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Three Years After A Ferocious Battle, There’s Finally A New Official Definition Of “Museum”

When a new definition of the term was proposed to the International Council of Museums in 2019, the arguments over the wording were so furious that the submitted text was withdrawn.  An 18-month participatory process came up with a compromise text that ICOM has voted to adopt. - Museums Association (UK)

Musicians Of The Defunct San Antonio Symphony Have Formed A New Orchestra

The San Antonio Philharmonic will perform ten classical programs and three pops programs from September to next May at the city's First Baptist Church (rather than the Tobin Center, built for the SA Symphony) as well as 36 youth concerts in city schools. - San Antonio Report

Warner Bros. Is Holding Secret “Funeral Screenings” Of Shelved “Batgirl” Movie

The showings are reportedly restricted to those who worked on the film, as well as selected executives and representatives, before the footage is locked away for good.  Batgirl was seen in public only once, in a test screening with incomplete visual effects and music, before the studio canned it. - The Hollywood Reporter

More Basquiat Scandal Fallout: Orlando Museum’s Interim Director Resigns After Seven Weeks

Luder Whitlock took the temporary post on July 5, following the firing of director Aaron De Groft after the FBI confiscated as forgeries the works in the museum's big Basquiat exhibition. Whitlock had already served as the museum's interim director once before, for nine months in 2020. - ARTnews

Lessons From The Vanity Press Trenches

Despite my many frustrations with traditional publishing, I’ve chosen to believe in it because I think it gets a few things right. For one, it doesn’t charge artists, starving or not, to have their books published. - LitHub

Your Museum Has Been Implicated In A Fraud. What To Do? Why, A Task Force, Of Course

Shortly after federal agents descended upon the institution in June following questions about the authenticity of works in a Basquiat show, the Orlando Museum of Art canned its director Alan De Groft. Mounting evidence alludes to his involvement in a greater scam. - Artnet

Towards The Collective: Redefining Intelligence

We have become too used to thinking of intelligence as the private skill of individuals, vying against one another in a neoliberal world of relentless competition. What is needed, especially in an age of irredentist warmongering and climate disaster, is a greater emphasis on our ability to reason together, our “collective intelligence”. - The Guardian

The Internet As Anti-Humanity Machine

The intensity of our collective distraction is historically unprecedented, and for obvious reasons. Most importantly, the power players in our online experience are financially invested, and deeply so, in training users to flit quickly and continuously from one hyperlinked stimulus to another. - Hedgehog Review

The Things That Eat Books

The problem with assembling a massive collection of books is that you necessarily collect the very organisms that feed on books. - Lapham's Quarterly

Major Recording Label Signs Artificial Intelligence-Generated Rapper, Then Drops It Over Backlash

FN Meka, which has over 10 million followers on TikTok, had come under heavy fire for appropriating Black culture and mocking police brutality, with some critics calling it “digital blackface.” - Los Angeles Times

This Is Possibly The Most Influential Artist Whose Name You’ve Never Encountered

One wouldn't expect to consider a designer of advertising posters to be historically important, but Jules Cheret's work — widely imitated and now found in reproductions in countless homes, restaurants and offices — established the visual vocabulary that we now associate with the Belle Epoque. - Artnet

Anish Kapoor: I Fear For The Culture Of India

 In every field of culture, the "folk" takes second place. This denies the inventive power of our people. Modi's Hindu regime uses this hierarchical structure to impose its dominance by asserting Sanscritic superiority in the form of a Hindu hierarchy. - The Art Newspaper

Hating Holden Caulfield Does Not Make You A Bad Person

Certain corners of Twitter need to be reminded of this: a bitter argument broke out last week between those who find him an insufferable incel and those who insist he's an abused and bereaved teenager who deserves compassion (and those who disagree are heartless).  Folks, remember: Holden is fictional. - Vulture

Los Angeles Ballet Names A New Artistic Director

Melissa Barak was a leading dancer for Los Angeles Ballet during its first five seasons. She also performed with New York City Ballet, and in 2013 founded her own contemporary ballet company, Barak Ballet, which is on hold while Barak focuses on her new position. - Los Angeles Times

In This Concert, An Artificial Intelligence Program Was The Piano Soloist

The software called Voyager improvises responses to a live performance in real time. Last week, New York's Ensemble Signal and jazz flutist Nicole Mitchell performed George Lewis's Tales of the Traveler, for which the orchestra's part is notated but the soloist(s) improvise, with Voyager playing a Disklavier. - The New York Times

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