In 2018, she became the prestigious New York conservatory's first woman of color to head the dance program — and the youngest person to do so. Graf Mack, 45, is shaking up what is taught and how to make art dance more relevant. - NPR
“I thought we would sell out and would probably have about half a million visitors. In the end we had 650,000, but we could have easily sold two million tickets. That’s something I didn’t expect.” - The Art Newspaper
Given these “significant financial pressures,” where does the multimillion-dollar Davies renovation project stand, certain to pose challenges even if the cost of application and licensing is covered by donation? - San Francisco Classical Voice
It seemed that the education department functioned as a sort of nonprofit running within another nonprofit, having separate conversations about programming. - American Theatre
"It’s (Josh) Kantor’s job to punch up the action when it’s going well on the field and soothe fans’ frayed nerves when it’s not. Through ... social media, he interacts with fans in real time, taking requests. … He’s made himself an integral part of the Fenway experience." - The Boston Globe (MSN)
People bought 43 million vinyl records last year, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). That’s 6 million more than the number of CDs sold in 2023, marking the second time since 1987 that’s happened and reflecting the steady 17-year-running growth of vinyl sales. - The Verge
"The real question I had “was could I write poems anymore? … I didn’t want to miss out on a certain pensiveness, and a certain relationship with language, that only poetry can demand." - Literary Hub
The term “blockchain” has dropped out of the public consciousness since the calming of the NFT frenzy of the early 2020s. But the technology – essentially data hosting by verified authors – offers a simple solution for fans wanting to demonstrate their investment in a musician’s work. - The Guardian
"Designed in collaboration with people living with dementia and their carers, these performances are specifically adapted for their audience, allowing them to have a rollicking night out in a safe, tailored environment, free of the fear of disturbing a standard show." - The Guardian
The Creative Act is three books in one, really: a how-to for aspiring or faltering artists, an opening-up of Rubin’s own bag of tricks as a producer/cosmic facilitator, and an account of the spirituality that defines his method. - The Atlantic
The communications minister's complaints were about some of the prime-time soap operas that draw massive viewership as people break their Ramadan fasts in the evenings. (One serial, for instance, showed characters using alcohol and cocaine,) He also griped that ads take up more time than programming does. - AP
Total enrollment in language courses other than English at American colleges decreased 29.3 percent from 2009 to 2021, according to the latest data from the Modern Language Association, better known as the MLA. In Australia, only 8.6 percent of high-school seniors were studying a foreign language in 2021—a historic low. - The Atlantic (MSN)
"We are here to provide data and analysis which journalists, funders and advocates can deploy to create a more interesting dance world. Artistic-director candidates have used our reports to demand pay equal to their male peers. Dancer representatives say they negotiated a 40% salary increase based on our work." - Classic Chicago Magazine
Sebastian Smee: "As an artist, he was no bully. Rather, he was a physicist. He wanted you to know, and to feel in your bones, that weight isn’t just a thing — it’s a force. It’s mass times acceleration. As such, it carries an inherent threat." - The Washington Post (MSN)
"The Smithsonian’s internal Office of the Inspector General last month released a report saying that the institution misused a portion of the $7.5 million it received in COVID relief funds from the 2020 CARES Act." - ARTnews
