AJ Four Ways:
Text Only (by date) | headlines only
- Jeremy Rothman talks about championing composers beyond the standard cannon
Jeremy Rothman, Chief Artistic Officer of The Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts, shares their 125-year history championing composers beyond the standard canon.
- Riyadh walks, Venice cuts, Berlin stalls
Good morning
The Met Opera’s $200 million Saudi deal is dead — Riyadh walked from an arrangement that would have sent the company to perform three-week February seasons at the new Royal Diriyah Opera House in exchange for badly needed funding (The New York Times). It’s the highest-profile casualty in a day full of cultural institutions renegotiating the political and financial terms of their existence. (Question: why did the Met announce the deal before it was signed?)
The EU cut €2 million from the Venice Biennale over Russia’s inclusion (AP), and the Biennale’s own jury announced it won’t consider nations whose leaders face ICC crimes-against-humanity charges — effectively removing Russia and Israel from top-prize contention (ARTnews). Berlin’s Modern opening slid another eight months into 2030 thanks to moisture damage and microbial contamination (ARTnews). Berlin’s culture chief resigned over the irregular distribution of €2.6 million in antisemitism funds (The Guardian). Warner Bros. shareholders rejected David Zaslav’s $800M+ merger parachute — by 82%, in a non-binding vote (Deadline). Nicholas Hytner’s Bridge Theatre is exploring a sale (The Stage).
Against that: Arkansas Public TV landed a $3 million challenge grant conditional on staying with PBS (Arkansas Advocate) — a donor putting a price on institutional affiliation. And in Diacritical today, I look at LACMA’s new building and what museums are now for (Diacritical).
All of our stories below.
- LACMA’s New Building: What’s the purpose of art in a Museum?
LACMA proposes a new model for museums. For a long time now, context has been an essential deliverable when you go to a museum. It’s how meaning gets constructed. Just what was so remarkable about the way Constable painted light, and how did it have an effect on the painters who came after?
The white cube gallery was modernism’s insistence that art speak for itself. But it was invented for audiences who already spoke the vocabulary. It assumed the context was already in the viewer’s head. The Geffen revives this for audiences who may not carry that context. Whether that is a brilliant adaptation, a beautiful concession, or just plain incoherence, is the open question of the building.
The post LACMA’s New Building: What’s the purpose of art in a Museum? appeared first on diacritical.
- no the english language is not like literally goin to pot as we watch lol
While these common gripes point to eccentric speech patterns, they don’t point to grammatical annihilation. English has weathered far worse. … English has lost almost all of the more complex linguistic trappings it was born with to become the language we know and — at least, sometimes — love today.” – The Conversation
- I Am Anti-AI. How Do We Get It Out Of Schools?
At times, I find myself speaking with my kids about A.I. in the same terms that we might discuss a creepy neighbor who lives down the block: avoid eye contact, cross the street when you walk past his house, and, when in doubt, call on a trusted adult. – The New Yorker
- Inside The First-Ever, Very Strictly Confidential, Choreographers’ Summit In New York
To allow for genuinely open, honest exchange, the rules at the Creators in Dance Summit, which hosted 75 choreographers across numerous genres, were simple but strict: “You cannot name individuals or institutions, and you can use what you received at the summit, but you cannot name who said it.” – Dance Magazine
- The Ideas Challenging This Year’s Turner Prize Finalists
This year’s prize arrives at a moment when sculpture, funding structures and art education are becoming unusually entangled. – The Conversation
- Blame It On The Culture
Someone observes a behavioral difference between groups or countries. They can’t immediately identify the mechanism. So, they invoke “culture” as an explanation or, even worse, “the culture.” The word lands with a satisfying thud that sounds like an explanation but isn’t one. It is the terminus of inquiry, not the beginning. – Laissez Faire
- After Implosion Of The Adelaide Book Festival, A New Director
Both Newcastle and Adelaide made the decision to invite Abdel-Fattah but only one imploded over it. So what went differently for Rosemarie Milsom? – The Guardian
- A Binational $1.3 Million Program To Fund Individual Creatives In San Diego And Tijuana
“At its core, Artists Count consists of a $1.3 million fund, available to active artists in both San Diego and Tijuana. In addition, a companion study will focus on communities with the least access to resources, examining ‘the realities, challenges, and economic impact of working artists’ on both sides of the border.” – SanDiegoRed
- Does Reading Help?
