First up, a visual metaphor for the culture this week: a 15-foot gold-leaf statue of the President commissioned by crypto investors, versus the empty desks at the Washington Post, where the entire photography staff and Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic Sebastian Smee were unceremoniously let go. Heavy-metal "boosterism" in its rawest form versus the sound of expertise leaving the building. This … [Read more...]

This week we collected 119 stories. Here's what I learned: Existential crises have a way of forcing clarity. Whether the arts and the larger creative world are in crisis I leave for you to decide. But with weekly news of financial and organizational meltdowns, political pressures and an almost primordial angst about threats of AI, some things may be becoming clearer about what matters and/or … [Read more...]

It’s probably a hazard of the job, but I tend to look at culture systemically. It’s not just the algorithms that steer our attention, but the often-unseen infrastructure we constructed that determines a large part of our culture diet: the systems that shape orchestras, theatres, dance companies, museums, the practical nuts-and-bolts and often mundane practicalities that determine what’s possible … [Read more...]