ArtsJournal

Digital Lists Are Destroying The Fabric Of Society

Slate — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000

“The issue goes deeper than presents. I have four kids from elementary to high-school age, and as hard as I try to expose them to life’s realities, they remain sheltered from disappointment and dissatisfaction at every turn.” – Slate

The British Museum Adds An Audio Tour To The Bayeux Tapestry in Response To Blind Man’s Lawsuit

BBC — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 19:30:00 +0000

The museum apparently hadn’t thought of adding an audio description to its app, or having more audio description tours, before the lawsuit – despite saying they worked with specialists on accessibility. – BBC

We’re In A Gross ‘Great Man’ Statuary Backlash, But Look At Ancient Egypt

The Atlantic — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 19:00:00 +0000

“The great public efforts—the colossal statuary, the expansive propaganda programs, the image campaigns, the attempts to remake the world of living people—have been shattered, defaced, and refaced.” – The Atlantic

The Joys Of Music Discovery Don’t Include Robots

Salon — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 18:30:00 +0000

With AI-generated “music,” “It’s not just the lack of discovery. … It’s more about the lack of anything personal behind the music. No history, no struggle, no catharsis, no exploration, no humanity. I listen to music because it’s flawed, raw and human.” – Salon

Turning Millennial Nostalgia For Raves Into A Big Business

NPR — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 18:00:00 +0000

But this one’s for the real kids (of Millennials and older Gen-Zers): “We wanted to get the baby into the rave scene,” says one set of parents. – NPR

As A New Show Opens, It’s Past Time To Reevaluate Our Reactions To Lee Krasner’s Work

The New York Times — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 17:30:00 +0000

“Her response to life with a mean and desperate drunk was to cannibalize her old canvases and explode into the pugnacious scale, audacious color, and thrusting verticles of collages.” – The New York Times

Russia’s War On Ukraine’s Books

The Guardian (UK) — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 17:00:00 +0000

“In total, this summer, 13 [million] Ukrainian books have been destroyed by Russian missiles or drones – a third, estimates the government, of all books printed in Ukraine this year.” – The Guardian (UK)

So Now There’s Apparently ‘Weird Girl Lit’?

The New York Times — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 16:30:00 +0000

Emerging from Reddit, the subgenre is not fully defined, but “books that get called weird girl lit tend to deal in uncanny or dreamlike circumstances.” – The New York Times

Netflix Had A Little Pivot Toward Prestige, But That’s Ending

The Verge — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 16:00:00 +0000

Prestige movies don’t reliably make money on streaming. “It seems like Netflix’s main game plan is to put an increased focus on producing lower-budget series, live events, and sports programming.” – The Verge

When Will We Know The Answers To AI’s Most Important Questions?

Time — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 15:00:00 +0000

“Several of the most fundamental debates about the future and safety of AI remain unresolved. I believe we can’t expect these disagreements to be resolved until it’s too late to change course.” – Time

Eugenia Errazuriz, Who Made Picasso Possible

The New York Times — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 14:30:00 +0000

Errázuriz was “a patron, adviser, connector and tastemaker whose influence expanded beyond Picasso and Stravinsky to fashion and interior design. She … opened doors, offered criticism and used her considerable wealth to steer artists toward the work that would make them famous.” – The New York Times

What It’s Like For Musician And Filmmaker Hayley Kiyoko To Be Called ‘Lesbian Jesus’ By Her Fans

The Guardian (UK) — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 14:00:00 +0000

She’s felt a pretty big responsibility, honestly, and she’s proud of the film Girls Like Girls. “We go to watch movies to dream and to fantasise and to see representation that maybe we lack in our lives.” – The Guardian (UK)

This Administration Is Moving The Kennedy Center Honors To Capital One Arena

The New York Times — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 13:30:00 +0000

“As Mr. Trump pushes to close the center for two years of renovations, he is trading the ruby-red Opera House for the 20,000-seat home of the N.B.A.’s Washington Wizards and the N.H.L.’s Washington Capitals.” – The New York Times

A Reminder For All Of Us – And Something New For The Young Ones – Who Love Music

Wired — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 13:00:00 +0000

When CDs are seen more as merch, something to buy to help out the artists rather than to hear the music, then you get a first tip like “Get a CD player.” – Wired

Is 3D, As Film Tech, Finally Worth It?