Books do not create a higher form of conversation but instead allow for a unique ‘fruitful miracle of a communication in the midst of solitude’. Great writers do not reveal to us the admirable depth of their minds: they guide us in cultivating the ability to make sense of words, and things. – Aeon
- Cutting The Baby In Half? Venice Biennale Jury Says It Won’t Consider Russia Or Israel For Top Prize
The Venice Biennale‘s jury said on Thursday that it would not consider nations whose leaders have been charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court—a move that effectively tosses Israel and Russia out of the running for the top honors at the world’s greatest art exhibition. – ARTnews
- Remembering MTT
Thomas was also an example of an artistic leader serving as a guiding star for an entire geographic area – emphasizing the importance of audiences being, as it were, cultural locavores. – San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo)
- Berlin’s Controversial Culture Chief Resigns After Less Than A Year
“Sarah Wedl-Wilson has stood down over a funding scandal involving the irregular distribution of €2.6 million in public money for programmes to fight antisemitism. As culture senator for the Berlin regional government, Wedl-Wilson had already sacked a state secretary in her department, Oliver Friederici, over the affair this week.” – The Guardian
- The Complicated Calculations Behind FOMO
By recognising the social orientation of the experience, we can take a step towards understanding the nature of FOMO and what it can do for us. Emotions that feel bad often serve important purposes. Anger can help us realise when things are unjust, regret can motivate us to make amends. – Psyche
- How Long Should Movies Have To Wait In Theatres Before They Go To Streaming?
Maybe the middle ground was 45 days. Because at CinemaCon 2026, every single studio, not just Universal, reiterated its commitment to windows of at least that length. – TheWrap (Yahoo!)
- Send In The Pool Guy: Trump Wants To Replace The Capitol Mall Reflecting Pool
He complained that the 2,030-foor by 167-foot pool, which was built in 1922 between the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument, “never looked great” because the stone on the bottom of the pool was “not really meant to be a stone that’s underwater for that much of a period of time.” – The Independent
- Nicholas Hytner’s London Theatre Company Is Looking To Sell Its Home, The Bridge Theatre
“The Stage understands the Bridge Theatre, which opened in October 2017 and was founded by former National Theatre director Nicholas Hytner and executive director Nick Starr, could be sold as part of a process that began with an investment opportunity being launched.” – The Stage
- After Four Decades Out Of Print, Octavia Butler’s “Lost” Novel Is Back
Butler was not happy with her 1978 novel Survivor, and she forbade any reprint of it. But her estate, along with her publisher and agent, agreed that “to deprive readers of the ability to read any of Butler’s works would simply be unjust and unfair.” – Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
- Yet Another Construction Delay For Berlin’s Modern Art Museum
“Another day, another setback for Berlin‘s long awaited Berlin Modern, as moisture damage in the building’s shell and microbial contamination in other parts of the structure have forced the postponement of the museum to 2030. … The latest delay adds approximately eight months to the construction timeline for the Herzog & de Meuron-designed building.” – ARTnews
- Warner Bros. Shareholders Overwhelmingly Reject CEO’s $800 Million+ Golden Parachute
“Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav‘s compensation tied to the company’s pending merger with Paramount was rejected by an eye-opening 82% of shareholders.” Unfortunately, that vote is non-binding. – Deadline
- Arkansas Public Television Gets $3 Million Pledge — If It Stays With PBS
“The ‘challenge grant’ requires $1 million to be used per year for three years, on the condition that the network retains its PBS membership and that the foundation matches every dollar with contributions from other donors.” The state network’s board voted in December to separate from PBS, then backtracked after pushback. – Arkansas Advocate
- EU Cuts Funding For Venice Biennale Because Of Russia’s Participation
“The European Commission has informed the Biennale foundation of the (€2 million/$2.3 million) funding cut over three years, and the Biennale has 30 days to defend its decision to include Russia for the first time since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.” – AP
- Saudis Pull Out Of $200 Million Deal With Met Opera
