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- Chair Of Oberlin’s Studio Art Department And His Wife Murdered, Allegedly By His Son
Pipo Nguyen-Duy, 64, and his wife, Tran Thi Phong, 54, were found shot to death in their home near the Ohio college. Daniel Jones aka Asia Nguyen-Duy, Pipo’s son, is being held on $3 million bail. – ABC News
- Hirshhorn Museum’s Sculpture Garden Reopens After Four-Year Revamp
“The 1.3-acre space was designed by artist and architect Hiroshi Sugimoto to better integrate with the National Mall,and it includes new works and spaces for education and programming. … It’s the biggest update to the museum since it opened in 1974, almost doubling the number of sculptures on display.” – Axios
- Elke Sommer, Exotic Blonde Beauty Of 1960s And ‘70s Hollywood, Has Died At 85
“With expressive almond eyes and golden locks, often styled in a beehive, Sommer worked with some of the biggest stars of the time, including Paul Newman in The Prize, Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther film A Shot in the Dark, and James Garner and Dick Van Dyke in The Art of Love.” – AP
- Patrick Stewart, 86
The death, from Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia, was announced on social media. – The New York Times
- Vincent’s Ear, Jo’s Diaries, and a Missing Premiere
Good Morning,
Minnesota Opera pulled its Halloween premiere of The Many Deaths of Laila Starr until late 2027 because its orchestra had authorized a strike, and president Ryan Taylor wouldn’t gamble on opening night. The union had refused his no-strike deal, and calls the postponement a lockout (MPR News).
Philadelphia’s arts office was closed by one mayor, reopened by another, and slated for elimination by a third. On November 3, voters decide whether to write it into the city charter (Broad Street Review).
Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, a five-time Oscar nominee, now faces a lawsuit from Simon Stephenson, writer of Pixar’s Luca, who wants a court order barring further exploitation of the film. His evidence includes a shared mistake: both scripts write “Under Black” for scene cards (The Hollywood Reporter).
Van Gogh cut off his ear the day he likely learned his brother Theo was engaged to Jo Bonger. She inherited 400 of his paintings, some stored under beds, and spent 30 years promoting his work (Time).
All of today’s stories are below.
- Horror Movies Exploit A Weakness In Human Visual Perception To Deliver Some Powerful Scares
A cognitive psychologist explains the phenomenon of inattentional blindness and how filmmakers take advantage of it. – The Conversation
- Reaching More People, But Having Less Influence
Are we becoming better at reaching people, but worse at helping them decide what is worth their time and money? – BachTrack
- Public Spaces In Transit Hubs Are Being Used As Dance Studios
“Around the world, transit hubs and other public spaces are becoming makeshift dance venues, used for rehearsals, battles, and filming content for social media. But these de facto studios offer more than just free rehearsal space. They’re also becoming centers of gravity for the dance community.” – Dance Magazine
- On The Ballot: Philly Voters Will Decide Fate Of City’s Arts And Culture Office
For the first time, we have a chance to free Philly’s office of arts and culture from the whims of the mayor, and make it part of the city charter. – Broad Street Review
- How Our Brains Cope With Uncertainty
Systems fail; unanticipated difficulties occur; things break or rot. To cope with this reality, philosophical and religious traditions such as Buddhism and Stoicism have long focused on transience, unpredictability, and the inevitability of change and loss. – Scientific American
- Italy’s Renowned Art Squad Is Training Colleagues In Africa To Fight Antiquities Trafficking
Italy‘s National School of Heritage and Cultural Activities and the École du Patrimoine Africain in Porto-Novo, Benin, are collaborating on a specialized training course, the first of its kind, with faculty from the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, popularly known as the Carabinieri Art Squad. – ARTnews
- YouTube Is On A Roll: Revenue Grows Nine Percent
YouTube ad revenue grew 9% in the third quarter to hit $11.2 billion, but parent Alphabet‘s stock dropped after overall financials undershot Wall Street expectations. – Deadline
- Don’t Forget: Technology That Serves Creativity
We live in a golden age of digital creativity. Forget A.I.: you, yourself, can record an album from your sofa, or curate a photo-essay on the train. In that spirit, here are some of my favorite creative digital tools. – The New Yorker
- Associate Director of Marketing and Communications
The Old Globe is seeking an Associate Director of Marketing and Communications to join its Marketing team, responsible for single ticket venue, audience acquisition, retention, and campaign performance. The Associate Director of Marketing and Communications will execute marketing plans across paid digital and print media, direct mail, promotions, and other opportunities. This role directly supervises the Social Media Manager, Public Relations Associate, Promotions Partners Associate, and Marketing Assistant.