The Verge — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000

“Almost every 3D technology cuts something you care about in half, whether it’s resolution … or the refresh rate and flicker you get with active shutter glasses. But what if you had a full screen for each eye? That’s what video glasses can provide.” – The Verge

What Venice Could Have Been

The New York Times — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 11:30:00 +0000

At least, what the U.S. pavilion could have been. – The New York Times

Kennedy Center Honors Moving to an Arena

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 23:09:49 +0000

This Week’s Highlights:

The Kennedy Center’s board voted last month to close its building, and this week the center said the Honors will be held December 7 at Capital One Arena instead (AP). A Washington Post analysis found ticket sales on pace to fall by two-thirds, donations down 40% in four months, and a development staff cut from 96 to 14 (The Washington Post). And on Monday Utah Republican Mike Lee blocked a bill co-sponsored by his colleague Lisa Murkowski barring demolition of a congressional memorial without Congress’s approval (CNN).

The Nashville Symphony suspended its season effective October 18, furloughing all 77 musicians and half its staff against a $10 million deficit (The Tennessean). The Cleveland Orchestra’s players, backed by a $329 million endowment, struck for three days and won 5% annual raises and a rule that the music director can’t hire anyone the audition committee’s majority hasn’t approved (Ideastream).

The Third Circuit Federal Court held that Ross Intelligence, a legal-research startup, can’t claim fair use for training its AI on Westlaw’s editorial headnotes, the first appeals ruling of its kind (Nieman Lab).

Banned Books Week begins Sunday, and Seattle Public Library’s Books Unbanned, an e-card for readers 13 to 26 anywhere in the country, has passed 1.1 million checkouts on nearly $900,000 in donations (KOMO). Xander Parish, the first British principal at the Mariinsky Ballet, opens the Nouveaux Ballets Russes in Florence on March 14 with a Swan Lake set in Belle Époque Paris (Pointe).

We collected handfuls of stories this week. You can see all of them below, organized by topic.

See you next week.

Doug

Roberto Kalb shares key strategies to incorporate diversity into casting

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 16:40:40 +0000

Roberto Kalb, Music Director of Detroit Opera, shares his philosophy of incorporating diversity into casting and programming.

Kennedy Center Honors To Be Moved To An Arena

Yahoo — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 19:21:15 +0000

The 49th annual awards are set to take place at Washington’s downtown arena, a Kennedy Center spokesperson said Friday. Few other details were immediately available, and an explanation for the change wasn’t given. – AP (Yahoo)

What Laurie Anderson Knows Now That She Wishes She’d Known At Age 18

The Nerve (UK) — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 18:50:00 +0000

Nothing, actually. “No, I’m happy with what I knew then and what I didn’t know, and I was glad to get a chance to be an idiot. … You know, I don’t mind making these blunders. I learned a lot through blunders.” – The Nerve (UK)

What’s Behind The Amazing Starchitect Building Boom In… Albania?

The Guiardian — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 18:29:00 +0000

Sixty top architecture firms from around the world have mooted 500 eye-catching projects across Albania, sparking fury and protests. – The Guardian

When A Financial Tech Company Stages An Industrial Musical On Broadway

Slate (Yahoo!) — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 18:02:00 +0000

“Bill Pay itself was extremely meta and self-aware, a post-postmodern pageant that would have given David Foster Wallace an aneurysm. … (It) felt like an indicator of where the broader cultural zeitgeist is headed: back to a not-so-recent past where wealthy companies devoted heaping shares of their budgets toward sheer pandering.” – Slate (Yahoo!)

Opera Is Increasingly Expensive To Make. So How Will We Pay For It?

San Francisco Classical Voice — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 17:44:00 +0000

You can look at the finances of San Francisco Opera and what has changed in the last 45 or so years to understand what the company is dealing with. – San Francisco Classical Voice