Arts news

• After A Massive Storm, Archaeologists Rush To Save Artifacts In Alaska

  21-09-2026 16:00 via npr.org
  
  “Since the dig began, they’ve watched the Bering Sea creep closer and closer to the site. Shorelines in this part of Alaska are now more vulnerable to erosion due, in part, to decreasing sea ice and permafrost thaw.” – NPR
  
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• See 10 Paintings from the Met’s Landmark Chang Dai-Chien Acquisition

  21-09-2026 20:49 via artnews.com
  
  In what will surely make for a survey to remember, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has acquired 38 works by the revered Chinese ink painter Chang Dai-chien. The trove includes studies from Dai-chien’s time at Dunhuang, an ancient Buddhist temple complex on the edge of the Gobi Desert, in the 1940s, as well as works from the 1960s and beyond, when his delicate landscapes and still-life unraveled into radiant abstractions.“Chang Dai-chien stands as one of the most important painters of
  
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• Court Rules Investigators Overstepped In Seizing Art Institute Of Chicago Drawing

  21-09-2026 20:06 via nytimes.com
  In a blow to New York investigators, an appellate court has found they inappropriately cited a penal law to seize an Egon Schiele drawing from the Art Institute of Chicago. – The New York Times
  
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• Art Basel Paris Unveils Highlights, With ‘Emily in Paris’ Star Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu to Organize Oh La La! Initiative

  21-09-2026 19:44 via artnews.com
  
  Art Basel Paris unveiled today a few juicy highlights for its forthcoming edition, which will gather 211 galleries under the glass-ceilinged Grand Palais, open to the public from October 23 to 25. For starters, Emily in Paris fans will be happy to learn that Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, the actress who plays Emily’s effortlessly chic boss, Sylvie Grateau, is trying her hand at another kind of leading role—this time in the visual arts. She is the guest art director of Art Basel Paris&rs
  
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• New UK Company Will Recreate Famous Concerts With Hyper-Realistic Digital Avatars In Any Space

  21-09-2026 19:31 via theguardian.com
  The former chief executive of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s entertainment group has obtained a near-£15m investment for his UK music tech startup that hopes to recreate classic concerts by manifesting musicians as digital avatars. – The Guardian
  
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• Daily Mirror Publisher Cuts Jobs As Web Traffic Plummets Because Of AI

  21-09-2026 19:01 via theguardian.com
  The company said earlier this year that a slump in overall digital page views had been driven by a 46% year-on-year decline in traffic from Google as features such as Google’s AI Mode and AI Overviews negate the need for readers to click through to its websites. – The Guardian
  
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• One Man’s Quest To Understand Theatre Economics

  21-09-2026 18:46 via jharbour.substack.com
  
  If these institutions were really facing an existential financial situation, “they’re acting commercial” wasn’t much of a fair, nor novel, accusation. The question soon turned to: Once commercial capital entered the nonprofit stream, whose risk did the nonprofit’s advantages reduce, and who captured the resulting value? – Jared Harbour
  
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• MrBeast Has 500M Followers. He Wrote A Book. So Why Isn’t It Selling?

  21-09-2026 18:30 via linkedin.com
  
  The book sold a reported 22,646 copies in its first week, landing it at #3 on The New York Times bestseller list. They are very low relative to the names involved. MrBeast has one of the largest communities with over 515 million YouTube followers. – Ben Liebmann (LinkedIn)
  
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• We Asked Benjamin Moser to Name One Artwork He Considers a “Revelation”

  21-09-2026 18:29 via artnews.com
  
  Glowing harmlessly on the walls of the Century Association on Manhattan’s West 43rd Street is a work by John Frederick Kensett. It shows Mount Chocorua, in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Today, in an age of easy travel to more exotic climes, this peak looms a bit less spectacularly than it did in the 19th century, when it was a kind of American Matterhorn: sung by our poets; painted by our artists; haunted, thrillingly, by a spooky legend—of an Indian chief named Chocorua who,
  