Key Responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:
- Execute single-ticket marketing plans for each production, defining audience targets, campaign positioning, channel strategy, and timing to achieve ticket revenue goals.
- Create clear campaign briefs for the Creative Director, specifying target audiences, messages, required assets, formats, and deadlines.
- Monitor ticket sales, revenue pacing, inventory, average ticket price, and campaign performance; recommend timely adjustments and provide concise and regular updates on results, risks, and actions.
- Manage paid advertising campaigns and agency/vendor relationships across digital, print, outdoor, and any other required channel.
- Evaluate campaign results against revenue, cost of sale, conversion, and audience-acquisition goals.
- Lead audience development and partnerships that expand reach and ticket sales.
- Set priorities for Production Partners, Community Nights, business partnerships, influencer collaborations, and outreach executed by the Promotions Partners Associate.
- Partner with the Marketing Operations & CRM Manager and the database and systems specialist on audience segmentation, targeted lists, campaign tracking, attribution, and reporting.
- Develop promotional offers and advertising agreements; secure Director approval for significant discounts, cash expenditures, ticket-inventory exchanges, or comp commitments.
- Supervise the Social Media Manager, Public Relations Associate, Promotions Partners Associate, and Marketing Assistant.
- Align team priorities and deadlines with production marketing and ticket sales goals.
- Monitor competitors, market conditions, audience behavior, and production-specific opportunities to inform campaign decisions.
The Old Globe is actively committed to fostering a culture of equity, diversity, inclusion, & access in all areas of our operation. By making intentional, actionable steps, we strive to make The Old Globe a place where theatre makers, employees, volunteers, audience members, and community members of all identities and backgrounds belong. The Old Globe welcomes candidates who demonstrate a commitment to these goals. We strongly encourage people with the following identities to apply: BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, people living with disabilities, and those from other historically and presently marginalized groups. Multilingual candidates are also strongly encouraged to apply.
The successful candidate will have the following skills and abilities:
- 5+ years of progressively responsible marketing experience; live entertainment or performing-arts experience strongly preferred.
- Strong understanding of performing-arts marketing, ticket sales, paid advertising, audience segmentation, and direct-response campaigns.
- Demonstrated ability to interpret sales and campaign data, manage budgets, and translate findings into actions that improve revenue and cost of sale.
- Strong project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple productions, competing deadlines, and staff priorities.
- Excellent writing, presentation, vendor-management, and cross-departmental collaboration skills.
- Experience with Tessitura or a comparable ticketing/CRM system and digital advertising platforms strongly preferred.
- Salary range $90,000 – $108,000. This is a full-time position with benefits including 401(k) after first year employment. Must be able to pass applicable background check. Multilingual candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
Please apply here: https://www.theoldglobe.org/TheOldGlobeInternalJobOpportunities
- Why Is There So Much Beauty In The World?
