While each example in the litany of headlines of late is unique, taken together, the drumbeat of bad news raises serious questions about nonprofit governance, and ought to shine a light on government’s increasing reliance on outsourcing vital services to unaccountable entities. - Philadelphia Citizen
Bean's The Amorous Prince, or The Curious Husband was considered "too radical, too shocking" in its day, says director Natalie Cox. "Some of the things it made fun of, such as masculinity, were not au fait with what should have been on stage at that point. It just fell into obscurity." - BBC
"Tarmo Peltokoski was hired Thursday to succeed Jaap van Zweden as music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic. Peltokoski, at 24 far younger than most music directors, will start a four-year term in the 2026-27 season after serving as music director designate in 2025-26." - AP
Slovo Patsana: Krov na Asphalte (roughly, "The Boy's Word: Blood on the Asphalt") "is a warning about what happens when our ability for moral reasoning becomes so impoverished that the most straightforward response to any situation is to punch somebody in the face." - The New York Times Magazine
"(Researchers) studied songs placed in the top five of the US Billboard year-end singles music chart each year between 1950 and 2022. … The results revealed the average complexity of melodies had fallen over time, with two big drops in 1975 and 2000, as well as a smaller drop in 1996." - The Guardian
The Venetian master's Rest On The Flight Into Egypt (1510) was looted by Napoleon's soldiers in 1809 and returned at bayonet-point after Waterloo; it was stolen again in England in 1995 and found in a plastic carrier in London in 2002. At Christie's it sold for £17.6 million, a record for Titian. - CNN
"Incoming UK prime minister Keir Starmer will need to appoint a new secretary of state for culture, media and sport (CMS) after shadow culture secretary Thangam Debbonaire lost her seat (in the newly-created district Bristol Central) in the general election." - Screen Daily
As UK Equity summed it up, "We’ll be pressing ... for UK arts funding to reach the European average, ... to make Universal Credit fairer for freelancers, to ensure public subsidy only supports work on decent union terms and to fight for better rights in the video games and TV commercials sector." - Variety
Media heavyweights are likely due to endure more pain as the year goes on. The political and regulatory environment for mergers and acquisitions is so volatile that there’s little hope of getting a horizontal combination in any form among Paramount, WBD or Comcast/NBCUniversal approved. - Variety
The mayor of Jersey City and a major supporter of the museum, blamed the cuts instead on his deteriorating relationship with the state’s governor, Phil Murphy, who had supported the Centre Pompidou x Jersey City initiative when it was announced in 2021 as a way to attract tourists and New Yorkers. - The New York Times
First Minister John Swinney has criticised the “misplaced” targeting of the firm, while Scottish culture secretary Angus Robertson has warned that disinvestment campaigns were posing an “existential threat” to arts organisations at a time when many of them were already in “financial distress.” - The Scotsman (MSN)
Especially cruel realities face a struggling field like literary studies, with its disappearing majors, budgetary pressures, abysmal job market, fears about academic freedom, and more. Literary critics have good reasons to be downcast. Downcast and, at times, spiteful. - LA Review of Books
Shields’s music director suggested she consider the opening, and soon enough, she had tossed her hat in the ring, and in May she won the vote by members, defeating two more-seasoned labor activists. - The New York Times
The Donne report found that 78.4 percent of works in 2023–2024 were by historical (deceased) white men, with 30.6 percent coming from the top 10 (canon) composers, whose names are surely familiar. - San Francisco Classical Voice
Right now, after the chaos of the COVID years and amid a cost of living crisis, many in the sector are feeling like arts funding is at an all-time low… Or is it? - ArtsHub
