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- What gets built in the gap
Good Morning,
The middle keeps cracking, and what’s interesting is what people are building in the gap. Jeffrey Kahane left the foundering San Antonio Philharmonic in February; today he announced a new orchestra and education initiative to replace it (San Antonio Express-News). Twin Cities midsize theaters describe themselves as “melting” as corporate and civic funding dries up (Minnesota Star Tribune). NPR is reorganizing and offering buyouts after the feds yanked $8 million from its budget (NPR).
The improvisation runs further down. UK music venues are now letting touring bands sleep in the building because the math otherwise doesn’t work (The Guardian). Artists on Instagram are bartering paintings for haircuts and groceries (The Art Newspaper). Meanwhile, Cannes is wrestling with AI as “a tsunami” (AP), and celebrities have started trademarking their own identities to fend it off (The Conversation).
Quieter notes: soprano Felicity Lott has died at 79 (The Guardian), and Herbert Blomstedt, 98, had to be wheeled offstage mid-Mahler at the San Francisco Symphony (SF Chronicle).
All of our stories below.
Doug
- Artistic Director Of Utah’s Ballet West To Step Down After 20-Year Tenure
Adam Sklute, who came to Salt Lake City in 2007, will depart at the end of next season. His tenure, the longest in Ballet West history, saw the company stabilize its finances, increase its subscriber base, triple its budget, and sextuple its school’s enrollment. – KSL (Salt Lake City)
- The Americanization Of Tourism
We’re selling vibes, textures. A sunset on the hills in Chianti, riding a bike on an island in Sicily. Imagine us discussing it in parliament with an Italian accent: l’importanza del made in Italy. We use the English expression unironically. It’s aimed at Americans. – The Dial
- Ex-San Antonio Phil Conductor Launches New Orchestra For City
As the troubled San Antonio Philharmonic, which has canceled more concerts than it has played this year, appears to edge toward collapse, Jeffrey Kahane, who resigned as the Philharmonic’s music director in February, has announced the founding of a new orchestra and education initiative called Harmonium of Texas. – San Antonio Express-News
- Pompidou And Hong Kong’s M+ Strike A Five-Year Deal To Exchange Art
The major exhibition featuring collections from both institutions will be staged first in Paris at the Centre Pompidou, after its five-year renovation, around 2029 or 2030, before being hosted at the M+ with a focus on visual culture in France and China. – South China Morning Post
- Cannes Wrestles With AI
The 79th Cannes may go down as the time the world’s grandest film festival for the first time wrestled with the onset of AI — its arrival has been felt like a tsunami on the French Riviera. – AP News
- Is Your Name Emily? Free Drinks For You!
Showcase Cinemas has just announced that if anyone called Emily buys a ticket to see the film Finding Emily this weekend, they will receive a free medium-sized Coca-Cola in return. – The Guardian
- New York Magazine Investigates Contributor For Alleged Plagiarism
“Ross Barkan, who is a contract writer for the magazine, … has been accused of plagiarism after publishing at least three stories with striking similarities to other published work.” – NPR
- Judge Delays Approval Of Anthropic Authors Settlement
Calling out lawyers for requesting more than $320 million in legal fees when each author only expects a $3,000 payout, some objectors asked the court to delay approving the settlement until a more reasonable plaintiff compensation plan is constructed. – Ars Technica
- NPR Newsroom Reorganizes, Offers Buyouts
NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher says the network has to fill a gap of $8 million in its $300-million annual budget because of the elimination of federal subsidies for its member stations, which pay NPR to air programs such as Morning Edition and All Things Considered. – NPR
- The Slop Before The AI Slop
In 1962, a programmer at Librascope, a California-based defense contractor, announced that “a computer can be programmed to write meaningful and relevant sentences in proper English.” – The New Yorker
- Chicago Arts Groups Are Asking Patrons To Turn Over Their Phones At The Door
“If you want a deep dive into Chicago arts and culture, check your phone at the door: The ‘unplugged’ trend is growing locally among arts groups responding to a collective desire for more phone-free experiences.” – WBEZ (Chicago)
- Will Paint For Food?
“If my art isn’t in your budget right now, I’ll accept the following as payment…” the viral posts on Instagram and TikTok read. The caption includes a list of items or services that the artist will trade the work for, ranging from handmade clothes, jewellery and tattoos to accommodation, meals and beauty services. – The Art Newspaper
- UK Music Venues Have Started Giving Their Touring Musicians Places To Stay
A growing number of UK music venues are attempting a simple but potentially transformative fix: giving bands somewhere to sleep. – The Guardian
- Why Celebrities Are Trademarking Themselves
So why are celebrities suddenly registering trademarks in a bid to protect their identity? The answer, unsurprisingly, lies with generative artificial intelligence (AI). – The Conversation
- The (Current, As Of Last Night) 16 Most Expensive Artworks Ever Sold At Auction
Yes, the maybe-it’s-really-a-Leonardo Salvator Mundi is still number one, more than $200 million ahead of the runner-up, which made the list just last year. Meanwhile, the fourth-ranking piece set its record on Monday night. Fully half the artworks on this list were auctioned since 2020. – ARTnews
- Filmmaker Jafar Panahi Returned To Iran After The Oscars. Predictably, He’s Going On Trial Again.
