“I’ve had mixed feelings about the effectiveness of NBC’s strategy — do I care about what John Mulaney has been watching (and wagering on) in Paris? No. … These athletes have star power on their own, and this is their moment to shine.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
Surprised "venues received letters saying that going forward the city would require a paid license for every event that 'falls into the category of an Amusement.” … These events ‘include but are not limited to lectures, exhibitions, theatre, sports, comedy, music and other shows that charge a fee.’” - Investigative Post
“Two of the founders of the new camp — architects and friends Mike Laverdure and Sam Olbekson — estimate that there are only about 30 Indigenous architects total in the U.S.” - and they’d like to change that number. - MPR
The King’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts is training and certifying craftspeople in disciplines that might otherwise be dying out, such as Pakistani kashikari ceramics, Persian miniature painting, Moroccan zellige mosaic tilework and Egyptian Mamluk woodcarving. - The Guardian
Nüshu developed among women in the south of Hunan who were barred from education. By the end of the 20th century the script had almost died out, but now younger women who see it as a form of resistance to patriarchal power are learning nüshu, even in Beijing and beyond. - AP
The situation in Australia is grim. "What this all shows is not only the precarity of the journalistic profession, but also the low value publications, newsrooms, media corporations and perhaps even the general public, place on quality journalism.” - ArtsHub
American downtowns may have mattered before 2020, but the enormous growth of remote work (with the resulting rise in office vacancy rates) and the consistent preferences of home buyers show that suburbs and exurbs are where the action is — especially since much development there is along New Urbanism lines. - The New Atlantis
“The anxieties of the art maker – the writer – come through in anxieties about painting, or photography, or sculpture, or dance. But the best art novels transcend this self-consciousness.” - The Guardian (UK)
"Gaming employees at every level … (labor in) a highly profitable and popular sector that has long exploited their creativity and devalued their work. Now, with the specter of generative AI hovering, … (they) are proving their worth and value — and ensuring that their workplaces will no longer treat them as disposable." - Slate (MSN)
At the Olympics, that’s not really in question as it’s part of Paris’s “Cultural Olympiad, a program of multidisciplinary arts events directed by Dominique Hervieu, a choreographer, an experienced leader in the arts and a former dancer as well.” - The New York Times
Leanne Benjamin, a former principal and then coach at London's Royal Ballet, returned home to Queensland early this year to take the helm at the Brisbane-based company. She's stepping down because she feels Queensland Ballet lacks sufficient funding to achieve her artistic ambitions. - InReview (Australia)
In late April, SMU Data Arts released its 2024 "National Trends for Arts and Cultural Organizations," analyzing figures from 233 institutions of varying sizes. This update has incorporated data from an additional 501 organizations. - SMU DataArts
"When it disclosed layoffs last July, the renowned nonprofit company said that it hoped to avoid a budget deficit in the year ending in August 2023. Instead, expenses exceeded revenue by $8 million that season, according to its most recent audited financial statement." - Broadway Journal
In FY 2021, aggregate spending by the 150 largest U.S. ballet companies had fallen by 39% from FY 2019. In FY 2022, spending rose from the FY 2021 figures by 63%. However, 89% of that spending was by the 50 largest companies. - Dance Data Project
