Arts news

• When Dance Movement Is Constrained By Costumes

  06-11-2025 17:31 via nytimes.com
  
  Josephine Flos was rehearsing the opening of “Figure,” a new dance piece created by the fashion designer Lisa Konno in collaboration with the choreographer Peter Leung, that tries to answer a simple question: What if choreography starts with the costumes? – The New York Times
  
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• Good Morning

  12-12-2025 23:19 via artsjournal.com
  Today’s AJ highlights:A game-changing media deal that could redefine copyright.The most significant story today is the massive investment and licensing deal, which sees Disney license its vast character library to OpenAI’s new AI platforms in a deal that will redefine copyright (The Wall Street Journal (MSN)). This arrangement is a watershed moment that places AI at the center of the creative economy’s intellectual property landscape. The traditional media world faces its own u
  
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• Tate Director Steps Down, Smithsonian Returns Khmer Sculptures, and More: Morning Links for December 12, 2025

  12-12-2025 23:02 via artnews.com
  The HeadlinesCALLING TIME. The director of Tate in London, Maria Balshaw, will step down in spring 2026 after nearly a decade in the role, the institution said in a press release. Balshaw, who joined in 2017 after leading Manchester Art Gallery and the Whitworth, succeeded Nicholas Serota following his 29-year tenure. She called her time at Tate a privilege and said the institution is well positioned for new leadership. During her directorship, Balshaw oversaw major exhibitions includi
  
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• CEO of Canadian National Museum Departs After ‘Serious Code of Conduct Breaches’

  12-12-2025 22:49 via artnews.com
  The CEO of a Canadian national stepped down on Thursday following a special commissioner’s determination that she had mistreated staff throughout her decade-long tenure, using slurs and misogynistic language to refer to senior leadership.“In early December as the board was gaining a better understanding of the report—its timing, content and the expectations of government—the board confirmed CEO Marie Chapman’s decision to retire, and effective today, she has stepped
  
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• David Zwirner Benefit Exhibition Raises Nearly $1 M. for Ali Forney Center, Tripling Its Goal          

  12-12-2025 21:08 via artnews.com
  “Toward the Light: Artists for the Ali Forney Center,” an exhibition at David Zwirner gallery in New York, was only on view at the gallery for four days, but during that short time, it raised $950,000 for the Ali Forney Center, a nonprofit that runs a 24-hour drop-in center for queer youth and offers assistance with housing, education, job training, and medical care.Its curator, art adviser Stephen Truax, initially had the goal of raising $350,000, slightly more than was raised at la
  
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• An Ethnomusicologist Analyzes Eartha Kitt’s “Santa Baby”

  12-12-2025 20:50 via postandcourier.com
  Prof. Michael O’Brien discusses why we listen to so many of the same songs year after year, the unusual appeal of “Santa Baby,” and why Eartha Kitt’s version is so much better than Madonna’s (or anyone else’s). – The Post and Courier (Charleston)
  
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• New ‘Museumbrary’ Designed by SANAA Opens in Taichung

  12-12-2025 20:38 via artnews.com
  The Taichung Green Museumbrary—new contemporary art museum and public library complex in Taichung, Taiwan, that may count as the first institution ever to have a portmanteau for a name—opens tomorrow. The long-awaited institution houses both the Taichung Art Museum and the Taichung Public Library, both of which will be connected by a roof garden known as the Culture Forest.“This integrated design reflects the museum and library’s vision of learning as a shared, living pra
  
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• The Woeful State Of Arts PR. Here’s Why It Matters

  12-12-2025 20:31 via broadstreetreview.com
  On the inside of my job, lousy PR is one of the biggest signs that an institution is struggling. Outreach goes ignored, follow-up is late and flustered, and media events suffer. – Broad Street Review
  
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• Pope Leo Repatriates Indigenous Artifacts from Vatican Back to Canada

  12-12-2025 20:21 via artnews.com
  After years of negotiations starting with a visit by the late Pope Francis in 2022, the Vatican repatriated a wealth of Indigenous cultural treasures that were unveiled this week in a warehouse belonging to the Canadian Museum of History. The institution in Gatineau, Quebec—around a 2.5-hour drive west of Montreal—is currently storing the 62-object handover while Indigenous elders and experts take stock of each piece and investigate its origins.As reported by the Canadian Broadcastin
  
