“Security, the report revealed, had been ‘relegated to the background,’ despite two audits completed in 2017 and 2019, years before the jewel heist. The 2019 audit prompted a Security Equipment Master Plan, but it was apparently not implemented in a timely fashion by (then-director) Jean-Luc Martinez.” - ARTnews
“Drama has historically been considered a form of fiction or poetry. Yet as recent plays approach the feeling of reportage, what’s surprising isn’t that so many fail to convince but that several succeed, in the process inventing a new style befitting our time.” - T — The New York Times Style Magazine
Paata Burchuladze, who had a very successful career as a bass before returning home to participate in the struggle against an increasingly authoritarian government, was convicted of “organization and leadership of group violence,” and “incitement to change the constitutional order of Georgia through violence” for organizing a large election-day protest last October. - OperaWire
British conductor Harry Bicket, who was appointed the summer festival’s principal conductor in 2013 and music director in 2018, has extended his contract through the 2028 summer season. Meanwhile, Mexican maestro Iván López Reynoso, currently principal conductor at Atlanta Opera, will take the same position at Santa Fe in 2027. - OperaWire
The project, which aims to make that side of the campus less fortress-like and more inviting, will turn the concrete-heavy stretch around Damrosch Park into a space with gardens, public gathering areas and a new 2,000-seat amphitheater. - Time Out New York
Dan Rather: “CBS Radio should be remembered for becoming a national institution. It, for many, many years, was part — and I would argue not a small part — of what held the country together.” - CBS News
Earlier this month, Biennale organizers announced that Iran had withdrawn from the event. But a high official in the country’s culture ministry just said in an interview, “(we) neither submitted a withdrawal letter nor stated that we would not attend. Rather, we said we would participate and requested more time.” - Artforum
“In the UK, ‘sorry’ is not simply an apology, it's a cultural reflex – a five-letter pressure valve used to soften requests, smooth over awkwardness, fill conversational gaps and avoid the national horror of seeming rude. … For visitors, the puzzle is ... working out what ‘sorry’ actually means.” - BBC
Air de Paris, a leading French gallery, will close its doors and declare bankruptcy after 36 years in business, the gallery’s cofounders, Florence Bonnefous and Edouard Merino, tell Cultured. - ARTnews
The disgraced movie mogul was first tried for the alleged assault of Jessica Mann in 2020; he was convicted of third-degree rape, but the verdict was overturned in 2024 over prosecutors' missteps. Weinstein’s 2025 retrial had a hung jury, and the current retrial is drawing little interest from media or spectators. - Vulture (MSN)
The places and events that Didion samples in the late Sixties—a time of unpopular foreign involvements, identity-based unrest at home, and a divisive, enigmatic national government—make right now an instructive time to read Slouching. - Hedgehog Review
No matter how one defines capitalism, the concept has served its critics well. Capitalism named an enemy, gave it a shape, and showed that it was on the march, threatening everything in its path. It still does. Scholars, by contrast, have often blanched at the term, dismissing it as political or polemical. - The Nation
Fruitful change in classical concert-going isn’t going to happen via a revolution. Change can only happen in a piecemeal, gradual way, building on what already exists. So, rather than throwing out the overture-concerto-symphony as a tired old relic, why not repurpose it? - The Telegraph (MSN)
“The government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has unveiled a $1.1 billion (just under US$800 million) arts and culture package in the 2026–27 Federal Budget, headlined by increased (money for funding agency) Creative Australia, targeted support for national collecting institutions and new investment in cultural infrastructure projects across the country.” - Limelight (Australia)
PRX works with 900 stations across the U.S., distributing more than 20 public radio shows like “The Moth” and “Latino USA.” They reach 5.3 million U.S. listeners each week — growth that PRX acknowledges bucks the trend of declining public radio audiences. - Inside Radio
