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- Fashion Week Just Wanted to Touch Grass
Good Morning,
Culture registers a shift before policy does. At New York Fashion Week, an unusual number of designers sent out clothes yearning for wilderness and open air — the runway as a collective request to log off (Washington Post). In at least 36 states, people aren’t waiting for city councils to regulate license-plate cameras; they’re taking them down themselves (The Conversation). Universities that spent three years pushing students toward AI now face studies suggesting it dulls thinking, and can’t decide which way to lean (The New York Times). Pull back, touch something real.
Philip Kennicott argues the “elite” caricature of the Kennedy Center gets it exactly backwards — it was the most authentically populist major arts center in the country (Washington Post). A federal judge has now ordered 30 days’ notice before anyone demolishes it (AP). Meanwhile the New Deal’s “Sistine Chapel,” the Cohen Building murals, may be rescued by a Freedom Caucus Republican (The New Republic). Buildings make strange allies.
San Francisco Opera and its orchestra reached a deal, ending the strike that darkened opening week (San Francisco Chronicle). And Duncan Sheik, who escaped MTV heartthrob status by writing Spring Awakening, has died at 56 (The New York Times).
All of our stories below.
- Prolific Theatre And Film Director Anthony Page Has Died At 90
He directed more than 35 titles for film and TV, including The Lady Vanishes and Middlemarch, but had even greater impact in theatre: he staged numerous classics in London and New York, notably by Beckett and Albee, and won a Tony for directing Janet McTeer in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. – Playbill
- NPR Has An Aggressive Plan For Its Digital Future
Katherine Maher said the organization is fundamentally reimagining its digital presence, looking for more ways to capitalize on its network of 243 newsrooms and member stations, and expanding its programming portfolio beyond what audiences traditionally associate with NPR. – Inside Radio
- Texas Ballet Theater Finds Its New Executive Director In Pittsburgh
Nicholas Dragga, currently executive director of Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, will take the same job at the Fort Worth-based company as of January 1. He succeeds Vanessa Logan, who stepped down in June 2025 to become managing director of Goodspeed Musicals in Connecticut. – Fort Worth Report
- As Studies Suggest Cognitive Decline With AI Use, Universities Are In A Bind
As A.I. leaders warn about the dangers of their own technology, the dissonance between optimism of university leaders and the fears of many students and professors may increase. Professors and students are often in a bind about what they should do: Use more A.I. to stay relevant, or dial back to preserve learning and thinking? – The New York Times
- Rebellion Against Flock Camera Surveillance Has Become a Rallying Cry
In at least 36 states, opponents of the technology have taken matters into their own hands, destroying or impairing ALPRs rather than wait for local governments to step in. – The Conversation
- Interesting: Fashion Week Suggests A Cohesive Theme For Our Times
Rarely does such a cohesive, poignant theme emerge from any given New York Fashion Week. But this September, a surprising number of designers showed work that seemed to yearn for a breath of fresh air, for the obliviating embrace of the wilderness and the natural world. – Washington Post
- Lynchpin Of “Oh, Mary!” National Tour Takes Medical Leave
J. Harrison Ghee, who won a Tony in 2023 for playing Jerry/Daphne in Some Like It Hot, was cast as Mary’s Husband for the first part of the tour, then Mary herself as of January. Ghee, who lives with kidney disease, has been advised not to perform until at least November 1. – TheaterMania
- Viewer Ratings For “60 Minutes” Season Premiere Down 21 Percent
Viewership for the season premiere of “60 Minutes” fell roughly 21 percent from a year ago, according to Nielsen, making it the lowest-rated premiere of the long-running show in recent memory. – The New York Times
- Kennicott: The Cultural Significance Of the Kennedy Center
Although the president caricatured it as an elite institution, and slandered it as anti-American and a danger to youth, the Kennedy Center was perhaps the most authentically populist major arts center in the country. – Washington Post
- Microsoft Exec Called AI Scraping Of Online News The “Largest Theft Of Labor In Human History”
Microsoft Director of Applied Science Brent Hecht repeatedly warned in documents that scraping news for AI training was “an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions,” calling it perhaps the “largest theft of labor in human history,” news orgs said. – Ars Technica
- “The Sistine Chapel Of The New Deal” Might Be Saved Thanks To A Republican Congressman
“The sponsor of the bill to save it is Representative Scott Perry, Republican of Pennsylvania and former chairman of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, whose mission statement expressing support for ‘limited government’ is the very antithesis of the social welfare programs celebrated in the Cohen building’s artworks.” – The New Republic
- Madrid Gets A New Stellar Museum
The real game-changer is a landmark donation of over 180 works worth more than €16 million ($18.5 million) from the Thyssen-Bornemisza family, plus a loan of 180 more, worth €10 million ($11.5 million). – Artnet
- David Ellison Is Losing The Hollywood Crowd
All the right-wing glad-handing that’s been happening, especially at CBS, has created optics that shroud the entire operation. This is a strategic failure that Hollywood moguls throughout history worked to avoid. – Los Angeles Times
- Study: LLMs Respond Differently To Harmful Prompts When AI Watermarking Is Present
New research shows that SynthID-Text can change not just word selection but also the tools a model invokes and the chances it will adhere to or disregard safety guardrails it has been trained to follow. – Ars Technica
- PEN America Appoints New Leader After Internal Battles Of This Past Summer
“(The literature-and-human-rights advocacy group) has named Phil Klay as its new president. … Klay’s appointment comes after novelist Dinaw Mengestu resigned from his post as president in July following the organization’s report on cultural boycotts and the ‘rising isolation and exclusion’ of Israeli and Jewish writers.” – Publishers Weekly
- “Spring Awakening” Composer Duncan Sheik Is Dead At 56
