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- California Universities Abandoned The SAT. It’s Been A Disaster
A huge share of STEM and economics faculty across the UC system is now in open revolt—demanding that California’s public universities at least look at standardized-test scores before offering admission. – The Atlantic
- AI Bootleggers Are Stealing Songs, Tweaking Them And Making Money
It was an AI-manipulated version of the band’s 2019 single “Angels Above Me,” sped up with a tweaked lead vocal and a dance-music kick drum. Stick Figure wasn’t mentioned anywhere, but someone was making thousands of dollars off its viral success. – Los Angeles Times
- Julio Le Parc, Pioneer Of Moving Op Art, Has Died At 97
“He focused on kinetic sculpture … and the geometric optical illusions of Op Art, infusing them with regional influences” — he was Argentine, though he spent his adult life in Paris — “and often overtly political content, … pioneer(ing) a form of socially conscious, audience-friendly sculpture and vibrantly colorful, politically engaged painting.” – The New York Times
- Plan For $1.16 Billion Opera House Scrapped By Mayor Of Düsseldorf
Millions have already been spent on planning and architectural design for a new home for the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and total costs for the project were capped at a projected €1 billion (which few people believed). Now the mayor says the money simply isn’t there. – The Violin Channel
- Trump Administration Asked National Park Visitors To Report “Negative” History Info. Visitors Did Something Different.
What most respondents considered negative was the effort itself. One visitor called it “un-American.” Another criticized the idea of “having Americans call in and snitch on each other.” One person wrote, “Hey Donald Trump! Trying to erase history doesn’t mean it didn’t still happen!” – AP
- Imax Is Considering Selling Itself To A Big Studio. Here’s The Problem It Has.
“A key challenge will be finding a buyer who wouldn’t present a conflict of interest.” How so? – TheWrap (Yahoo!)
- The Problem Is “Middleware”: Doug McLennan On America’s Classical Music Crisis
“For decades, the relationship between artists and audiences was heavily mediated and nurtured by newspaper critics, classical radio hosts, record-store owners, etc. — They made the music findable and meaningful. I call that layer the civic middleware of culture, and over the past twenty years it has largely collapsed.” – Bachtrack
- Directors Guild And Hollywood Studios Agree On Four-Year Contract
“The deal struck between the Directors Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers came four weeks after talks began.” – AP
- Forgotten Manuscript By JRR Tolkien Found In Oxford Library
“The Lord of the Rings author’s translation of a medieval religious text from the early 13th century had lain forgotten in the Bodleian Libraries’ collections until now. His reworking of Sawles Warde, an early Middle English prose homily, which he titled Soul’s Ward …, is to be published for the first time.” – The Telegraph (UK)
- Executive Director – Historic Paramount Theatre
Position Summary
The Executive Director will serve as the Historic Paramount Theatre’s (Paramount) senior administrative and strategic leader, driving daily operations, stewarding finances, supervising staff, and partnering with the Board of Directors while keeping the theatre active, stable, and deeply connected to Abilene. This person will maintain the Paramount’s programming model, build strong civic and cultural relationships, work closely with the Chief Financial Officer on budgeting and cash flow, and lead the creation of the organization’s first strategic plan.
They will be a dynamic, community minded ambassador who brings strong communication skills, sound financial judgment, and collaborative leadership to development, programming, and external relations. This leader will strengthen donor and foundation relationships, oversee grants, sponsorships, restoration projects, marketing, and programming, and advance a refreshed artistic direction that reduces dark days, broadens audiences, and deepens the Paramount’s civic impact. They will guide planning for the 2030 centennial and champion accessible programming that welcomes new audiences and supports downtown revitalization.
Organization
Designed and built in 1930 by architect David Castle, the Historic Paramount Theatre is one of West Texas’s most treasured cultural landmarks. A stunning example of the nostalgic “atmospheric” movie palace, the theatre was created during an era when attending the cinema was intended to be a grand and immersive experience. The main auditorium was designed to resemble a Spanish/Moorish courtyard at night, complete with drifting projected clouds, twinkling stars, and a neon-lit sky that transported audiences to another world.
