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- Australian Ballet Gets Its First Black Principal
Davi Ramos grew up in a Rio favela and didn’t start ballet lessons until he was 12. Only two years later, he competed in Youth America Grand Prix and, subsequently, the Prix de Lausanne; he studied in London and apprenticed in Amsterdam before coming to Melbourne, drawn by AD David Hallberg. – Dance Australia
- Schools Report Surge In Library Book Checkouts After Cellphone Bans
Students at Pleasure Ridge Park High School are checking out books at a rate librarians say hasn’t been seen before, coinciding with a districtwide cell phone ban that took effect at the start of the 2025 school year. – Aging Untold
- Lucas Museum Architects And The Building Of Fantasies
MAD Architects is a team that has completed major cultural and residential projects in 16 countries and counting. Their signature is hard-to-believe designs that do all of the shouting — etched towers churning like hula-hooping women; a museum honed like an ancient stone; an opera house resembling a mountain, bursting from the ground. – The New York Times
- BBC Is Preparing To Shut Down Some Radio And TV Channels: Report
“Deadline hears that the BBC is expected to unveil what one source described as ‘audience-facing’ closures next week, as the UK broadcaster ramps up efforts to save £500 million ($660M) over the coming years. … Speculation (is) rife that youth network BBC Three is at risk of being unplugged for a second time.” – Deadline
- Chicago Symphony Rebrands
The changes come as the CSO prepares to welcome its new, buzzy music director, Klaus Mäkelä, who will officially step into the role next fall. – WBEZ
- Australia’s Performing Arts Sector Is In Crisis
Too many of our finest performers and musicians feel compelled to leave Australia. Productions, concert seasons and festivals are being cancelled or scaled back. – ArtsHub
- Author Of One Of France’s Biggest Hit Novels Of The Year Accused Of Using AI
C’était ça ou mourir (It Was That Or Die) by Thélyson Orélien has sold over 35,000 copies and been hailed in France’s literary mediasphere as a revelation. On Monday, an anonymous X (Twitter) account claimed the AI-spotting software Pangram found that “this novel was written almost entirely by an artificial intelligence.” – Euronews
- How AI Is Changing The Art Of Translation
Many literary translators fear that if machine-assisted translation becomes the norm in book publishing, it could fundamentally change the nature of their profession. – Publishers Weekly
- Judge Granted Last-Minute Pause On Paramount/Warner Deal
With an 11 am PT virtual hearing before Judge Martinez-Olguin widely viewed as a rubber stamping of the September 21 antitrust settlement and hence the mega-merger itself, the granting of Block the Merger’s move makes it almost certain the deal won’t be formally approved today. – Deadline
- Is AI Above The Law? Outside? Under?
At least for now, then, robots legally are things, not persons. But neither category quite fits. Instead, robots are outlaws: they lie outside the protection of the law, and their actions are not answerable to it. – The New Yorker
- Former Microsoft CEO Repairs Damaged Calder Mobile In U.S. Senate Building
When Kim and Jon Shirley visited Alexander Calder’s Mountains and Clouds (1976/1986) in the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building, the stabile portion of the sculpture (the mountains) was there, but the mobile part (clouds) had been removed due to structural damage. Ten years and $10 million later, the clouds are back. – ARTnews
- The Powers Of Bibliotherapy
Today, bibliotherapy takes many different forms, from literature courses run for prison inmates to reading circles for elderly people suffering from dementia. Sometimes it can simply mean one-on-one or group sessions for “lapsed” readers who want to find their way back to an enjoyment of books. – The New Yorker
- The African American History and Culture Museum, Ten Years On
The decades-long effort got its final push with the bipartisan efforts of Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, a stalwart of the civil rights movement, and Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas; the bill establishing the museum was signed by President George W. Bush in 2003. – The Smithsonian
- Judging The Aftermath Of The Paramount/Warner Deal “Concessions”
“These promises are extremely, exquisitely hard to enforce,” said Alvaro Bedoya, an antitrust lawyer, likening Paramount’s concessions to a pinkie promise. If Paramount fell short of its spending commitments, for instance, attorneys general would need to rely on the company’s own data to prove it, Bedoya said. – The Wall Street Journal
- A New Wave Of Documentary Theater Sweeps Latin America
“Over the last three decades, a growing cohort of theater artists across Latin America have … used journalism, documentary and memoir to explore the boundaries between fact and fiction while confronting their region’s troubled past and turbulent present in a genre known as Theater of the Real.” – T — The New York Times Style Magazine
- Director Of Kanal-Centre Pompidou In Brussels Will Step Down Immediately After Opening Weekend
“Yves Goldstein will leave (the new contemporary art museum) two days after its opening on November 28. He has spent a decade leading Kanal through the planning and renovation of its home in a massive Art Deco building, which formerly housed a Citroën garage, and navigating a partnership with the Centre Pompidou.” – Artforum
- 2026 BBC Proms Saw Record Digital Audience Figures
“The organisation has reported … 8.3 million streams across BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds. Proms content generated 65.8 million views across BBC social media platforms. … The Last Night of the Proms achieved 505,000 live plays, up 12% on 2025’s figure of 450,000, and in total 10.2 million users watched Proms broadcasts on television.” – Gramophone
- Harvey Weinstein Sentenced To 15 Years In New York Sexual Assault Case