“There’s too much beauty to be accounted for by simple utility,” argues Nicholas Humphrey. – MIT Press Reader
- Filmmaker Alexander Payne Sued For Alleged Copyright Violations In “The Holdovers”
Simon Stephenson claims that, for The Holdovers — which received five Oscar nominations in 2024, with a win for supporting actress Da’Vine Joy Randolph — director Payne and screenwriter David Hemingson stole plot points, characters and structure from Stephenson’s screenplay Frisco, which he had shopped to Payne in 2013 and 2019. – The Hollywood Reporter
- A Humanities Course Has Become Harvard’s Hottest Ticket
Hum 10, as it’s commonly known, has become the surprise hit of Harvard’s academic lineup and something of a campus institution. Demand to get into the class has surged, fueled by word-of-mouth from “Hum Alums” who talk it up on social media. – The Wall Street Journal
- Neighbors Near LA’s Hollywood Sign Have Had Enough
They argue the city is responsible for nuisance conditions on public property in part because 15 years ago a councilman decided to clear some brush to create a viewing spot near their homes. That brought the crowds, they say, and the city has ignored years of complaints. – Los Angeles Times
- New Details About Van Gogh’s Sister-In-Law Cast Fresh Light On His Struggles, And Her Centrality In Making Him Known
We might never have known about Van Gogh without Theo’s wife. “Jo didn’t seek to put herself at the center of this story, but she is there, nonetheless.” – Time
- Hollywood Is Buying Up Short Stories
Addison Duffy, an agent at United Talent Agency who helped negotiate the “Understudy” contract, said that short stories are a form “that almost every single agent in our group is selling in a big way.” Their bite-size format appeals to busy studio executives facing mountains of scripts. – The New York Times
- A.S. Byatt’s Papers Are Now Open At The British Library
“The archive allows researchers to follow Byatt as she assembles the raw material of her fiction, tests ideas and repeatedly questions whether they will work.” – The Guardian (UK)
- Actress Barbara Barrie, Once One Of Hollywood’s Favorite Moms, Is Dead At 95
Though she was also active onstage, she was better known for screen work and amassed over 120 credits, including on TV series Barney Miller and Suddenly Susan (as Brooke Shields’s grandmother), and films such as One Potato, Two Potato (Best Actress at Cannes) and Breaking Away (Oscar nomination). – Los Angeles Times (MSN)
- Reading Alexandra Wilson’s Culture Vultures: When Activism Meets the Arts
Alexandra Wilson thinks something has gone wrong in the art world. While there have been great works of art dealing with political subject matter since ancient times, and moving works that involve political advocacy and moral exhortation – “That Man to Man the warld o’er / Shall brithers be for a’ that” – we now have a situation where the arts have become “hyper-politicized”:
Most visibly, artistic spaces have become political battlegrounds, with theatres, concert halls and galleries now the go-to forum for protests about everything from distant war to climate change. What is going on?
Underpinning a now widespread insistence that the arts must constantly attend to politics is the notion that ‘everything is political’. This is an idea with its roots in academic theory, which has entered the mainstream conversation over the last decade. It is voiced not only by outspoken people with a drum to bang on social media or by journalists touting for clicks but also, in some cases, by the very people who run our arts institutions, as the arts find themselves at a strange intersection between managerial bureaucracy and progressive activism. There is no coordinated campaign, yet it is a way of thinking that has taken grip extremely widely in a short space of time.
As an arts consumer (and even occasionally as a performer) I have been sometimes frustrated by the very thing Wilson describes here. Whilst I was reading her book I saw a review of a “reimagined” (a word that immediately sets me on edge) production of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman in Berlin, set during the post-Holocaust creation of the state of Israel, and it looks very, very bad on every level, serving neither the opera as a work of art in itself nor providing serious political and historical insight.
But can this frustration with ill-conceived productions and exhibitions sustain a book? What can I learn about how this happened: has it actually been “a short space of time” or something long in development, is it always for the bad, is this just a phase?
Although Wilson talks about the “hyper-politicization” of the arts as a new trend, with the words “often”, “frequently”, and “increasingly” used as if this were all obvious, was there not an awful lot of politicization of the arts in the 1980s? It was a widely debated issue in the 1930s, with journals like Scrutiny agonizing over whether they ought to adopt an explicit political position (A few years ago I wrote an essay on that time, here). In the US in the 1930s the Federal Theater Project was nothing if not political. In one of his last essays, from 1948, Orwell warned that “to yield subjectively, not merely to a party machine, but even to a group ideology, is to destroy yourself as a writer.” Is what we see now just the most recent wave of a centuries-old question?
