Today’s AJ highlights: Contraction of the institutional arts world continues. The Metropolitan Opera has announced layoffs and pay cuts for top executives to balance its books (The Guardian ). This financial pressure is mirrored in the theater world; the Williamstown Theatre Festival has canceled its upcoming summer season to "rethink its future" and is considering moving to a biennial...
Matt Damon says action movies used to have three acts, but now, “They’re like, ‘Can we get a big one in the first five minutes? We want people to stay. And it wouldn’t be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue.’” - Variety
No doubt we should believe that leadership just as much as we’d believe any questionable partner. “Opera leaders had said that it was an amicable split, and made no mention of the political turmoil causing many artists to cancel their Kennedy Center engagements." - Variety
A budget on the brink is ending his contract two years earlier than planned. "They really tried to make it work. ...But it was just not the artistic vision that I agreed to. I would just feel like kind of a lame duck artistic director.” - The New York Times
Here’s the reality for people in the U.S.: “Life in a single-occupant vehicle has its perks, like singing along to music or listening to podcasts uninterrupted. It also has its pains, like separation from other humans and mental deterioration.” - Fast Company
“Some artists are … making very young children a part of the choreographic process, or creating music designed to get them moving. They’re considering why these tiny dancers bring us such joy, and what lessons they might have for grown-ups.” - The New York Times
“The three downtown buildings with five theaters are owned by the city but have been managed by the elected regional government for more than three decades.” - Oregon ArtsWatch
We tend to believe that to be happier, we need to become bigger in our own mind, and in the minds of others. But that’s wrong. What we really need to achieve both the perspective on life we need and the peace we crave is to get smaller in relation to everything and everyone else. - The Atlantic
As one instructional designer you’ll hear says, “If this technology becomes more ubiquitous, we’ll have courses created by AI, graded by AI, with submissions from students absolutely generated by AI. So it begs the question: What are we even doing here in higher ed?” - The Verge
First, book-length sentences are good. Also, well, “The Nobel Committee for a certain stretch of history, like the last 40 years, has had something of a bias against American writers, but I think it's probably more true that they've had a bias towards European writers.” - NPR
Her statement, in part: "I wish that I could be with you this evening to accept the honour in person, but because of my support for non-violent anti-war protest, I’m advised that I can no longer safely enter the UK without potentially facing arrest.” - The Guardian (UK)
“The platform added a map tool that lets your Instagram friends see your precise location every time you open the app.” Then there’s the new see what your friends like on reels function. - Wired
The 17-foot-by-40-foot painting is back in the board room of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice, “painstakingly liberated from thick yellowed varnish, glue residues, compacted dust, and the remnants of retouching from early restoration programs.” - The Wall Street Journal (MSN)
“A stage musical based on the 2020 Netflix movie Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is under development with Will Ferrell, Harper Steele and Anthony King writing the book and Savan Kotecha composing the music. Alex Timbers is on board to direct.” - Deadline
