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This Tiny Art School In Queens Just Got Two Million Dollars From Trump’s NEH

The school's founder and artistic director says the grant “represents a chance to further what he calls his lifetime mission to inspire a return to a classical style of art that last reigned supreme in an era before the Civil War.” - The New York Times

Live Updates From The Oscars

Follow at the L.A. Times, Variety, New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, and The Guardian. - Los Angeles Times

FCC Chair Brendan Carr Threatens To Revoke Licenses If Iran War Coverage Isn’t To The President’s Liking

Uh … how’s that First Amendment doing? Carr "accused the news media of wanting the United States to lose the war.” - The New York Times

Meet The Renderings Of The New Kennedy Center

Which — for the moment? — looks a lot like the old one. - Washington Post (MSN)

Inside The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Power Struggle That Led To Andris Nelson’s Ouster

“The maestro’s fall is the bare-knuckled endgame of a years-long power struggle over the soul of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, an ensemble renowned for its musical excellence, but which has struggled to keep pace with the times.” - Boston Globe

Banksy’s Identity Uncovered, Says Reuters Report

“The British street artist’s identity has been debated, and closely guarded, for decades. A quest to solve the riddle took Reuters from a bombed-out Ukrainian village to London and downtown Manhattan — and uncovered much more than a name.” - Reuters

Pritzker Prize For Architecture 2026 Goes To Smiljan Radić Clarke Of Chile

Though The New York Times has described him as “a rock star among architects,” he’s not as famous as previous “starchitect” winners such as Frank Gehry, I.M. Pei, and Zaha Hadid. In fact, Radić says that this award “will probably mean being far more exposed than I would like.” - NPR

The BBC Commissioned A Film About Health Care In Gaza, And Then Refused To Air It

“All these Palestinians told us that they thought the BBC would never run our film, and we really had to try and persuade them to talk to us because they didn’t and don’t trust the BBC.” The journalists were shocked to learn that the sources were correct. - Reveal

How DOGE Used AI In An Attempt To Destroy The Humanities

DOGE employees used ChatGPT to make their choices. “The prompt was simple: ‘Does the following relate at all to D.E.I.? Respond factually in less than 120 characters. Begin with ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’’ The results were sweeping, and sometimes bizarre.” - The New York Times

South Texas Has A Huge Mariachi Community, And ICE Is Destroying Some Of It

“‘For McAllen, mariachi is like the Friday Night Lights of high school,’ said Anthony Medrano, a prominent San Antonio mariachi musician. ‘There’s pride in it.’” - The New York Times

Amazon Tried To Sponsor A Book Festival In France, And That Went About As Well As You Might Expect

Many - most, even - of France's booksellers pulled out of . Then the organizers got Amazon to “mutually agree” to end its sponsorship. Who thought this was a good idea in the first place? - The Guardian (UK)

The Met Is The Largest Performing Arts Company In The US, And It’s Desperate For Money

“The core problem has been ticket revenues, which were weakening even before the coronavirus pandemic shuttered its theater with a devastating financial impact. Box-office receipts last year were down $20 million from a decade earlier.” - The New York Times

After An Indigenous Filmmaker’s Speech Is Cut For Broadcast, The Toronto Film Critics Association Is Falling Apart

“Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers returned her trophy, the president resigned and 16 members have quit — with more considering their position.” - The Hollywood Reporter

The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Firing Of Nelsons Provides Conductors With A Cautionary Tale

“Nelsons, 47, has become one of the most unfortunate symbols of all that is irresponsible about the overstretched, overtired, overindulged modern music director. It has been not only deeply frustrating, but genuinely sad, to witness his trajectory.” - The New York Times

What’s On The Line As Warner Bros Accepts Paramount’s Bid

Oh: “The push into artificial intelligence by Oracle creates a thirst for more insight into how people view news and entertainment and what products they buy online. The streaming channels and social media giant both offer greater and more granular information." - NPR

The Vatican Has Removed ‘A Chalky White Film Of Salt’ Coating The Last Judgement

That is to say, people’s sweat had gotten all over Michelangelo’s masterpiece, and now it’s being cleaned off while the sweat accumulates on a screen. - Associated Press

And Just Like That, 144 Year After Construction Began, Sagrada Familia’s Central Tower Is Finished

“Construction is expected to continue for a decade or so, but The Guardian called it ‘nevertheless a day full of emotion for a city that has lived with Gaudí’s unfinished work for generations.’” - ART News

A Gay Cultural Critic Resistant To “Heated Rivalry” Explains Why He Finally, Happily Succumbed

Wesley Morris: “Why wouldn’t I have wanted this? A six-episode show that’s exemplary as romance, as physical intimacy, as banter, as athlete psychology, as conversation, confession and comedy, as just good television that involves a few of my favorite things: sex, sports, men, ... So why? Let’s start with wariness.” - The New York Times

BBC Radio 3 Fires Norman Lebrecht Over Email To Yuja Wang

The broadcaster’s decision to end its long relationship with Lebrecht — the widely-read, controversial critic and blogger who has hosted several interview programs on Radio 3 over the years — comes after Wang made public a message from Lebrecht which she described as “derogatory misogynistic bullying.” - The Guardian

The Volunteer Army Documenting Museum And Park Wall Texts Before The Trump Administration Rewrites Them

A group called Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian has taken photos of every wall text in the Institution’s museums before they were changed. Other organizations are scouring websites, signage, datasets and documents, treating them with the care of conservators as they resist the Trump administration’s efforts to recast the past. - The Washington Post (Yahoo!)