Gina Duncan was the first person of color to lead the academy, which operates several stages and a cinema, and has an annual operating budget of $56 million. She had previously served as BAM’s first vice president of film and strategic programming but had not held the top job at an arts institution. - The New York Times
“The new school, which became official at the start of 2025, now hosts a commercial dance department as well as a concert dance department, and students have the opportunity to earn their BFA in dance with a concentration in ballet, jazz, modern dance, or — for the first time — hip hop.” - Dance Teacher
“After a year of discussions, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and M+, a contemporary art museum in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon arts district, have formalized an agreement that could soon see them share shows, research, and donor development resources.” - ARTnews
An exhibition at the Prado in Madrid has gathered together panels of the altarpiece Doménikos Theotokópoulos painted for the Monastery of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo. The central panel belongs to the Art Institute of Chicago; the others are at the monastery or in private collections. - Artnet
“House File 274 would repeal a section of the Iowa Code that addresses obscenity exemptions for public libraries and educational institutions, while Senate File 347 aims to control the selection and purchase of books and materials with alleged sexual content and proposes steep fines for sharing such work with minors.” - Publishers Weekly
“(Hadi Matar,) the New Jersey man on trial (for) the 2022 stabbing of author Salman Rushdie, declined to testify in his defense Thursday as his lawyers rested their case without calling any witnesses. … Earlier Thursday, prosecutors called a forensics expert as their final witness, wrapping up seven days of testimony.” - AP
“Broadway has seen more foot traffic and bigger audiences in the first month since the curtain went up on the congestion pricing era — though it’s too early for some to say whether the Manhattan tolls played a starring or a cameo role in such success.“ - amNY
“The Broccoli family’s feud with Amazon MGM Studios over the (property) appears to have reached a resolution. Barbara Broccoli and her stepbrother Michael Wilson, who have long controlled the 007 franchise, (have) reached an agreement to hand over creative control to a joint venture with the studio.” - The Wall Street Journal (MSN)
The company danced at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in the 1990s but hasn't been back since. But starting next month, following a $5.3 million renovation, Richmond Ballet will be performing its Moving Art series of classical and contemporary work at the VMFA's Leslie Cheek Theater. - WRIC (Richmond, VA)
Seeing the seams is part of live performance’s charm—it asks the audience to actively participate in the suspension of reality, as opposed to having it ready-made for them. Broadcast opera retains some of that immediacy, but without the magic of a live performance, it’s harder to forgive its failings. - The Atlantic
The movie industry has gotten much more careful in the past few decades about authenticity (Emilia Pérez notwithstanding). Yet screenwriters won't write out foreign-language dialogue, or phonetically spell dialects or regional accents, in the formal screenplay itself, and there are good reasons for that. - The Conversation
“We can’t stand the fact that the sticker price is so high despite the fact that nobody pays it.” This pricing strategy took hold in the early 1980s. - The Atlantic
"Police in Kashmir have raided dozens of bookstores and seized more than 650 books as part of crackdowns on dissent in the Indian-administered region. Most of the titles were written by Abul A’la Maududi, a prominent 20th-century Islamic scholar who founded Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamic organisation banned in Kashmir." - The Guardian
This report represents the first time the Australian book industry has been granted a detailed level of insight into recreational readers and also offers ideas on how to motivate more Australians to read. - ArtsHub
