Arts news

• The Phoenix Symphony Closes

  22-10-2026 04:23 via ArtsJournal
  Good Morning,The Phoenix Symphony will lay off its 66 musicians on November 2 though revenues rose more than 50 percent in two years; endowment gifts are restricted and can’t pay operating costs (Fox 10). San Francisco’s artist grants normally arrive within four weeks of July agreements; in October documentary filmmaker Susannah Smith was still borrowing from her mother for rent (San Francisco Chronicle).Caryl Churchill’s Triumph, 20 minutes long at London’s Almeida Theatre, takes its em
  
  Read more

• A Maverick Pedagogical Proposition

  21-10-2026 23:04 via ArtsJournal
  
  Today’s crisis in humanities education takes many forms, and many are the proposed remedies. 
  One such is a brave new
  
  Read more

• Is Caryl Churchill’s Latest Play About One Of Trump’s Succession Of Blonde Press Secretaries?

  21-10-2026 21:02 via ArtsJournal
  “Triumph, which has opened at London’s Almeida Theatre, is Churchill’s latest piece of explosive minimalism. Running at just 20 minutes, it skewers contemporary barbarism (via) historical analogy and is a reminder that Churchill … has in recent years developed a form of elliptical drama for which the apt word might be compressionism.” – The Guardian
  
  Read more

• Broadway Has A Strong Week

  21-10-2026 20:31 via ArtsJournal
  
  Hamilton was the top grossing show of the week with $2.8 million, followed by The Lion King with $2 million. MJ was the fourth highest grossing with $1.76 million, followed by the Bowen Yang-led Oh, Mary! with $1.5 million. – The Hollywood Reporter
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Hong Kong Overhauls Its System For Performing Arts Funding, And Groups Are Nervous

  21-10-2026 20:04 via ArtsJournal
  Since 2008, the territory’s government has funded nine designated major performing arts groups, including the Hong Kong Ballet, Philharmonic, and Repertory Theatre. The city’s chief executive has announced a planned change to a more flexible, “merit-based” system which would make room for more organizations. – South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
  
  Read more

• Arundhati Roy On The AI End Game

  21-10-2026 19:44 via ArtsJournal
  
  Remember how, in Thailand and Indonesia, the ocean drew back from the coastline? People ran out to marvel at the miles of pristine new beach that suddenly emerged, not realising that, far out at sea, a wall of water was building up and would come crashing over them. – Equator
  
  Read more

• Listeners Are Turning Against AI Music

  21-10-2026 19:31 via ArtsJournal
  Streaming services, notable musicians and fans are confronting the growing presence of AI-generated music and drawing lines in the sand. On Tuesday, Spotify announced it had removed about 50m songs considered AI slop from its recommendations to users over the past year. – The Guardian
  
  Read more

• Did Hollywood Really Need Netflix?

  21-10-2026 19:15 via ArtsJournal
  
  “The movie business needed Netflix to wake up. They needed a real disruptor… Maybe we are now entering a period where the relationship works the other way around, with Netflix being inspired by the movie business. I think the two worlds are additive.” – Deadline
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• To Say Goodbye To Her Dance Company, Lucy Guerin Performs Onstage For First Time In 13 Years

  21-10-2026 19:03 via ArtsJournal
  “I have found it incredibly confronting, to be honest,” she says, hours before the premiere. “Part of me thought I could still do all those things if I just got back in the studio and trained a bit. But I’m afraid that wasn’t the case.” – The Guardian
  
  Read more

• Netflix Is Making Money. That’s Not Enough

  21-10-2026 18:44 via ArtsJournal
  For the year, Netflix said, it expects revenue growth to be 13 percent, roughly in line with its previous estimates. Shares dropped more than 5 percent in after-hours trading. The company acknowledged the undercurrent that led to the recent tumult: concern about stagnating attention time on its service. – The New York Times
  
  Read more

• The Battles Over Jimmy Buffet’s Estate

  21-10-2026 18:29 via ArtsJournal
  Three years after Jimmy’s death, the family is locked in a legal dispute over that Margaritaville fortune. It has upended the fun-loving vibes the musician spent his life cultivating, with the family seeming rudderless without Jimmy as their figurehead, according to court documents and interviews. – The Wall Street Journal
  
  Read more

• Remember This When Voting in the Midterms . . .

  21-10-2026 18:16 via ArtsJournal
  <a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2026/10/remember-this-when-voting-in-the-midterms.html" title="Remember This When Voting in the Midterms .
  
  Read more

• Will Wikipedia Survive AI?

