AJ Four Ways:
Text Only (by date) | headlines only
- 2 Arts Marketing, Development & Ticketing Conferences Devoted to Solutions for the New Era!
2 Arts Marketing, Development & Ticketing Conferences Devoted to Solutions for the New Era!
Get Concrete Solutions for Chaotic Times. Join us in Toronto, July 14-15 or Seattle, August 11-12. Sign up by May 21 to get 3-for-1 registration and the lowest price!
Come together with friends and allies for two jam-packed days of networking, success-planning and essential skill-building for this new era. Discover which new models are surging and which ones don’t work anymore. Make up for lost revenue from traditional sources.
If you’re not adapting, you’re falling behind — fast. The rules of arts management are shifting beneath our feet, and this year’s conferences are your best chance to get ahead of what’s coming.
What’s at stake? Your audience. Your funding. Your future. If you’re not preparing now, you risk being left behind.
These aren’t just any conferences. They’re a blueprint for survival — and success — in a chaotic time. Register now — and lead the change.
We have assembled an incredible line-up of speakers bringing you the most complete and up-to-date strategies for today’s and tomorrow’s challenges. They will show you how to grow your audiences and donors by reimagining your business.
NEW WAYS FORWARD – Relevance and Resurgence https://artsreach.com/conferences_list.php
For the past 25 years, Arts Reach, the Association of Arts Management, Marketing and Development Professionals, has gathered the best speakers from across North America for these 2-day hands-on learning experiences that will have an immediate positive impact on your business results now and for years to come.
Many team-building workshops have been built into the program, and the tuition prices have been structured so that it will be easy to come as a team. You will learn the best strategies and technologies others are using to rebuild and retain audiences and donors. Space is limited; register today to guarantee your place. These conferences will sell out. Very favorable hotel rates are available!
More info: https://artsreach.com/conferences_list.php
- Compromise: Russia Will Have Show At Venice Biennale, But It Will Be Closed To Public
“According to new reports from Italian news outlets, Russia‘s group exhibition ‘The tree is rooted in the sky’ will only be accessible to members of the press and industry insiders during the Bienniale’s preview May 5-8. When the exhibition opens to the public (May 9-November 22), entry will be prohibited.” – Artforum
- Minnesota Orchestra Musicians And Management Agree To New Contract Months Early
The new two-year agreement, effective Sept. 1, includes a 2.5% salary increase each year as well as what are described as “temporary changes to hiring practices” in order to reduce expenses by $2 million. – Pioneer Press (Minneapolis-St. Paul)
- One Of America’s Oldest Period-Instrument Orchestras Names Its Second-Ever Music Director
Boston Baroque was founded back in 1973 by harpsichordist/conductor Martin Pearlman, who stepped down as artistic director last year. His successor, as of this coming season, is Marc Minkowski, who has amassed an estimable discography with Les Musiciens du Louvre, the Baroque orchestra he founded in France in 1982. – Moto Perpetuo
- AI Gets a Museum; Its Story Cracks
Good Morning,
The AI conversation is colliding with itself today. Refik Anadol’s Dataland — billed as the world’s first AI art museum — got a June opening date inside Frank Gehry’s Grand L.A. complex (Artnet). Meanwhile, a new Google DeepMind paper argues large language models will never be conscious, demonstrating the gap between AI marketing and rigorous science (404 Media). And a dissection of Sora’s stalled adoption asks why creative AI keeps drawing initial crowds and then bleeding them (The Conversation). The shift is from what AI can do to what it can sustain — and who pays for the institutional bets placed before the answer is in.
Elsewhere: Venice’s La Fenice abruptly fired Beatrice Venezi as incoming music director after she trash-talked the opera house and its audience to an Argentine paper (The Guardian). And Chicago arts leaders say openly they no longer count on federal funding as a reliable line item (Crain’s Chicago Business).
A 6th-century New Testament text long thought irretrievable from re-used parchment has been recovered through “ghost imaging” (Artnet). Medieval monks broke the book up. The technology of 2026 put it back together.
All of our stories below.