She doesn’t lack examples: museum curators who cannot exhibit older works of art without explaining, as if their viewers were all little children, the monstrous ideas, by contemporary standards, hidden (or sometimes quite obvious) in the objects; film and television adaptations of literary classics that play fast and loose with historical accuracy, and that try to incorporate the edgy into works from Jane Austen to Agatha Christie where it just doesn’t fit (unlike in what is for her the golden age of prestige costume drama, the 1980s and 1990s, and the David Suchet Poirot’s); efforts to change, or eliminate entirely, the “canon”, in favor of greater diversity in the authors of works; and the search for “relevance” (a word which affects me the same way “reimagined” does) in the quest for finding new audiences (“Who are the Arts ‘For’ Today?” is the strongest chapter in the book). Wilson is willing to admit that some change can be for the good, in terms of making great art more accessible to modern audiences. But in each case she identifies the crux of the problem as arts administrators and artistic directors going too far.
As much I share some of her gripes about the ill-conceived political missions of some arts organizations and their exhibitions, and have said so occasionally on this blog, I found Culture Vultures1 something of a disappointment. There are different ways a writer could approach her concerns. One would be a deep dive into the theory and analysis of how the institutions of the art world have changed over the past few decades, what really drove these changes. An alternative would be a real effort at getting inside the organizations themselves: interviewing decision-makers, trying to get a sense of their goals and their constraints. But Wilson does neither. Instead, the scholarly research is thin, and there is very little on-the-ground reporting. Her sources are to a large part the very “outspoken people with a drum to bang on social media or by journalists touting for clicks” that she bemoans in her introduction. Consider this representative passage, on classical music (the genre with which she has the greatest depth of knowledge):
Some people in the arts would deny the fact that anyone is trying to get rid of the canon. [Kate] Molleson writes [in Sound Within Sound, 2023]: ‘Here is a myth I keep coming up against. It is an odd and spurious fear that The Great Works – the Passions of Bach, the symphonies of Beethoven and Brahms, the earth-shaking ballets of Igor Stravinsky – are somehow threatened if classical music becomes more inclusive. Nobody is mooting that we should ditch Mozart or Mahler. Nobody is suggesting that their music doesn’t speak for our times and for all time.’ But, in fact, one regularly stumbles across blog posts, opinion pieces and comments on social media that do endorse a dismantling of the canon, together with recommendations to outlaw previously greatly revered works that are now deemed to offend contemporary sensibilities.
But you can find anything and everything somewhere on social media and blog posts; it says nothing about actual influence. Casual observation of the programming of orchestras in my region suggests that the bloggers, whoever they are, wanting to dismantle the canon are not having much success. Many of her footnotes cite newspaper and magazine opinion pieces, blog posts, even tweets, but I can see those for myself if I want. Wilson, oddly for someone so keen to preserve high art, is far too online.2 Her explication of the “postmodern” (a word that carries a lot on its back in this book) theory she claims played a big role in what has happened to arts presenters in recent times is extremely thin – it is presented as a combination of garden variety wokeness and radical skepticism of scientific knowledge,3 with all of this gathered second-hand and without perspective. A lengthy passage on what is going on in the arts in universities is mostly based on anecdote, and, if we are trading in anecdotes, does not reflect what I see on my own campus.4
I am sympathetic to Wilson’s plea that there is nothing wrong with presenting classical music, opera, theatre and painting as they are, without trying to use the works to promote particular political views, or to achieve social goals beyond the enjoyment of the arts. But too often I felt I was reading a lengthy opinion article in The Times rather than something that aimed at depth, something that would tell the reader something they didn’t already know.
Cross-posted at https://michaelrushton.substack.com/
It’s a small point but her title is ill-chosen; “culture vultures”, at least in the United States, has a specific connotation that is not what her book is about.
I was recently notified of an article in a peer-reviewed (!) journal that tries to form a deep critique of my ideology based upon a reading of a single short blog post on which I spent an hour at most. I really hope this is not a trend.
On which, I would note that it was not the “postmodern” left who gave the lethally idiotic Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. a position of decision-making authority. In general, right-wing politicians who seek to use state-owned arts organizations or universities to promote their own political preferences get a pass in the book.
“Arts administrators” come in for a rough ride from Wilson, but my experience in two decades of teaching students wanting to go into that profession was of the vast majority being simply young people who enjoyed the arts as art and wanting to be a part of helping exhibitions and performances continue to thrive.
