A federal judge Friday ordered that President Donald Trump’s name be removed from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and that officials halt its plan to close the venue for two years. – Washington Post

Harpo (né Arthur) developed his silent persona due to his own stage fright; in later years he said he didn’t want to “tear down a character it took me decades to build.”  On rare occasions, though, he did speak in public, though not when microphones were around — except for this one time. – The Guardian

The total compensation for the top executives surged a stunning 51% from a year earlier, based on a tally of $615 million vs. $408.5 million in 2024.  – The Wrap

“Maceo Harrison deftly designs routines that emphasize charisma over technical precision and spotlight the teams’ natural showmen while camouflaging the players with two left feet. … Sometimes he has mere hours to choreograph and just as little time to teach his routines to the players.” – ESPN

Latchford’s success depended not just on criminal networks that supplied and transported these objects, but on the willingness of museums, dealers, collectors, and scholars to accept fragmented or problematic provenance so long as the objects themselves retained the aura of rarity and beauty. – Hyperallergic

“We now observe preparation gaps so severe that instructors must reteach middle-school mathematics while simultaneously teaching the material students need for sciences, engineering, economics, and other quantitatively demanding fields,” the professors write in an open letter to the Board of Regents. – The Wall Street Journal

Unlike his immediate predecessor, Esa-Pekka Salonen, who also served as the Philharmonic’s music director for 17 seasons, Mr. Dudamel seems not to have matured on the podium. – The Wall Street Journal

Designed by award-winning architects Studio Gang, the 451-seat Scripps Theater Center — in Garrison, NY, 60 miles north of New York City — is a curved mass-timber structure with open sides, set on 98 landscaped acres overlooking the Hudson River. Year-round facilities will let the festival expand beyond a summer schedule. – Time Out New York

“The order is inconsistent with a legitimate exercise of investigative authority and is plainly incompatible with the First Amendment,” Disney said in its Thursday filing. Carr has insisted the early renewal order is strictly about DEI. – The Wall Street Journal

This seems to be especially true for students. A.I.’s smooth sentences, elegant transitions and rich vocabulary give the illusion of expansive creativity and individuality. But the underlying ideas often converge into a few homogenized categories. – The New York Times

Gehry Partners will design a variety of upgrades to the Getty Center — including a major revamp of its entry experience — during its upcoming year-long closure, the museum announced Thursday. – Los Angeles Times

Sure, there are some other languages whose speakers have spelling contests, but there are plenty — Italian, Finnish, Malay, etc. — whose words are spelled exactly as they’re pronounced. But English? In what other language could “ough” be pronounced eight different ways, depending on the word? – The New York Times Magazine

The book-publishing industry had already been wrestling with the prospect of a flood of AI-authored texts in the fiction market, and now the Rosenbaum scandal was showing the way AI could blow a hole in the nonfiction sector, too. – New York Magazine

YouTube is making AI-generated content labels more prominent for viewers — and it’s going to start automatically applying the labels if it detects that a video includes “significant photorealistic AI use.” – Variety

Their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), suggest that the subtle motions of a pianist’s fingers and hands influence how listeners perceive qualities such as brightness, heaviness, and clarity in musical notes. – Science Daily

“(He) did not set out to make the exhibit American Aspirations his swan song. But he said that his organizing of an exhibition that honors America’s 250th anniversary could well be among his final acts as secretary. ‘It’s probably the last exhibit I will curate, there’s no doubt about that.’” – The New York Times

Arts Council England has unveiled a new strategy to replace the “Let’s Create” regime, which was widely criticized for appearing to de-emphasize high quality in favor of inclusiveness. The new policy aims for ACE’s grants to “support excellence, deliver for everybody, and reach everywhere.” – The Stage (UK)

“What, exactly, defines America? It’s a question that’s been asked for more than two centuries, and it’s unlikely to be conclusively answered anytime soon. But, with the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding fast approaching, we took the occasion to hash out a response to that query, using art as a guide.” – ARTnews

“We started working on this list over a year ago and spent more than a month alone wrestling with how best to define its purview. We decided this would not be a list of the best American artworks, which is both too challenging an exercise and too wide a net to cast.” – ARTnews

“Local TV stations owned by ABC across the United States blasted the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday for launching an ‘unlawful, arbitrary and unconstitutional’ early review of their broadcast licenses as a dispute between the network and the Trump-controlled agency intensifies.” – AP

A network spokesperson argued that producing its own programming for the late-night talk-show slot is now “cost-prohibitive” — and that, by leasing that airtime to comedian/TV mogul Byron Allen, CBS will turn a $40 million annual loss into a $55 million annual profit. – Variety

“The Book of Mormon, one of Broadway’s biggest hits, resumed performances on Wednesday night after a three-week shutdown prompted by a damaging three-alarm electrical fire at the theater where the musical comedy has been running for 15 years.” – The New York Times