Restored in 1987 and renovated to accommodate live theatre performances, the Paramount has evolved into a vibrant multidisciplinary performing arts venue serving the Abilene community and surrounding region. Today, the theatre hosts a broad range of programming, including concerts, film screenings, ballet, opera, touring productions, comedy performances, educational programming, and community events. For nearly 100 years, the Paramount has remained a defining entertainment destination and an enduring symbol of the cultural life of West Texas.
The theatre’s programming is intentionally broad and diverse. Each year features between 150 and 170 nights of live performances or active rental use. Numerous local nonprofit organizations utilize the Paramount as their performance home, and facility rentals remain a significant source of earned revenue. Though originally constructed as a movie palace, films continue to be screened throughout the year. Paramount Productions has presented an annual summer musical for more than 30 years and produces a children’s musical each January. Since 2020, the theatre has also produced twice-yearly cabaret performances that have become highly popular with audiences. In 2022, the organization expanded its focus on touring concerts and stand-up comedy events; what began as a goal of four touring presentations in the first year grew to more than 30 such events in 2025. Additional earned revenue is generated through concessions and bar sales.
Recent upgrades and restoration projects demonstrate the organization’s ongoing commitment to preserving and modernizing the facility. Improvements include a new downstairs concessions area and bar (2025), expansion into the adjacent Wooten Hotel for additional office space (2024), complete LED stage lighting replacement (2025), mezzanine chair replacement (2023), installation of a new house audio system (2021), and a new digital projector (2021). In summer 2026, the theatre will undertake a nearly $400,000 marquee replacement project featuring a new LED marquee system. A donor-funded architectural lighting and safety enhancement project totaling approximately $1.5 million is also underway.
The Paramount has a 17-member board of directors led by Chair Ronalyn Sutphen. The Executive Director reports to the board of directors and oversees six full-time staff members and 40 part-time staff members. For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, Paramount reported total revenue of $2.1 million, including 49% from contributions and 51% from earned revenue sources. The projected revenue for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026, is $1.7 million, including 54% from contributions and 46% from earned revenue sources.
Sources: edited from paramountabilene.com; propublica.org
Community
Located in the heart of West Texas, Abilene is a mid-sized city of approximately 125,000 residents known for its welcoming atmosphere, strong civic identity, and rich historical heritage. Founded during the cattle-drive era of the late nineteenth century, the city has grown into a regional center for education, healthcare, commerce, and military service while maintaining the character of a close-knit community. Abilene is home to three universities: Abilene Christian University, Hardin-Simmons University, and McMurry University, which contribute significantly to the city’s educational and cultural vitality. The community is also deeply connected to Dyess Air Force Base, one of only two U.S. installations that house the B-1 Bomber, making military tradition and service an important part of local identity.
Abilene offers residents a high quality of life with affordable living, family-oriented neighborhoods, and a growing downtown district that has become a center for dining, entertainment, and cultural activity. Recreational attractions include the Abilene Zoo, Frontier Texas!, and the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature, alongside a broad network of parks, trails, and community amenities maintained by the City of Abilene. Ongoing downtown revitalization efforts, including the Cypress Street Improvement Project and the Downtown Pedestrian Plaza, continue to strengthen the city’s walkability, economic vitality, and appeal as a regional destination for arts, culture, and tourism. Community events, festivals, and arts programming contribute to an active civic environment, and the city is widely regarded as one of the best places in Texas to raise a family due to its strong schools, engaged community, and accessible lifestyle.
Sources: abilenetx.gov; census.gov
Roles and Responsibilities
Organizational Leadership & Administration
- Provide overall leadership and direction for the organization’s operations, staff, and programming.
- Recruit, hire, supervise, and evaluate all full-time staff members.
- Foster a collaborative and mission-driven organizational culture.
- Ensure compliance with all applicable licensing and regulatory requirements, including TABC regulations.
- Embrace other organizational leadership and administration responsibilities as needed.
Financial Management
- Collaborate with the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to develop and present the annual operating budget for board approval each March.
- Oversee implementation of and adherence to the approved budget.
- Work closely with the Board and CFO to manage organizational cash flow and steward banking reserves.
- Review and approve all company expenditures, with expenditures over $5,000 requiring a second signature from the Board.
- Work with staff to establish pricing for goods and services and determine inventory and merchandise offerings.
