Is Social Relevance At The Core Of The Arts?
Thanks to Arts Council England’s recently published analysis on opera and music theatre, ‘relevance’ is back on the agenda. But the report and its...
Cincinnati Ballet Gets A New Leader After a Year Of Upheaval
Artistic director Jodie Gates left after just 14 months on the job, followed six days later by then-president and CEO Scott Altman announcing that he would...
“Bayadère” Is Awash In Cultural Appropriation. Should It Be Canceled?
Like so many of the 19th century ballets, it has been subject to some controversy in recent years. Set in a fanciful Hindu temple, choreographed...
UNESCO Ponders How To Preserve Intangible Cultural Heritage
unesco is best known for its prestigious list of World Heritage sites. But its most interesting endeavor might be a survey of humanity’s cultural practices. -...
Pro Basketball Has A Set Of Dance Teams Made Up Of Dancers Over 40
Both the NBA and the WNBA have, in addition to their "regular" dance crews (the Raiderettes, the Laker Girls, etc.) with members in their...
The Guernica Magazine Mess – An Essay About The Israel Military Action Roils Staff
The magazine, once a prominent publication for fiction, poetry, and literary nonfiction, with a focus on global art and politics, quickly found itself imploding as...
Should Crossword Puzzles Test Our Knowledge? No, They Should Expand It
While women played key roles in the development of crosswords in the US, by the late 20th-century, puzzle-constructing was dominated by college-educated white guys,...
Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez Didn’t Want His Last Book Published. This Week It Was. Is...
The novel was published this week, unleashing a backlash from scholars, writers and fans who’ve taken exception not with the novel itself, but rather...
The Ex Whom Picasso Tried To Destroy Is Getting Her Own Room In His...
"Ten years after a renovation, the Musée Picasso (in Paris) – which holds the world’s largest collection of Picasso’s work – has installed a...
A Competition For Playing Chopin? It Has No Credibility
Giving marks to people playing a Chopin polonaise is no different from deciding on medals in gymnastics, dressage and judo at the Olympic Games,...
Philadelphia Has A Brand-New Music Festival Opening This Weekend
"Everyone in Philly is always walking by these incredible buildings, including gorgeous houses of worship, but going inside is something we don’t usually get...
Are Auction Sales Guarantees Fair?
How does this practice affect the market? The art market is self-regulating, and since 2010 the practice of offering works at auction with third-party...
Putin Signs New Law That Will Starve Independent Media
"President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed into law a bill that bans advertisers from working with 'foreign agents,' a move widely expected to make...
Merchant Ivory Productions Was A Much Shakier, And Sketchier, Operation Than You Probably Knew
"If you were asked to guess which prestigious film-making duo spent their career scratching around desperately for cash, trying to wriggle out of paying...
Thieves Grab $1.3 Million Worth Of Gold And Jewels From Italian Museum
"A horde (sic) of jewelry and gold statues ... worth €1.2 million was stolen last week from the Museo d’Annunzio Segreto (near) Lake Garda...
Lyric Opera Of Chicago Extends Enrique Mazzola’s Contract As Music Director
The 55-year-old Spanish-Italian conductor succeeded Andrew Davis in 2021, with a five-year contract. That agreement will now run for an additional five seasons, through...
Roman Polanski Sued By Accuser For Different Case Of Alleged Rape In 1970s
"The trial is scheduled to take place on Aug. 4, 2025, following a lawsuit that accused Polanski of giving a (13-year-old girl) alcohol and...
Vandalism Soars At England’s Historic Sites
"From York stone" — still valuable as a building material — "gouged from a 200-year-old bridge to graffiti sprayed on a medieval chapel, there...
Mo Yan, China’s Only Nobel-Winning Author, Sued For Insulting Communist Party, “Heroes” And “Martyrs”
"Patriotic blogger Wu Wanzheng, who goes by 'Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo' online, sued under a law that carries civil penalties and (occasionally) criminal punishments for...
Post-Pandemic: Broadway Attendance Down, Also Movies, But Pop Concerts And Orchestras Up And Museums...
The Philadelphia Orchestra is averaging 78 percent attendance so far this season, compared with 63 percent before the pandemic. The New York Philharmonic is...
Historical Movies Like “Oppenheimer” Shape Historical Records. We Should Be Clear How
With Oppenheimer having received so much commercial, critical and Academy success, we have an opportunity to think about critical criteria for viewing historical film — and...
What AI Is Learning About What Life Is
While some skeptics think the models are going to hit a wall, more optimistic scientists believe that foundation models will even tackle the biggest...
Today’s Journalists Come From A Different Economic Class. Here’s How It Changes Their Work
Contemporary journalists have a relationship to ideas that is more or less the opposite of the old school’s. It begins before they even get...
UK Study: 2023 Audiences Rebounded From The Pandemic
Overall tickets sales in 2023 were 101% of what they were in 2019, the last complete year of data before Covid. More than half...
AI Researchers Warn They’re Being Priced Out
Fei-Fei Li is at the forefront of a growing chorus of academics, policymakers and former employees who argue the sky-high cost of working with...