- “Ghost Imaging” Recovers Text Of 1,500-Year-Old Biblical Manuscript
The 6th-century Codex H included a Greek-language copy of the New Testament’s letters of St. Paul. Sometime in the Middle Ages, though, the monks of Mt. Athos broke the book up and re-used the parchment. Fragments have since been identified, but the original text on them was considered irretrievable — until now. – Artnet
- Rise Of The Viral Micro-Drama
While the rest of the world was getting hooked on cat videos and bedroom-dance routines, Chinese creators were tinkering with something more ambitious: serialized shows shot vertically, for phones, and packed with racy plots, absurd twists, and great swells of emotion. – The New Yorker
- Nilo Cruz: The Art Of Opera Libretto
A play lives in language. An opera lives in duration. One moment in an opera can expand for five minutes. Maybe you give the composer a full sentence. They might take one word and heighten it, expand it even more. Maybe the whole sentence disappears into music. – The Paris Review
- AI: A Philosophy About Language
The underlying intelligence of a large language model isn’t a function of its architecture, its parameter count, or the volume of compute thrown at its training. It is not even about the training data. It is a function of the social complexity of the civilization whose language it digested. – The Ideas Newsletter
- The Obsessive Who’s Rescuing And Preserving Indian Cinema’s Early History
“Seventy per cent of India’s films made before 1950 are gone forever. Film Heritage Foundation founder Shivendra Singh Dungarpur is trying to save the rest.” – Variety
- When A Fierce Street-Dancing Competitor Starts Choreographing On Contemporary Dance Companies
“’Usually, when I walk in rooms, people are afraid of me,’ the choreographer Courtney Washington said recently.” – The New York Times
- New Google Paper Argues AI Will Never Be Conscious
The paper shows the divergence between the self-serving narratives AI companies promote in the media and how they collapse under rigorous examination. – 404 Media
- A Detailed Account Of The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist
A former FBI agent who led the investigation for more than two decades is now offering the first detailed account of how investigators reached that conclusion — and publicly identifying the men he believes were involved. – AP News
- Why AI Is Struggling With Creativity
Many generative AI programs geared toward creative fields have encountered a common problem: rapid initial adoption, followed by declining sustained engagement. – The Conversation
- David Malouf, Australian Author And “Living National Treasure,” Is Dead At 92
“From reimagined Greek and Roman classics to the exploration of identity and morality in the suburbs and landscapes of Australia, David Malouf successfully merged his passion for literature, language and imagination with his connection to home to become one of Australia’s most celebrated writers.” – The Guardian
- Docs: Adelaide Writers Week Sacrificed To Save Arts Festival
Adelaide writers’ week was sacrificed to save the 2026 Adelaide festival, an event that ploughs more than $60m into South Australia’s economy each year, documents show. – The Guardian
- Why It’s So Difficult To Agree On Truth
These different notions of truth shape everyday discourse as well as philosophical debate. They might help explain why some arguments feel pointless, why political debates circle endlessly, and why certain disagreements never quite meet on common ground. – Psyche
- Playwright David Henry Hwang Re-Works “Flower Drum Song” For A Second Time
“This most recent outing allowed Hwang, 68, to address some flaws in the original and even in his own (2001) remake. … He also added a scene that drives home the fact that coming to America as a poor immigrant isn’t all flower drums and show tunes.” – The New York Times
- The World’s First Museum Of AI-Generated Art Is Coming Soon To L.A.
“Dataland, the world’s first A.I. art museum, is set to open on June 20 after more than two-and-a-half-years of planning and construction. … The museum will be housed inside the Grand L.A., a Frank Gehry-designed complex comprised of high-end apartments, entertainment facilities, and a luxury hotel.” – Artnet
- The Guys Behind The Onion’s Takeover Of Alex Jones’s Infowars Talk About Just What They’re Up To
“The Onion always makes fun of the big thing in the cultural zeitgeist. We have not made fun of gut-microbiology influencers for far too long, and now they’re running the Department of Health and Human Services; we have to parody these people.” – The Hollywood Reporter
- UK Equity Threatens Strikes In London’s West End This Summer
“The reason? Minimum pay and terms settlement negotiations between Equity and the Society of London Theatre (SOLT) have hit a snag after ‘constructive’ beginnings, with Equity saying that there were still question marks over ‘expectations on pay, holiday, rehearsal working time, injury, and stage management differentials.’” – WhatsOnStage (UK)
- How AI Looks Set To Change The Actual Printing Of Books
“A new report from the Book Manufacturers’ Institute on the state of the book industry predicts that printing is on the cusp of potential major changes.” – Publishers Weekly
- Venice’s Opera House Fires Controversial New Music Director Over Interviews
After months of protests from musicians and others over the slender qualifications of conductor Beatrice Venezi, the board of La Fenice confirmed her appointment and it looked like she was all set. Then she trash-talked the opera house and its audience to an Argentine newspaper. – The Guardian
- How Chicago’s Arts Institutions Are Coping With Federal Funding Cuts
“The defunding of arts and humanities programming across the state has left leaders skeptical as to whether government funding can be a reliable source in the future.” – Crain’s Chicago Business
- Director of Production-Seattle Children’s Theatre working with Management Consultants for the Arts
Seattle Children’s Theatre (SCT), one of the nation’s premiere organizations for theatre-for-young audiences, invites applications from dedicated and collaborative leaders for its Director of Production position. The Director of Production is responsible for the comprehensive production execution of SCT’s artistic vision, set by the Artistic Director.
