"The findings of the academic 'crisis' report, ... by the University of Warwick and the Campaign for the Arts pressure group, … (show) that while Britain has cut back its total culture budget by 6% since 2010, Germany, France and Finland have each increased their spending by up to 70%." - The Observer (UK)
The Federal Theatre sought to democratize the dramatic arts. But it also tried to use theater to invigorate democracy, which is where the program ran into trouble. - Yale Review
Some parts involve passive viewing, like a sequence in which the supervillain Thanos is on trial for theft. But there’s also a lot of interactivity: one character explains how to use hand gestures, like making a fist, to defend yourself against enemies and cast magic spells. - NPR
Darren Walker announced Monday that he would step down as the president of the Ford Foundation at the end of 2025 after what will have been a consequential 12-year tenure in which he shifted the institution’s focus to inequality and oversaw the distribution of $7 billion in grants. - The New York Times
Publicly backing charity causes on both an intermittent and regular basis earned musicians more likes, shares and comments. These artists also increased music sales, whether they sent these messages occasionally or constantly. - The Conversation
“There is something so special about being the first to see something. These fresh new works are in progress, developing and that draws an audience into it." - CultureOC
There are three principles: The first is that we should have everything that Congress needs to do its work. The second is that we should possess the materials that cover the life and achievement of the United States. And the third is that we’re not in a vacuum, and we need stuff from the rest of the world. - Scientific...
"We know that there is a provenance verification opportunity here. We all know it and we all know that the art world is resisting it because it suggests transparency, which we say we want but we don't really want." - Axios
Numerous panelists obliquely referred to the fears around AI, offering reassurances without ever saying the words automation, labor, climate change, or super-intelligence. - ARTnews
“One of the ways to preserve and expand the musical canon is to let everyone have a shot at it — especially the people so many classics were written about or too often ignored.” See, for example, Cats: The Jellicle Ball. - The New York Times
“What is becoming clear now is that the coming war is not really one between human and machine creativity; the two will forever be incommensurable. Rather, it is a struggle over how art and human labor are valued—and who has the power to make that appraisal.” - The Atlantic (MSN)
“ The devastation was immense. The spire had gone, its collapse having destroyed part of the vaults at the crossing of the transept. ... The task of rebuilding Notre Dame was herculean.” - The Guardian (UK)
Millennials and Gen Z are taking over now. "The KHive has ditched the bee and gone coconuts now that Joe Biden has dropped out of the 2024 election and endorsed Kamala Harris. What’s more, Harris’s laugh is getting remixed into songs by just about every pop diva.” - Vulture
It’s confusing and not fully theorized, but “over the past few years, a community of physicists, computer scientists, and neuroscientists has been working toward a better understanding. These researchers have developed theoretical tools for identifying when emergence has occurred." - Wired
One juror: “'Alec Baldwin is an actor, right?’ she said, adding that she would not have expected him to know a lot about gun safety. ‘I think he would have trusted the people, you know, on the set to do their job.’” - The New York Times