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• Internal Documents: What OpenAI Workers Said About Pirating Books

  21-09-2026 18:15 via wsj.com
  A court filing unsealed Thursday details internal messages and testimony laying out how OpenAI employees—including executives—talked about the company’s use of pirated books to train an early ChatGPT model, as well as their technology’s potential impact on authors. – The Wall Street Journal
  
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• Paramount And California In Negotiations To Clear Warner Merger

  21-09-2026 18:01 via wsj.com
  The parties have discussed compromises including Paramount agreeing to operate the two companies’ movie studios separately for a period rather than immediately combining them, the people said. – The Wall Street Journal
  
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• The Fake AI Books Impersonating Real Authors

  21-09-2026 17:44 via theatlantic.com
  
  Across categories—fantasy, horror, even coloring books—writers say they’re seeing AI-generated listings crop up on their Amazon author pages. Some of these works are in entirely different genres from their usual work. – The Atlantic
  
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• Macklemore, Sheeran, Kraft

  21-09-2026 17:43 via artsjournal.com
  This has been all over the papers, so I’ll only give a brief synopsis: Ed Sheeran is on a US stadium tour, and has Macklemore as an opening act. Macklemore makes statements about Israel-Palestine on stage. A forthcoming stadium gig, at Robert Kraft’s Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts, is cancelled owing to Macklemore’s remarks, and other stadium owners follow suit. Sheeran’s concert promotor, Messina Touring Group, drops Macklemore from the tour. Sheeran does not protest
  
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• Trump Reportedly Plans to Deaccession Kennedy Center Art Collection, Court Faults Investigators for Seizing Egon Schiele Artwork, and More: Morning Links for September 21, 2026

  21-09-2026 17:31 via artnews.com
  
  To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.Good morning!A New York appellate court has faulted investigators for seizing an Egon Schiele drawing.President Trump announced plans to deaccession the Kennedy Center’s art collection.Two visitors to the Louvre were arrested after they installed paintings near the Mona Lisa.The Headlines D.A. TO BACK DOWN? A New York appellate court has faulted investigators from the Manhattan district
  
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• Trump Appointees Reportedly Planned to Deaccession Kennedy Center Art Collection, Court Faults Investigators for Seizing Egon Schiele Artwork, and More: Morning Links for September 21, 2026

  21-09-2026 17:31 via artnews.com
  
  To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.Good morning!A New York appellate court has faulted investigators for seizing an Egon Schiele drawing.New documents show President Trump-appointed officials planned to deaccession the Kennedy Center’s art collection.Two visitors to the Louvre were arrested after they installed paintings near the Mona Lisa.The Headlines D.A. TO BACK DOWN? A New York appellate court has faulted investigato
  
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• Inside The Kennedy Center’s Real Finances

  21-09-2026 17:31 via theatlantic.com
  
  Now there’s a fuller picture of the finances Trump inherited—and of what happened during his first months in charge. A previously unseen federal tax filing captures an institution in transition. – The Atlantic
  
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• New Arts Council England Chairwoman Wants ACE To Get Louder

  21-09-2026 17:15 via theguardian.com
  Airey recalled that on her first visit as chair to ACE’s London office, “it felt quiet, a little bit subdued. I didn’t expect that.” She said she wanted ACE to get its “swagger” back. – The Guardian
  
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• This 1972 Canadian Godspell Truly Had All The Good Gifts

  21-09-2026 17:00 via nytimes.com
  The Toronto production was “a Rosetta stone of funny people that featured then unknowns such as Martin Short, Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, Victor Garber and Paul Shaffer.” – The New York Times
  
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• Thousands Of Young Dancers Are Auditioning For The Nutcracker All Over The Country, Right Now

  21-09-2026 16:30 via bostonglobe.com
  
  The kids have Ideas, too, like their dream roles: “I kind of want to be a rat. … I think a rat just is fun because it makes you laugh a lot.” – Boston Globe
  
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• When You Get Offered A Met Opera, But At The Last Minute, Do You Take The Job?

