This Week’s AJ Highlights

1. Festival Attendance Might Be Down, But Glastonbury Sells Out In 30 Minutes Despite concerns about declining attendance at music festivals globally, Glastonbury’s rapid sell-out reflects enduring demand for live cultural experiences, raising questions about accessibility and ticketing systems. – BBC
2. How People Focus Attention On Art Has Changed. Museums Need To Change Too “Claire Bishop argues that social media and digital technology have fragmented attention spans, compelling museums to rethink traditional approaches to displaying and interpreting art.” – The Nation​
3. Notre-Dame Restoration Has a $148 Million Surplus
   Following unprecedented fundraising success, questions arise about how surplus funds from Notre-Dame’s restoration should be allocated, highlighting broader issues in managing large-scale cultural preservation efforts. – France24​
4. Rough Times For Dance In Chicago As A 52-Year-Old Company Shuts Down And A Venue Fights To Stay Open “With the Chicago Moving Company closing and Links Hall facing financial struggles, these closures highlight the fragility of dance organizations in a post-pandemic world, leaving the city’s dance scene at a crossroads.” – Chicago Tribune​
5. The Quiet Rise Of Eco-Set Design In Theater “Theater companies are increasingly turning to sustainable set designs, using recycled materials and energy-efficient production methods, signaling a shift toward environmental responsibility in the performing arts.” – The Stage​

As usual, skip down to see all the stories we collected this week. See you next week,

Doug

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- Michael Rushton


 

DANCE

How UArts’ Dance Program Was Saved After The School’s Abrupt Collapse

- Dance Magazine

Paris Opera Ballet Suspends Its Competition For Promotions

- Gramilano

A Revered Master Of Hula Wins $450K Gish Prize

- The New York Times

Dance Is Increasingly Finding A Home In Museums

- Dance Magazine

Rough Times For Dance In Chicago As A 52-Year-Old Company Shuts Down And A Venue Fights To Stay Open

- Chicago Tribune

Julio Bocca To Take Charge At South America’s Leading Ballet Company

- The New York Times

Remembering Judith Jamison

- The New York Times

Philadelphia’s BalletX Is Bigger, Busier, And More Stable Than Ever

- The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

Toronto’s Only Purpose-Built Dance Venue Will Close After 41 Years

- Ludwig Van

IDEAS

We Assume That There’s An Order To “Laws Of Nature.” But…

- Aeon

Constructing A Workable Philosophy For Coping With Hard Times

- 3 Quarks Daily

Rationalizing: The Art Of Procrastination (As Explained By Artists)

- LitHub

Does More Education Fend Off Cognitive Decline? Study Says No

- Neuroscience News

Why We Turn To Crosswords When We’re In Crisis

- The New York Times



 

ISSUES

This Was To Be The Year Of The Screens Ban In Schools. How’s It Working Out?

- Maclean's

Is Chicago’s Arts Funding Going Up Or Down?

- WBEZ (Chicago)

In Portland, Smaller Groups Say The City Is Giving Too Much Of Its Arts Budget To The Big Guys

- Willamette Week (Portland)

How The Ivy League Broke American Culture

- The Atlantic

Who Wins When A Mega-Event Comes To Town?

- The Conversation

Forty Years Ago The Celebrity-Fueled Band-Aid Changed Charity Fundraising Forever

- The Conversation

Authenticity Is Not A Feeling. It’s A State Of Being

- 3 Quarks Daily

U.S. Cultural Institutions Seriously Rattled By Fallout From Gaza War

- The New York Times

What Role For The Arts In These Times? Perhaps Critics Are Needed Even More Now?

- San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

Report: UK Careers In The Arts Are Dominated By The Upper Classes

- The Guardian

City Of Spokane To Revive Its Long-Shuttered Arts Department

- The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA)

To What Degree Are Russian Artists Complicit In What Russia Has Become?

- The Guardian

The Rise Of The (Ubiquitous) Standing O

- The New York Times

Post-Election, Nancy Pelosi Talks About The Importance Of The Arts

- San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)



 

MEDIA

Spare A Thought For Historical Consultants, Often Completely Ignored By Movie And TV Directors

- The Guardian (UK)

UK Media Industry Is Having A Crisis Of New Workers

- The Conversation

Sacramento’s Public Radio And PBS Stations Sue Each Other Over Transmission Tower

- The Sacramento Bee (MSN)

How, And Why, “Rust” Got Finished After Alec Baldwin Accidentally Shot The Cinematographer

- The Hollywood Reporter

Big Corporate Streamers May Be Having Trouble, But Niche Streaming Services Are Thriving

- The New York Times

“The Broadcast Land Grab”: Trump’s Next Administration May See Wave Of TV Station Acquisitions

- The Hollywood Reporter

French News Outlets Sue X (Twitter) For Running Their Content Without Paying For It

- The Guardian

The New Pause-Subscription Streaming Subscriber

- The Wall Street Journal

Hulu Series About Amanda Knox Films In City Where It All Happened, And Locals Are Furious

- Variety

There Will Be No Liberal Equivalent Of Joe Rogan

- Vulture (MSN)



 

MUSIC

Charlie Fishman, Music Promoter Who Died This Week, Made DC A Better Jazz Town

- Washington Post (MSN)

How Mason Bates Turned Michael Chabon’s Most Famous Novel Into An Opera

- AP

New Music Streaming Service Based On Video Games Finds An Audience

- NPR

Can Spotify’s AI-DJs Make You Listen Longer?

