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- A busy week: NYC doubles its grants; Anne Carson wins the Nobel
This Week’s Highlights:
Anne Carson, the Canadian poet who translates Greek tragedy, won the Nobel Prize in Literature for forms that set contemporary writing in dialogue with the classics (AP). Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery closed their merger Tuesday as a company called Skydance, which wants $6 billion in savings by the end of 2028; its co-CEO says labor is not the majority of it (Deadline). Trump calls the shuttered Kennedy Center a danger to anyone who walks in, yet some 100 National Symphony Orchestra musicians rehearse in its concert hall most weekday mornings (The New York Times).
Oracle, the database company building its headquarters on Nashville’s East Bank, gave the Nashville Symphony $10 million, the size of its deficit, and the suspended season is back on (The New York Times). In San Antonio, Harmonium of Texas, founded by conductor Jeffrey Kahane after he left the Philharmonic, debuted with 68 musicians, many from the city’s two defunct orchestras, days after the Philharmonic sued him over donor lists (San Antonio Express-News).
And Theaster Gates, the Chicago artist who turns closed buildings into cultural centers, bought Pickard China, the last American maker of high-end porcelain, now producing a quarter of its 1970s output; its competitor Lenox, sold to a private investment firm in 2020, moved production to Asia and Europe (NPR).
Finally, New York City doubled its grants to individual artists to $10,000, the first increase in 20 years (ARTnews).
All this week’s stories below, organized by topic.
Doug
- Vince Paul talks about building strong connections with community through strategic facilities
Vince Paul, President & Artistic Director of Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts, talks about building facilities and strong connections with community.
- Michelangelo’s Handwriting Now Ships With Microsoft Office
Good Morning,
Michelangelus, a typeface drawn from Michelangelo’s manuscripts, is headed into Microsoft Office with more than 500 glyphs in four styles. The Fabbrica di San Pietro, the Vatican body that maintains St. Peter’s Basilica, commissioned it from the design studio studiogusto (Il Messaggero). In Tupper Lake, New York, Thomas Dambo’s giant troll sculptures at the Wild Center, an Adirondack natural-history museum, gave a doughnut-shop owner her busiest summer in 37 years: “Amazing what trolls can do. They’re instigators” (The New York Times).
The Met’s Macbeth has Georgian dancers whose jumps, the Times says, “originate from — and land on — the kneecaps” (The New York Times). Q Division Studios, the Cambridge, Massachusetts studio where the Pixies and Aimee Mann recorded, has gone analog, pushing its computers aside for a week of two-inch tape, with the $400 reels thrown in free (WBUR).
Philadelphia’s Wilma Theater is selling streams of its shows through Watch Wilma at $35 each. Under its union agreement, access to each stream ends four weeks after the live run closes (The Philadelphia Inquirer). Frank Gehry’s last concert hall, the 1,000-seat, in-the-round Kohl Hall at Los Angeles’s Colburn School, opens next September two blocks from Disney Hall, with a John Williams fanfare for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (Los Angeles Times).
All of the stories we collected below.