  21-09-2026 15:45 via nytimes.com
  Louisa Proske: “It was insane and thrilling. … It was like, ‘the director has to assemble a team, and we kind of need the design yesterday.’” – The New York Times
  
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• In A Surprise To Exactly No One, Meta’s New AI Is Better At Surveillance Than Help

  21-09-2026 15:30 via wired.com
  
  “Muse’s default avatar is a beige-colored cross between an Ewok and a Labubu, with its arms outstretched, presumably to scoop up all my data.” – Wired
  
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• Epic Spanish Film Inspired By Garcia Lorca Story Wins The People’s Choice Award In Toronto

  21-09-2026 15:15 via nytimes.com
  “The award, voted on by audiences, can be a bellwether of the best picture Oscar, as in 2018 and 2020, when Green Book and Nomadland went on to win at the Academy Awards.” – The New York Times
  
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• Sally Rooney (And Irish Law) Versus A Data Center

  21-09-2026 15:00 via lithub.com
  
  “Rooney—the author and Mayo native whose novels have become a cultural phenomenon over the past decade—lodged an objection to the proposed data center back in January, writing to Mayo County Council that permission for the facility would increase carbon emissions and create a risk of blackouts.” – LitHub
  
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• Movie Audiences Have Fallen In Love With Really Big Screens

  21-09-2026 14:45 via msn.com
  “The 2026 summer box office take is already the largest since 2020, and unadjusted for inflation, the largest ever. Most of that money comes from films that played in premium formats.” – Washington Post (MSN)
  
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• Actor Amanda Redman Got Caught Practicing A BAFTA Acceptance Speech

  21-09-2026 14:30 via theguardian.com
  The actor, known for her ten years on New Tricks as well as the film Sexy Beast, was meeting her then-boyfriend’s parents, one of whom was an award-winning director. They left her alone in the room with the trophies. – The Guardian (UK)
  
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• Ed Sheeran Speaks About Mistakes In His First Concerts Back From The Macklemore Debacle

  21-09-2026 14:15 via bbc.com
  
  The English singer apologized while blaming his promoter for dropping the U.S. musician. In addition, “he described the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attacks as ‘horrific’ and called the situation in Gaza ‘unjustifiable.’” – BBC
  
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• The President’s Obsession With Monuments

  21-09-2026 14:00 via theatlantic.com
  
  To himself, of course. – The Atlantic
  
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• Dallas Invitational to Expand to London for Frieze Week

  21-09-2026 14:00 via artnews.com
  
  Dallas-based dealer James Cope launched the Dallas Invitational four years ago with the aim of bringing together a small group of galleries in a convivial way, separate from the bigger art fairs staged in convention centers or massive tents, that he had participated as a gallerist.“What I’m trying to build with the Invitational is a group of like-minded people coming together to spend a few days together,” he told ARTnews by phone over the summer. Instead of an application proc
  
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• The Eerie Artistic Of New York’s Metro

  21-09-2026 13:45 via nytimes.com
  “I look for the colorful scenes of decay on the tunnel walls, the rusted iron beams, patterns formed in crumbling tiles and peeling paint. I’m drawn to the strange forms found in discarded bubble gum.” – The New York Times
  
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• Liu Wei’s Cut-Up and Reassembled Sculptures Take Over the Met Museum’s Facade

  21-09-2026 11:00 via artnews.com
  
  A series of hybrid sculptures now gesture from the facade of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. In Speculation / Λ (2026), a black sphere acts as the support for a hand that extends upward, as if trapped in a ruin of bone tissue, while in Speculation / G (2026), an outstretched hand lies at the base of a tower of protruding nails, rawhide, and layered geometric metal cutouts. Conceived of by Liu Wei and unveiled Thursday, the works range from nearly 9 feet tall to over 16 feet t
  
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