Attendance for the week ending January 11 was 272,911, down about 13% from the previous week. About 92% of all Broadway seats were filled, compared with 98% during the New Year’s week. Average ticket prices took a $40 drop from the holiday prices, to an average $126.76 last week. - Deadline
The Los Angeles theater world underwent a historic leadership shift in 2023 when two artistic directors of color were placed at the helm of the city’s most prestigious nonprofit companies. -Los Angeles Times
The risks of using generative artificial intelligence to educate children and teens currently overshadow the benefits, according to a new study by the Brookings Institution's Center for Universal Education. - NPR
The site, just across a canal from the museum, will be designed by landscape architect Piet Blanckaert, with Foster + Partners overseeing the renovation of three “Amsterdam School” pavilions. Among the sculptors with works to be included there are Alberto Giacometti, Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, and Henry Moore. - ARTnews
Just playing the instrument is difficult enough; making top-quality oboes is fiendishly complicated, and breaking even while doing it is challenging enough that Laubin Oboes was essentially bankrupt when Jim Phelan bought the firm in 2022. He has made some very promising changes. - The New York Times
“The deal, being announced Tuesday by San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, marks the latest development for the Nashville, Tenn., institution, sometimes called the Harvard of the South. … The new San Francisco location will host 1,000 full-time students and 100 faculty.” - The Wall Street Journal (MSN)
“(His) popular comic strip captured the frustration of beleaguered, white-collar cubicle workers and satirized the ridiculousness of modern office culture until he was abruptly dropped from syndication in 2023 for racist remarks.” - AP
“The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favor of several funding measures, including … the bill that determines the annual allocations for the NEA, NEH, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Gallery of Art, the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), and other cultural programs. … The Senate is expected to pass the bill.” - Hyperallergic
“Off-Broadway's Park Avenue Armory has named Deborah Warner its new artistic director, with the tenure to begin immediately. The theatre and opera director succeeds the group's most recent leader, Pierre Audi, following his sudden death last year." - Playbill
“The Smithsonian Institution on Tuesday submitted documents to the Trump administration including digital photographs of labels, placards and other texts on display in its museums … for the administration’s sweeping content review, which aims to rid the Smithsonian of what the White House has called ‘improper ideology’.” - The Washington Post (MSN)
The number of regular churchgoers in Germany has plunged over the past quarter-century, during which time roughly a thousand churches have been deconsecrated. Yes, some are torn down and the land repurposed, but others have been converted into apartments, cafés, medical offices, bicycle shops, soccer courts, and, of course, performance venues. - Deutsche Welle
“You are seated, waiting for the show to begin. Through your special glasses, you can see … four actors (entering). They come close to your chair and look directly at you. ‘Don’t panic,’ Ian McKellen tells you. But Ian McKellen isn’t really there. Neither are the other three actors.” - The New York Times
A gallery specialising in art once owned by members of the Third Reich’s leadership, including works personally owned by Adolf Hitler, has prompted conversations about how Nazi-era art circulates, how it should be contextualised and who engages with it. - The Art Newspaper
Unlike creators, a performer does not have the benefit of a personal product (or several) that persist over time like a symphony or novel or painting. - Nightingale Sonata
When I am photographing humans, I want to hear about their lives and aspirations. I care about their aesthetic sensibilities, what they are wearing, how they want to present themselves. Photographing an object feels different. I still savor the aesthetics of my subject, but my appreciation extends back to the object’s creator. - The New Yorker
