“The new numbers validate efforts to make the Loop a social destination and combat high retail and office vacancy rates that have plagued the area since the pandemic … (and) it’s arts and culture programming that’s ‘driving the bus at the moment,’” said Chicago Loop Alliance CEO Michael Edwards. - WBEZ (Chicago)
A Tulane anthropologist was clearing out underbrush when she came upon a stone slab inscribed with Latin text. She called an archaeologist colleague, who investigated and learned that it was a first-century tombstone for a sailor in the Roman navy and had been missing from an Italian museum for decades. - Smithsonian Magazine
“The business made a loss from operations of $41.8m in the year ending 29 December 2024 and a total net loss before taxes of $48.1m. This followed a reported loss of more than $30m in 2023. In the (first half of) this year, the (newspaper) made a further $17.3m loss from operations.” - Press Gazette (UK)
The British conductor is the first person ever to win Gramophone’s Artist of the Year award twice. The Record of the Year prize went to the Pygmalion/Raphaël Pichon release of Bach’s Mass in B minor. Awards were made in 17 additional categories. - The Guardian
Members of the orchestra’s volunteer chorus received an email from management notifying them of the “difficult but necessary development” just hours before a performance last Friday. Bruffy also leads the Grammy-winning professional choir the Kansas City Chorale, which is making no comment on the matter. - The Kansas City Star
Active as a concert singer as well as in opera, she was for some years a mainstay at the Met, Covent Garden, Salzburg, Glyndebourne, and especially the Netherlands Opera. She was known for Mozart, Verdi, and Puccini as well as a landmark portrayal of the title role in Janáček’s Jenůfa. - Moto Perpetuo
The actor who brought so much manic energy to Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Rocky Horror), Wadsworth the butler (Clue), and Pennywise the clown (Stephen King’s It) talks about his career, his recovery, and his mother (on whom Curry based Dr. Frank-N-Furter’s exit from the refrigerator with the bloody axe). - The Guardian
A recent study published by the Urban Libraries Council explores the idea that libraries can draw people to city centers that have been suffering from the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. - Bloomberg
“The warning came as … growing numbers of (union) members made complaints about infringements of their copyright and misuse of their personal data in AI material. … Last week (Equity) confirmed its was supporting a Scottish actor who believes her image was used in the creation of ‘AI actor’ Tilly Norwood.” - The Guardian
"I have yet to meet someone who really believes that there will be less digital or AI in the world 10 years from now than there is today. It’s not a question of if, but when." - ARTnews
Notably, the tally of $4.042 million comes outside of the holiday season, when shows typically see their highest grosses and slightly bests Hamilton’s previous high of $4.041 million, which was set in 2018 in the Christmas week. - The Hollywood Reporter
“The goal is to create a unified strategy and list of priorities to present with the Legislature to support the arts, culture, and humanities going forward,” CACO Senior Advisor Sue Hildick told Oregon ArtsWatch. - Oregon Arts Watch
The Mason Bates/Gene Scheer opera, whose ticket sales improved for each performance of this fall’s run (the last two selling out, despite widely divergent reviews), is being brought back for four performances this February. Only one other time in its modern history has the company added shows mid-season. - Playbill
Young actors who trained at drama school during the pandemic are struggling to project their voices and lack range because they were denied the crucial “experience of full vocal and physical presence” within a theatre, the co-artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) has said. - The Guardian
Using augmented reality (AR), the artists intervened in the gallery’s 19th-century paintings—generic and imagined landscapes, portraits of affluent settlers and grandiose historical scenes—digitally superimposing cosmological figures, pow-wow dancers and suffocating layers of ivy. - The Art Newspaper
