“Citing a chronic shortage of financial backing for independent publishers and nonprofits dedicated to writing and reading, a coalition of seven charitable foundations has established a Literary Arts Fund that will distribute a minimum of $50 million over the next five years.” - AP
Still Life with Guitar (1919) was supposed to be in a shipment of artworks from Madrid to Granada for an exhibition, but it didn’t arrive with the rest of the art. Did it proverbially “fall off the truck”? Spanish police say it may never have been on the truck. - Reuters
“Before the shocking theft of the French Crown Jewels from the Louvre on October 19, most had all but forgotten the ruling women who once wore them during their 19th-century reigns.” - ARTnews
There’s an immediate pay increase well as 3% annual raises for the next three years, increased producer contributions to Equity’s health insurance plan, and a limit to how many consecutive days an actor or stage manager must work. - Playbill
Federal courts have ordered the administration to release funds for and resume news broadcasts at Voice of America and its sister networks such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty — and there are Republican as well as Democratic lawmakers who want the stations to continue. - The New York Times
In addition to her role in what many consider the greatest British sitcom in history, Scales’s 60-odd-year career ranged through TV series from Coronation Street to Great Canal Journeys and films from Hobson’s Choice to Howard’s End — not to mention Dotty the Demanding Shopper from a set of Tesco commercials. - The Independent (UK)
The musical, which depicts Eliza Schuyler, Hamilton, and Angelica Schuyler as emotionally entangled right from the get-go, catalyzed Amanda Vaill’s earlier feeling that there was a backstory to Hamilton’s relationship with his wife and sister-in-law that should be told. - Slate
What I am about to say on this matter may seem perverse, but I think a look back at the instances where great works of literature almost disappeared upon publication or came close to not being published can offer a useful perspective, and even a modicum of hope, that the game is far from over. - The New York...
It is because we are surrounded by these kinds of A.I. images and tools that users are now also trained to be skeptical of everything they see. - The New York Times
The collection’s history stretches as far back as the 1750s, to when the school was called the College of New Jersey, but its earliest art holdings were destroyed in the Revolutionary War’s Battle of Princeton in 1777. - Artnet
While the panic in the trenches is real, and the concerns over copyright infringement grab headlines—three major studios are suing the AI company Midjourney—AI has yet to yield the dreaded industry job losses. AI has yet to deliver on its promise to make filmmaking much cheaper and easier, too. - The Atlantic
Those in favour argue that they are essential for discovering new talent and launching international careers. The main arguments against them are that they stifle musicality by focusing on technical perfection, and reward conformity rather than originality. - The Spectator
Surely, to everyone outside the republic, a pair of cat burglars cleverly robbing a museum in broad daylight and escaping—Beep! Beep!—on mopeds is very nearly the Frenchest thing that could have happened. - The Atlantic
Now that chatbots are going the way of Google—moving from the miraculous to the taken-for-granted—the anxiety has shifted, too, from apocalypse to atrophy. Teachers, especially, say they’re beginning to see the rot. The term for it is unlovely but not inapt: de-skilling. - The Atlantic (MSN)
Perhaps the most famous commission became one of America's most iconic pieces of music. Aaron Copland's ballet Appalachian Spring, written for dancer and choreographer Martha Graham, received its world premiere at Coolidge Auditorium on Oct. 30, 1944. - NPR