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• The Collective Who’s Transforming Ballet In France’s Second City

  12-12-2025 20:05 via bbc.com
  “(LA)HORDE is a choreographic collective running the National Ballet of Marseille and rewriting the ballet rulebook for a new era. Their work blends classical techniques with surprising influences, from queer nightlife to the political history of social dance.” – BBC (video)
  
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• TONO Reveals 2026 Festival Lineup Across Mexico City and Puebla

  12-12-2025 19:51 via artnews.com
  TONO, the time-based art festival, has announced the lineup for its 2026 edition, returning March 6–22 with a slate of new and existing video installations, performance commissions, music events, and screenings across Mexico City and Puebla. Programming will span major institutions including Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Casa del Lago UNAM, Museo Jumex, and Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City, with additional exhibitions at Museo Amparo in Puebla. This year’s live program incl
  
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• What Happens To You Creatively After You’ve Won Success?

  12-12-2025 19:44 via lareviewofbooks.org
  These big breaks and large prizes are remarkable things that can provide incredible opportunities, but there is so often another side to that success. – LA Review of Books
  
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• Why Is Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss So Important?

  12-12-2025 19:31 via artnews.com
  In 1900, the events of the 20th century still lay ahead, its horrors and epochal upheavals unknown. But in one European metropolis, signs of that future could be gleaned from the social, political, and artistic unrest that roiled it.Vienna in the years leading up to World War I was the capital of an unstable dual-state domain, Austria-Hungary, whose decrepit monarch, Emperor Franz Joseph I, presided over a powder keg of ethnic groups. These included Czechs, Slovaks, Croats, Serbs, Bosnians, and
  
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• Fred Child To Lead Portland Classical Music Station

  12-12-2025 19:31 via insideradio.com
  He is best known for his 25-year run as host of American Public Media’s national classical music program “Performance Today.” Child, who will relocate to Oregon from New York City, stepped down from the show in October. – Inside Radio
  
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• Jake Heggie’s New Opera: A Historic 1976 Wine Competition

  12-12-2025 19:16 via msn.com
  His one-act opera “The Judgement of Paris” is set to make its world premiere at Festival Napa Valley at Charles Krug Winery in St. Helena on July 18, part of the Wine Country event’s 20th anniversary season. – Los Angeles Times (MSN)
  
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• World’s Third-Busiest Public Library Withdraws “Restructuring” Plan After Outcry

  12-12-2025 19:01 via theguardian.com
  Many of Australia’s most prominent writers and artists, along with thousands of ordinary citizens, expressed outrage over the proposal to eliminate 39 jobs — including cutting the number of public-facing reference librarians by 60% — and refocus the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne on tourist-oriented “digital experiences.” – The Guardian
  
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• Trump May Demolish Historic D.C. Buildings With Priceless Murals by Philip Guston, Ben Shahn, and Other Artists

  12-12-2025 18:58 via artnews.com
  Earlier this week, a retired General Services Administration official accused the Trump administration of attempting to demolish four historic federal buildings in Washington, D.C., including the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building, Bloomberg Law reported.The former official, Mydelle Wright, made the allegation in a supplemental declaration filed in a case brought by preservation groups seeking to stop President Trump from painting a stone federal building. Wright said the White House is soliciting
  
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• Artist Arrested at Art Basel Miami Beach After Chalk ‘Performance’ Involving His Daughter

  12-12-2025 18:53 via artnews.com
  A performance artist from Luxembourg managed to turn a few scrawled lines of washable spray chalk into a night in jail during Art Basel Miami Beach—an outcome he claims was both unexpected and meaningful.Thomas Iser was arrested last week after spray-painting the words “Sorry to disturb, art in progress,” in exaggerated graffiti-style lettering, on a window of the Miami Beach Convention Center during the United States’ largest art fair. He then invited his three-year-old
  
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• Franco Vaccari, Artist Who Expanded Photography’s Possibilities, Dies at 89

  12-12-2025 18:44 via artnews.com
  Franco Vaccari, an Italian conceptual artist whose experiments with photography expanded the medium’s possibilities, has died at 89. His death was announced by his gallery, the Bologna-based P420, which did not specify a cause.Vaccari died just four months before his work was due to be surveyed in a retrospective held at Museion in Bolzano, Italy. Opening in March, the exhibition was being staged to mark what would’ve been Vaccari’s 90th birthday and is due to explore how the a
  
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• David Ellison’s Dangerous Play For Warner Bros.