“The landmark New York prosecution began nearly a decade ago with multiple accusers, but after retrials, mistrials, acquittals and appeals, it was whittled to a single victim: Miriam Haley, who … had worked briefly on the Weinstein-produced reality series Project Runway.” – AP
- White House Officials Search For Easier DC Landmarks To Put Trump’s Name On (But Not Ford’s Theatre)
What with the ongoing battle over the Kennedy Center, Trump administration staffers are reportedly trying to find other spots to which his name could be added without legal wrangling. An MS NOW report said that among the places aides considered was the site of Lincoln’s assassination, a suggestion Trump himself angrily denies. – AlterNet
- Kennedy Center Officials Extend Closure For Another Week, Citing Safety Issues
“Executive Director Matt Floca cited recent studies of roofing damage he says could harm pedestrians in a status report filed Wednesday evening. … Floca has said the current shutdown is separate from the board’s decision” to close indefinitely, which requires the court’s approval, “and was prompted by immediate safety concerns.” – The Washington Post (MSN)
- Financial Crisis At Nashville Symphony, “Restructuring” Is Being Planned
Money troubles aren’t new to the orchestra, but in the wake of the recent death of longtime benefactor Martha Ingram, “the organization does not have sufficient cash on hand to sustain operations at its current level. The Symphony’s executive committee is developing a restructuring plan designed to stabilize the organization.” – Nashville Scene
- Hong Kong To Get Its First Dedicated Dance Venue
The “Dancehouse” will be part of the WestK Performing Arts Centre, opening next year in the West Kowloon Cultural District. The theater will be the new home of Hong Kong Ballet, which will be able to increase the length of its season. – South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
- Nova Scotia Closed Libraries. The Backlash Has Been Intense
Persistent provincial underfunding forced the Annapolis Valley Regional Library system to announce plans earlier this year to permanently close five of its ten libraries. Many are tired of—even enraged by—what they perceive as the government’s assault on culture, treaty rights, and the environment. – The Walrus
- Six Artists Who Shaped Modern American Design — And The Bitter WWII Experience Which United Them All
“The (Barnes Foundation) exhibit ‘Noguchi to Asawa: Designing Postwar America’ examines six renowned Japanese-American artists whose work defined modern American art and design in the mid-to-late 20th century — all of whom were severely impacted by mass incarceration” in wartime internment camps. – The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
- Are Debates Over Student AI Use Arguing Over The Wrong Things?
The battle for the role of AI in higher education this fall is being fought over when and where AI and other digital technologies should be used. This combat ignores the larger crisis: how can colleges verify that they are preparing students to become productive members of society in a digital age? – Post Alley
- Jonathan Franzen’s TV Conversion
Franzen used to think TV was the “enemy” of the serious novelist. But after the HBO series failed, he watched Breaking Bad, Nurse Jackie and Silicon Valley and loved them. In the age of social media, AI and the endless scroll, TV has started to look like a “friend”, he says now. – The Guardian
- Looking Back On What The Literary Theory Generation Wrought
A half-century after poststructuralism broke out of Parisian lecture halls and stumbled into unexpected acclaim and vitriol in the English-speaking world, we now have enough distance from the culture wars of the 1980s and ’90s to look back on theory with clearer vision. Or so it would seem. – Hedgehog Review
- Equity UK And National Theatre Of Scotland Agree To Something Novel: Five-Day Work Weeks And Overtime Pay
“As well as reducing standard rehearsal weeks from six to five days,” the new agreement “includes the reduction of the working week from 44 hours to 40 hours, meaning any performers and stage management working more than 40 hours in a week for NTS will receive extra pay.” – The Stage (UK)
- Toronto Symphony Reports A Banner Financial Year
The TSO closed its 2026 fiscal year with an operating surplus of approximately $34,000, thereby increasing its accumulated surplus to nearly $1 million—putting it in its strongest financial position ever. – Colin’s Column
- Warner And Paramount Workers Shocked By Merger Approval
The general mood on both sides of the Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Skydance aisles on Monday was shock and surprise over the sudden turn of events. – Variety
- So CNN And CBS Will Have “Oversight Boards” To Protect Them? Hmnnn…
Such “boards” have been a part of other news-company acquisitions that have raised similar concerns about antitrust or editorial control. These boards’ effectiveness has been, to be generous, extremely limited. – The Atlantic
- The “Extraordinary” Bolivian Painter Whose Work Was Discovered In The Trash
“Alejandro Mario Yllanes was a protégé of Diego Rivera, who championed the bravery with which Yllanes made searingly political works. Yllanes … left little trace of his life after 1950, leaving a cache of paintings, engravings and documents in an apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.” – The New York Times
- Higher Ed’s AI-Detection Struggle
Four years into the ChatGPT era, colleges may be further from solving AI cheating than they were when it launched. – The Atlantic
- National Trust For Historic Preservation Announces $10M Fund To Push Back Against Trump
The fund “will provide resources for legal defense, public advocacy, and community action when historic places and the laws that protect them are under threat,” Brent Leggs, the trust’s president, said in an interview on Tuesday. – Washington Post
- Comedy Comes To The Museum Tour
During the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last month, she made her way to the National Galleries of Scotland for what was billed as a “cheeky romp” uncovering the “gossip, glamour and glorious absurdity hiding behind the art.” Gloriously absurd it was. – NPR