- Embrace other financial management responsibilities as needed.
Governance & Board Relations
- Prepare for and participate in all meetings of the Board of Directors, including providing timely reports, recommendations, and updates on organizational operations and strategic priorities.
- Implement directives and policies established by the Board of Directors.
- Engage and support board members in fundraising initiatives, long-range planning, and organizational strategy.
- Serve as the primary liaison between the Paramount and the building owners.
- Embrace other governance and board-relations responsibilities as needed.
Programming & Artistic Oversight
- Lead the programming, negotiation, and contracting for Paramount Road Shows and other live performances presented by the organization.
- Oversee film programming, including selections made by committees and staff.
- Ensure programming aligns with the mission, audience interests, and financial goals of the Paramount.
- Embrace other programming and artistic oversight responsibilities as needed.
Development & Fundraising
- Serve as the organization’s primary development contact.
- Oversee grant funding strategies, donor cultivation and stewardship, and corporate sponsorship relationships.
- Support and guide fundraising initiatives in partnership with staff and the Board of Directors.
- Embrace other development and fundraising responsibilities as needed.
Marketing & Community Relations
- Produce, oversee, or approve all marketing and promotional materials and campaigns.
- Represent the Paramount within the community and serve as the primary spokesperson at public events, partnerships, and community engagements.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with patrons, community stakeholders, donors, sponsors, and partner organizations.
- Embrace other marketing and community relations responsibilities as needed.
Facilities & Capital Improvements
- Identify, secure funding for, and oversee all restoration, maintenance, and capital improvement projects related to the Paramount.
- Ensure the long-term preservation and operational functionality of the Paramount.
- Embrace other facilities and capital improvements responsibilities as needed.
Traits and Characteristics
The Executive Director will be an engaging and people-oriented leader who values communication, collaboration, and relationship-building across a broad range of stakeholders. This individual will demonstrate versatility and adaptability, navigating frequent change and shifting priorities with confidence and ease. Grounded in intuition, experience, and thoughtful decision-making, the Executive Director will bring a harmonious and balanced leadership style that fosters trust and stability within the organization. The Executive Director will also be resourceful and receptive, combining practical problem-solving skills with openness to new ideas, opportunities, and innovative approaches that advance Paramount’s mission and long-term success.
Other key competencies include:
- Personal Accountability and Diplomacy – The capacity to be answerable for personal actions and effectively and tactfully handle difficult or sensitive issues.
- Time and Priority Management – The ability to prioritize and complete tasks in order to deliver desired outcomes within allotted time frames.
- Leadership – The capability to organize and influence people to believe in a vision while creating a sense of purpose and direction.
- Teamwork – The aptitude to cooperate with others to meet objectives.
- Decision Making – The faculty to analyze all aspects of a situation to make consistently sound and timely decisions.
- Problem Solving and Resiliency – The competence to quickly recover from adversity and solve problems effectively.
Qualifications
Two to three years of senior leadership experience in a historic theatre, professional arts organization, or relevant business setting are expected. A bachelor’s degree in the arts or a related field is preferred. The ability to build and sustain a high performing team is essential, as is experience with fundraising at varying levels. Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the capacity to represent the Paramount to diverse audiences and donors, are important. If you do not meet all the qualifications but possess transferable or equivalent skills, experience, or education, we encourage you to apply and highlight those areas.
Compensation and Benefits
The Paramount provides a competitive and equitable compensation package with an estimated salary range of $110,000 to $125,000. Benefits include paid time off and comprehensive employee support programs designed to promote work-life balance and long-term financial wellness. Full-time employees receive 12 vacation days annually, with additional accrual based on years of service, along with 12 sick days per year. Health insurance premiums for employee-only coverage are paid 100% by Paramount, with eligibility beginning on the first of the month after 60 days of service. Employees also have the opportunity to participate in a 403(b) retirement plan with up to a 6% employer match after 90 days of employment.
