“Amazon-backed (firm) Showrunnner announced a new AI model designed to generate long, complex narratives — ultimately building toward feature-film-length, live-action films — for its platform. … Over the next two years, it’ll be utilized to re-create Welles’ follow-up to Citizen Kane, a chunk of which was lost after studio executives burned the footage.” - The Hollywood Reporter
“(Two White House) officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the discussions have been preliminary and exploratory, and it was unclear exactly how the federal government would take control of the site in Lower Manhattan. … The museum’s leadership rebuffed the idea.” - The New York Times
“The Los Angeles Philharmonic announced that Salonen would be its first creative director, starting in fall 2026. Simultaneously, the Philharmonie de Paris announced that he would hold its inaugural creativity and innovation chair starting in 2027, while taking on the role of principal conductor of the Orchestre de Paris.” - The New York Times
Leonardo “had become one of us in the way we want 21st-century celebrities to be one of us: a tech entrepreneur, a creative, a misunderstood visionary who had more to do with our moment in history than his own.” - Irish Times
“What many opponents resent above all is the high-handed way they feel Macron decided to make his gesture to the UK, overriding the advice of specialists who say the vibrations inevitable in a long journey by road could cause irreparable damage.” - BBC
Stephen Nakagawa, a former dancer with the Washington Ballet, was hired just days after the Kennedy Center fired its entire dance programming staff. Nakagawa had written a letter to the center’s president, Richard Grenell, saying he wants to help “end the dominance of leftist ideologies in the arts.” - The New York Times
“Three of Pittsburgh’s most venerable troupes announced they are looking into ways they might join forces to survive. The announcement by Pittsburgh Public Theater, City Theatre and Pittsburgh CLO came in the form of an email to subscribers and other supporters.” - WESA (Pittsburgh)
This is a playbook we’ve all seen before. Rigoberto Gonzalez, whose painting about refugees crossing the border wall was deemed “objectionable,” says that “the White House list reminds him of the 'degenerate art’ exhibitions in 1930s Germany.” - NPR
Bluesky: “We think this law creates challenges that go beyond its child safety goals, and creates significant barriers that limit free speech and disproportionately harm smaller platforms.” - Wired
Mostly, they’re knuckling under. One might, if one were a student of history, think of this as totalitarian. “The chilling effect on museum programming at the heart of artistic experimentation and the historic role of art to occasionally provoke strong reactions in viewers.” - The New York Times
“Having survived 9-11, the Covid pandemic, the 2008 financial crash and the 2021 protests that led to the resignation of chairman Leon Black over his connections with Jeffrey Epstein, it’s difficult to imagine another person who could have successfully weathered so many storms.” - El País English
“The San Francisco Chronicle’s review says the production is ‘the most talked-about play in S.F. It’s also terrible.’” But that might be far, far from the point. - Washington Post (MSN)
“‘I call it Butchered,’” the British sculptor told the Guardian. ‘I’m referring to the butchering of our environment. It is at the simplest level blood on a canvas. A reference to the destruction – the bleeding – of our globe of our state, of being.’” - The Guardian (UK)
“The top official overseeing theater at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is stepping down, throwing into question the stability of one of the venue’s most important sources of box office revenue.” - The New York Times
“About 350 of the displaced artists are working again in the district. Some are actively involved in the continuing recovery process, waiting to return to the home that welcomed them. Others have decided not to return. For them, the risk of another storm outweighed anything else.” - The New York Times
“Weeks after last month’s event, the museum network’s chief executive, Steven Knapp, acknowledged to employees that it was a violation of policy, accusing the fund-raiser’s organizers of providing misleading information.” - The New York Times
His astounding social media fame has inspired a musical, Saturday Night Live skits, stand-up routines, academic inquiries into the regulation of health care algorithms and the psychosocial effects of chronic pain, and a counter-movement of outraged commentators scolding anyone who would make light of a murder. - The New York Times
“Unfortunately, the audience for book reviews is relatively low and we can no longer sustain the time it takes to plan, coordinate, write and edit reviews.” - Media Nation
Matthew Christopher Pietras “found himself eagerly courted by institutions that are desperate to find new generations of young patrons. He was invited to join the board of the Met Opera and began sponsoring galas.” Then things went horribly, tragically awry. - The New York Times
Opera lovers trying to find hotel rooms or Airbnbs - or anything at all - near their favorite summer opera festival are now competing for space with 100,000 parents and grandparents who want to see their kids play at baseball camp. - The New York Times