This role reports to the Artistic Director and supervises a Production Manager, Technical Director and a staff of eighteen Artisans. This role leads all production related activities at SCT including but not limited to; design and rehearsal phase, running of shows, building of productions, sending SCT’s physical productions out, receiving touring productions, as well as partnering closely with the Artistic Director on commissions and workshops.
The Director of Production also carries responsibility for artist care and company management functions, ensuring all guest and resident artists are supported with housing, travel, hospitality and wellness resources. In addition, as part of SCT’s Directors team, this role takes shared responsibility in full staff activities such as; all-staff meetings, leading and participating in antiracism efforts, engagement with the board of trustees and promoting a healthy organizational culture.
Seattle Children’s Theatre has engaged Management Consultants for the Arts to lead the search, and interested candidates may apply for this position by visiting this link: https://www.mcaonline.com/searches/director-of-production-sct
SCT hopes to make a hiring decision by the summer of 2026, with the selected candidate transitioning into the position shortly after to be prepared to lead the 2026/27 set of responsibilities for the new season starting this fall. The salary range for the position is between $91,000-$106,000 annually and includes a full benefit package that includes:
- Generous Vacation & Sick Time
- Health, Dental, and Vision: Employer-paid coverage (You can explore the current benefits SCT offers on the SCT Benefits Website http://www.benefitspage.com/ PASSWORD: sct)
- Retirement: Optional 403(b) plan
- Additional: FSA options, Discounted ORCA Passport or Parking Plan
- So An AI Has Just Declared A Painting By A Street Artist More Valuable Than A Picasso. Questions Abound
What’s worth more—a Picasso or a painting by a street artist no one has heard of? According to the AI model we built, the answer is the latter. – ARTnews
- How Short-Form Video Clips Took Over The Internet
Once you start looking, you realize that short video clips—not tweets, or posts, or static photos—have become the atomic unit of online content. Short-form video, of course, isn’t new, but the prevalence of the clips is. – The Atlantic
- Martha Graham’s Revolution Continues
Graham saw herself primarily as a dancer—she made dances, she said, so that she would have something to dance. It could be said that she invented a people and a place. – The New Yorker
- The New LACMA: Architectural Drama At The Expense Of Art
Carolina Miranda: “In some ways, this freeway-like building could not be more LA: messy, sprawling, too big to take in from a single vantage point. In others — its embrace of the road and its relentless horizontal-ness — it seems stuck in a vision of the past.” – Bloomberg
- AI Can Make Anyone An “Influencer”
Across social media, an influx of A.I.-generated avatars is reshaping what it means to be an influencer. A Facebook group called Baddies in AI, geared toward women who are using A.I. to either augment their own social-media presence or create entirely new figures from scratch, has more than three hundred thousand members. – The New Yorker
- Who Does Trump Want To Hire To Redo The National Mall Reflecting Pool? His Pool Guy
Trump originally envisioned the pool being topped with turquoise so that it would look like the Bahamas, but was convinced by the contractor to choose “American flag blue” instead. – Artnet
- Former LiveNation Exec Says He Was Fired After Raising Concerns Over Business Practices
In his new position, Rumanes said, he raised “serious and legitimate alarm” over the company’s business practices. As a result, he says, he was “unlawfully terminated,” according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. – Los Angeles Times
- What Did It Take To Put Together The Met’s Epic Raphael Show?
The largest survey dedicated to the Renaissance master in the U.S. includes 33 of his paintings and 142 works on paper. About 60 public institutions from 11 countries sent their treasures by the man born Raphael Sanzio da Urbino (1483–1520). Private loans include his two most expensive works at auction. – Artnet
- The Vegas Sphere Could Have Been An Epic Disaster. Instead It Sells More Tickets Than Anywhere Else In The World
The venue that created a new type of live entertainment has become the highest-grossing arena in the world, with $379 million on 1.7 million tickets sold last year, according to Pollstar. When it opened three years ago, it had all the signs of an impending disaster. – The Wall Street Journal
- The Secret Sauce Of Schmigadoon
It’s the sound. – American Theatre