Applications and Inquiries
To submit a cover letter and resume with a summary of demonstrable accomplishments (electronic submissions preferred), please click here or visit ArtsConsulting.com/OpenSearches. For questions or general inquiries about this job opportunity, please contact:
Flora Stamatiades, Vice President
Tel (888) 234.4236 Ext. 238
Email HistoricParamount@ArtsConsulting.comThe Historic Paramount Theatre is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a team that reflects the diversity of the communities we serve and to fostering an inclusive environment where all employees feel valued, respected, and supported. We welcome applicants of all backgrounds, identities, abilities, and experiences.
- Who Gets Paid When The Machine Sings?
Good Morning,
Follow the money in music today and it loops back on itself. Universal Music is sounding out investors for a roughly $1.5 billion bond sale (Business Times) at the exact moment the Musicians’ Union sues Universal and Warner over the licensing deals they’ve struck for AI training (Pitchfork). Meanwhile a new study finds a striking share of working musicians already reaching for AI in their own work (The Hollywood Reporter) — the same tool the lawsuit treats as the enemy. Fast Company christens this “the imagination era,” where creativity is the currency (Fast Company). The harder question is who gets to profit from it.
In repression news: An Iranian court has upheld a prison sentence for Cannes winner Jafar Panahi (Deadline), and Utah quietly banned its 35th book — Alice Sebold’s Lucky — from public schools (Book Riot).
And off the Norwegian coast, archaeologists hauled up an intact 18th-century ship still loaded with porcelain (Smithsonian).
All of our stories below.
Doug
- As Russia’s War Rages On, Kyiv Hosts A Busy Literary Festival
“A sign of the nation’s complete engulfing by war was the presence of so many soldiers on the stages; writers who had become soldiers, soldiers who had become writers. The Russia-Ukraine war has dragged on so grievously, and for so long, that entire publishing cycles have turned since 2022.” – The Guardian
- Archaeologists Find Intact 18th Century Ship Off Norway
In addition to the well-preserved ceramics, researchers found barrels of grain and an array of high-end European-made goods ranging from chandeliers to stemmed glasses. They also discovered a box filled with mysterious substances, possibly coffee, tea, cocoa or medicine. – Smithsonian
- Turmoil At Korean National Ballet Over Choice Of Next Artistic Director
Following widespread rumors that the chosen candidate was a politically-connected university professor with no experience in ballet, the company’s dancers issued a public statement stressing the importance of a qualified, experienced director. The Culture Minister responded, insisting that no choice had been made and the rumors were groundless. – The Chosun Daily (Seoul)
- Report: Arts Audiences Are Growing In Australia
The survey, conducted since 2009 and last published in 2022, has found that almost all Australians (98%) engage with the arts in some capacity – whether through music, reading, festivals, creating art, digital engagement or live attendance – and more Australians are recognising the positive impact of the arts on the economy and ourselves. – Limelight
- Why We Crave Social Interaction
Among humans, “you can feel lonely at a party, or you can feel fine alone in your office.” Whatever the ideal degree of togetherness, Tye and others think that an animal’s need to balance time alone and time with others represents a kind of homeostasis: an equilibrium that’s critical for survival. – Knowable
- Have You Ever Really Looked Carefully At The Declaration Of Independence?
