Two-thirds of museum workers are thinking about leaving their jobs, if not the field altogether, according to a survey out this month. The top reasons? Burnout and low pay. - The Art Newspaper
"An ensemble member of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company," Tarell Alvin McCraney "is professor of playwriting at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University and has earned a reputation as a passionate mentor. He will continue to teach at Yale while leading the Geffen Playhouse." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
"(The briefing) by the NGO Blue Shield International has tentatively made the claim that the Putin regime has premeditatively, systematically — and provably — targeted heritage sites in Ukraine. If the report is correct, the critical legal threshold needed to prosecute Putin for a war crime is now significantly closer." - The Art Newspaper
Clear-eyed, truthful portrayals of American history and contemporary affairs have long been disfavored as beneficiaries of public funding — though the movement to strip them out of classrooms, textbooks and school libraries has seldom been as ferocious as it is currently. - Los Angeles Times
"Now, it can make or break them — with implications for how films are perceived, released, marketed, and possibly even green-lit. The Tomatometer may be the most important metric in entertainment, yet it's also erratic, reductive, and easily hacked." Here's how it got that way. - New York Magazine
It’s not just that some of us believe we might have to rethink the standard model of cosmology; we might also have to change the way we think about some of the most basic features of our universe — a conceptual revolution that would have implications far beyond the world of science. - The New York Times
The Nevada businessman who sold the baskets in the early 1900s said they were made by a Washoe princess named Dat So La Lee. In fact, she preferred her English name, Louisa Keyser, and the backstories told by the salesman about her were mostly made up. - The New York Times
At the British Museum, flat funding from the Conservatives has meant a real-terms cut in revenue grant-in-aid of 37% between 2009-10, under Labour, and now, under the Tories. - The Guardian
"Steppenwolf Theatre Company, one of Chicago's most storied arts institutions and long a crucial part of the city's identity, said Thursday that it was laying off 12% of its staff, effective immediately." - MSN (Chicago Tribune)
"Starting this year, the center of gravity in my classroom is not teaching writing as an “essential skill” that all students need to master; it’s teaching reading. Last year, I predicted that ChatGPT would mark the end of high-school English. Instead, we might already be witnessing its rebirth." - The Atlantic
"Replace charismatic leadership with technocratic good manners and the whole edifice comes tumbling down," wrote one London critic. Responds Michael Brodeur, "This brings us to the myth of the bully maestro, which isn't really a myth so much as a problem we've worked diligently for decades to mythologize." - MSN (The Washington Post)
"How can developers appease locals worried about supposedly industrial wind farms taking over their idyllic landscapes? If other forms of infrastructure offer any clues, the answer might be trying to hide the fact that they're wind farms at all." - Curbed
Vicente Lusitano had been dimly remembered, largely by music historians, for "a notorious dispute which he won, then lost, but is now winning again." Scholar Garrett Schuman explains what's now known about Lusitano, why he fell into obscurity, and the revival of his (often gorgeous) works this decade. - Early Music America
"Subscribers were long the lifeblood of many performing arts organizations — a reliable income stream, and a guarantee that many seats would be filled. The pandemic hastened their disappearance for a number of reasons." - The New York Times
Two separate developments are driving the trend: the advent of computer-controlled robots which can drill ornate designs quickly, precisely, and relatively cheaply; and the impetus to return to traditional building materials which are less carbon-intensive than steel, cement, and curtain-wall glass. - Slate
Given the vast difference in agency prevailing between artists and patrons, is an intellectual, artistic, ethical discussion on equal terms even possible? - 3 Quarks Daily
It was a big surprise when word came down that not only had Sondheim finished his long-rumored adaptation of two Luís Buñuel films, he had authorized a production. Here's an extended conversation between Rich, playwright Davd Ives, and director Joe Mantello about how Here We Are came together. - New York Magazine
