We Used To Think That Our Brains Were Our Brains. Now We Know Different
Neuroplasticity therefore reframes the brain as neither rigid nor infinitely malleable, but as a living system shaped by experience, effort and time. - The...
To Wall-Text Or Not-To-Wall-Text
“It feels more important than ever to invite multiple voices into the museum space. There isn’t one perfect solution for all visitors, but we...
Another Issue Musicians Don’t Talk About: Eating Disorders
A recent survey found that about a third of responding musicians were dealing or had dealt with an eating disorder. While there’s not yet...
New Brain Research Reveals Insight On What Sparks Creativity
The old metaphor of creativity being sparked makes it sound like there’s a creativity center in the brain that’s just waiting to kick things off. But...
Spotify Paid Our Record $11 Billion To Musicians In 2025
The milestone year reflected the “largest annual payment to music from any retailer in history,” the company announced on Wednesday in a post. In...
Smithsonian Struggles For Independence As 250th Birthday Celebration Starts
The battle is approaching a tipping point after the Smithsonian acquiesced to an administration demand to hand over documents regarding the types of exhibits it will display for...
With Adelaide Writers’ Week Cancelled, A Grassroots Festival Is Popping Up Instead
“Constellations – also jokingly dubbed ‘Not Writers’ Week’ – is being put on by “a loose coalition” of writers and publishers and the support of...
Silicon Valley’s Biggest Theater Company Is Planning A New Venue
“TheatreWorks Silicon Valley is partnering with the city of Palo Alto on a new venue at a familiar location. The municipality and the Tony-winning...
Britain Considers Plan To End Free-To-Air TV
“For almost a quarter-century Freeview has enabled viewers to access (digital terrestrial) television from the nation’s biggest broadcasters … for no charge. Despite it still being...
James Rondeau Is Ready To Beef Up The Art Institute Of Chicago (And Let’s...
As some other American museums struggle, the Institute is doing very well under Rondeau’s leadership (notwithstanding the medication-and-alcohol-fueled disrobing during a commercial flight last...
Wynton Marsalis To Retire As Chief Of Jazz At Lincoln Center
“After nearly 40 years as the charismatic founder and recognizable face of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Wynton Marsalis will step down as managing and...
Kennedy Center’s New Chief Of Programming Resigns After Just A Few Days
Two Fridays ago, the center announced the appointment of Kevin Couch, who programmed for pop/rock venues in four midsized cities, as the new senior...
Museum Of Fine Arts, Boston Resorts To Layoffs
“The MFA faces ‘an unsustainable deficit that we have committed to resolve,’ (an) email to employees stated. … The institution said in a statement...
Yorgos Lanthimos Is Directing Super Bowl Commercials
Yes, the filmmaker behind The Lobster, The Favourite, Poor Things and Bugonia has made ads for Squarespace (the website-building platform) and Grubhub to air...
100 Years Ago The BBC Built Itself Around The Arts. Now?
The vanishingly rare presentations of stage work, whether dance, opera or theatre, are invariably acquisitions from cultural organisations that provided most of the funding...
Why Ralph Fiennes Decided To Direct An Opera
Not just any opera, mind you: the story is one to which he has a long connection: the Pushkin/Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin. The person who...
Why The World Seems Obsessed By Consciousness Lately
Intelligence and consciousness are different things. Intelligence is mainly about doing: solving a crossword puzzle, assembling some furniture, navigating a tricky family situation, walking to...
Study: AI Models Beat Humans On “Average” Creativity. Still Not On “Radical” Creativity
A massive new study comparing more than 100,000 people with today’s most advanced AI systems delivers a surprising result: generative AI can now beat...
A Marathon Moby Dick As A “Radical Act”
Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville, published in 1851. Let’s consider it. Is there another book at once so good and so bad, so thrilling and...
How The Prix De Lausanne Works (An Explainer)
The Switzerland-based ballet competition, known for launching the careers of many star dancers, takes place next week. Here executive and artistic director Kathryn Bradney...
The Year In Classical Music Statistics — The Busiest Performers, Orchestras, Etc…
In 2025, Yannick Nézet-Séguin tops our list of busiest conductors, with an amazing 120 listed engagements – and looking back over the last decade...
At It Again: Trump Threatens Tariffs On Foreign Movies
“I’m going to be putting tariffs on movies from outside of the country,” the president told The California Post in an interview shared Monday. “If they’re...
Too Much Free Speech?
The First Amendment ignores the harms that speech inflicts. It is dangerous, in other words, not for the threat it poses to power, but...
What Goes On Inside Shen Yun’s Upstate New York Compound?
When CBS Sunday Morning visited, its crew found young dance students silently meditating. Two former students say, however, that they were allowed limited contact...
How Cultural Outsiders Overcome Their Outsiderness
Cultural outsiders experience being an outsider as synonymous with being deficient. Eager to ‘fit in’, and to avoid feeling inferior, they seek validation from...