It’s poetry, philosophy and polemic, all in a little more than 1,300 words and all represented in its second and most famous sentence. – The New York Times
- When Gates Testifies About Epstein, Will the Mask Drop?<a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2026/06/when-gates-testifies-about-epstein-will-the-mask-drop.html" title="When Gates Testifies About Epstein, Will the Mask
- Iranian Court Upholds Prison Sentence For Cannes-Winning Filmmaker Jafar Panahi
“On Sunday, the It Was Just An Accident writer/director’s attorney Mostafa Nili announced that Judge Iman Afshari rejected their objections and fully upheld the in-absentia verdict, on the grounds of making an ‘underground and problematic film against the establishment.’” – Deadline
- Arguing For The Arts: Careful What You Claim
Why aren’t people more careful when it comes to making claims about the benefits of the arts? Quite frankly, because shoddy research and even shoddier interpretations can have positive results in convincing policy makers of the importance of the arts—whether for economic development, educational outcomes, good health, and a variety of other public goods. – Nightingale Sonata
- Report: Half Of British Musicians Have Lost EU Work Since Brexit
The report by European Movement UK, a cross-party campaign group advocating closer UK-EU relations, found that nearly half of British musicians had experienced a reduced amount of work in the EU since 2021, while more than a quarter had stopped working there altogether. – The Gaurdian
- We Have Entered The Imagination Era
We have moved beyond the Information Age and are now firmly rooted in what I call the Imagination Era, a time when ideas and thinking differently are our primary currency. In this landscape, technology is not replacing our humanity; it is demanding that we deepen it. – Fast Company
- Utah Bans Alice Sebold’s Memoir “Lucky” From All Public Schools
“The ban comes amidst a lawsuit challenging these state-sanctioned bans filed in February, and it comes after banning 15 other books in 2026 alone.” – Book Riot
- Study: A High Percentage Of Musicians Are Using AI In their Work
A new study from the Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music found that 33 percent of respondents “use AI to generate initial ideas, melodies, or reference tracks that are later reworked.” About 26 percent of artists “use AI for full backing tracks in finished work.” – The Hollywood Reporter
- Musicians Union Sues UMG And Warner Over License Deals For AI
“The AFM brings this lawsuit because defendants, two of the largest music companies in the world, have licensed sound recordings on which AFM-represented musicians have worked, without compensation or credit, to two AI companies,” reads the lawsuit. – Pitchfork
- Universal Music Group Contemplating A $1.5B Bond Sale
Universal Music has a one euro billion bridge loan, which was arranged earlier this year, that matures in late July – as well as a 500 million euro bond due in 2027 – data compiled by Bloomberg showed. – Business Times
- Museum With World’s Largest Collection Of Kahlo And Rivera Paintings Reopens After Long, Unexplained Closure
“Set in lush gardens patrolled by peacocks and … dogs, the (Museo Dolores Olmedo in Mexico City) closed in 2020 during the coronavirus outbreak. It remained shuttered, with little explanation, long after the pandemic abated. Then on May 30, it reopened — in time, the management said, for the World Cup.” – The New York Times
- What is it Like to be a Professional Musician?
There is no simple explanation for anything important any of us do, and the human tragedy, or the human irony, consists in the necessity of living with the consequences of actions performed under the pressure of compulsions so obscure we do not and cannot understand them.
(Hugh MacLennan, The Watch Ends the Night (1958)).
Some personal history
When I was in high school, I found my place in the band room. I took up the French horn (never very well) and played in the concert band. I learned guitar and bass and played the latter in the jazz band. I sang in the chamber choir, and took part in the cast, or chorus, or pit, or crew, of musicals and plays. My closest friends were band room kids. I also played in a garage (basement, actually) band. I had a great pair of music teachers (one of whom I got to spend time with on a recent hometown visit), and thought that this had to be the greatest job in the world. So, in hopes of one day becoming a high school music teacher myself, I applied to the local university school of music, did the theory exam, did the audition (on voice – I had the benefit of the low bar set for desperately needed tenors), and got accepted.
I was the only one of my peer group who chose this route; many other music friends tried to make it in the pop/rock scene in Vancouver, and they were surprised I didn’t try to do the same. But I didn’t see much future there. A few got regular gigs in local bands, one very good drummer I played with got a job on a cruise ship band. One kid at our school actually managed to achieve superstardom, but I think we all knew what a rare thing that was. And so far as I know he was the only one who, quite sensibly, stuck with it.
How did music at university go? At the end of the fourth day of classes, I went to the registrar and dropped the whole thing, and, unsure of what was even on offer at the huge campus – I’d never really known well anyone who had ever attended university – just picked from a set in general arts and sciences. This eventually turned into a major in economics. In the music school, I had realized as soon as classes got going – the voice teacher who thought I didn’t have much of a voice but that maybe it could be turned into something; the theory teacher disappointed how few of us in the entering class had perfect pitch; and other students, who were driven about achieving success in their instruments in a way I just was not – that this did not look like a happy situation.
This was awfully impulsive of me (though my parents were relieved), and if I had stuck it out for longer, even a semester, I might have found my place there after all, but I’ll never know.
Was it a rational choice, to drop music school, and the idea of making music my profession, either as performer or teacher? Would I have had a better life if I didn’t drop out? I can’t know, because I don’t know what my life would have been like.
But I need to clarify this.