- Michelangelo’s Handwriting Has Been Made Into A New Typeface
The font, called Michelangelus, is the result of a collaboration between Microsoft and the Fabbrica di San Pietro, the Vatican entity responsible for the preservation and upkeep of St. Peter’s Basilica. – Il Messagero (Italy) (in English)
- The Minimalist Anne Carson
Translation is Carson’s primary art form. One way to describe it is as the art of sustained metaphor: a word in one language is similar, but not identical, to a word in another language. – The New Yorker
- Inside The Book Review Problem
The little magazines can start to fill the review void. Each can, at the minimum, review five new novels in an issue. These reviews needn’t be overly long, or challenge the critic to consume every word the writer has ever written. – Political Currents
- Marina Abramović At (Almost) 80
“Has any artist offered so much of her unfiltered self to the public? … If you’ve followed her career, you likely know uncomfortably intimate details of her life.” – T — The New York Times Style Magazine
- Recording Music In Analog
“So this machine that we have here is the only machine currently in service for two-inch, 24-track — it’s a Studer 827 from, I believe, the late ‘90s,” Healey said as he guided the media across magnetic heads. – WBUR
- The Trolls That Took Over A Town And Charmed Everyone
“I’ve been here 37 years and I’ve never had a busier summer,” said Tina Merrihew, 59, who owns a half-laundromat, half-doughnut shop. “Amazing what trolls can do. They’re instigators.” – The New York Times
- Frank Gehry’s Final Concert Hall Is Taking Shape In Los Angeles
Just two blocks from Gehry’s most famous performance venue, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Kohl Hall at the Colburn School will be a 1,000-seat auditorium with an in-the-round layout, a full-size stage and an orchestra pit so that it can host both concerts and operas. – Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
- Frankfurt Book Fair: State Of The Publishing Industry
Declining turnover, a rise in reading in the original language, second-hand book sales and the shift to audio and digital subscription models were all “putting pressure on the profitability of the sector.” – The Bookseller
- Indy’s Newfields Museum Director Steps Down
Belinda Tate began at Newfields in 2023, days before the surprise exit of former CEO and president Colette Pierce Burnette and after a years-long spotlight had been on Newfields in part due to controversial language in a 2021 posting of the director job, which led to the resignation of then-CEO and president Charles Venable. – Indianapolis Star
- Adelaide Is A Festival Capital. But Its Middle Class Arts Scene Needs A Reboot
Adelaide holds down the fort as Australia’s festival capital, with Adelaide Fringe and Adelaide Festival among the nation’s top tier for arts and culture. But when Petra Kalive arrived in the city at the beginning of 2025, she found a theatre sector that had been severely diminished by years of funding cuts. – ArtsHub
- Montpellier’s Main Concert Hall Closed Following Storm Damage
The Corum, a conference center-cum-arts complex with three performance spaces, suffered major water damage from heavy rains last week and has been shuttered out of safety concerns. There’s not yet any target date for reopening, and events are being moved to other venues in the city. – Pizzicato
- Trends In Public Radio: Donations Up, Migration To Digital
The survey of more than 17,000 respondents from 49 U.S. public stations during June and July 2026 shows that since 2013, public radio listening has moved from 83% broadcast vs. 16% digital to this year’s 54% broadcast vs. 43% digital, with Jacobs forecasting “those two lines are going to cross [eventually].” – InsideRadio
- Is AI A Brain Or A Database?
Human intuitions and mental models about how technology works govern how people use it. The idea of AI as software – deterministic, fact-retrieving – causes people to misinterpret the outputs they provide. – The Conversation
- Skydance Says It Will Make $6B In Cuts At Combined Paramount/Warner
“It’s important also to say this is not about cost reduction. This is about reengineering how we work. This is about reinventing the business model. So it’s not just synergies and reducing costs; it’s also improving how we perform. – Deadline
- Why Peter Greenaway’s Film With Dustin Hoffman Is Trapped In Post-Production Limbo
Production began (after a false start) on Lucca Mortis in early 2024; despite constant, expensive delays, a first draft version was ready by the end of that year. Then bigger difficulties arose: there are now two different versions of the movie (retitled Tower Stories), neither complete, along with an ugly contract dispute. – The Guardian
- Traditional Georgian Dance Makes For Hair-Raising Fight Scenes In Met Opera’s “Macbeth”
“It’s the type of dancing that makes you gasp. Jumps that originate from — and land on — the kneecaps. Turns that propel the body across a room as if powered by a motor. … It’s electrifying and extraordinarily athletic — and a surprising choice for Verdi’s take on Shakespeare’s tale.” – The New York Times
- Philadelphia’s Wilma Theater Goes All-In On Streaming
“Called Watch Wilma, the digital theater platform will offer limited runs of shows filmed and staged at the Wilma and partner organizations, including Philadelphia’s Azuka Theatre and Pittsburgh’s City Theatre, for audiences both nationally and internationally.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
