ISSUES

Kennedy Center Board Votes To Put Trump’s Name Back On The Kennedy Center

According to the resolution approved by the Trump-allied board, the inscription underneath the institution’s name would read: “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.” - The New York Times

Live Events Have Become Essential Income For Publishers

Events and related digital revenue are projected to account for half of Time's total revenue in 2026, up from 28% in 2023, the company confirmed to TheWrap. Time expects to hold 47 events this year, up from 11 in 2022. - The Wrap (MSN)

The Costs That Are Hitting Australian Performing Arts Companies The Hardest

For a closer look at which costs are worrying Australian performing arts companies the most right now, ArtsHub spoke to a range of company executives about their greatest concerns, and how they think the sector can curb these negative trends over the long term. - ArtsHub

Move Over, Tilly Norwood: AI Companies Are Creating A New Crop Of Characters, Hoping They’ll Become Stars

One company, Inception Point AI, has “a cohort of more than 100 personas, each with its own market-friendly niche, that could be deployed to host podcasts, star in YouTube videos, converse with followers and — in the company’s loftiest vision — one day navigate the physical world in a robotic body.” - The New York Times

The New Performing Arts Center In Morocco’s Capital Is One Of Zaha Hadid’s Last Projects

The Royal Theatre of Rabat, which includes an 1,800-seat main auditorium, a 520-seat performance space, and a 7,000-seat outdoor amphitheater, was largely completed in 2021 but only opened this year. It’s planned as an international platform for Moroccan, Arabic and African music, dance and theater — and Western pop. - The New York Times

StubHub And Its Customers’ Battles For Tickets

Complaints about StubHub to the Better Business Bureau rose 47% from 2024 to 2025, and climbed 63% in the eight months leading up to the company’s September 2025 initial public offering. - The Wall Street Journal

Germany’s Resurgent Far-Right Party Threatens To Defund “Anti-German” Culture

Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD) stands a good chance of winning a majority in the state legislature of Saxony-Anhalt, home to the birthplaces of Martin Luther and George Frideric Handel as well as the Bauhaus. The latter is a particular target of AfD, which says it will refuse to fund “anti-German art.” - Deutsche Welle

American Universities Are In Parlous Shape. Here’s Why

Though elite colleges profess a faith in meritocracy and insist that they are engines of class mobility, in practice they reward the already rewarded. - The Nation

Anthropic Says It Will Watermark All Text And Files Created In Claude

Anthropic said that all models released after August 2 will automatically have tech to watermark both computer-generated text and files. For files, the company is using the C2PA open standard. - TechCrunch

A Radio Station That Erroneously Broadcast The Death Of King Charles Is In Some Trouble

Whoops: “Once the staff member who accidentally played the files realised what they had done, they stopped playing them, ‘panicked and left the premises.’” - BBC

Study: Arts Orgs That Got More COVID Relief Funding Are Doing Better Than Those That Didn’t

From Sacramento and Seattle to New York City and Philadelphia, the study highlights diverging trends across cities — some rebounded from the pandemic and even exceeded their 2019 numbers, while others plummeted. - Hyperallergic

Seven Smithsonian Museums Closed Due To HVAC Issue

The museums, all on the south side of the National Mall, share one of the General Service Administration’s HVAC plants; the chilled water supply at that facility was disrupted on Thursday, leaving the museums without air conditioning during a heat wave. The buildings will reopen once the issue is resolved. - Washington City Paper

Do The People Of This Slovakian Village Really Want To Lose UNESCO World Heritage Status?

That’s what all the headlines said, but the people of the well-preserved medieval village of Vlkolínec say it’s not that simple. They want to protect their small, still-living community from the pressures of overtourism, which could easily overwhelm it. - Deutsche Welle

Dallas’s Perot Museum Of Nature And Science Seems To Be Planning A Big Expansion It Hasn’t Announced

The news comes from a filing the museum made last week with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation; management has also filed with the city of Dallas for a construction permit. Work is expected to start early next year. - The Dallas Morning News (MSN)

The Problem With Super-Flexible High-Tech Performance Venues

Justin Davidson on New York’s Perelman Arts Center and The Shed: “Now the boldest experimenters can take advantage of walls that move at the touch of a button, precision lifts, rooms that shrink and expand, projected images (on) moving surfaces. … Yet the revolution, now that it’s here, feels anticlimactic and overpriced.” - Curbed (MSN)

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