Under the arrangement, the Saudi government would have provided the Met with $200 million in badly needed funding in exchange for the company performing a three-week season at the Royal Diriyah Opera House just outside Riyadh each February for the next three years. – The New York Times
- Sir Humphrey Appleby at the Opera
Yes, Minister ran on BBC television in the early 1980s, the early Thatcher years (I’ll come back to the importance of this). I enjoyed it at the time (I was pretty young), and recalled it when I went to work in government myself in the 1990s. Canada has a UK-style Westminster
- Director of People & Culture – Oregon Shakespeare Festival via TOC Arts Partners
About the Opportunity
This is a unique opportunity to join one of the nation’s leading cultural institutions at a moment of meaningful transition and renewal. The Director of People & Culture will lead a team with the goal to help stabilize, strengthen, and reimagine the employee experience, supporting both the people and the art at the heart of the organization. The Director of People & Culture will serve as a key member of the senior leadership team, responsible for shaping and stewarding a people-centered culture within a highly collaborative and uniquely complex theatrical environment.
This is a pivotal moment for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Following a period of leadership transition, evolving labor dynamics, and recovery from the pandemic closures, the Festival is experiencing an exciting time of revival. Audiences are growing; critical reception for the work is thriving; and the artistic vision for the future of the company is expansive and inclusive. The Director of People & Culture will play a central role in strengthening internal systems and fostering a cohesive and supportive workplace culture at a time when the impact of their work will be pivotal to the continuing success of the organization. This is both a stabilization and an impact opportunity—requiring a leader who can balance empathy with rigor, listening with action, and relationship-building with operational discipline.
About the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) was founded in 1935 in Ashland, OR, and has grown from a three-day festival of two plays to a nationally renowned theatre arts organization that presents a rotating repertory season of up to 10 plays and musicals, including illuminating interpretations of Shakespeare, other enduring classics, and new works. OSF productions have been presented on Broadway, internationally, and at regional, community, and high school theatres across the country. OSF received the 1983 Special Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre and is one of the largest nonprofit theatres in the nation with three stages, including an outdoor Allen Elizabethan Theatre.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival creates world-class theatre, revealing our collective humanity through illuminating interpretations of new and classic plays, and inspiring a love of our art form for current and future generations. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Bond and acting Executive Director Javier Dubon, a team of over 500 theater professionals produce thrilling theatrical experiences to audiences of over 130,000 from every state in the U.S.
Learn more about the Festival: www.osfashland.org
About Ashland, Oregon
Nestled in the Rogue Valley of southern Oregon, where the Cascades meet the Siskiyou Mountains, Ashland is a beautifully unique town, in a beautifully unique setting. The small town atmosphere of Ashland (population 21,000) holds many surprises for first time visitors – this small community has the rich cultural life of a city many times its size, with a varied artistic community including and beyond the Festival; a culinary scene that includes world class chefs and home grown cooking stars; access to nature that is literally at one’s doorstep; a nationally recognized wine growing region and industry; and an engaged and active local population. The Festival’s impact on the town, the presence of Southern Oregon University, and the thriving tourism industry has helped build a population of both residents and visitors who represent a wealth of backgrounds, education, and life experiences that gives Ashland its vibrancy. It is a town that is self-reflective in grappling with both its history and its future, and invites involvement from all who choose to call it home. Located roughly equidistant between San Francisco and Portland for weekend road trips, and with an airport in nearby Medford that makes travel out of the valley easy, Ashland offers the experience of small town life with great convenience to travel when desired.