I can read all manner of numbers regarding the earnings of professional musicians in different genres, or wages in the teaching world, or what my salary might be now if I had got my degree and begun teaching at some high school, and stuck with it for more than forty years (which is of course a lot more certain than if I had tried to make it performing). I could try to find the paths for different alumni of the program (though of course the school will highlight the great successes – I would have to dig for info on the lesser known artists, or the ones who tried ten years of performing and then packed it in, or the ones just happy to teach in K-12). That’s data that with some work I could start to evaluate. And I could compare that to what eventually became a career as an academic.
But what I can’t do is know how I would have been different as a person.
A brief digression into economic method
Economists want to be able to predict how people will react to changes in external economic circumstances, such as changes in the prices of things they purchase, and changes in the wages of various jobs they could conceivably do. To be able to say anything at all sensible about this, they have to work with the assumption that as prices and wages are changing, people’s preferences over what sorts of things they like to consume, and over how driven they are to earn money at the expense of time for doing other things, stays much the same. Otherwise, any change in what people do could be explained by waving our hands and saying “their preferences changed, that’s all.”
The definitive statement of why this assumption is necessary is by two Nobel prize winners George Stigler and Gary Becker, in their 1977 essay “De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum”. The title is poorly chosen, since you come to it imagining it will be about the unavoidably subjective nature of taste, but instead it is about the need to assume individuals have stable preferences:
the economist [searches] for differences in prices or incomes to explain any differences or changes in behavior.
But what if people try to change their preferences? They have an answer for that. In Gary Becker’s very influential book Human Capital (1964), people know that they have the capacity, through formal education or informal skills acquisition or on-the-job training, to increase their productive capacities in the workforce and thereby command a higher wage. So, people do a cost-benefit analysis of whether acquiring more human capital will ultimately prove to yield more gains in future wages than the costs of going to school or devoting unpaid time to skill-acquisition. But the person stays the same, their “utility function” stays the same; it’s just that after investing in human capital they can earn more.
Stigler and Becker apply the same idea to the example of the appreciation of classical music. Suppose a person is capable (not everybody is!) of really enjoying classical music. They value the appreciation, not just the act of putting a record on the turntable. But music appreciation is “produced” by a combination of listening right now, and the “capital” that has been built up by listening to music at previous times. Someone could make a rational decision: “I will listen to Beethoven now, even if I don’t get a lot from it right now, but it will eventually pay off with the pleasure I will eventually get from listening to it.” But, importantly, nothing else about the person changes as a result of this investment in music appreciation – our listener is otherwise the same person.
I spent a lot of my academic life with the Journal of Cultural Economics, the flagship of our merry band of economists who study this sort of thing (I was Book Review Editor for six years, then Co-Editor for another six, and published a few articles there), and to this day the working model of arts consumption is something like that proposed by Stigler and Becker, with people choosing the deliberate acquisition of the ability to enjoy the arts, while otherwise staying the same, and likewise for investments in the training needed to become a professional artist.
I enjoy listening to certain genres of music, or going to the art museum, more now than I did in my twenties, because I have, often deliberately, “invested” in trying to get to better know what I am hearing and seeing. And when I became a boring economist instead of trying to earn a living through music, it was a rational calculation of the expected returns to different career paths. But otherwise, the assumption is that I’m basically the same guy as ever.
The limitations of social science on understanding our cultural lives
I really enjoyed this post by Emma Dollery at Discordia Review, “How Arts Grants Ate the Arts Audience”, and recommend the whole thing. But consider this excerpt:
Choosing to be an artist is, or should be, a profoundly difficult path. It’s innately lonely: necessarily, you separate yourself from the warm, safe embrace of being one amongst many, and, by extension, put yourself at the mercy of the very group you’ve just separated from. Part of the job description is willfully choosing to become incredibly vulnerable to a sea of strangers, exposing your guts (your work) to them, and asking them whether they connect, why, why not, and what’s pretty or ugly or stupid about it all. Being a writer/artist who is offended by or afraid of honest feedback (in all its forms, whether that be savagely critical, glowing, or everything in between), is like being a doctor who doesn’t want to see blood. You signed up for this, honey!