  21-10-2026 18:15 via ArtsJournal
  
  It was neither the first online encyclopedia—Britannica had a web presence by 1999—nor even the first that users could edit. Rather, its vitality arose from the community of obsessives whom it attracted, and its decline has coincided with the market’s capture of their creativity. – The New Yorker
  
  Read more

• Harry Houdini Did Not Die The Way Most People Think He Did

  21-10-2026 18:01 via ArtsJournal
  The received wisdom has been that a Montreal student named Joscelyn Gordon Whitehead punched Houdini in the stomach several times without warning, and the blows led to a ruptured appendix and peritonitis. Now a 77-year-old retired urologic surgeon has done a forensic medical investigation which challenges that narrative. – The New York Times
  
  Read more

• Jeffrey Daunt And The Culture Of Reading

  21-10-2026 17:44 via ArtsJournal
  
  Actually, in America, the reading of books is up. Sales of print books have increased nearly twenty-five per cent from a decade ago. The number of independent bookstores in the United States has climbed steeply since 2009, with a seventy-per-cent increase since 2020. – The New Yorker
  
  Read more

• When Music Teachers Are Gods

  21-10-2026 17:31 via ArtsJournal
  I have known countless music students who have gone on to distinguished careers who have described their teachers in God-like terms and continue to do so long after their student days. Often these descriptions are laced with affection and continued adulation. – Thomas Wolf
  
  Read more

• Phoenix Symphony Cancels Season And Shuts Down

  21-10-2026 17:15 via ArtsJournal
  Phoenix Symphony leaders announced today they are suspending programs and performances after their show on Nov. 1 due to ongoing operational deficits. They say they do not have the finances to continue the season. – Fox (Yahoo)
  
  Read more

• Two Out Of Three Microdramas Released In Past Three Months Were AI-Generated: Study

  21-10-2026 17:04 via ArtsJournal
  
  “Two-thirds of vertical drama releases outside China in the third quarter of 2026 from 20 top platforms were AI generated, according to the consulting firm Owl & Co.’s latest ‘What We Watched on Vertical’ report.” (In China, the figure is thought to be 95%.) – The Hollywood Reporter
  
  Read more

• Could AI Help Identify The Unknown Subjects Of Centuries-Old Portraits?

  21-10-2026 16:32 via ArtsJournal
  
  “Identifying a sitter in a portrait is a tricky art-historical task that involves a study of provenance, inscriptions, archival documentation, iconographic juxtaposition, collection history, and costume and jewelry. Could present-day technologies be another item in the researcher’s tool kit?” A project in Switzerland is giving it a try. – ARTnews
  
  Read more

• France Gets A New Literary Prize Specifically For Books Written With AI

  21-10-2026 16:06 via ArtsJournal
  “The Prix Pascal will open for submissions on 2 November, inviting French-language writers to submit manuscripts alongside an initial prompt of no more than 100 words and a technical account of the language model and generation process used. The competition is open to non-professional writers and those working in the literary sector.” – Firstpost
  
  Read more

• San Francisco Has Not Paid Artists The City Grants They Were Awarded This Year

  21-10-2026 15:30 via ArtsJournal
  “In typical years, grant agreements are sent in early July, with artists getting money in hand within four weeks. As of October, multiple artists still haven’t received a dime, and at least two received their grant agreements only after the Chronicle wrote the commission to ask about the delay.” – San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)
  
  Read more

• Philadelphia Orchestra Raises $344 Million

  21-10-2026 15:03 via ArtsJournal
  “The Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts has coasted past the dollar goal in one of the city’s largest-ever fundraising campaigns for a cultural organization, … bringing in $344 million to support operations, build endowment, and fund special artistic initiatives.” One couple anonymously donated $55 million. – The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
  
  Read more

• Historic City Hall Is Burned Down During French Riots

  21-10-2026 14:35 via ArtsJournal
  In Limoges, the 19th-century Hôtel de Ville, which had historic landmark status, was destroyed by arson during the violence that has convulsed much of France in recent days. One suspect has been arrested. – Euronews
  
  Read more

• After Decades On The Sidelines, American Contemporary Opera Is Now Thriving

  20-10-2026 15:32 via ArtsJournal
  
  After a few decades when most US companies (especially the Met) treated new opera like kryptonite, many are now presenting a contemporary work almost every season — and selling lots of tickets. Michael Zwiebach examines why this is happening now. – San Francisco Classical Voice
  
  Read more

• The First Opera About Russia’s War On Ukraine Has Its Premiere

  20-10-2026 15:04 via ArtsJournal
  The Mothers of Kherson, with music by Ukrainian composer Maxim Kolomiiets and libretto by American playwright George Brant, was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera three years ago and got its first full performance on Friday at the Polish National Opera in Warsaw. (The Met premiere is scheduled for April 2028.) – The New York Times
  
  Read more

• Teenage Suspect Arrested In Case Where Actor Was Chased Through Streets Before Performance

