From the estate of Lois Kirschenbaum, who spent decades attending opera and ballet and collecting autographs at Lincoln Center and elsewhere, "donations of $215,000 apiece have started to arrive, surprising groups like New York City Opera, American Ballet Theater, Carnegie Hall and the Public Theater." - The New York Times
"The Academy … will keep its museum open and fully operating. It plans to carry on classes in continuing education and its K-12 arts programs. At the same time, PAFA intends to restore its comprehensive three- or four-year certificate program and relaunch it this fall." - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
"Amazon is laying off “several hundred” employees at Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios. Additionally, 500 employees — or 35% of the workforce — are being let go at Amazon-owned livestream platform Twitch." - Variety
"Freedom of information requests by the PA news agency to museums and galleries that receive public funding from the (national government) asking for details on absent items from the last 20 years found that more than 1,700 items were absent from collections." - The Guardian
A new Brexit tax hike set to hit U.K. orchestras later this year could make trips to Europe “unviable” and undermine their activities back in Britain, the trade body representing the musical ensembles is warning. - Politico
“I am interested in how being ‘in sync’ with other people through the experience of music-making and other forms of artistic expression supports a general feeling of connectedness to others, which in turn may support people’s well-being.” - Ludwig Van
A.I. is in the phase when kids live like tiny energetic monsters, before they’ve learned to be thoughtful about the world and responsible for others. That’s why I’ve come to feel that A.I. needs to be socialized the way young children are... It needs, in short, to be parented. - The New York Times
First was the original ‘world order’ created by Genghis Khan (and his house) in the 13th century. If there is indeed an ‘East’ that is distinct from the ‘West’, one of the points of separation can be placed here. - Aeon
The LAPL, which manages 73 branches and houses more than 8 million books, has lately been much more ambitious than even the average big-city library system, aggressively expanding its special collections in recent years. But acquiring an entire press takes the system to a whole new level. - Los Angeles Times
An adviser to a Russian billionaire asserted in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday that he and his boss had been tricked by a Swiss art dealer into wildly overpaying for works of art and that a Sotheby’s expert’s opinions played a role in persuading them to pay the inflated prices. - The New York Times
After she discovered the work of African-American spoken-word poets, Vanessa Chisakula co-founded Word Smash Poetry in Lusaka, Zambia's capital, and she's seen poetry events spread across the country in the years since. - The Guardian
The Artspace is the latest manifestation of a resurgence of Native cultural traditions and ceremonies and the increased national and international visibility of Indigenous artists. - The New York Times
As Civic Platform, the leading party in the new governing coalition, put it last year, "Poles deserve real public television, not like Russia Today, but like the BBC." But the old governing party, Law and Justice, had passed legislation that has made depoliticizing the public broadcaster complicated. - Columbia Journalism Review
Haring created the 1989 work titled Unfinished Painting as a comment on the lives unlived and the creativity unrealized because of the AIDS epidemic, which killed Haring himself a few months later. So when someone posted an AI completion on social media recently, reaction was swift and ferocious. - Hyperallergic
I don’t want it to be an art form where people feel like it’s only for certain types of people. Because it’s not. I mean, my story is sort of a testament to that. - Washingtonian