In that sense, creating work for the public is less glamorous than it is absolutely fucking terrifying—the kind of hard work that requires effort, bravery, and a very thick skin. The power lies in numbers, the power lies with the audience, and it’s a totally valid, essential place to be.
You can still love an artform, be seriously involved in an artform, be actively shaping an artform, without having your name pasted on it. But this kind of participation comes with its own set of responsibilities and reciprocal honesty. It involves an active pointing of attention, supporting things that you believe in and protesting against things you don’t. Discerning audiences should be talking to each other, forming the metrics of their own taste, voicing strong and sometimes impolite opinions, and demanding from their artists—with readership, attendance, vocalized thoughts—what they have, by being artists, promised to give: an honest investigation of what it means to be alive.
Becoming a serious artist, or a serious participant in the arts (which means more than “I went to a show last year”) changes the person. It is not just about “I chose to invest in this career path over that one based on relative costs and benefits” or “I chose to read some art history books so I could get more out of visiting a museum”. If someone is serious about it, it changes what they want from life, in all respects. It changes who they want to be around with, which changes them even further. If I had become a music teacher, and spent my life at it, or tried seriously to become a performer, I would not be the person writing this blog post right now. (I don’t have the capacity to really get into Derek Parfit’s argument in Reasons and Persons, but this was central to his concerns).
This means that economic analysis of these choices is going to be severely limited. How do you make a fully rational decision to change who you are, given that you can no more have a clear sense of what the new you will be like than you can of what it is like to be a bat? As Shaun Hargreaves Heap argues in a recent article, preference change remains as the “blind spot” in economics. It’s not that people who work in the field of cultural economics don’t know this – they are smart people and conscientious about trying to get things right – but economic method itself is going to put a hard constraint on how deeply models of decision-making can illuminate the choices we actually make for our cultural lives.
If I had made different choices in my late teens and my twenties, it is not just that I might have more capacity to enjoy this thing, or more ability to earn income at that thing. My worldview would be different, what I care about in life would be different, far beyond what can be analyzed in a model that assumes stability in such things.
Cross-posted at https://michaelrushton.substack.com/
- The Latest Design For Rebuilding New York’s Penn Station Is Actually Very Good
Justin Davidson: “The latest version of this perpetual top priority just might dispel the curse of inertia — because it should dramatically alleviate crowds, delays, and misery, and because it comes with architecture we can treasure rather than tolerate.” – Curbed (MSN)
- One Year After It Shut Down, This Bay Area Theater Company Will Attempt A Resurrection
“Aurora Theatre Company devastated generations of fans and artists when it announced last summer it was vacating its (Berkeley) space and laying off staff. Now the 34-year-old theater, beloved for its intimate, high-quality productions featuring local actors, is coming back.” – San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
- Geneva’s Orchestre De La Suisse Romande Names Tugan Sokhiev Principal Conductor
“The initial three-season appointment will begin with the 2026–27 season, marking the conductor’s first major long-term leadership position since stepping down from his posts at the Bolshoi Theatre and the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse in 2022.” – Moto Perpetuo
- French Superstar Patrick Bruel Detained By Police Over Multiple Sexual Assault Charges
“The singer became a major star across the French-speaking world in the 1980s and 1990s with a string of hits that became part of French popular culture. He also appeared in more than 40 film and television productions. … (He faces) allegations by at least 13 women of rape, attempted rape and sexual assault.” – AP
- Wilma “Billie” Tisch, 98, One Of New York’s Leading Cultural Philanthropists
The wife of Larry Tisch, one of the brothers who made Loews into a conglomerate, she oversaw the donation of millions of dollars to Jewish and cultural organizations, notable among them the WNYC Foundation, the Tisch Children’s Zoo in Central Park, and the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. – The New York Times
- Hampshire College Confirms It Will Offer Final Semester This Fall
‘Hampshire College says it has secured financing that will allow it to complete a fall 2026 semester before closing for good, reversing concerns raised last week that the school might not have enough money to carry out the process.” – Boston.com
- How America Lost Control Of Its History
A nation defined by blood and soil—built around a shared religion or ethnicity—can survive divergent narratives. To a country built on an idea, though, and bound together by a shared understanding of our history, the inability to tell a common story might well prove fatal. – The Atlantic
