Arts news

• How Technology Is Blurring The Space Between Mind And Machine

  04-10-2016 23:02 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  “Some people worry that one day soon we might physically attach computer chips to our minds, but we don’t actually need to plug ourselves in: proximity is a red herring. The real issue is the seamless way in which we are already hybridising our cognitive space with our devices. In ways both quotidian and profound, they are becoming extensions of our minds.”
  
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• More than 100 Cuban Cultural Leaders Call for International Aid in Face of Oil Blockade

  17-02-2026 22:49 via artnews.com
  As Cuba endures rolling blackouts and a plunging standard of living, more than 100 artists, curators, and cultural workers have issued a public appeal for international intervention, arguing that the longstanding US oil blockade has made efforts to stabilize the island’s spiraling humanitarian crisis all but impossible.The letter, titled “Cuba is Not a Threat” and published February 16 on the website Peoples Dispatch, was signed by scores of nationally recognized Cuban intellec
  
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• Artist Trevor Paglen Thinks Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day Looks Awfully Familiar

  17-02-2026 21:41 via artnews.com
  On Super Bowl Sunday, Universal Pictures debuted the first full-length trailer for Disclosure Day, Steven Spielberg’s latest extraterrestrial epic. Scattered throughout the trailer are repeated references to cardinals, presented as a kind of harbinger of alien life. If that sounds a little familiar, eagle-eyed art viewer, you’re not alone.Artist Trevor Paglen took to Instagram last week to note the visual link between his 2024 and 2025 shows at Altman Siegel and Pace—both title
  
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• Architect Oscar Niemeyer’s Final Building Was A Diner In Leipzig

  17-02-2026 21:06 via theguardian.com
  The great Brazilian modernist, best-known for the futuristic government buildings in Brasilia, had recently turned 103 when he drew the first sketch for what’s now called the Niemeyer Sphere. When he died almost a year later, he hadn’t finalized the design, but there were enough sketches and specifications to complete it. – The Guardian
  
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• Australian Police Catch Thief Behind Heist of Egyptian Artifacts

  17-02-2026 20:23 via artnews.com
  Police in Queensland, Australia, have arrested a man suspected of stealing precious Egyptian artifacts from a museum outside of Brisbane.According to local reports, the 52-year-old man was arrested Saturday on Russell Island in Moreton Bay after police discovered part of the stolen haul in a camper van parked at a ferry terminal. Among the recovered items was a 2,600-year-old wooden cat figure from Egypt’s 26th Dynasty, the last dynasty ruled by a native Egyptian pharaoh before t
  
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• A Rare Edition Of Shakespeare’s First Folio Was Stolen And Damaged. Now That It’s Been Recovered, Should It Be Repaired?

  17-02-2026 20:04 via yahoo.com
  When in 2010, Durham University got back the Folio which had been stolen in 1998, the book’s leather cover, boards and end papers were gone, as were an engraving, a eulogy by Ben Jonson, and the final page of Cymbeline. The volume has never been repaired, and there are good reasons why. – BBC (Yahoo!)
  
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• Michael Silverblatt, A Radio Interviewer Who Really Knew His Subjects’ Work, Dies At 73

  17-02-2026 19:44 via yahoo.com
  Michael Silverblatt, the longtime host of the KCRW radio show “Bookworm” — known for interviews of authors so in depth that they sometimes left his subjects astounded at his breadth of knowledge of their work — has died. – Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)
  
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• Citing George Orwell, Federal Judge Orders Reinstatement of Slavery Display at George Washington’s Presidential House

  17-02-2026 19:43 via artnews.com
  Comparing the Trump administration’s efforts to control historical documentation to George Orwell’s 1984, a federal judge ordered the return of displays that acknowledged George Washington’s ownership of enslaved people to a monument in Philadelphia.Last month, the National Park Service removed the signs from the President’s House Site, the presidential residence for Washington and John Adams before the completion of the White House. The President’s House Site is pa
  
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• In Australia, Arts Education Enrollment Is Plummeting

  17-02-2026 19:31 via limelight-arts.com.au
  A comprehensive review of national data shows a steady decline in arts subject enrolments at senior secondary level and a parallel contraction of creative arts degree courses in higher education since 2018. – Limelight
  
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• The Anatomy Of (Enduring) Class Struggle

