Our Zombie Entertainment Industrial Complex
Entertainment and tech companies have gotten smarter about putting consumers into bastardized flow states that leaves people feeling drained and sad rather than challenged...
Library On The US/Canada Border Gets A Door On The Canadian Side
For decades, people in Stanstead were allowed to walk around the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, but last year the U.S. limited access. Instead...
The Fight To Keep A Collection Of Landmark Art From Leaving Mexico And Going...
“One of the world’s most important collections of 20th-century Mexican art, including works by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, is set to be exported to Spain...
What The Ambitious New LACMA Building Is Trying To Do
The new LACMA, which opens to members in the coming weeks and to the general public May 4, is momentous not only because of...
What’s In The New Writers Guild Contract With Movies Studios
The studios will kick in $321 million — a record sum — to keep the writers’ health fund solvent. The health plan changes are...
South Korea Shakes Up Its Cultural Leadership
South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has announced a series of high-profile appointments across its leading arts institutions, led by the naming...
Family-Friendly San Jose Theater Company Is Closing. Its Owners Blame City Government
“Scott Guggenheim, who with his wife Shannon Guggenheim owns 3Below Theaters, cited an ongoing landlord dispute as one major factor in what he called...
Who Likes To Be Sad? So Why Do We Seek Out Art That Makes...
It’s a phenomenon that has long puzzled psychologists and philosophers alike. Given that we usually dread sadness and strive to avoid it because it...
In Praise Of Ghostwriting
Ghostwriting has an undeservedly bad reputation. Even without AI, some readers feel betrayed if the name on a book’s cover doesn’t tell the whole...
Disney To Lay Off 1000 Workers
While the layoffs are noteworthy, they are a fraction of the size of the cuts overseen by former CEO Bob Iger when he rejoined...
Can UNESCO Heritage Status Help Preserve England’s Tradition Of Choral Evensong?
You can make a solid argument that, except for the particular music being sung (and, today, the inclusion of girls and women), the practice...
Marcel Duchamp Was Anything But Reverent. Are We Being Too Reverent Of Him?
“Marcel Duchamp is an enigma that art history swallowed and got stuck in its throat. What do we do with him now? I left the Museum...
U.S. Court Of Appeals Rules That Iowa’s School-Library-Book-Banning Law May Stand
“In a blow to the freedom to read in the United States, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth...
Traditional News and Nonprofit Art: You’re No Longer in Charge. They Are.
Here’s another reason for nonprofit arts organizations to make that scene change toward charitable activities.
Big Hollywood Studios Aren’t Much In The Lineup At Cannes This Year
There will be famous actors in the competition, certainly, but they’re in indie-studio productions. Indeed, artistic director Thierry Fremaux said openly, “The United States...
LACMA Spent $724 Million On Its New Building. Here’s How That Money Got Spent.
For 25 years, people have been arguing about whether that this project was a good idea or a terrible one. Here’s a look at...
Disney Is Preparing To Lay Off 1,000 Staffers: Report
The Walt Disney Co. “is expected to lay off as many as 1,000 employees through role eliminations in the coming months, Variety has learned. Many of...
Trump Administration Abandons Appeal, Gives Up Attempt To Dismantle Institute Of Museum And Library...
“A federal court granted the administration’s request to withdraw its appeal of a federal judge’s earlier ruling that struck down Trump’s attempt last year...
Celebrating the Heroes behind the Jazz
As jazz — the music, business and culture of it — depends on an intricate and widespread network of activists, altruists and advocates to thrive, and celebrating local doers at least used to be a way to focus attention on the out-of-the-spotlight work necessary to make anything worthwhile happen, the
The Artist Behind The Banana On The Wall And The Golden Toilet Is Now...
Maurizio Cattelan has set up a hotline where folks from anywhere can “confess their sins.” Those the artist/father-confessor considers most in need of repentance...
In The Bay Area, Earlier Curtain Times Are Catching On
From ACT in San Francisco to Berkeley Rep to Stanford Live, producers and presenters are moving starting times from 8:00 to 7:30, 7:00 or...
Spain’s Culture Minister Refuses Transfer Of Guernica For Basque Loan
The Basque government is already familiar with the Reina Sofía’s condition report—which deems the painting too fragile to travel—and that it is instead requesting...
HarperCollins’ Canadian Side-Hustle. Be Wary.
There is every reason to be wary when a foreign-owned corporation stakes a claim to defending Canada’s cultural sovereignty, but the case of HarperCollins...
LACMA Reinvented: Inside LA’s New Museum
No L.A. institution has taken as risky a leap in this century as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. With the opening of...
Nathan Lane On Being Half-Outed By Oprah On Live TV
“In those days, you might as well say: ‘And by the way, I love cock,’” he said about his 1996 interview to promote The...
