The scroll is one of hundreds, all far too fragile to unroll, from Herculaneum that constitute the only intact library from the ancient world to survive, By using machine-learning to decipher scans of the scroll, the students have won the $700,000 prize offered in the Vesuvius Challenge. - Time
"The film gave me an exposure that I could not have imagined, and I had to catch up with my own fame when the floodgates opened to do countless operas," she later said. After a 25-year singing career, she found happiness as a special-ed teacher in Kentucky. - The Philadelphia Inquirer
Spano — currently music director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and the Aspen Music Festival and School, principal conductor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and from 2001 to 2021 music director of the Atlanta Symphony — begins an initial three-year term at the WNO in fall 2025. - The Washington Post (MSN)
"Orchestra After 5" concerts begin with a cocktail hour in the Kimmel Center lobby, followed at 6:30 by a one-hour concert with an informal chat afterward. "If the goal was to lure listeners beyond the traditional base," writes Peter Dobrin, "it was a wild success." - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
"The term has come into vogue. It’s also become an explicit rallying cry for some of those taking direct action” - especially against the predations of AI. - The Atlantic
“The malaise that has begun to suffuse TikTok feels systemic, market-driven and also potentially existential, suggesting the end of a flourishing era and the precipice of a wasteland period.” - The New York Times
The story played out after the first gloriously thick ice weekend with increasingly dire warnings on Instagram, over text, and on the Art Shanties’ other official channels: The ice was only getting thinner, so “the artists, wearing life jackets, began dismantling huts one by one.” - The New York Times
In a suprise to no one, one of the American Federation of Musicians' "biggest concerns is the film and TV industry’s transition to streaming, which has significantly altered the way musicians are compensated for their work." - Los Angeles Times
"(The museum dedicated to Himalayan Buddhist art) will close Oct. 6, when its last exhibition ends, before the institution transitions to a skeleton crew that will process long-term loans and research inquiries and help with fund-raising. Nearly 40 percent of its employees will lose their jobs." - The New York Times
"The Los Angeles Opera has scrapped plans for the world premiere of Mason Bates's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay this fall because of finances. The work will instead open with a student cast at Indiana University" ahead of a planned run at the Met during the 2026-26 season. - AP
"Before the war, many comedians performed their sets in Russian and eyed major comedy festivals in Russia as the pinnacle of career achievement. ... the audience won’t laugh at jokes delivered in Russian, comedians say. Unless, of course, the Russian language is the butt of the joke." - The Atlantic
She is not having it with the censors. For one of her students, it's changed his life. "Until recently, he says, was not naturally inclined towards reading. But the secret bookshelf opened a world of characters and situations he immediately related to." - NPR
"'What’s the most important thing?' they shouted. 'Art, or right to a healthy and sustainable food?' They added: 'Our farming system is sick. Our farmers are dying at work.'" - The Guardian (UK)
Hollywood, of course. But also, an understanding of the supernatural: "In L.A., bizarre gods have tended to operate more in realms of grand fantasy. It's not the power of specific individuals that need scare us but power, period." - MSN (Los Angeles Times)
We think of oligarchy as a foreign concept, but the truth is that American oligarchs abound, and many of them collect art. It’s a time-honored strategy. - Mother Jones
"Using a broad definition of arts and culture inclusive of nonprofit and for-profit industries, $53 billion was awarded nationally to arts and culture via four federal programs. Narrowing the definition to focus primarily on nonprofit arts and cultural industries and independent cultural workers, $17 billion was awarded nationally." - SMU Data Arts
"In a varied career spanning more than a half-century, … (he) spent 22 years anchoring the CBS-TV staple “Sunday Morning” and decades as a radio commentator, and carved a distinct place for himself in broadcasting by occasionally presenting the news in wry doggerel." - The Washington Post (MSN)
DMAC says dismantling is cheaper than repairing. Greenwood Pond: Double Site "is considered to be the first urban wetland project in the country. Its imminent demolition has angered landscape architecture advocates and upset Miss." - The New York Times
Rie Kudan "won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize this week for her sci-fi novel Tokyo-to Dojo-to (Tokyo Sympathy Tower), which centers around a high-rise prison tower and contains themes surrounding AI." The reaction to her news has not been positive. - Vice
"After a demanding (2½-year) program that included a gasp-inducing repair of the two cracking, 500-year-old limewood panels, Getty senior conservator Ulrich Birkmaier and his team stabilized the paintings, while bringing the images back to something close to what they likely were … in the 16th century." - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
