MOST RECENT AJBLOGS

Jeffrey Sposato shares his strategy behind building a music department for the City of Detroit

- Aaron Dworkin

Anatomy of a Rebound: The Arts in the U.S. Economy

- Sunil Iyengar

In St. Gallen, Switzerland They Love Books . . . Even American Poetry in English

- Jan Herman

What do to with the NEA? Pull the plug?

- Michael Rushton

“An Urgent Priority” — R. I. P.: NEH (1965-2025) — A Postscript

- Joe Horowitz


 

DANCE

The Central African Republic Has A National Ballet, And It’s Doing Important Work

- France 24

Why Some Dance Companies Are Giving Up On Social Media

- The New York Times

Director Robert Garland On His Vision For Dance Theatre Of Harlem

- Pointe Magazine

Russian Ballet Company Pretending To Be Ukrainian Toured Scandinavia

- BroadwayWorld

Madison Ballet Is Riding An Artistic High, But That Doesn’t Fill The Seats

- Wisconsin State Journal (Internet Archive)

IDEAS

Will AI Save Or Kill Journalism?

- The New Yorker

How We Figure Out Whether The Work Was Worth It

- The Conversation

The West, In Its Abundance, Has Gotten Intellectually Lazy

- New Statesman

The Key To Courage In Uncertain Times

- The Conversation

Are Our Storytelling Tropes Insufficient For The Complexity Of Today?

- Psyche

Behind The Scenes At Disney World

- Fast Company

Color Is A Math Nightmare

- The Verge



 

ISSUES

Computers, Cell Phones, And Chips Suddenly Get Exempted From Tariffs

- The Verge

Time To Refocus The NEH And NEA?

- The New York Times

Data On The Relationships Between Arts And Building Community

- SMUData

A Musician Wrote To The New Kennedy Center Director. He Responded

- Washingtonian

A Case For Trump’s Smithsonian Order On Depicting History

- CityJournal

Money From Cancelled NEH Grants Will Go To Trump’s “Garden Of American Heroes”

- Hyperallergic

Chicago Arts Leaders Openly Complain Of “Dysfunction” At City’s Cultural Affairs Dept.

- Chicago Sun-Times

The Smithsonian’s Notion Of History Is At Odds With Trump. So Now What?

- Washington Post

The “Goodbye Line” Pay Phones To Say Goodbye In LA

- Los Angeles Times (MSN)

Foreign Artists Are Reconsidering Touring In The US

- Los Angeles Times

Trump, The Smithsonian, And Dueling Conceptions Of American History

- The Washington Post (Yahoo!)

The Case For Canada Growing To 100 Million People (It Currently Has 40M)

- The Walrus

More Than 1,200 Humanities Grants Canceled By Trump’s NEH

- Washington Post

Can The Kennedy Center Survive The Next Four Years?

- The New Yorker



 

MEDIA

Dear Hollywood: Just Make About A Hundred Movies A Year That People Like

- Variety

The Strange Limbo Of TikTok In The New World Order

- The New Yorker

Biopics And Miniseries Of Bible Stories Have Become Big Business

- The Guardian

“Monty Python And The Holy Grail” At 50: Michael Palin And Terry Gilliam Look Back

- BBC

Britain To Get Its Own Version Of “Saturday Night Live”

- AP

Once “The Handmaid’s Tale” Became A Political Symbol, The TV Series Suffered For It

- TheWrap (MSN)

How Streaming Services Might Get Caught In Trump Tariffs

- Wired

Yorgos Lanthimos Denied Permission To Film Sci-Fi Comedy At Acropolis

- The Guardian

Would Trump Defunding Public Broadcasting Kill PBS? Probably Not, But …

- TheWrap (Yahoo!)

Audit Reveals Yet More Problems At Sacramento’s Capital Public Radio

- Capital Public Radio (Sacramento)



 

MUSIC

Tranquil Music Of Intensity

- The New York Times

Can This Man Save Iconic Atlantic Records?

- The Wall Street Journal

Has The Met’s Pivot To Contemporary Opera Fizzled?

- City Journal

Dudamel And L.A. Phil Prepare To Play America’s Biggest Rock Festival

- Los Angeles Times (MSN)

Fired New York Phil Players Accused Of Sexual Assault File Amended Lawsuit

- The New York Times

San Francisco’s Fillmore Jazz Festival Rescued From Cancellation By Donor

- San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

“Revivification”: A Reconstituted “Mini-Brain” Of The Late Alvin Lucier Is Creating Music

- The Guardian

The “Last Repair Shop” Instrument Repair Service For LA Schools, Gets A Big Boost

- Los Angeles Times

Why Are Musicians Turning To OnlyFans? They Need The Money!