“(His) alt-pop hit ‘Barely Breathing’ became a Generation X touchstone, but (he) squirmed under the label of MTV heartthrob and eventually decamped to Broadway, winning two Tonys for composing the smash musical.” – The New York Times
- Ravinia Festival Starts On A Second Renovation Project
This summer the Chicago Symphony’s summer home re-opened its concert pavilion after a $70 million revamp. Next on the to-do list, with work starting in October, is a $38 million makeover of the Martin Theatre, the last remaining structure from when Ravinia’s park-like grounds first opened in 1904. – WBEZ (Chicago)
- Pittsburgh Symphony’s Manfred Honeck Gets Big Jobs In London And San Francisco
The 68-year-old (as of Thursday) Austrian will become Principal Conductor of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra in 2028, succeeding Santtu-Matias Rouvali. That same season he starts as the San Francisco Symphony’s Festival Director, a new title in which he’ll program and conduct a three-week festival for each of the next five seasons. – Moto Perpetuo
- Plaintiffs In Kennedy Center Case Ask Judge To Consider Putting It In Receivership Or Replacing Board
A joint statement from the plaintiffs said, “If the current leadership of the Kennedy Center is unwilling or unable to exercise its fiduciary duty to protect the historic building and the grounds of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the court should consider appointing a receiver or replacing that leadership.” – ARTnews
- Judge Orders Trump Not To Tear Down Kennedy Center Without 30 Days’ Notice
“A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Kennedy Center to provide 30 days’ notice before making any major physical changes to the building, including demolishing it as President Donald Trump has threatened.” – AP
- Strike Is Over: San Francisco Opera And Its Orchestra Reach Deal On Contract
“San Francisco Opera management and its orchestra musicians have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, ending a strike that began nearly a week ago and forced the cancellation of multiple performances at the start of the company’s 2026-27 season.” – San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
- Photogs Get Picture Of Trump Studying Headlines About Demolishing Kenned Center
Late Wednesday night, photojournalists captured images through the windows of Air Force One that showed President Trump reviewing a large poster board with what looked like a rendering of a construction site beneath three very visible words: “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED.” – The New York Times
- Singapore Is Paying Its People To Read Books
“Under the scheme, readers accrue points that can be redeemed for a few cents. People will have to log 50 daily reading sessions (of 15 minutes or more) on a government website to earn S$1 (80 cents US). … One reading session is allowed daily.” – The Guardian
- AI Companies Are Destroying Books. What Does That Mean For Art?
AI companies, after losing copyright lawsuits over using pirated books found in digital formats, found a way forward, since the law doesn’t prohibit them from buying physical books and destroying them. In another ironic twist, they are looking only for books printed before 2022, because they want books that definitely have not been produced using AI. – ARTnews
- How Marcello Angelini Remade Tulsa Ballet
“During Angelini’s (31-year) tenure as artistic director, Tulsa Ballet has grown from a well-regarded regional troupe — best known for its efforts to preserve the Ballet Russe traditions championed by its founders, Roman Jasinski and Moscelyne Larkin — into a versatile dance company that many critics consider among the best in the United States.” – Tulsa Flyer
- Journalism Inside Libraries
“I once described the larger ambition as opening 16,000 community-led newsrooms, one in every public library in the country.” Now he believes the goal should be “creating 16,000 places where neighbors can look more closely at where they live and make something public from what they find.” – NiemanLab
- London Philharmonic Survey: Interest In Orchestral Music Is Up, Particularly Among Young People
The RPO findings show that there is a rising interest among young people – the nationally representative poll of 2,000 adults revealing that 89 per cent of adults would be interested in attending a concert or performance featuring classical or orchestral music. This figure is up from 79 per cent in 2018. – Gramophone
- What Happens Now For The Kennedy Center?
Outside, digital signs that typically advertise upcoming performances instead flashed a red “Emergency alert” announcing the building was closed to the public. Guards stood at the doors. On Wednesday, fencing was erected around the building. – Washington Post
- Madrid’s Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum To Add A Second Location
Because of overcrowding in the main building’s galleries, the museum will acquire an additional space a few blocks away: the Ice and Automobile Palace, which has been vacant since 2007 and will undergo a €70 million ($81 million) renovation. When it opens, the new branch will display 21st-century works. – ARTnews
- Why Academic History Matters
Academic history matters. It matters for honing critical engagement, for challenging all-encompassing technological vapidity, for strengthening individuality. It matters because it shows us that process cannot be separated from what we produce. – History Today
- FCC Says It Could Earn Billions From New Wireless Spectrum Auctions
Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr said Wednesday that a series of upcoming wireless spectrum auctions over the next couple of years could generate more than $100 billion in proceeds. – Reuters
- What Happens To Warner Bros. If The Paramount Merger Falls Apart?
“To be clear, the deal collapsing wouldn’t be fatal to Warner Bros. Discovery. CEO David Zaslav would walk away with a $7 billion break-up fee that could offer additional flexibility as an independent company. But experts who spoke to TheWrap are skeptical that management would continue to go it alone long-term.” – TheWrap (MSN)
- American Music at 250 – Take 9: Can an Orchestra Still Embody the Soul of a City? Gustavo Dudamel and the New York Philharmonic
The current issue of “The New York Review of Books” includes my essay on state of American orchestras
- Spaceship Lucas: LA’s New Museum Of Narrative Art
It is a Goliath of a building, 700 feet long with 300,000 square feet of space. In terms of massiveness, visual impact and sheer joyous bravado, it offers as much spectacle as any of his films. But it is not so much its size that amazes, but its uncanny shape. – The Wall Street Journal