- NPR

Festival Attendance Might Be Down, But Glastonbury Sells Out In 30 Minutes

- BBC

Metropolitan Opera Names Daniele Rustioni Principal Guest Conductor

- AP

Pacific Symphony Picks A New Music Director

- CultureOC

Pitchfork Festival Abruptly Pulls Out Of Chicago

- WBEZ

At Age 80, Soprano Lucy Shelton Finds Herself With An Opera Career

- The New York Times

A Stroke Disabled Randy Travis From Singing. Now AI Is Helping Him Sing Again

- Variety (MSN)

How Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony’s Musicians Saved Their Bankrupt Orchestra

- The Globe and Mail (Canada)

Sticker Shock: Renovation Of Stuttgart’s Opera House Could Cost €2 Billion

- Pizzicato

The Bells Of Notre-Dame In Paris Are Reunited

- The New York Times

Youngstown (Ohio) Symphony Music Director Suddenly Quits After Only Four Months

- WKBN

St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Chief To Step Down

- The Star-Tribune (MPLS)

Study: Listeners’ Recall Of Earworm Songs Are Extraordinarily Accurate, Down To The Pitch

- Psypost

As Esa-Pekka Salonen Begins His Final Year With San Francisco, The Orchestra Earns Grammy Nods

- San Francisco Chronicle

Talk About A Good Session Pianist

- The Guardian (UK)



 

PEOPLE

Is This America’s Oldest Working Auctioneer? (He’s Certainly One Of The Quirkiest)

- The New York Times

Timothy West, Icon Of British Stage And Television, Is Dead At 90

- The New York Times

Lou Donaldson, Master Jazz Saxophonist And Walking History Lesson, Has Died At 98

- The Washington Post (MSN)

Painter Frank Auerbach, 93

- The Guardian

When Garfunkel And Simon Met Up A Few Weeks Ago, For Lunch

- The Sunday Times (UK)

A Tribute To Author Dorothy Allison, Dead At 75

- Deep South Magazine

Tony Todd, Actor In Many Movies But Was Best Known For Being The Candyman, Has Died At 69

- The New York Times



 

THEATRE

An Evangelical Theater Company Is Getting Noticed Well Beyond Its Small-Town South Carolina Home

- The Washington Post (MSN)

How Roger Ailes Commandeered A Save-The-Earth Hippie Musical And Inadvertently Birthed A Pop Juggernaut

- Playbill

The Tricky Negotiations Of Dark Comedy

- The Point

Theater Festival Brings Solace To Capital Of Troubled Burkina Faso

- AP

In The Theatre, Digital Tickets And Programs Erase The Physical Record Of Attending

- Public Books

At 77, Playwright David Hare Is In A Hurry

- The Observer (UK)



 

VISUAL

Is This Art Exhibit A Sign Of Recent Union Organizing Strength?

- Hyperallergic

In The Land Of A-Museum-For-Everything, The Math Museum Will Double In Size

- The New York Times

British Museum Gets A £-billion Donation — Largest Ever

- ARTnews

How People Focus Attention On Art Has Changed. Museums Need To Change Too

- The Nation

Sotheby’s Settles New York Tax Fraud Case For $6.25 Million

- Reuters

Notre-Dame Restoration Has A $148 Million Surplus (!)

- France 24

Pompeii, Overrun By Tourists, Introduces New Limits

- Artnet

British Museum Receives Its Most Valuable Gift Ever: $1.27 Billion Worth Of Chinese Ceramics

- The Guardian

Notre-Dame’s Official Reopening Date Is Set, Events Scheduled

- ABC News

How One Artist Uses AI To Collaborate

- The New York Times

Working In Public View, Conservators Begin Restoration of Rembrandt’s “Night Watch”

- The Washington Post (MSN)

Vatican Sets Up AI Replica Of St. Peter’s Basilica

- AP

Reconsidering Antiquities, American Museums And The Ethhics Of It All

- The Wall Street Journal

How Might You Use AI In Museums?

- Artnet

Huge Art Forgery Enterprise Busted By Italian Police

- AP

Prominent Italian Dealer Arrested For Trafficking Thousands Of Stolen Artifacts

- Smithsonian

Azerbaijan “Repurposes” Copyright To Suppress Public Artwork

- Hyperallergic

The Dark Origins Of Impressionism

- The Atlantic



 

WORDS

So, Just What Does The Onion Plan To Do With InfoWars?

- AP

How Did Lucy Calkins Become The Scapegoat For America’s Reading Crisis?

- The Atlantic (MSN)

Is The 20th Century Novel Its Own Genre?

- The New Yorker

The Onion Buys Alex Jones’s Site InfoWars (This Is Not Satire)

- CNN

Has The Internet Trapped Fiction In A No-Man’s Land?

- Spike Art

Librarians, Increasingly Under Attack, Are Facing Burn Out

- The New York Times

Booker Prize 2024: Samantha Harvey’s “Orbital” Scores Upset Win Over Percival Everett’s “James”

- The Guardian

How The Brothers Grimm Helped Create The Idea Of Germany

- The American Scholar

Ann Patchett On Revisiting Her Award-Winning Novel Bel Canto, Twenty Years On

- LitHub

The Booker Shortlist Is, Like, Really Good

- The Observer (UK)

Books That Can Provide Light In The Darkness

- The Guardian (UK)