Talking with a man who won a photography contest with an AI-produced image, "you definitely get this feeling of almost resentment toward human artists, too, where he’s saying, like, you know, you all think you’re so special. And I just proved that you’re not." - Slate
"Writing with clarity of vision is tricky given how embedded Vaughan Williams is in British musical culture. He wore many hats in his time: symphonic composer, choral society conductor, folksong collector, hymn-tune compiler. ... He remains the nation’s favourite composer." - The Guardian (UK)
The dancer and choreographer, who built the ballet from that tiny beginning to "the country’s leading Hispanic dance performance and education troupe," has died at 92. - The New York Times
PNB "is basking in the aftermath of successful summer tours" to NY and LA. "With almost 40 dancers on full-time contract, its own critically acclaimed orchestra and a thriving ballet school that serves hundreds of students in both Seattle and Bellevue, PNB has earned an international reputation." - Crosscut (Seattle)
Abortion: Yes, artists make art about it. But they'd kept it somewhat quiet for years. Now? Everything's on the table - and in some cases, out front. - The New York Times
The author of a new book argues that while math can give some pretty cool possibilities, the real-world evidence isn't there. She argues that "there are still plenty of cool ideas, including weather control, faster-than-light communication, and creating new universes, that don’t contradict known science." - Wired
Polshek was the opposite of a starchitect. He "went the other way, embracing a modest approach to architecture that prioritized a design’s social value over its aesthetic worth." He designed buildings like the Santa Fe Opera, the Bill Clinton library and museum, and more. - The New York Times
Volunteers held the line for a decade, but now local government has stepped in to save and shore up the tower in Dublin where Joyce began Ulysses. - Irish Times
The average outdoor concert, powered by diesel generators, "releases 500 metric tons of carbon dioxide—that’s roughly the same as driving 100 gas-powered cars in the U.S. for an entire year." Not so the concerts of Lukas Graham. - Time
Even protest art understood what she meant to Britain. "If you don’t care about something, you don’t need to deface it. In 1977, only one image in British life was sacred enough for the Sex Pistols to defile: the face of the Queen." - The Guardian (UK)
Filmmaker Laura Poitras' All the Beauty and the Bloodshed takes home the top prize, rare for a documentary. "The film examines Goldin’s art, life and her activism in protesting the family and Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, for their roles in the opioid crisis." - The New York Times
"More than 70 stolen antiquities, some more than 2,000 years old, were seized from collections in the U.S. and returned to their native countries of Italy and Egypt this week." And 27 of those were from the Metropolitan Museum of Art - which probably knew these goods were hot. - NPR
From modest beginnings in 1922, the company has grown and blossomed to become one of the preeminent organizations in American opera. - San Francisco Chronicle
