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- The Arts Column That The Washington Post Refused To Run
“Monuments are supposed to be collective tributes to shared ideals. Like Confederate statues, [Charlie Kirk memorials] would function as the opposite — broadcasting a one-way message.” – Aesthetic Insecurity
- The Cincinnati Symphony Gets Its New Music Director
Cristian Macelaru: “The work is a lot more complex and challenging here [than in Europe], but it’s also much more rewarding. … I’ve always had such strong beliefs about what I would do if I were a music director of an American orchestra.” – The New York Times
- Perhaps Because Its People Now Control All Branches Of The US Government And A Lot Of Media, The Parents Television Council Is Disbanding
Actually, the conservative watchdog group is bankrupt. – Los Angeles Times (MSN)
- Apparently, Some People In The US Have A Deep Love For The Toppled Christopher Columbus Statues
“Many of the statues have been revived with the help of Italian American groups, who cherish Columbus as a figure their ancestors embraced as a hero of the diaspora.” But generally, they’re not being returned to public lands. – The New York Times
- PARTISANS A Graphic History of Anti-Fascist Resistance<a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2025/10/partisans-a-graphic-history-of-anti-fascist-resistance.html" title="PARTISANS
A Graphic History of Anti-Fascist Resistance” rel=”nofollow”> - Cleveland State University Just Closed A Decades-Old College Radio Station For No Apparent Reason
“A student-run radio station trains kids to do all sorts of things. It’s the engineering, it’s the on air, it’s the music, it’s the running it, the managing of it. And it’s all gone now.” – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- Czech Writers, Including Ivan Klima, Created An Anti-Authoritarian Manifesto In 1977
In the U.S. (and other countries dealing with regimes antithetical to art), cultural workers could sure learn something from Charter 77. – LitHub
- Why Is San Francisco About To Destroy This 96-Year-Old Artist’s Defining Work?
“Destroying the Vaillancourt Fountain, its supporters say, would be erasing history and modern architecture, and counter to the city’s reputation for being weird.” But wow, has the city neglected it for years. (The city says it just sort of aged out. Yup.) – The New York Times
- Smithsonian Museums, National Zoo Close Amid Federal Shutdown
The Smithsonian museums “had been able to keep their doors open for the first 11 days of the shutdown by relying on prior-year funds, but those coffers have since run dry.” – NPR
- Hollywood Vs. OpenAI Heats Up Hard With Release Of New Software
“At the core of the dispute is who controls the copyrighted images and likenesses of actors and licensed characters — and how much they should be compensated for their use in AI models.” – Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)
- Zora Neale Hurston’s Play, Forgotten For Decades, Sees The Light Of Day At Yale
“Building these moments for the stage entailed leaps of imagination and acts of faith among the collaborators. ‘I’d say to the team, ‘Trust Zora.’ It’s in the play, it’s in the script, we just have to be able to see it.’” – The New York Times
- Pepperdine Suddenly Closes Art Show After Censorship Of Some Work Leads Other Artists To Withdraw
One artist wrote that the private university’s censorship of other artists’ work, mostly about immigrants, “is a loss for the students and for the art community, and it signals that the gallery, under current conditions, can no longer function as a place for art.” – Hyperallergic
- New Studies Suggests That People With ADHD May Be More Creative
Researchers found “that those with ADHD may experience more frequent episodes of mind-wandering, and that that, in turn, could lead to greater creative thinking abilities.” – Fast Company
- Indiana’s Annual Three Day Blowout Honoring James Dean
“Dean was symbolic of the burgeoning country’s place in the world: rough-hewn and handsome, young and hungry, pure potential. That his potential was never realized transformed him from movie star to legend.” – Washington Post (MSN)
- Take MTV, Subtract The M, And Then Most Of The TV As Well
In Britain, after December 31st, MTV will be no more – for the most part. “The flagship channel, MTV HD, will remain on air, showing reality series including Naked Dating UK and Geordie Shore.” – BBC
- What It’s Like Opening A Feminist Play On Broadway Amid, Er, Gestures Around
Playwright Bess Wohl: “I wanted to make a play that I wished existed: a good, interesting, complicated play. How many plays are there really about this time and this movement? Not that many, when you consider what a big deal it was.” – American Theatre
- Rick Caruso’s Malls Are An Oddly Cold Version Of Urban Life
As the developer mulls a gubernatorial run, Carolina Miranda has some thoughts. “These places are rigidly controlled simulacra. … Collectively, these cloyingly tantalizing spaces offer an insightful read on his vision for real cities and the political points he likes to make about them.” – New York Review of Architecture
- Diane Keaton Has Died At 79
Keaton was the star of Annie Hall, for which she won an Oscar, and many other Woody Allen movies; she was also an Oscar nominee for Reds, Marvin’s Room, and Something’s Gotta Give. And then there were her iconic roles in the Godfather movies. – The Hollywood Reporter
- John Richmond shares strategies for balancing innovation and tradition in the arts
John Richmond, Dean of the College of Music of the University of North Texas, shares strategies of balancing innovation and tradition that embody excellence transforming pathways into the arts.
