Winners include Rabih Alameddine's Beirut-set The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) (Fiction), Omar El Akkad’s examination of the war in Gaza, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This (Nonfiction), and Daniel Nayeri’s The Teacher of Nomad Land, set in World War II-era Iran (Young People’s Literature). - NPR
“After the (NEA) canceled a large percentage of its awards in May, organizations across the country have decided they would rather find money elsewhere than be subject to federal restrictions. … It is a decision that they say prioritizes free speech and creative expression without fear of restrictions or retribution.” - The New York Times
Yes, the themed-museum-and-entertainment franchise Ripley’s Believe It or Not! was the purchaser of Cattelan’s America at Sotheby’s in New York this week. In its pun-filled announcement, Ripley’s proudly said that Cattelan’s conceptual artwork is the most expensive item in its collection. - Artnet
“The Venezuelan-born conductor — who became a naturalized US. citizen last year on the stage of the symphony’s Jacobs Music Center — began his tenure here with the orchestra in late 2019.” His contract term now extends through the 2028-29 season, with the new title of Music and Artistic Director. - The San Diego Union-Tribune (MSN)
The Galilee Chamber Orchestra, currently touring the US, is based in Nazareth (considered the cultural capital for Israel’s native Palestinians, about 20% of the country’s total population). It was formed 13 years ago as the first fully professional orchestra with equal numbers of Jewish and Arab musicians. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
“Modernity is a machine for destroying limits." This attack on limits is legible in a host of current phenomena, including mass immigration, free-market orthodoxy, the rise of AI, overseas labor exploitation, the clear-cutting of rainforests, and new ideas about gender. - The Atlantic
For each of this weekend’s three performances of Philip Glass’s La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast, set to Jean Cocteau’s 1946 film), Fort Worth Opera has 100 tickets available for $1 or whatever price the purchaser names. - NBC 5 (Dallas-Fort Worth)
What about all the painting, sculpture, photography, video, and performance that people still love to make and see? They’re not going away, but it’s become harder to create fine art in those media while remaining on cultural discourse’s cutting edge. - Art in America
Under the legislation, France would become the only major market art center to impose a wealth tax on the mere possession of artworks, says the statement. France is the world’s fourth-largest art market, and accounts for more than half of the European Union’s market value, at $4.2 billion. - ARTnews
Watching a dance rehearsal as a score-addicted musician is surreal. You can have 30 people in the room, and only two of them will have the score. What is fascinating is that the choreographer has imposed an entirely different, invisible form of notation on the form of their counting. - The Guardian
The project is digitizing U.S. newspapers that are are now in the public domain (after 95 years). The center also has permission to place online certain titles still under copyright. Other U.S. Black papers still under copyright are available on site, as are publications from the Caribbean and Africa. - The Christian Science Monitor
Even as other industries — from technology to publishing — proceed to incorporate AI to cut costs and replace jobs, media companies have bumped up against numerous roadblocks including actors reluctant to cooperate with AI models, animators and post-production experts pushing back on change, technological limitations and legal questions. - Yahoo Finance
Theater makers have long depicted health struggles onstage, including the realities of living with H.I.V. and cancer, but the debate around this production, titled “Jeanne Dark” and running through May 22, has shown that ethical questions remain about how various conditions are portrayed theatrically — and who gets to shape those depictions. - The New York Times
That question worried the choreographer, administrators, and the dancers, none of whom are Sami themselves. What’s more, the piece was about a particularly sensitive topic: a violent uprising in 1852. So everyone was nervous about performing in the town where the rebellion happened. - The New York Times
Although scientists are just beginning to study food noise as a concept, individuals who have taken a GLP-1 drug often report that it significantly reduces this distracting, ruminative thinking about food – a near-constant background hum of unwanted food-related thoughts, feelings and desires that may contribute to making poor food choices. - Psyche