Following the months-long awards campaign for It Was Just an Accident, which won the Golden Palm at Cannes last year and was nominated for two Oscars, Panahi returned to his homeland, as he said he would. Now the Islamic Revolutionary Court has ordered him retried for “propaganda against the regime.” – The Hollywood Reporter
- Twin Cities’ Midsize Theater Companies Are Genuinely Worried About Surviving
“Here, midsize theater companies help anchor the scene and bridge the gap between big playhouses such as the Guthrie and Children’s theaters and smaller companies. But as corporate, civic and private funding has dried up or shifted to other areas, they are feeling the heat.” – The Minnesota Star Tribune (MSN)
- Louvre Announces Architects For Its Coming Renovation
“The Paris office of STUDIOS Architecture will lead the project, which includes the creation of new galleries and a new lobby. … (The firm’s) recent portfolio includes the well-received renovations of the Frick Collection in New York and the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London.” – ARTnews
- For The Second Time, A Mistrial In Harvey Weinstein’s New York Rape Case
This was the third time the disgraced producer was prosecuted in Manhattan for his alleged assault of Jessica Mann in 2013. (The initial verdict, a conviction, was overturned on appeal.) This time, the jury deadlocked, with 9 of the 12 jurors reportedly leaning toward acquittal. – AP
- Conductor Herbert Blomstedt, Aged 98, Falls Ill During San Francisco Concert
Although he had gotten through the dress rehearsal well enough, the San Francisco Symphony’s Music Director Laureate had to be wheeled onstage for Friday’s performance of Mahler’s 9th Symphony. He slumped ever farther to the right during the music, which was finally stopped during the third movement. – San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)
- Soprano Felicity Lott Dead At 79
The much-loved singer, admired equally for opera and concerts, passed away two days after she publicly revealed her terminal cancer diagnosis. – The Guardian
- Peter Gelb No Longer Considering Retiring From The Met
“I should leave when I cannot do the job properly or when the board doesn’t want me to be here. I’m a workaholic, I’ve always worked. I don’t enjoy free time. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about work. I need work. My life would be empty without work.” – OperaWire
- How AI Has Taken Over College Education
During the exam, students were pulling out phones and taking photographs of the test to submit to LLMs before copying down machine-written responses into their blue books. – The New Critic
- France’s Top TV Production House Says It Will Blacklist Artists Who Protest Billionaire
The head of France’s biggest film producer, Canal+, has said the group will no longer work with hundreds of cinema figures who signed a petition voicing concern over the growing influence of the rightwing billionaire owner Vincent Bolloré. – The Guardian
- How AI Has Taken Over My College Education At Stanford
Stanford has always been a haven for aspiring techies, but recent events have taken the school into uncharted territory. A.I. is everything. We talk about it at the dining halls and in history classes, on dates and while smoking with friends, at the gym and in communal dorm bathrooms. – The New York Times
- How Do We Get Big Tech Interested In The Arts?
So what can motivate tech barons to give money to opera? How do we convince them that, with their help, they can be a part of imagining a new, mind-blowing, future for opera, just as they have transformed the way we think and live with their innovations? We need to answer those questions if opera is to survive. – The New York Times
- The Artists Using San Francisco As A Canvas For Laser Shows
The San Francisco sky was lit Friday night with dozens of colored lasers beaming from the Transamerica Pyramid toward Coit Tower and One Sansome Street. – ABC7
- Humanities Make A Comeback As AI Gobbles Up Tech Jobs
As it turns out, tech jobs may be drying up after years of students rushing to computer science. Who needs to code? AI does that for you. What AI can’t do – yet – is the stuff that makes us human: empathy, emotion, psychology, critical thinking. – Irish Times
- And Now… The World’s First AI Museum
The “living museum” will present a continuously evolving immersive, audiovisual experience based on millions of images, sounds and scents from nature. As an indication of what it will be like, Dataland’s website presents phantasmagorical images of ecological wonder and awe.
- The Gamification Of Homework
Prodigy is among a bevy of gamified tools that have gained a foothold in classrooms across the country by promising to make learning fun. (As Prodigy’s website puts it: “Kids no longer have to choose between homework and playtime.”) – The Atlantic
- Turns Out Mark Rothko’s Paintings Are Perfect For The Age Of Social Media
“Across TikTok and Instagram, videos centred on Rothko’s work are accumulating hundreds of thousands of views. One creator has begun styling outfits inspired by individual Rothko canvases; another assigns Rothko works to personality archetypes.” – The Guardian (UK)
- Why Schmigadoon’s Music Sounds At Once Fresh And So Very Familiar
“Every number is a homage to at least one classic musical, and often two or three. Here, the hills are alive with the sound of pastiche; the plains and the valleys too.” – The New York Times
- Spain Has A Ton Of Crumbling Castles
What should it do with them, and all of the material therein? – El País English
- So, Does Peter Gelb Have ‘The Most Difficult Job’ In The World?
“Gelb, who is paid $1.2 million annually, oversees a $326 million budget. … Beyond the often caustic scrutiny of opera critics and patrons, Gelb must reckon with the demands of 3,000 full- and part-time employees, 15 labor unions and a 144-member board of directors.” – The New York Times
