"Unionized teachers and others at the Second City Training Center said Tuesday they have authorized a strike and will set up a picket line proximate to the comedy company’s theaters if their employer refuses to bargain further, with the strike and pickets beginning Jan. 16." - Chicago Tribune
"Jeremy McCarter, the former New York magazine drama critic and co-author with Lin-Manuel Miranda of the behind-the-scenes book Hamilton: The Revolution, has been named Literary Executor of the Wilder Family LLC … (with a brief) 'to devote special time and energy to the adaptation possibilities in Wilder’s full range of works.'" - Deadline
Following the 2021 merger of the orchestra with the organization that operates its concert hall and three other venues (and presents shows in a fourth), ticketholders sometimes didn't know which theater to go to. So the umbrella organization has taken a new name that doesn't include a venue. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
Six of the board's 30 members have stepped down since Colette Pierce Burnette suddenly left Newfields in November after only 15 months as CEO. Most of the ex-board members have said nothing publicly about their resignations, though two have given hints of unhappiness about the manner of Burnette's exit. - ARTnews
"Helped by a 1.7% increase in the fourth quarter, unit sales of print books fell only 2.6% in 2023 from 2022. ... The dip was less than many industry members had feared this summer, when sales were steadily declining and were down 4.1% after the first nine months of the year." - Publishers Weekly
"(The company will) more than triple its footprint, moving its headquarters to a Midtown Manhattan office tower next year from its current home on the Lower East Side. The company will use the space to build more dance studios and expand its education programs." - The New York Times
George Lewis is one of the most formidable figures in modern music: a composer of international renown, a legendary improvising trombonist, a computer-music pioneer, a professor at Columbia, a stalwart of the Black avant-garde collective known as the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. - The New Yorker
Although Indian classical dance is commonly assumed to be ancient and reverential—and there is a documented history of devotional dancing extending back more than two millennia—all eight of these designated classical styles are modern, post-colonial inventions. - The New Yorker
“Amazing work happens at the grassroots level, but how can an organization and people with positional sway and a multimillion-dollar budget do that without losing their values?” - The New Yorker
Chatbots will expand well beyond digital text by handling photos, videos, diagrams, charts and other media. They will exhibit behavior that looks more like human reasoning, tackling increasingly complex tasks in fields like math and science. - The New York Times
Beau Brummell’s a really interesting figure. He’s often called the first influencer, the inventor of sponcon (sponsored content). He was a Regency-era (early nineteenth century) London social figure who was not an aristocrat. - The Public Discourse
An actor travelled more than 150 miles to ensure a performance of the musical Evita could go ahead after the lead and understudy became ill and could not perform. - The Guardian
One notable finding over the past ten years has been the steady rise in programming of music by living composers. Worldwide, since 2013, contemporary music has risen from around 6% to 14% in our listings. - BachTrack
"'Art has never been a priority' for the government, says (one gallerist), and response to pressure from the arts is 'slow, but we can’t not do it.' The arts still only represent 1.2% of the total government budget, … with too much of it used on one-off festivals." - The Art Newspaper
A different festival director from a variety of artistic disciplines will be engaged each year. It is a new concept for the oldest choral festival in the Western Hemisphere. - Cincinnati Business Journal
