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A Few U.S. Museums Are Letting Actual Young People Curate Their Shows For Youth

This fall alone, the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the UC Irvine Orange County Museum of Art have exhibitions curated by students ranging from high-schoolers to grade-schoolers. Professional staff assisted, but they put the kids through their paces. - The New York Times

Vancouver Symphony Musicians’ Strike Has Ended

The musicians’ union and management reached agreement (pending a ratification vote) on a new contract on October 5, bringing to an end a ten-day walkout that was the first strike in the VSO’s 107-year history. - CBC

Inside New York City Ballet Dancers’ Last-Minute Boycott Of The Fall Fashion Gala

They decided only an hour beforehand to dance the performance but not show up at the red carpet or gala dinner — because they “wanted (their) absence to be felt.” They maintain that management’s offers in contract negotiations “fall far short” of other U.S. companies' contracts, despite NYCB’s greater “financial stability.” - The Cut (MSN)

Tampa Bay Gets A New (And For Now, Only) Professional Ballet Company

The closure of Tampa Bay classical companies during the COVID-19 pandemic spurred co-founder Heather Ossola’s desire to fill the void. “I really felt like I had something to offer and give the Tampa Bay area a company they deserve,” she says. “And I had some experience working as a ballet mistress.” - 83 Degrees (Tampa)

A Plot Twist In The Saga Of San Francisco’s Vaillancourt Fountain

Excessive deterioration due to deferred maintenance is the reason city officials have given for their (controversial) decision to demolish the (controversial) Brutalist artwork. However, newly rediscovered documents indicate that the city has not been the party responsible for the fountain’s upkeep. - Artnet

José Limón Turned O’Neill’s “Emperor Jones” Into Dance

Limón adapted the 1920 play for his company in 1956, and the company’s current artistic director decided it was time for a revival: “The original story is about … a felon who becomes a tyrannical leader. I didn’t feel the imagination had to go far to draw a contemporary parallel.” - The New York Times

Cultural Boycotts Are Ripping UK Arts Organizations Apart

This fraught debate has pitted artists who are broadly in agreement against each other. “There’s so much energy being spent ripping ourselves to shreds that arguably could be repurposed and deployed to Nigel Farage or Keir Starmer." - The Guardian

Taylor Swift Sets Another All-Time Record

Swift broke the record set by Adele's 25, which sold 3.378 million copies in its first week in 2015. The Life of a Showgirl was released Oct. 3. In its first week, pure album sales totaled 3,479,500 copies. She's also become the solo artist with the most No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200. - CBC

Across B.C., Arts Organizations Large And Small Are Struggling

“As rising costs hit British Columbians in all areas of life, advocates say arts organizations across the province are struggling to keep up.” - CBC

To Be An Artist In Canada Is To Be Prisoner Of Subsidy

Even if an artist can afford to turn up their nose at it, the entire structure that allows them to show, see, and otherwise participate in the arts is so enmeshed with government money that rejecting it individually is as meaningless as refusing to eat Madagascar vanilla to help with your carbon footprint. - The Walrus

James Wood On László Krasznahorkai 

For many ordinary readers, the idea of entering a fictional world constantly teetering on the edge of a revelation that is always imminent but concealed, in which words pace ceaselessly around reference, and whose favored tool is the long, unstopped sentence, one that takes, say, four hundred pages to... - The New Yorker

At 93, Is Gerhard Richter Our Greatest Living Artist?

That much will certainly be made clear in a massive Richter retrospective opening this month at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris. Comprising some 250 objects, it is the largest survey of his work to date, exceeding MoMA’s landmark Richter show in 2002. - ARTnews

How Small Arts Organizations Do Fundraisers Without Fancy Gala Soirées

In Houston, smaller groups who can’t afford the big upfront costs of galas get quite inventive with their benefit events. - Houstonia Magazine

Gertrude Stein’s Language Experiments Were Considered Difficult. But Let’s Reconsider

“Devotees of her cult professed to find her restoring a pristine freshness and rhythm to language. Medical authorities compared her effusions to the rantings of the insane.” - BookForum

American Education Is In A Desperate State. It Is Failing Its Students

We are now seeing what the lost decade in American education has wrought. By some measures, American students have regressed to a level not seen in 25 years or more. - The Atlantic

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