- NPR

How Should Opera Deal With AI?

- The Observer (UK)

Former Westminster Choir College Campus Acquired By Town of Princeton, NJ

- The Daily Princetonian

Once-Lionized Mezzo Sues Met Opera For Firing Her After Pregnancy

- AP

So What Is Gregorian Chant Outside The Church?

- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



 

PEOPLE

Max Kozloff, Art Critic Who Turned Into A Prominent Street Photographer, Has Died At 91

- The New York Times

How An ASL Artist Spends Their Day Off In New York

- The New York Times

Max Kozloff, Influential Art Critic, Is Dead At 91

- Artforum

Jesse Kornbluth, Extraordinarily Prolific And Versatile Magazine Writer, Is Dead At 79

- The New York Times

Russian-American Dancer Imprisoned By Putin’s Regime For Treason Is Released

- AP

William Finn, Composer-Lyricist Of “Falsettos” And “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” Is Dead At 73

- Playbill

Conductor John Nelson, 83

- Gramophone



 

THEATRE

The Dutch Avant-Garde Theatre Company That Keeps Sending Shows To The West End And Broadway

- The Guardian

The List Keepers: Recording And Memorializing How AIDS Ravaged New York Theater

- New York Magazine (MSN)

Simon Russell Beale Has Issues With “Titus Andronicus”

- The Guardian

Frank Rich’s Brief History Of Broadway As Business

- New York Magazine (MSN)

Only Ancient Greek Theater In Ionian Islands Has Been Excavated

- Artnet

Rita Moreno, Mandy Patinkin, Harvey Fierstein, Patti LuPone, Lin-Manuel Miranda And Other Broadway Legends Recall Their Favorite Roles

- New York Magazine

What Even Is A Broadway Opening These Days?

- New York Theatre

Pasadena Playhouse Makes A Stunning Announcement

- Los Angeles Times (MSN)

Reenacting Weimar Cabaret As Some Attitudes Toward Gender And Sex Go Retrograde

- The Guardian (UK)

The Oliviers Award Fiddler On The Roof, Benjamin Button, And A Play About Roald Dahl

- The Guardian (UK)



 

VISUAL

William Morris Designs Are Literally Everywhere Now

- The Guardian (UK)

Is This Vermeer’s Last Painting?

- The Art Newspaper

The Prado Has Enlisted AI To Count People In Paintings

- Artnet

Florida Men Indicted For Trafficking In Forged Andy Warhols

- AP

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Finds Its New Director Right There At Home

- WBUR (Boston)

Global Art Sales Down In 2024

- CNN

National Gallery Of Art To Loan Works To Museums Across The U.S.

- ARTnews

The Latest Discoveries At The Funeral Temple Of Ramses II

- Artnet

Mexico City’s Maze Of Museums

- 3 Quarks Daily

Painter Of Trump Portrait He Criticized Says Her Career Is Threatened

- ARTnews

Some Of The Plainest Objects From Tutankhamun’s Tomb May Be Among The Most Interesting

- Artnet

How Will Trump’s Tariffs Affect The Art Markets?

- The Art Newspaper

Texas Legislator Proposes Bill To Fine Museums For Content

- ARTnews

Three-Year-Old Girl Stumbles On 3,800-Year-Old Scarab Amulet

- Artnet

London’s National Gallery Offers A Sleepover In The Galleries Prize

- The Guardian

Artist Lambasted By Trump Says Her Business Has Been Harmed

- BBC



 

WORDS

A Quick Cure For Writer’s Block

- Irish Times (Internet Archive)

The Naval Academy Library Dumps Maya Angelou But Keeps Hitler

- The New York Times

I Found Robert Caro’s Unfinished Novel

- Smithsonian Magazine

Thomas Pynchon’s First New Book In A Decade

- The Guardian

So Much Literature Is Built On The Premise Of Sexual Jealousy. But Today’s Students…

- Hedgehog Review

Gatsby At 100 Still Resonates

- The Guardian

A Writer Remembers His Astonishingly Well-Paid Gig With Graydon Carter’s Vanity Fair

- The Yale Review

Americans Say They Want To Read More Books. So Why Don’t They?

- NPR

ALA Sues Trump Administration Over Dismantling Of Museum/Library Agency

- Publishers Weekly

Only One In Six Attempts To Censor Books In US Is Originated By Parents

- The Guardian

Why The College Admissions Essay Is A Very Bad Idea

- Yascha Mounk

What It’s Like being A Librarian In The Time Of Trump

- The Guardian

These Are the 381 Books Removed From Naval Academy Library Shelves

- The New York Times

Amazon Backlash: Independent Bookstores Rise Up

- WPR