  12-12-2025 18:44 via nytimes.com
  David Ellison was able to ascend to Paramount moguldom thanks in part to his closeness with Mr. Trump, and now he is trying to capitalize on the same bond to win the president’s favor for an even bigger prize. And he has leverage. – The New York Times
  
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• Profound Changes In Canada’s Cultural Economy

  12-12-2025 18:31 via winnipegfreepress.com
  It found that Manitoba’s cultural sector produces $1,010 worth of cultural goods and services per person, one of the highest per-capita levels in Canada. Manitoba trails only British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. – Winnipeg Free Press
  
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• The Benefits Of Tolerant Cultures

  12-12-2025 18:15 via psyche.co
  A tolerant person is one who does not interfere with other people, even if he thinks they are wrong, but is prepared to let them think what they like and say what they think. If he thinks they are wrong, he may try to persuade them, but he will not try to force them. – Psyche
  
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• Director Of Britain’s Tate Galleries To Step Down

  12-12-2025 18:06 via theguardian.com
  “Maria Balshaw is to (depart) in 2026, after a challenging nine-year tenure when she steered the organisation through the COVID-19 pandemic and had to deal with fluctuating attendance figures and financial instability.” – The Guardian
  
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• Disney Sues Google For “Massive” Copyright Infringement

  12-12-2025 17:44 via techcrunch.com
  Disney is accusing the tech giant of copyright infringement on a “massive scale,” claiming it has used AI models and services to commercially distribute unauthorized images and videos, according to the letter seen by Variety. – TechCrunch
  
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• Controversial New Designs For Notre Dame’s Stained Glass Windows Go On Display

  12-12-2025 17:31 via edition.cnn.com
  The designs for six new stained-glass windows for the cathedral of Notre Dame have gone on show at the Grand Palais in Paris, despite a number of protests against the project. – CNN
  
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• Disney/OpenAI Deal Will Redefine Copyright

  12-12-2025 17:15 via wired.com
  On the surface, there appears to be some dissonance with Disney embracing OpenAI while poking its rivals. But it’s more than likely that Hollywood is embarking down a similar path as media publishers when it comes to AI. – Wired
  
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• A Wave Of Unionization At Chicago’s Cultural Institutions

  12-12-2025 17:03 via wbez.org
  In the last four years, AFSCME’s Cultural Workers United organizing campaign has helped 2,500 Illinois cultural workers form unions at such sites as the Art Institute of Chicago, Field Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shedd Aquarium, Newberry Library, and, most recently, the Adler Planetarium and Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. – WBEZ (Chicago)
  
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• Blenheim Palace Conservators Search For Writers of Century-Old Graffiti in Ceiling

  12-12-2025 17:01 via artnews.com
  Conservators currently at work restoring paintings in Blenheim Palace said they found the names of 11 people written in the ceiling decades ago, with the oldest dated to 1843.Blenheim Palace is the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough, and is named after the 1704 Battle of Blenheim, which took place during the War of Spanish Succession. The land was given as a gift for the Duke’s military victory there, and construction started on the house in 1705. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in
  
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• A Crafty Show About State Fairs Stares Down the White House

  12-12-2025 16:40 via artnews.com
  Last March, when the Trump administration issued an executive order to “restore truth and sanity to American history,” the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) quickly became a target. Then, in August, the administration announced a comprehensive audit of all the Smithsonian’s exhibitions, didactics, and collections. Based on the executive order’s condemnation of any discussion of racism, sexism, and oppression as revisionist history, the audit promised to “celebr
  
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• Novelist Joanna Trollope Is Dead At 82

  12-12-2025 16:34 via theguardian.com
  “When popular fiction written by, and mainly for, women tended to be classified either as ‘romantic novels’ or ‘historical sagas’, Joanna” — a great-great-great-grandniece of Anthony Trollope — wrote “about real situations and dilemmas that had relevance to modern women of all ages and circumstances.” – The Guardian
  
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