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
The western Massachusetts dance festival had originally called off performances only for this past weekend following the death of production manager Kat Sirico in a workplace accident. But an announcement on Wednesday said that "the Jacob’s Pillow Board of Trustees and institutional leadership has decided that Festival 2025 will not continue." - CBS News
At Northern Sky, “There’s kind of an ownership because you saw shows about people that you know, Midwesterners.” Some of them, like Lumberjacks in Love and Guys on Ice, even translate outside of the state. - The New York Times
Eventually. And by the way, they removed the info, they say, because it "was meant to be a temporary addition to a twenty-five year-old exhibition did not meet the museum’s standards in appearance, location, timeline, and overall presentation.” - Washington Post (Yahoo)
Remember Alberto Vilar? What Matthew Christopher Pietras did might have been worse. Or it might not, since the victims of the theft may not have noticed that they were being robbed. - New York Magazine
Her tribe, birthplace, date of death — all those and much else from the journals and later testimony of Lewis and Clark had been considered definitive. But Native American oral history about Sacagawea is quite different, and there are good reasons to believe that Lewis and Clark were misinformed. - The New York Times Magazine
The bill reclaims the entire $1.1 billion previously appropriated for the next two years for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The CPB distributes two-thirds of its funding to over 1,500 local public radio and TV stations, with most of the rest going to NPR and PBS to support national programming. - AP
“Penguin, publisher of The Salt Path, is delaying author Raynor Winn’s next book after reporting cast doubt over the truth of the 2018 memoir. The decision was taken to 'support the author.’” - The Guardian (UK)
It’s not great: Subscriptions are down 36 percent. But “complicating things for a number of NSO supporters … is the energy surrounding the orchestra itself, which remains infectiously high, ascendant and alive with promise, especially following last season’s extension of music director Gianandrea Noseda’s contract.” - Washington Post (MSN)