  17-02-2026 19:15 via theamericanscholar.org
  Despite years of Eat-the-Rich–type discourse, we seem to struggle with how money and power operate without falling into either conspiratorial exaggeration (the fantasy of Satan-worshipping elites ritualistically drinking baby blood is centuries old) or fawning admiration for the taste and sophistication of the rich and famous. – The American Scholar
  
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• Macron Adviser Anne-Claire Legendre Tapped to Head Institut du Monde Arabe

  17-02-2026 19:11 via artnews.com
  Anne-Claire Legendre, a senior diplomat and one of French President Emmanuel Macron’s closest advisers on North Africa and the Middle East, has been chosen to lead the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, according to Le Monde, marking a turning point for the institution after weeks of turmoil.Legendre, 46, was selected by the institute’s board on Tuesday morning. Her appointment is expected to be ratified by the high council made up of representatives from the 22 member state
  
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• Eugenio Viola Says Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá Ended His Contract Over Labor Issues

  17-02-2026 19:08 via artnews.com
  Earlier this month, the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá announced on Instagram that it had terminated its contract with longtime artistic director Eugenio Viola. Now, Viola is claiming that the board of directors did so after he raised concerns with working conditions at the museum.In a statement to the Art Newspaper, Viola, who began serving as artistic director in 2019, said, “The board of directors ended my contract early, not due to any artistic or leadership deficiencies. My de
  
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• A Verbatim Play Reimagines One Of The Most Notorious TV Debates Of The AIDS Era

  17-02-2026 19:02 via nytimes.com
  In Kramer/Fauci, director Daniel Fish stages a transcript of the 1993 C-SPAN debate between Larry Kramer, the legendarily combative writer and AIDS activist, and the more mild-mannered Dr. Anthony Fauci, then the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. – The New York Times
  
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• Arguments For Why People Are Wothwhile

  17-02-2026 18:44 via 3quarksdaily.com
  When we speak of dignity, worth, or the respect owed to persons, we are not engaging in idle abstraction. These concepts do real work. They justify constraints on what the powerful may do to the vulnerable. – 3 Quarks Daily
  
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• Why Do We Have An Instinctive Attraction To Music?

  17-02-2026 18:33 via newyorker.com
  People have relished music for so long that we have evidence, from forty thousand years ago, of humans making a flute-like instrument out of a vulture bone. We feel that even wordless music reflects our moods. – The New Yorker
  
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• How Universities Became Centers Of Liberal Thought

  17-02-2026 18:15 via newyorker.com
  In the past thirty or so years, the academy has replaced the church as the center of the liberal moral imagination, providing the sense of a community bound by ethics, a firmament of texts and knowledge that should inform action, and a meeting space for like-minded people. – The New Yorker
  
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• University of North Texas Faculty Calls on School to Disclose Reason for Cancelation of Victor Quiñonez Exhibition

  17-02-2026 18:08 via artnews.com
  Members of the faculty of College of Visual Arts and Design (CVAD) at the University of North Texas (UNT) released an open letter on Friday objecting to the cancelation of a solo exhibition of artist Victor “Marka27” Quiñonez.In the letter, which was addressed to the “Office of the President and University Leadership, University of North Texas,” the faculty said that they “strongly object to the abrupt and unexplained cancellation” of Quiñonez&rs
  
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• “Train Dreams” And “Adolescence” Lead 2026 Independent Spirit Awards

  17-02-2026 18:05 via hollywoodreporter.com
  Train Dreams, Clint Bentley’s feature about an isolated logger in the early-20th-century Pacific Northwest, led the film categories with three wins. In the television categories, Adolescence, a British crime drama about a 13-year-old boy accused of stabbing a classmate to death, took four of the six prizes. – The Hollywood Reporter
  
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• The Cultural Debate About Wall Texts

  17-02-2026 17:44 via hyperallergic.com
  “When curators withhold information about the works and the artists, they are reinforcing their own curatorial approach, which is a contradiction. Decontextualizing and dehistoricizing is practically a colonialist act.”  – Hyperallergic
  
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• What Musical Variations Can Teach Us About Divergent Creativity

  17-02-2026 17:31 via nytimes.com
  It’s hard to imagine creativity without divergent thinking. How are you being exploratory? How are you being adventurous? A theme and variations is a very overt demonstration of that process, because the whole idea is to generate novel versions of the same source. – The New York Times
  