Learn more about Ashland and Oregon:
www.travelashland.com
www.ashlandchamber.com
www.traveloregon.comJob Description
The Director of People & Culture will be a visible, trusted, and relationship-driven leader, responsible for fostering a people-centered culture within a highly collaborative and uniquely complex theatrical environment. This individual will play a critical role in building trust, strengthening communication, and supporting a healthy, connected workplace, bringing a leadership approach grounded in empathy, transparency, and sound judgment.
Key Responsibilities
People & Culture Leadership
- Lead all aspects of People & Culture, including employee relations, professional development, recruitment, compensation, benefits, and compliance
- Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leadership on organizational health, culture, and people strategy
- Foster a workplace culture rooted in respect, inclusion, transparency, and accountability
Employee Relations & Culture Building
- Provide thoughtful, human-centered guidance on employee relations matters
- Help build trust through fairness, consistency, and clear communication
- Support a culture where staff feel heard, valued, and supported
Labor Relations
- Lead and support collective bargaining and union relationships across multiple bargaining units
- Navigate ongoing labor dynamics with skill, credibility, and respect
- Ensure compliance with applicable labor laws, with particular attention to Oregon-specific requirements
Operations & Infrastructure
- Strengthen and streamline HR systems, policies, and procedures
- Improve onboarding, offboarding, and overall employee experience
- Ensure operational excellence while adapting systems to a complex, non-linear environment
Manager & Leadership Support
- Provide guidance and training to managers to strengthen leadership capacity across the organization
- Help clarify roles, expectations, and processes to reduce administrative burden
- Support a more consistent and effective approach to people management
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Partner closely with Finance on payroll, benefits, and strategic planning budgetary needs
- Collaborate with Artistic and Production leadership to ensure alignment with the realities of the needs of theatrical operations
- Contribute to a cohesive and aligned senior leadership team
Key Priorities
- Strengthen employee relations practices, ensuring a human-centered, fair, and responsive approach to staff support
- Stabilize and enhance core HR systems and processes, including onboarding, offboarding, and policy clarity
- Support and guide managers across the organization, through consistent, transparent, and accessible practices
- Navigate and strengthen labor relations within a highly unionized environment, helping to strengthen productive relationships with union partners
- Improve communication and cohesion across a large and physically dispersed organization
- Establish strong cross-functional partnerships, particularly with finance and senior leadership, to ensure alignment and shared decision-making
- Provide proactive leadership, anticipating organizational needs and helping to mitigate challenges before they escalate
Experience & Qualifications
- Demonstrated leadership experience in People & Culture / Human Resources, ideally in a complex, mission-driven organization
- Experience in the performing arts, theatre, or similarly collaborative creative environments strongly preferred
- Deep knowledge of labor relations and collective bargaining, ideally within unionized environments
- Strong understanding of employment law and compliance, including Oregon-specific requirements
- Experience building or strengthening HR systems, policies, and operational infrastructure
- Proven ability to navigate complexity, balance competing priorities, and work across diverse stakeholder groups
- Track record of building trust and strengthening organizational culture
The successful candidate will bring:
- A deeply human-centered approach, leading with empathy, compassion, and respect for the individuals and creative work that define the organization
- A strong, visible presence, building trust through accessibility, consistency, and authentic relationship-building across all levels of the company
- Emotional intelligence and steadiness, with the ability to navigate complex interpersonal dynamics with patience, good judgment, and a calm, thoughtful approach
- Humility and low ego, demonstrating openness, curiosity, and a willingness to listen and learn while fostering a culture of mutual respect
- A collaborative mindset, working in close partnership with leadership and staff, valuing shared ownership, and engaging stakeholders in decision-making
- Clear and transparent communication, providing context, rationale, and follow-through to build understanding and confidence across the organization
- The ability to balance compassion with accountability, offering warmth and support while making thoughtful, sometimes difficult decisions in service of the organization
- A genuine connection to the mission and art form, with an appreciation for the creative process and the role culture plays in supporting artistic work
- A commitment to consistency and stability, helping to build confidence in People & Culture through reliability, follow-through, and sustained engagement
Compensation
The salary for this position is $135,000 – 155,000.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival provides comprehensive benefits, including providing Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage, flexible spending account options, an Employee Assistance Program; Free/Discounted Show Tickets; local discounts, and Group and Voluntary Life Insurance
Application Instructions
The Director of People & Culture search is being conducted on behalf of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival by TOC Arts Partners, a national consultancy aligning strategies, structures, and leadership toward a thriving cultural sector. The search is being led by VP of Executive Search Cynthia Fuhrman, in consultation with and support from the TOC Arts Partners search team.
