"We’ve now seen years and years of austerity, and it’s not just the arts that have taken a hit – it’s anything that sits on the periphery of the mainstream route to work. There do need to be questions asked about how we’re valuing the arts in this country.” - The Guardian
It can be fractured, confined, and eroded—perhaps not all at once, but over time if the conditions are not right for genius to flourish. Politicians can exercise their influence for short-term gain but if we look at the experience of the Soviets and the Nazis, such influence leads to long-term loss. - Nightingale Sonata
“With no standards in place for transparency, we fear this commingling of real and unreal could compromise the nonfiction genre and the indispensable role it plays in our shared history.” Indeed, the generative AI companies even present this footage as fact. - Los Angeles Times
Ahead of the Oscars, the West Bank-set documentary No Other Land was tipped to win - but it still has no U.S. distributor. It's "a bleak comment on the state of a documentary market that has seen buyer interest and dollars shrink.” - The Guardian (UK)
“The corporation apologized and removed Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, about the lives of three children caught in the Israel-Gaza war, from its streaming service BBC iPlayer” after news broke that one of the 13-year-old subjects is the son of a Hamas official. - The Hollywood Reporter
If Emilia Pérez doesn’t win much tonight, at least it looks good: "Saint Laurent clothes played pivotal roles in the wardrobes of various characters, including a faux fur coat worn by Selena Gomez and a red suit worn by Zoe Saldaña.” - The New York Times
“French president Emmanuel Macron has said he is concerned about the 'arbitrary detention’ and health of Boualem Sansal, days after the French-Algerian author began a hunger strike over his imprisonment in Algeria.” - The Guardian (UK)
The kingdom’s status as the birthplace of Islam is the very basis of its identity; as such, its pre-Islamic past was largely taboo. Yet current Saudi leaders see the ancient rock-hewn monuments of the Nabataeans (who also built Petra in Jordan) as the linchpin of a developing tourism industry. - History Today
Whatever you think about the first Fyre – with its limp cheese sandwiches, its disaster-relief-tent accommodation, the absence of advertised headliners, the $26m of unpaid debt, you have to admit it lived up to one promise: it was legendary. - The Guardian
“The real crisis we’re facing, in addition to people rescinding their membership, is that we’re normally finalising our season at this time and it’s been completely turned upside down. You see performers pulling out and that has real ramifications for staff and morale. We feel like we’re walking on eggshells. - The Guardian
As DEI efforts crumble and institutions scramble to figure out how to do the “right” thing, we appear to be in a new wave of pandemic-level chaos. This time, though, access has less to do with audiences and more to do with keeping doors open to the inclusive workforce. - Hyperallergic
"Taking diversity and inclusion out of art, that doesn't seem possible," Amy Austin, president and CEO of Theatre Washington, told TheWrap. "So I'm just not sure where this is going to lead." - The Wrap (MSN)
Colgate lasagna, spray-on condoms, the Fyre Festival, Theranos — all these and more are included in a pop-up exhibition which has appeared on three continents since 2017. Now the concept’s creator and the producing company are embroiled in legal conflict, not for the first time. - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
A new report from the UK's Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) found that 92 percent of students have used generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, for their studies. - Engadget
