ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

Hot Topic Du Jour: Why Is Everyone Upset About “Don’t look Up?”

Critics, audiences, and activists have both savaged and praised the movie, and the backlash has highlighted the difficulty of conveying an urgent message with...

World’s Second Largest Movie Theatre Chain Reports Sharp Rebound In Ticket Sales

Box office and concession revenues saw significant growth across the second half of 2021. Notably, group performance was at 50% of 2019 levels in...

A Video Of An Egyptian Woman Dancing Went Viral, Her Husband Divorced Her, Her...

"The short video of Aya Youssef, a 30-year-old primary school teacher, shot on a mobile phone shows her wearing a headscarf, trousers and a...

Jon Podhoretz Remembers Terry Teachout

"Terry’s ability to bounce month to month from film noir to the crisis of the symphony orchestra to the talents of Robert Mitchum to...

Rethinking The Entire Subscription Model In The Wake Of The Pandemic

After having performances cancelled over and over (and if they're not, performers and programming changing last-minute) — especially in Australia, which has had some...

Group Calls On Seattle Art Museum To Treat Homeless People Better

A collective of anonymous workers called Decolonize SAM is calling for a boycott and demanding the museum stop removing unhoused people from museum property, provide de-escalation...

Winter Wassailing Is Having A Comeback

Traditionally, wassailing wasn't just a matter of going house to house at Christmastime, singing and extorting drinks. Crop-blessing wassails in England involved special clothes,...

Omicron Is Soaring. Is It Ethical To Go To Concerts?

Is it a good or an ethical idea to go to a concert in the vortex of this unprecedented surge, what with local hospitals...

NBC Universal Picks New Audience-Measuring Service

The company announced today it will use data from iSpot.tv, a Bellevue, Wash.-based company that measures audiences across linear TV and streaming platforms to provide...

The “Intangible Sludge”: Why Do So Many Movies Have Washed-Out Color These Days?

"Desaturation is not in and of itself bad. It's a tool that can be used poorly or well. But why is it everywhere now?...

The Pope Is Caught Shopping For CDs. Here’s What’s In His Collection

While it is mostly made up of classical music, it also includes: an old album of Édith Piaf’s greatest hits; Argentine tango tunes, especially...

Reassembled Papyrus Fragments Shed Light On The Lives Of Workers Who Built The Pyramids

The fragments are accounts and logbooks from the port from which blocks of white limestone (now long gone) that encased the Great Pyramid were...

Why Classical Music Folks Should Stay Away From NFTs

Besides the fact that "the NFT market is essentially a game of hot potato: Ditch it before the music stops, or you're stuck with...

Wkipedia Editors Decide Not To Classify NFTs As Art (And The Crypto Guys Are...

As one of the six editors who made the decision (the vote was 5-1) put it, "Wikipedia really can't be in the business of...

National Gallery In DC Will Close East Building All Spring

The I.M. Pei-designed wing, which contains the museum's collection of Modern and contemporary art, will shut down from the end of February through June...

The Armorer For “Rust”, Which Had That Fatal Shooting On Set, Sues Supplier For...

Star Alec Baldwin accidentally killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza on October 21 with a prop gun that was supposed to...

She Gave Her First Piano Recital At Age Four. She’s Releasing A New Album...

Ruth Slenczynska, the last surviving student of Sergei Rachmaninoff, will see her new recording of his music and that of Chopin issued on the...

British Theatres Are Reeling From The Losses They Took Over Christmas Panto Season

The performances cancelled and ticket prices refunded when performers caught COVID and had to isolate, along with, when the show did go on, the...

AJBlogger And Wall Street Journal Theatre Critic Terry Teachout, 65

Very very sad to announce the death of one of ArtsJournal's original and most prolific bloggers. - The Wall Street Journal

Claim: UK Government Funding Of Theatre Makes No Sense

Even before Covid, the government’s (and Arts Council England’s) approach to the complex private/public ecology of the sector felt confused and outdated. Now, it...

NFTs? A Really Dumb Idea

It’s possible to see a purpose for cryptocurrencies, but NFTs are (for now) almost comically bereft of anything most of us would associate with...

Insisting That Art Focus On Social Justice Is A Narrow View Of How Art...

Consider those charitable foundations that have decided to stop funding the arts, or to only fund arts activities that explicitly promote diversity, equality, and...

Norman Mailer Wasn’t “Canceled.” (Dumb)

Instead, the publishing conglomerate’s decision to back away from Mailer points to a different set of financial imperatives, as well as a growing impulse...

Should Art Be “Relevant?” Jed Perl Thinks Not

Perl’s thesis, most succinctly framed in his concluding chapter, is that the arts, rather than being obliged to convey utilitarian messaging, must instead remain...

Workers At The Art Institute Of Chicago Unionize

The Art Institute union will be the first group of its kind at a major museum in Chicago. It comes amid a larger push...
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