To apply, visit the online application and submit your materials. Your cover letter should include any training or experience relevant to the job profile that you would like to highlight, why you consider yourself a good fit for this opportunity, and anything else you’d like us to know about your qualifications that may not be present in your resume. Applications will be accepted until this role is filled.
For general questions or nominations of prospective candidates, please contact searchteam@tocartspartners.com. We kindly request no phone calls.
Specific questions about the position may be directed to:
Cynthia Fuhrman
VP, Executive Search
cynthia@tocartspartners.comNot sure you meet 100% of our qualifications? Research shows that cis men apply for jobs when they fulfill an average of 60% of the criteria, while others tend only to apply if they meet every requirement. If you believe that you could excel in this role, we encourage you to apply. We are dedicated to considering a broad array of candidates, including those with diverse workplace experiences and backgrounds. So, whether you’re returning to work after a gap in employment, simply looking to transition, or taking the next step in your career path, we will be glad to have you on our radar.
- NYC Ballet Star Takes A Big Leap: Wearing Hearing Aids Onstage
“Sara Mearns was missing her cues. She couldn’t hear what her dance partner was saying from across the studio. She was late for her entrances because the music sounded too soft. … Now, ‘I feel like it’s a whole new chapter of my life,’ Mearns, 40, said in an interview.” – AP
- A Backlash To Biennales?
But with the boom came backlash: the suspicion that biennales were above all an excuse for a tote-bag-wearing international art crowd to descend on a city for a few weeks, leaving behind a large carbon footprint but little meaningful engagement with the local population. – The Guardian
- Warner Shareholders Approve Sale To Paramount
Shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery voted to sell the company to David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance for $31 a share in cash at a special virtual meeting Wednesday morning. The approval was a key hurdle in advancing the deal. – Deadline
- Director Joe Mantello On Time In “Death Of A Salesman”
“One of the questions I always have is whether Willy is having flashbacks, or if he has some kind of dementia. … Miller said very clearly that they’re not flashbacks — Willie is not revisiting his past, but the past and the present absolutely exist simultaneously. He called them concurrences.” – TheaterMania
- Musicians Are Using AI At All Levels. They Don’t Want To Talk About It
Tech companies with billion-dollar valuations are extracting value from copyrighted music on the internet and selling it as a service: making music-making easier and, they claim, more democratic. But creatives have always found ways to democratize and innovate music and art, long before tech companies tried to bite their flow. – Music Radar
- A 60s Art Experiment That Redefined How We Think About Creativity
The discovery of this “problem-finding” creative process was a seminal moment in creativity research. In the decades since, countless researchers have shown that many of the most meaningful forms of real-world creativity and invention depend less on solving well-defined problems than on figuring out what the problem is in the first place. – Psychology Today
- Hundreds Of Musicians Call For Eurovision Boycott Of Israel
This year’s list is organized by the “No Music for Genocide” initiative, which also calls on anti-Israel artists to have their music geo-blocked inside Israel. – Times of Israel
- Montreal Symphony Gives Rafael Payare Five More Years And New Title
His contract, which was to expire in summer 2027, has been extended through the 2031-32 season, and the Venezuelan-born conductor’s title is now Music and Artistic Director. (He is also music director of the San Diego Symphony.) – Gramophone
- Another Human Threshold Crossed: Robot Beats Elite Ping Pong Players
Named Ace, the robotic system developed by Sony AI, won three out of five matches against elite players, but lost the two it played against professionals, clawing back only one game in the seven contests. – The Guardian
