The new professional company, based in the large Dallas exurb of Plano, will debut in August and will follow with a three-show mainstage season and appearances at dance festivals next spring and summer. Local ballet instructor Sydney Blalock Ritchie is artistic director, with Cindi Lawrence Hanson as executive director. - Plano Magazine
Housing over 10,000 objects, it offers more than 600 years of history in its display of the treasures of the Bamoun kingdom, one of the oldest in sub-Saharan Africa. The museum’s striking architecture is dominated by a two-headed snake at its entrance and a spider perched on top of it. - The Conversation
While it would be misleading to take the dollar figures in isolation as the only measure of these companies’ ‘post-COVID’ build-backs, their financial statements tell a story of responsible management in pursuit of recovery. - ArtsHub
The problem is that while Radio 4 does indeed feature drama, no regular slot there allows for anything other than a play lasting 45 minutes. Leaving aside the fact that this rules out broadcasting classics by, say, Shakespeare or Chekhov, where does this leave new commissions? - The Stage
"The £60 million funding package includes £40 million for initiatives such as the Create Growth Programme, the Supporting Grassroots Music Fund, the UK Games Fund, the Music Export Growth Scheme, and the UK Global Screen Fund. Additionally, £16.2 million will be allocated to four cultural projects under the Cultural Development Fund." - WhatsOnStage (UK)
After being named editor in chief in 1978, Mr. Schneiderman elevated The Voice’s journalistic game, diversified a newsroom that was nearly all white and all male, and reckoned with an increasingly competitive landscape in which traditional newspapers and magazines imitated The Voice’s cutting-edge cultural and media coverage, as well as its insouciant tone. - The New York Times
The internet is flooded with what some call 'sadbait'. It gets far less attention, but some of today's most successful online content is melancholy and melodramatic. - BBC
"The Ghanaian-British architect first revealed designs for the National Cathedral of Ghana in 2018. In the years since, the cathedral has been fiercely debated among Ghanaian politicians, who have raised questions about its (cost and) funding" — more so now that construction appeared to have halted. - ARTnews
"Netflix revealed it has now reached 301.63 million subscribers globally when it reported its fourth-quarter 2024 earnings Tuesday. … (The company) smashed expectations by adding a record-breaking 18.91 million subscribers, a year-over-year increase of 15.9%." - Variety
"It’s scrappy, sure, with its rock’n’roll energy but theatermakers here are resourceful and don’t fit in boxes. … There's a palpable hunger to make theater against the odds, locals who can keep it viable are ready for it and artists enjoy the freedom of straddling aesthetic and artistic worlds." - The New York Times
"De Groft became director of the Orlando Museum of Art in 2021 and set out to bring more attention to the museum by programming exhibitions featuring big names in the art world. The museum soon was making headlines, but not in the way De Groft wanted." - Orlando Sentinel (MSN)
"Surveying 2,000 people, the 2022 report shows that 65 percent of people aged 18–34 listen to orchestral music regularly, compared to 57 percent of people aged 55+ and 56 percent for those aged 35–54." However, "older people are more likely to listen to orchestral music in a concert hall." - Limelight (Australia)
"Fully one-fifth of respondents indicated that censorship is 'a very big problem.' Nearly three-quarters judged it 'somewhat of a problem,' and 55 percent say that, compared to 10 years ago, censorship is a 'much bigger problem for museums today.' … (Yet) "90 percent of respondents do not have a written censorship policy." - Artnet
"While acknowledgment of the platform’s marketing and publicity power is overwhelming, many also assert that any concern over a drop in sales is overblown … (and) that another social media platform would come along to fill any BookTok-sized hole." - Publishers Weekly
