"What made this (latest) meeting different from most during the past year or so was that it came a month after Disney and DeSantis’s board appointees reached a deal to end their state court lawsuits over DeSantis’s takeover of the district." - AP
Leaders from across the theatre sector have outlined their vision for a reformed Arts Council England, warning that an unchanged funding body could stoke competition for cash in its current "binary system of extremes". - The Stage
Among the encouraging stats, participation in the arts has reached its highest level since the survey began in 2005, up to 54%. Young people, deaf and disabled, Māori and Pacific peoples participate in the arts most frequently. Engagement in the arts has had a bump too, up three per cent from the last survey at 78%. - Big Idea
By the late 1960s, bankers increasingly saw credit cards, which combined innovative information technology with access to affluent consumer markets, as the road to the future – as the key to innovating around the restrictive financial rules. - Aeon
The €5 charge is meant to discourage overcrowding and pay for extra upkeep costs. Yet, says one activist, "You can’t impose an entrance fee to a city; all they’re doing is transforming it into a theme park. This is a bad image for Venice … I mean, are we joking?" - The Guardian
Why it was introduced, on what dates will it be charged, who does and doesn't have to pay, where does and doesn't the fee apply, how it will be implemented, how to buy a ticket, and what will happen to you if you're caught sneaking in without paying. - The Guardian
Why the massive investment? At a time when Disney faces revenue challenges due to cord cutting, streaming wars and a slower film box office, its theme parks are a bright — and reliable — spot for its business. - Los Angeles Times
Daniel Singh, executive director of Metro Arts Commission, has been on medical leave for two months, claiming that racism he faces has affected his health. While he has some support in Nashville's arts community, Metro Arts staff evidently find him a very ineffective leader, and commissioners appear to agree. - WPLN (Nashville)
Our findings show that the vast majority of “primary occupation” freelancers (those who spend more than 50% of their time on freelancing) earn less than the minimum wage in the UK – typically £17,500 per year. - The Conversation
Modern education concentrates on teaching subjects, leaving the method of thinking, arguing, and expressing one’s conclusions to be picked up by the scholar as he goes along; mediæval education concentrated on first forging and learning to handle the tools of learning. - The Critic
"The advent of AI threatens to destroy the complex online ecosystem that allows writers, artists, and other creators to reach human audiences. To understand why, you must understand publishing" — not mean "publishing" as in producing books and magazines, but any online mechanism for bringing content to users. - The Atlantic (MSN)
he is considered the author of the “selection, coordination, and arrangement of text generated by artificial intelligence.” This means no one can copy the book without permission, but the actual sentences and paragraphs themselves are not copyrighted and could theoretically be rearranged and republished as a different book. - Wired
At a GOP hearing in December, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch told representatives that he didn’t think having children at drag shows was “appropriate.” Since then, one drag performer has been scheduled, canceled, rescheduled, canceled … and LGBTQIA+ staff members are alarmed. - Washington Post
The actors improvised the script and shot most of the footage. "The film was bought by Artisan Entertainment for $1 million, after which the actors were paid a $300,000 buyout of their ownership points on the film. They were also listed as 'missing, presumed dead' on IMDb." - Vulture
“The recent move against TikTok misses the larger point: Americans’ sources of information have declined in quality, and the problem goes beyond any one social media platform." - Fast Company
