The Birth Of The Christmas Card
As with so many innovations, the first Christmas card, sent out in 1843, was devised by a guy trying to avoid a big, tedious...
A Christmas Ballet In The Streets Of One Of Africa’s Largest Slums
Dozens of students from Nairobi's Kibera Ballet School, which provides free instruction to impoverished children and teens, donned Santa hats and sequined outfits to...
“A Charlie Brown Christmas” Almost Never Made It To The Airwaves
"CBS executives thought the 25-minute program was too slow, too serious and too different from the upbeat spectacles they imagined audiences wanted. A cartoon...
Why Some Of The Crown Jewels Of France Are Kept In A New Jersey...
The ultimate reason is the wave of anti-monarchism that swept the country after Napoleon III's fall and the foundation of the Third Republic. Why...
Prosecutors End “Rust” Shooting Case Against Alec Baldwin For Good
"Special Prosecutor Kari Morrissey withdrew the appeal of a July decision at trial to dismiss the (involuntary manslaughter) charge against Baldwin in the death...
Berlin Goes Through With It: €130 Million Is Officially Cut From City’s Arts Funding...
Well, Merry Christmas. (Even with the cuts, the city's arts and culture budget for 2025 is well over €1 billion.) - ARTnews
Hilma af Klint’s Family Tries To Stop Proposed Deal With David Zwirner Gallery
"Klint family members say that a proposed deal between Zwirner, who is one of the biggest gallerists in the world, and the foundation’s board...
How Trump Used Comedy To Win
While Jimmy Kimmel cries and Jon Stewart rants, the right wing in the U.S. has successfully depicted itself as the new home for free speech and cutting...
The Top Ten Book-Business News Stories Of 2024
"PW looks back at the major contractions in the independent book distribution space, an explosion of artificial intelligence tools and businesses, turmoil over freedom...
The Frightening Power Of AI Agents To Manipulate Us
This is a moment that philosophers have warned us about for years. Before his death, philosopher and neuroscientist Daniel Dennett wrote that we face...
Another Way To Review The Year? Twelve Objects That Caught Our Attention
I’ve set out to perform the annual ritual of assessing and unpacking the year gone by through the objects that captured our attention. Here, then, is...
Lithuania Banned “Nutcracker” In Solidarity With Ukraine. Now It’s Back…
Darius Kuolys who was the first culture minister after a 1990 declaration of independence, said it was obvious that the Kremlin often exploited culture...
Glasgow’s Leading Theatre Company Is Finally Coming Back Home
The Citizens Theatre is returning to its historic playhouse next September after a seven-year renovation, the first overhaul the facility has had since it...
Botto, The AI Artist, Has Already Made $4 Million. Now He’s Getting A Personality
Botto is a decentralized semi-autonomous artistic agent created in 2021 by the German artist Mario Klingemann; Simon Hudson, a media entrepreneur; and Ziv Epstein, a computer scientist and designer....
How Encyclopedia Britannica Evolved (And Thrives) In The Age Of AI
Britannica has figured out not only how to survive, but also how to do well financially. Jorge Cauz, its chief executive, said in an...
Lin Manuel Miranda’s Daunting Task: Reinventing “Lion King”
The songs form the basis of the highest-grossing musical in the history of Broadway. Thirty years on they remain embedded in our collective consciousness, so Lin-Manuel...
How “Sesame Street” Is Trying To Save Itself — And Why It Needs To
In the show's 55th season. producers are trying to re-orient it to keep it alive. Its core audience of toddlers and pre-schoolers is different...
When Arlene Croce Took On Bill T. Jones (When the Critic Famously Didn’t See...
In her contentious essay, Croce, one of the finest dance critics of the 20th century, railed against what she called victim art: “By working...
Times Square Was Turned Into A Giant Immersive Experience
Suddenly, at exactly 11:57 p.m., 92 electronic billboards all around Times Square stopped pulsating with ads for Coca-Cola, Broadway plays, and fashion brands, and...
Publishing World Divided On Using AI To Make Books
Spines said it aims to help a million authors bring their stories to life—so they can focus on writing great books while A.I. handles...
Airports Have Started Putting Real Thought Into Their Background Music
Some — London Heathrow, Nashville, Phoenix, Seattle-Tacoma, both Chicago airports — have stages with live musicians. Others — Detroit, Austin — have specially curated...
How To Choose A Good In-Flight Movie
Obviously everyone is different, but Alissa Wlkinson does have some general guidelines to offer. Among them: remember that people are more susceptible to tears...
Five Takeaways From SMU DataArts’ 2024 Research
"From financial challenges and workforce dynamics to measures of arts vibrancy, these findings capture the trends and key shifts shaping the field today. For...
Culture Minister Threatens To Cut Off Batsheva Dance Company’s Funding
"Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar asked Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to examine whether the Batsheva Dance Company is in violation of its state funding...
The World’s Oldest Children’s Museum Marks 125 Years. And Where Is It? Brooklyn.
"Situated on a leafy corner of the Crown Heights neighborhood, the Brooklyn Children’s Museum commemorated its 125th anniversary last weekend with a daylong celebration....
