“Smoke was still billowing from the rooftop rotunda late on Saturday morning as crews used a drone to help tackle the blaze and crowds gathered on the street to watch and take photos” of the iconic round building. - BBC
Work at cultural funding agencies in the United States—the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services —has been quietly picking up, after the administration of US President Donald Trump and its Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) slashed staff and cancelled grants. - The Art Newspaper
"To me, the greatest danger that Latin American literature foretells for higher education is the insidious way capitulation to authoritarians changes both individuals and institutions." - The Conversation
Arts educators and advocates successfully killed a proposed move in Arizona's Peoria Unified school district to bar arts educators from renewing memberships in their professional associations. - Playbill
“(Two White House) officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the discussions have been preliminary and exploratory, and it was unclear exactly how the federal government would take control of the site in Lower Manhattan. … The museum’s leadership rebuffed the idea.” - The New York Times
"AI has softened the consequences of procrastination and led many students to avoid doing any work at all. As a result, these programs have destroyed much of what tied us together as students." - The Atlantic
Contributed revenue fell by 30%, with every source declining from 2023 to 2024. Foundation revenue dropped 25% after modest growth in 2023, and earned revenue declined 18%. The decrease in contributed revenue reflects the continued waning of unprecedented pandemic relief funding that began in 2021. - SMU Cultural Data
“What are the 100 things that unequivocally define Swedish culture? Flat-packed furniture from IKEA? Of course. Pippi Longstocking? Indeed. The touchstone films of Ingmar Bergman? Absolutely. Abba and meatballs? Apparently not.” - The New York Times
The Nation’s Newspaper checks out the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, the National Museum of American History, National Museum of Natural History, National Museum of the American Indian, and National Portrait Gallery — and asks about four dozen museumgoers for their own opinions. - USA Today
People carving their initials into the Coliseum, trashing Bernini’s fountain in Rome, driving a car down the Spanish Steps, mounting and humping a nude statue of Bacchus, causing all kinds of damage taking selfies. National ministries pass the buck to each other, leaving local governments to clean up the messes. - Artnet
Hm: “The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), sent a scathing letter to a number of tech giants, including Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple. The letter's subject: the European Digital Services Act cannot be applied if it jeopardizes freedom of expression and, above all, the safety of US citizens.” - Wired
Not ideal: “This isn’t some relatively harmless inconvenience that just targets celebrities, either. These bots often insist they’re real people and will even offer physical locations for a user to meet up with them.” - The Verge
One actor, in three movies at the festival, said that “on stage and screen, actors are counted on to speak emphatically. ‘I’m happy to make louder the simple sentence of “Stop killing.”’” - The New York Times
“The desert festival … began Sunday, following a weekend of brutal storms that battered camps, tore down art installations and caused dozens of injuries.” (Worse, they destroyed the Orgy Dome.) “By midweek, vehicles were again entering the site, though muddy conditions forced … delays of up to eight hours each day.” - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
There is a seismic shift happening in the media landscape, fueled by the rise of digital platforms, declining print readership and mass layoffs in cultural journalism. It also points to a larger epidemic in the consumption of this kind of writing, and how people engage with this industry wide. - The Observer