- Senior Vice President TMC Arts – The Music Center working with Management Consultants for the Arts
The Music Center seeks an inspiring and strategic individual to lead its cultural programming division, TMC Arts. Reporting directly to the president & CEO, overseeing eight departments and managing a budget of close to $20M, the next senior vice president of TMC Arts will help evolve The Music Center’s public-facing artistic programming, furthering TMC Arts’ reach to serve all Los Angeles County residents.
The ideal candidate will have a passion for community-building throughout L.A.’s diverse populations; broad knowledge of current cultural practices; the ability to inspire stakeholders with a range of backgrounds, from audience members and participants in artistic experiences to donors, peers, elected officials and the like; and a strength in strategically harnessing resources—including staff, space and funding—to build connections between audiences and The Music Center.
Management Consultants for the Arts has been engaged to facilitate this search. A full position description may be found here : https://www.mcaonline.com/searches/senior-vp-music-center
- Bernini’s Designs For The Louvre Were Too Much Even For Louis XIV
Yes, the favorite sculptor and architect of 17th-century Rome was the first designer whom the Sun King commissioned to make over the traditional Paris home of France’s monarchs. Yet construction was stopped and Bernini returned to Rome just a few days after the foundation stone was laid. Here’s why. – Artnet
- Are We Having The Wrong Debates About The AI Actress?
The question isn’t whether the future will be synthetic; it already is. Our challenge now is to ensure that it is also meaningfully human. – The Conversation
- Theatre And Opera Director Ian Judge Dead At 79
“(He) enjoyed a wide-ranging career as a theatre and opera director without any of the obvious attributes for being so – no university or musical education, no artistic background, no connections – yet he succeeded over many decades in opera houses around the world, and for 10 years at the Royal Shakespeare Company.” – The Guardian
- Meet America’s New Poet Laureate
“You can’t speed-read a poem,” he explains. “You have to read it, hear the sounds, the rhythms, reread it, not be in a hurry. Slowing down helps us realize that for our speed, we sacrifice things.” – Christian Science Monitor
- Jean Nouvel’s New Museum In Paris Upends The Traditional Gallery
Nouvel’s latest movie: a new home for the Fondation Cartier, a private art foundation established in 1984 that’s dedicated to the accumulation, display and creation of contemporary art. It is now headquartered in a remodelled 19th-century building in the heart of bourgeois Paris, right across the rue from the Louvre. – The Guardian
- Why, With Broadway’s Stresses, Revive A Long-ago Flop?
Put simply, “Chess,” first produced in the U.S. in 1988, didn’t work on Broadway. So remounting the show, even though it’s become a cult favorite, is risky at a time when the box office is largely driven by long-running, big-brand musicals like “Wicked” and “Mamma Mia!” – Variety
- After A Very Rough 2024-25, Nashville’s Arts Funding Agency Is Finding Its Way Back On Track
“As the Metro Arts Commission works its way back from several years of instability, it’s hoping the more than $3.2 million in grants it’s awarded for the 2026 fiscal year will be a sign of progress.” Most stakeholders seem to be relieved, though there’s one in particular which is still unhappy. – The Tennessean
- Backlash Grows Against Comedians Who Participated In Riyadh Festival
Of course, some will argue that performing in authoritarian or oppressive countries is a means of reaching the masses; opening up art to those underserved. And while that may be true on occasion, it is a different thing entirely from being sponsored by the state itself to launder its sovereignty. – The Guardian
- The Controversial History Of The Union Jack (And Why It’s Prominent Right Now)
Its meaning and symbolism are under the spotlight in debates often producing more heat than light. Is the increasingly widespread public display of the union jack – and the St George flag – patriotism or provocation? – BBC
- Judge Rules Music Publishers Can Sue Anthropic Over Copyright
US District Judge Eumi Lee on Monday ruled that Universal Music Group, Concord Music Group and ABKCO can press forward with claims that Anthropic bears legal responsibility when users of its Claude chatbot generate copyrighted lyrics. – Music Business Worldwide
- Librarian Fired For Refusing To Remove Books, Wins $700,000 In Court
A library director in Wyoming who was fired two years ago because she refused to remove books with sexual content and L.G.B.T.Q. themes from a library’s children and young adult sections was awarded $700,000 in a settlement on Wednesday. – The New York Times
- At Last Minute, New York City Ballet Dancers Boycott Fall Gala Dinner
They did the evening’s performance — fulfilling their contract obligations, as they pointedly mentioned — but skipped the red-carpet photo ops and left vacant their places alongside wealthy patrons at the dinner tables. The quasi-strike comes amid contract negotiations, with dancers insisting that their pay reflect New York’s soaring cost of living. – Page Six
- How Artists Are Incorporating AI Into Traditional Work (And Ideas)
While A.I. speeds along, upending any number of careers and lives, some in the art world have chosen to embrace it while also, in a sense, subverting it. These artists integrate A.I., gaming and other tech-heavy aesthetics into their work. – The New York Times
- Debates Around The Saudi Comedy Festival And American Comedians Are Frustratingly Vague
More than any other artists, comedians are alert to how language reveals meaning, and what all the explanations have in common is a maddening vagueness. What does this specific festival represent? – The New York Times
- How Did The Nobel Literature Committee Lose Its Sense Of Fun?
So: a victory for high literature, for inevitability, for oppositional culture, for men. But for the obsessives who have been attending to the saga of the Nobel Prize in literature over the past decade, it’s also something of a bummer. – The New Republic
