ISSUES

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)

Sure, Attack The Smithsonian. But Americans Really Love It

Even now, as the museum complex continues to face a pressure campaign from the White House, public fondness for the Smithsonian—for its free entry and eclectic collections—is hard to break among those otherwise receptive to President Trump’s anti-institutionalism. - The Atlantic

San Diego To Launch An Arts Pass Program

The San Diego Arts Pass — inspired by New York City’s Culture Pass, Britain’s National Art Pass, and the like — will offer purchasers reduced-price or free admission to over 40 organizations, including the Old Globe, San Diego Symphony, and La Jolla Playhouse, in San Diego County and metro Tijuana. - The San Diego Union-Tribune (MSN)

A Small Arts Project Supporting Emerging Artists Hits A Home Run. What Can We Learn?

This innovative new venture is perhaps best described as a super-smart business strategy that could also be a blueprint for other entrepreneurs to ignite arts spaces in their own communities, boost social connectedness and give young, emerging artists some much-needed financial support. - ArtsHub

Trump White House’s Proposed Budget Includes Funding Cuts And Staff Layoffs At Smithsonian

“For fiscal year 2027, the White House has proposed giving the Smithsonian $961.3 million in federal funding, roughly an 11% cut from the $1.08 billion Congress provided to it fiscal year 2026 and the institution’s lowest proposed funding level since at least 2020.” - ARTnews

London’s Royal Ballet And Opera Says It Needs £60 Million Just To Keep Its Building Open

“The historic Covent Garden venue … has reported a ‘critical’ need to invest in its stage infrastructure and the ‘fabric of our building’. Without doing so, the theatre is at risk of equipment failures and performance cancellations, according to a review of the organisation’s financial health.” - The Times (UK)

Hollywood’s Open, Horrible Secrets, Such As The Whisper Network Concerning Jared Leto

“When a lot of people make a percentage off the earnings of one famous individual, the capacity for denial is vast” — and now there’s a huge, “well-oiled anti-accountability machine” that cranks up as well. - The New York Times

The Report From Interlochen Might Help Change Michigan’s Laws Around Statute Of Limitations

Current bills "would extend the civil statute of limitations for criminal sexual conduct claims, create a one-year revival window for lawsuits that are currently time-barred and eliminate the civil statute of limitations when a criminal case results in a conviction.” - Detroit Free Press

The Firestorm Over Emily Wilson’s Review Of The Odyssey

It was a strongly worded review, and Joyce Carol Oates, for one, isn’t having it. "Oates said she would have expected a translator, whose role she described as having subjectivity, to be more tolerant.” - The New York Times

Kennedy Center Stops Public Tours Three Days After NY Times Feature On Tour Guide

On Monday, The New York Times posted an article featuring a longtime volunteer tour guide who said of the currently-dormant institution, “Now it’s a black hole.” On Thursday, a Kennedy Center official sent a memo to all volunteer tour guides telling them not to come there “until further notice.” - The New York Times

Trump Administration’s Overhaul Of Historical Preservation Rules Alarms Preservationists

“A draft of the rule changes that circulated in recent weeks prompted an outcry from preservationists, architects, archaeologists and organizations representing Native American tribes. … ‘It’s both a scalpel and a bludgeon,’ said Greg Werkheiser, a lawyer who specializes in preservation cases.” - The New York Times

Director Ruth Mackenzie, Sacked From Paris’s Théâtre Du Châtelet In 2020, Joins UK Prime Minister’s New Government

Following her abrupt firing, she went to direct Australia’s Adelaide Festival, then quit two years early to work in South Australia’s state government. Nine months after that, she departed for London to head the British Council. One year later, Mackenzie is now in the House of Lords as Under-Secretary for the Arts. - Limelight (Australia)

Italian Theatres, Mt. Olympus Added As World Heritage Sites

Meeting in Busan, South Korea, for its 48th session from July 19 to 29, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee inscribed 19 cultural sites, five natural environments, and one property exhibiting both cultural and ecological significance. - Artnet

Two Of Dallas’s Largest Performing Arts Institutions Are Merging

The AT&T Performing Arts Center — which includes the Winspear Opera House, Wyly Theatre, Annette Strauss Square, and Sammons Park — and one of its five resident companies, Dallas Theater Center, plan to combine administrations and many operations, with DTC becoming ATTPAC’s producing arm. - KERA (Dallas)

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