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• America’s Post-Modernist Architecture Legacy

  17-02-2026 17:15 via archdaily.com
  Postmodernism began as a critique of modernism’s exhausted promises. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, many designers no longer treated modernism as radical or socially redemptive. Urban renewal projects accelerated the demolition of historic neighborhoods, and landmark preservation battles raised urgent questions about what the United States valued and, ultimately, protected. – Arch Daily
  
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• At 85, Choreographer Lucinda Childs Is Still Busy

  17-02-2026 17:03 via nytimes.com
  “I’m not, um, young,” she says. “And I do have help. I don’t go in without somebody there who can help to translate and who understands my movement. But my favorite thing is to make things.” – The New York Times
  
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• Head Of Arts At London’s Barbican Centre Is Out After Only 18 Months

  17-02-2026 16:31 via theguardian.com
  Devyani Saltzman was named director of arts and participation in February 2024; she was one of seven senior leaders installed after the Barbican replaced the managing director model. News of her departure comes about a month after the arrival of new CEO Abigail Pogson, and Saltzman is not being replaced. – The Guardian
  
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• British Museum Contests Report on Removal of ‘Palestinian’ from Some Wall Texts

  17-02-2026 16:28 via artnews.com
  The British Museum contested a Telegraph report from this weekend, saying that it had not entirely stripped the word “Palestinian” from its wall texts in response to pressure from a pro-Israel group.The Telegraph report stated that UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) had written to British Museum director Nicholas Cullinan, claiming that using the word Palestine in its displays of Middle Eastern art “erases historical changes and creates a false impression of continuity. Moreover, th
  
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• San Antonio Philharmonic Cancels Remainder Of Its Season

  17-02-2026 15:59 via sacurrent.com
  “After the loss of its musical director, the cancelation of multiple concerts and a dispute locking it out of what was touted to be its permanent performance space, the San Antonio Philharmonic has scrapped the remainder of its season, according to an email sent to its musicians.” – San Antonio Current
  
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• Chicago Symphony Is Deemed “World’s Busiest Orchestra” — What Exactly Does That Entail?

  17-02-2026 15:36 via chicagotribune.com
  Basically, it means the CSO shows more scheduled performances than other orchestras in the comprehensive concert listings on the classical-music website Bachtrack. However, both Bachtrack’s editors and CSO management say that it’s not as simple as that description sounds. – Chicago Tribune
  
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• Warner Bros. Will Let Paramount Submit Another Bid To Buy It

  17-02-2026 15:04 via finance.yahoo.com
  “Warner Bros Discovery Inc. has agreed to temporarily reopen sale negotiations with rival Hollywood studio Paramount Skydance Corp., setting the stage for a potential second bidding war with Netflix Inc.” – Bloomberg (Yahoo!)
  
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• Frederick Wiseman, Dean Of Documentary Filmmakers, Has Died At 96

  17-02-2026 14:32 via apnews.com
  “Among the world’s most admired and influential filmmakers, … with subjects ranging from a suburban high school to a horse race track, his work was aired on public television, screened at retrospectives, spotlighted in festivals, praised by critics and fellow directors and preserved by the Library of Congress.” – AP
  
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• Actor Robert Duvall, 95

  17-02-2026 14:00 via msn.com
  “(The) Oscar-winning actor … disappeared into an astonishing range of roles — lawmen and outlaws, Southern-fried alcoholics and Manhattan boardroom sharks, a hotheaded veteran and a cool-tempered mob consigliere — and emerged as one of the most respected screen talents of his generation.” – The Washington Post (MSN)
  
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• Paul Slocum, One of Digital Art’s First Champions, on Building a Sustainable Digital Ecosystem

  17-02-2026 13:35 via artnews.com
  This past week, Paul Slocum celebrated 20 years of And/Or gallery, a pioneering space for the exhibition of new media art. Founded in 2006 with a show featuring works by Tom Moody and Saskia Jorda, Slocum’s ad hoc gallery became a home for outsider artists exploring the cutting edge of art made with computers and the internet. Many of these artists, like Cory Arcangel and Petra Cortright, have come to define the first waves of computer- and internet-based art and have enjoyed significant i
  
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