- Former CEO Of Lucasfilm To Run 2028 L.A. Olympics Opening And Closing Ceremonies
“Hollywood veteran Kathleen Kennedy has been tapped to replace Peter Rice” — just appointed as Netflix’s chief content officer — “as head of ceremonies and content for LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games, … four separate events that will be viewed by an audience of billions across the globe.” – The Hollywood Reporter
- Life Magazine Will Return To Print Just In Time For Thanksgiving
“Life magazine is making its long-awaited return to print on Nov. 23, exactly 90 years after its landmark 1936 debut, with a $45 quarterly publication that will forgo traditional print advertising as part of a broader push into digital content, video and live experiences.” – TheWrap (Yahoo!)
- Pianist Stephen Kovacevich, 86
“(He was) known as much for his name changes – Bishop and Bishop-Kovacevich – as for his emotionally charged playing of Beethoven, his sparkling interpretation of Bartók and his elegant line in Schubert. A Kovacevich recital was invariably a meaty affair, filled with passion, wildness and temptation, somewhat like (his) personal life.” – The Telegraph (UK) (Yahoo!)
- After A Hiatus, Williamstown Theatre Festival Regroups By Retrenching
After an interesting and very messy experiment with programming and organization in 2025 and going dark for summer 2026 (not to mention a tumultuous few years before that), the festival has given up its planned expansion into year-round activity, shrunk its full-time staff to three, and is planning a smaller 2027 event. – BroadwayWorld
- Minnesota Opera Postpones This Weekend’s World Premiere Due To Tense Contract Negotiations With Orchestra
The company was to open its season this weekend with Kamala Shankaran’s The Many Deaths of Laila Starr. Orchestra musicians say it’s a lockout; management says it can’t risk what happened at San Francisco Opera, with opening night cancelled minutes before curtain time when the orchestra declared a strike. – The Minnesota Star Tribune (MSN)
- Soprano Judith Blegen Has Died At 85
She was one of the Metropolitan Opera’s favorite light lyric sopranos in the 1970s and ‘80s, known especially for her Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, and Adina in L’elisir d’amore opposite Pavarotti as Nemorino. – OperaWire
- How Scientists Rank The Scariest Horror Movies Of All Time
“Since 2020, the (Science of Scare Project) has evaluated horror movies’ physiological effects on viewers by monitoring their heart rate and heart rate variability … as they watch a curated selection of English-language horror films considered among the most frightening.” And the winner is … ? – HuffPost
- The V&A’s Argument Against AI Slop
Why are humans so driven to make things? In our age of A.I. slop, the V. & A.’s devotion to physical objects is a tonic. And if two new buildings seem like overkill, think of all those data centers. – The New Yorker
- One Of Italy’s Largest Daily Papers Expands Into The US, In English
La Stampa, a nationally- and regionally-focused outlet headquartered in Turin, is opening La Stampa USA as an online publication aimed at an Italian-American readership. The newsroom currently has five employees in New York and two in Washington DC and plans to hire contributors around the country. – Press Gazette (UK)
- How To Defeat The Style Choices Your Algorithms Point You To
Rather than cycling through distinct eras sequentially as Laver predicted, social media feeds flatten time entirely. Decades of vintage subcultures and instant micro-aesthetics are collapsed into the same endless scroll, allowing a 1990s minimalist silhouette to coexist alongside a week-old “whimsymaxxing” viral trend. – The Conversation
- How Politeness Has Shaped Our Language
Requests that were once directly stated as imperatives were now couched with indirectness as merely suggestions or questions: “Shut the window,” became “Could you please shut the window?” And, in addition to saying “thanks,” responding with an acknowledgment of that thanks, such as “you’re welcome,” became routine. – Time
- The Perils Of Voice-Acting Steamy Romance Books
The 45-year-old actor blames his upbringing for mispronunciations, like calling a “library” a “liberry.” Fans seized on the gaffe. “I was like, you know what? Touché,” Palmini said. “Even though you said you want to burn the book now because I said ‘liberry,’ I get it. Truly. Noted. ‘Library’ it is.” – The Wall Street Journal (MSN)
