"The activities of the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund have been paused effective immediately, with the region saying the move was necessary due to 'incidents of harassment of regional staff and governance concerns related to the fund's administration.'" Two board members have resigned; a nonprofit is stepping in with interim funding. - CBC
While some artists and observers are criticizing the zeroing-out of Winnipeg Arts Council money for public art, that annual $500,000 will go instead to support capital projects for downtown cultural institutions. Also, the Arts Council's budget for other projects has been restored to the pre-pandemic level of $4.6 million. - Winnipeg Free Press
While some grassroots organizations and organizers do integrate culture into their efforts, the potential to build power in under-resourced and marginalized communities by harnessing culture is not well understood or supported by funders. - Stanford Social Innovation Review
They're demonstrating that there is a demand for watching someone deliver the news when the traditional local TV news landscape is diminishing. But media experts say though some audiences have shifted to less conventional options, local TV news reporting isn't easily replaced once it disappears. - CBC
"Dallas residents will vote on a $1.25 billion bond package in May, which includes one of the largest allocations for cultural facilities in decades. The Dallas City Council allocated $75.2 million of the package last Wednesday for cultural facilities or a little over 6% of the package." - KERA (Dallas)
Unlike Google’s search engine, generative AI models sometimes do produce creative works that compete directly with the works they were trained on. And this puts these defendants in a weaker legal position than Google was in a decade ago. - Ars Technica
In Birmingham, which faces a long-brewing cash crisis, "grants to regularly-funded arts organisations will face 50% cuts this year and 100% next financial year." This includes, among others, the City of Birmingham Symphony, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Birmingham REP Theatre, IKON Gallery, and Birmingham International Dance Festival. - Birmingham Live
"Preliminary work has begun on a $335-million expansion of the Colburn School of performing arts designed by Gehry that includes a mid-size concert hall he expects to be in near-constant use for events put on by students, professional artists and academics." - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, which operates M+ and the Hong Kong Palace Museum as well as a traditional Chinese opera center and a black-box theater, was created by government statute but receives no government subsidies — and the initial endowment established when WKCDA was created will be gone next year. - ARTnews
The "passeport talent," launched in 2017 for certain highly-skilled individuals, now includes entrepreneurs, investors, and staff employees (as well as freelancers) judged likely to make a significant contribution to France's culture or economy. It allows holders to live and work in the country for up to four years. - Euronews
It argues that as a reputable and trusted source, its articles have additional weight and reliability in training generative AI and are part of a data subset that is given additional weighting in that training. - The Conversation
U.S. copyright law is extremely complicated, and the technology bears features that don’t resemble anything seen in earlier technology transitions. Put them together, and the complexities are magnified exponentially. - Los Angeles Times
Before 2019, other companies held Call of Duty tournaments. Then things changed. "The lawsuit claims that at one point, Activision Blizzard required teams to each pay $27.5 million and swear not to participate in or promote any other professional Call of Duty operations." - MSN (Los Angeles Times)
