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US Museum Attendance Hits A Post-Pandemic Plateau

"Recent data collected by Artnet from more than a dozen museums around the country suggests that attendance recovery has slowed, with some cultural institutions finding that audience levels have stagnated or dropped over the last year." - Artnet

Over 1,500 Edinburgh Fringe Participants Demand Reform

"Hundreds of artists, performers, venues and promoters say it is becoming 'increasingly difficult' to justify the expense of taking part in the event, which will mark its 75th anniversary next month. More than 1,500 of them have called for 'immediate, meaningful action' to address a host of concerns." - The Scotsman

In Response To Highland Park Shooting, Ravinia Festival Cancels This Week’s Concerts

The festival campus is just a couple of miles away from the site of the murders at Monday's Fourth of July parade. - MSN (Chicago Tribune)

Bumping Up On The Limits Of Wellness Culture

Experimental psychology and data science would be used to develop clearer (and sometimes counterintuitive) recommendations for improving users’ lives. Bestselling books were written in this genre. - Hedgehog Review

UK Schools Delete Irish Writers In Bid To Diversify Curriculum

Irish writers have been dropped from the exam curriculum in British schools in favour of writers from more diverse backgrounds. Poets Seamus Heaney and Eavan Boland and playwright Brian Friel have been removed from both the GCSE and A-levels curriculums. - Irish Times

How The Pyramid-Builders Lived

The portrait these documents convey is of resourceful workers who roamed from the country’s sacred core to some of its most remote precincts gathering the materials to create enduring monuments that furthered their leader’s ambitions and stand as a testament to their skill and dedication. - Archeology

How Social Media Platforms Decide Which Ideas Are Allowed

Platforms often claim that they are not in the business of creating the content that appears on their platforms, and that’s usually true. But it doesn’t mean they are neutral in public debate. Far from it. Instead of making arguments themselves, they rank, sort and order the ideas of others. - LitHub

The Remarkable Turnaround Of The Atlanta Symphony

The ASO has announced a new three-year collective bargaining agreement with its musicians, and its eighth consecutive year with a balanced budget. The orchestra exceeded its Annual Fund revenue goals, and the symphonic world is abuzz over the appointment of Nathalie Stutzmann as the ASO music director. - Arts ATL

The Peril Of Being Surrounded By Admirers

Admirers agree with you “even if you say something totally crazy.” And that’s bad: “You need people who can tell you what you don’t want to hear." Being admired for our accomplishments is pleasant, but it can also inflame our vanity and distort reality in ways that leave us worse off in the end. - The Atlantic

The “Insignificant” Details That Bring Historical Writing Alive

As a writer, the key is not so much assembling reams and reams of material, but finding the details that make a period or situation vivid for you and, eventually, for the reader – those few facts which make a sprawling and multi-faceted topic specific enough to relate to and empathise with. - The Conversation

As AI Software Learns To Write Prose, Create Art, And Make Conversation, We Might See Too Much Of Ourselves In It

"Current AI systems hold up a mirror to our online minds. Like Narcissus, we can get lost gazing at the reflection, even though it is not always flattering. We ought to ask ourselves: Is there more to these algorithms than mindless copy? The answer is not straightforward." - Nautilus

How Design Can Cause People Not To Use Public Space

In cities around the globe – from Algiers, Auckland and Chicago to Hanoi, Mexico City and Seoul – research shows that transforming public spaces markedly affects the diversity of what people do in them, and whether they use them. - The Conversation

Harold Rosenberg Was A Towering Critic. How Did He Disappear?

One of Rosenberg’s most celebrated essays skewered those whom he dubbed “The Herd of Independent Minds”: scholars and critics who roundly dumped on an ascendant popular culture, claiming it inspired a sameness of thought. - Dissent

Ridley Scott Called These Studios “The Finest Facilities In The World”. The EU Shut Them Down, And They’re Just Now Reopening.

"One of Spain's most notorious and costly white elephants, the Ciudad de la Luz (City of Light) film studios in Alicante, is to get a new lease of life 10 years after it was forced to shut by the EU on grounds of unfair competition." - The Guardian

The Young Conductor Who Replaced Muti On A Moment’s Notice And Wowed The Chicago Symphony

“I wasn’t expecting it, but somehow, I took more notes than usual on the Brahms that day,” she says. - Chicago Tribune

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