he remains behind bars. But the New York rape charge had remained unresolved after an overturned conviction followed by two hung juries, … (and) his accuser said she could not bear to testify again.” – AP
- The Marquis De Lafayette Has Become A Selfie Magnet In Paris
In France, feelings about him are more mixed than in the U.S. (For one thing, during and after the French Revolution, he favored a constitutional monarchy, not the most popular position then.) But an exhibition at France’s National Archives which tells Lafayette’s full story has become a hit. – The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
- Competing At Istanbul’s Tango Championship
The Turkish metropolis has become one of the world’s major centers of tango, perhaps behind only Buenos Aires itself. This month Istanbul hosted La Turca Tango Marathon and Championship, a three-day festival and competition which saw 56 dancers from around Europe competing in six categories. – The New York Times
- The Elusive Illusion Of Utopia (And Its Uses In Our Imagination)
Some patterns emerge: many utopias employ a framing device in which the narrator is accidentally or fantastically transported to a new land, and then subjected to reams of expository monologue about how it all works. – The Guardian
- What To Make Of The US Constitution When The Country Is In Turmoil?
How should we remember the American Revolution when millions march in the streets and shout “No Kings!”? When squads of masked thugs invade homes without warrant, kangaroo immigration “courts” deport hundreds of thousands without due process, and an executive agency buys up warehouses to use as internment camps? – Boston Review
- Ancient Roman “Curse Tablet” Translated
Dutch archaeologists found this curse tablet in a pit beneath Heerlen‘s town hall square. Archaeologists often frequent this area situated amid the former site of Coriovallum, a Roman military settlement along the Via Belgica, which once connected Belgium’s Tongeren region to Cologne. – Artnet
- An Actor With Alzheimer’s Performs Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape”
Peter Marinker, now 84, first played Krapp in 1983, and he’s reusing the tapes he made back then for this production in London. He’ll have an earpiece to get prompts if necessary, but when his memory fails, he refers to a poem written by the aging Beckett himself after developing aphasia. – The Guardian
- Archaeologists Discover Intact Ancient Mayan City
Located deep within the jungles of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, the city—which the researchers have named “Minanbé,” a Maya Yucatec phrase meaning “there is no road”—had been hidden by vegetation for over a thousand years. – ARTnews
- NYC’s Street-Scaffolding Sheds Are Ugly. Can We Design Something Better?
The city wants structures that will go up smoothly, look good while they last, and go away quickly. Those are separate goals, none of them easy to achieve. – New York Magazine (MSN)
- Southbank Center Chairman To Step Down After Social Media Controversy
In May, Misan Harriman was accused by the Telegraph of sharing a social media post that contained a conspiracy theory about the Golders Green attack because it questioned the amount of coverage given to the Muslim victim, Ishmail Hussein. – The Guardian
- Commonwealth Short Story Prize Determines That None Of This Year’s Winners Were Written By AI
“The Commonwealth Foundation dismissed accusations that the short stories which won its literary prize this year were generated with artificial intelligence, saying a month-long review had found ‘AI wasn’t used’ to write them.’” – The Independent (UK)
- Sony Pictures Invests $100M In “Shared Reality” Company
Cosm, founded in 2020 by Steve Winn, has opened several dome structures throughout the U.S. Cosm’s venues — three in Los Angeles, Dallas and Atlanta, with upcoming venues in Detroit and Cleveland— allow fans to experience sporting events and other entertainment experiences through various 87-foot, 12K LED dome displays. – Variety