- Stolen Renoirs Have Been Recovered, Six Suspects Arrested
Two paintings, “Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano” and “Young Woman at the Well,” have been reclaimed by police after having been stolen last month from the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, near Nice. (Two other paintings were dropped and left behind by the thieves while they were absconding.) – AP
- Artist Manager For Rock Stars To Be Kennedy Center’s Next Programming Chief
“Rick Canny, … a longtime talent manager who worked with several prominent rock stars from the 1980s and ‘90s, … will soon be elevated to an executive artistic director position, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.” – CNN (MSN)
- Van Gogh Museum And Dutch Government Settle Dispute; Renovation Can Begin
“After almost three years of negotiations, the Van Gogh Museum … and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science have finalised a successful mediation and settlement agreement, paving the way for the €104 million ‘Masterplan 2028’ renovation project,” which will begin in the fall of 2028. – ThePrint
- Cooper Union Finds A New Lessee/Owner New York’s Chrysler Building
“New York’s iconic Chrysler Building, standing on land owned and leased by the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, is transferring ownership to the commercial real-estate company Tishman Speyer and other investors, who are planning an extensive overhaul of the Art Deco landmark after years of neglect.” – ARTnews
- What The Bayeux Tapestry Is Really About
One might subtitle the embroidered narrative “The Importance of Respecting an Oath.” Or, perhaps, simply “FAFO.” – Prospect (UK)
- Documented: How Much Of LA’s TV Production Business Has Left
Over the last quarter-century, with the rise of streaming and the offshoring of production, the U.S. share of major-studio spending on TV episodes has fallen from 94% to 64%, according to a report commissioned by seven entertainment industry unions. – Los Angeles Times
- Getting Duncan Sheik’s Final Musical To The Stage Just Days After His Death
“What I am doing,” says music supervisor Or Matias of Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen, now in previews on Broadway, “is putting the puzzle pieces together in a way that best serves the evolution that (we need) during previews.” Says book writer Leah Nanako Winkler, “I feel like I’m trying to finish this painting.” – TheaterMania
- Music Fraudster Jailed For Using Thousands Of Bots To Fake Stream Music Tracks
He had created “hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs,” then dispersed billions of automated streams among them so that the bots could avoid raising any red flags by all targeting the same song at once. All together, the fake songs generated substantially more streams than some of the most popular artists today. – Ars Technica
- Pangram Says Use Of Its AI Detector Is Increasing
Many still dispute the validity and accuracy of AI detection tools. The Atlantic’s Matteo Wong wrote that “while Pangram is accumulating the power to end reputations and careers, the tool does make mistakes, perhaps to a greater extent than is currently understood”. – Bookseller
- How Defunding Arts Education Brought About Civic Unraveling
The Bicentennial offered everyday people in the middle of the map novel opportunities to appreciate and deliberate what America was, and it succeeded in this because it conducted more than a history lesson: Art was surprisingly paramount in this event of collective self-identification, historical commemoration, and political convocation. – ARTnews
- A Ballet Where The Onstage Pianist Calls The Shots
In 2012, superstar pianist Lang Lang contacted choreographer Stanton Welch hoping to collaborate. The result was Sons de l’âme, an evening-length ballet in which the onstage pianist plays Chopin while the dancers execute their steps in time with whatever tempos the pianist chooses. Here Welch talks about how the piece has developed. – Gramilano
- For Lifelong Learning, It’s Better With Partners
The internet is full of resources for self-directed learning: for any subject, you can easily find blog posts about essential texts, links to university syllabi, and hours of YouTube lectures. When I attempted to make use of these guides, however, I often found myself disengaged and unfocused. – Psyche
- How Venice Built The World’s First Ghetto
In 1516, the Venetian Senate voted to create the world’s first ‘ghetto’. All Jews then living in the city – as well as any others who might come later – were ordered to move immediately to a small island in the northeastern sestiere of Cannaregio. It was anything but appealing. – Aeon
- What’s Special About Anne Carson’s Work
At a time when scholarship and creative writing are often treated as separate pursuits, Carson has shown how deeply they belong together. Her work is a reminder that thought and imagination don’t compete with one another, but continually enrich each other. – The Conversation
- Theaster Gates Has Bought An Old-School Porcelain Factory
Pickard China in Antioch, Illinois is the last remaining manufacturer of high-end porcelain in the US — and with a shrinking market, aging and deteriorating equipment, and the retirement of the last Pickard family owner, the factory’s future seemed grim. Then Gates decided to make Pickard China part of his artistic practice. – NPR