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Russia Prepares To Declare Pussy Riot An “Extremist” Organization

“Russia's prosecutor general opened a case against the feminist art group on Friday, November 28. The ‘extremist’ label, commonly deployed by the government as justification for stifling political opposition, would officially ban the collective's activities in Russia.” - Hyperallergic

Canadians Are Buying Canadian. How About Music Too?

Canada has been neglecting our (excellent and varied) music scene for the past decade. A post-pandemic evaluation of the government’s Canada Music Fund revealed that revenues are down: album sales fell by nearly 74 percent between 2015 and 2021. - The Walrus

A New Contemporary Art Prize Is The UK’s Largest — £200,000

“The Serpentine x FLAG Art Foundation Prize, as it will be called, will be awarded every other year to an international artist who will receive £200,000 ($265,000), as well as an exhibition and programming at both institutions and an accompanying catalog.” - ARTnews

Netflix: Viewership Of Southeast Asian Content Up 50 Percent In 2025

More than 100 Southeast Asian titles have appeared in Netflix’s Global Top 10. Over 40 of those titles charted in 2025 alone. Titles from the region also ranked in the top 10 lists of over 80 countries in 2025. - Deadline

Cliches Have Gotten A Bad Rap

While I agree that leaning on a cliché might be a prosaic get-out-of-jail-free card, I do think they get a bad rap. The general criticism is that clichés are lazy, which I can understand. Yet sometimes I feel like this feedback itself is lazy or one-dimensional. - Sydney Review of Books

Why Close Reading Is Having A Moment

I learned about close reading when I asked them to take their own thinking seriously—to take themselves seriously. Doing so, I found, forced me to take my job more seriously. - Boston Review

Royal Danish Ballet Returns To The Classic Choreographer Who Made The Company Great

August Bournonville directed the company in the mid-19th century, and his works and style became thoroughly identified with the institution. Yet for some years the RDB turned away from Bournonville toward contemporary ballet; new artistic director Amy Watson is bringing his works and style back to the company’s heart. - The New York Times

How A “Broken” Reader Learned To Loving Reading Again

It took weeks for me to realize that I was a broken reader. I assumed I’d just had a streak of bad luck in the Dept. of Picking. I started taking fewer chances. I bought only books that looked like books I would buy. This backfired in a kind of horror-movie sequence. - The New York Times

A Race To Save Our Recorded Music History

A huge portion of the world’s recorded musical heritage is stored on magnetic tape, used regularly from the 1940s into the digital age to capture musicians’ sounds in the studio. But as analog tape ages, it grows more fragile and vulnerable. - The New York Times

Suddenly The Anti-Gay Slur “F******” Is All Over New York Theater

Erik Piepenburg: “This year at least six theater productions have used “f*****” in their titles. … Why is a slur that a stranger hurled at me now waving hello from my playbill?” On the other hand, famously gay Black playwright Jeremy O. Harris told Piepenburg to stop pearl-clutching. - The New York Times

Why We Need Systemic Support For Arts And Humanities

Arts and humanities scholarship is not an ornament, it is the record of what human minds have made, imagined and endured. To let those worlds fall quiet is to diminish what it means to be human. - Arts Professional

Supreme Court Will Decide Whether Internet Providers Can Be Liable For Music Piracy

The Supreme Court on Monday grappled with the practical implications of a closely watched copyright clash testing whether internet providers can be held liable for the piracy of thousands of songs online. - The New York Times

Christopher Knight Reflects On His Career At The LA Times

Sprawl is usually cast as an L.A. negative, but it was good for art. The horizontal city is just too big to fully gentrify; there was always another neighborhood where an artist could find studio space, or a gallery could open up shop. And they did. - Los Angeles Times

Reddit Forum r/Art Goes Completely Off The Rails (And, For Now, Offline)

The subreddit, on which thousands of artists post images of their work, has strict rules against anything resembling marketing, sales or self-promotion. When one artist violated that rule (inadvertently, he says) with the words “prints available,” a moderator banned him and deleted seven years of his posts. Then things really went sideways. - Artnet

Kevin Spacey’s Legal Troubles Are Not Over Yet

The actor, who was artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London from 2004 to 2013, was acquitted on nine sexual assault charges in the UK in 2023. Now he faces three civil lawsuits, two of them by accusers in the criminal cases. - BBC (MSN)

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