  20-10-2026 14:36 via ArtsJournal
  The incident happened last week at England’s Chichester Festival Theatre: last Tuesday’s performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was cancelled after a cast member reported that he’d just been chased through the streets by people shouting abuse. One 16-year-old suspect has been arrested and charged. – The News (Portsmouth, UK)
  
  Read more

• Ann Hornaday, Longtime Washington Post Film Critic, Is Dead At 66

  20-10-2026 14:00 via ArtsJournal
  “(She) brought a casual, if knowledgeable, approach to her reviews, writing more from the viewpoint of a popcorn-eating moviegoer than from the lofty perch of a scholar of cinema. She wrote hundreds of reviews … over more than 20 years and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in criticism in 2008.” – The Washington Post (MSN)
  
  Read more

• Frank Lloyd Wright Wanted the Guggenheim to Be Pink (Seriously)

  20-10-2026 00:33 via ArtsJournal
  Good Morning,Frank Lloyd Wright’s plans for the Guggenheim called for pink, but Solomon Guggenheim wasn’t convinced, and New York authorities approved the Le Corbusier-style white instead. British architect Adam Nathaniel Furman argues the case in Chromatic Architecture, a new book on color in building (El País English).About 50 arts students blocked the Louvre’s glass pyramid on Monday and closed the museum, on the eve of Art Basel Paris. Stan Douglas’s opening at
  
  Read more

• Louvre Temporarily Closes During French Protests

  19-10-2026 20:44 via ArtsJournal
  
  The Louvre temporarily closed Monday due to about 50 protesting arts and culture students, who blocked its glass pyramid entrance, Le Figaro reports.  – ARTnews
  
  Read more

• Why Awards Shows Are Leaving Broadcast For Streaming

  19-10-2026 20:31 via ArtsJournal
  
  In recent years, the shows have become money losers and the network TV business — faced with a decline in viewers that is squeezing profits — are cutting them loose. – Los Angeles Times
  
  Read more

• Pilot Draws Mona Lisa In The Sky

  19-10-2026 20:21 via ArtsJournal
  After four hours of these intricate aerobatics, he had sketched a version of the Mona Lisa instantly recognizable to anyone tracking his flight online. – The New York Times
  
  Read more

• Writers Are Struggling To Prove They’re Human

  19-10-2026 20:10 via ArtsJournal
  As AI-generated writing floods the internet, more people are trying to detect which creators are using such tools to spin up copy. That means writers penning all their own work—and people who acknowledge using chatbots for help—are trying to master something they never worried about before: how to sound human. – The Wall Street Journal
  
  Read more

• Shanghai’s Elegant New Opera House Is Completed

  19-10-2026 19:50 via ArtsJournal
  Shanghai Grand Opera House’s defining feature is its spiral staircase, which dramatically cantilevers at its peak and was intended to emulate everything from an unfolding fan to a dancer or a set of piano keys. – Dezeen
  
  Read more

• Does AI Collapse The Need To Get Bigger?

  19-10-2026 19:31 via ArtsJournal
  
  AI is making enterprise-grade capabilities available to companies that are a fraction of the size and without all of the bureaucratic weight that historically came along with it. If Goldberg is right, the rules of competition are changing for good, and companies no longer need to be big to compete. – Wired
  
  Read more

• Breaking Down What Theatre Gets Produced (And Produced Again)

  19-10-2026 19:01 via ArtsJournal
  
  A first-time playwright now has a one-in-five shot at a second production within two seasons. If mine gets one and keeps traveling, the money waits in a catalogue Bertelsmann owns.  – Jared Harbour
  
  Read more

• Ticket Broker Sued In $120M Ticket Bot Scheme

  19-10-2026 18:31 via ArtsJournal
  
  The DOJ and FTC allege that REPS & Co violated the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act by opening thousands of accounts across Ticketmaster, AXS and other ticket services and circumventing the ticket platforms’ purchase limits. – The Hollywood Reporter
  
  Read more

• An Idea To Spur More Indie Production In Hollywood?

  19-10-2026 17:31 via ArtsJournal
  This week, a new organization called the American Entertainment Alliance will begin publicly pushing for legislation to force the biggest entertainment and streaming companies — including Netflix, Disney, Amazon Prime Video and Skydance — to allocate half of their original content budgets to shows and movies from independent producers in the United States. – The New York Times
  
  Read more

• After The Watts Rebellion, Two Brothers Opened The First Black-Owned Gallery In Los Angeles

  19-10-2026 17:00 via ArtsJournal
  “‘As soon as we opened we were aware of the lack of opportunity for the entire minority community,’ said Dale, 80, in a recent interview. ‘It was definitely the mission.’” – Los Angeles Times (MSN)
  
  Read more

• For Now, Art Basel Miami Beach Won’t Move To Las Vegas

  19-10-2026 16:30 via ArtsJournal
  “The sticking point, as discussed by city officials at a public meeting last Wednesday before a vote on a revised contract, was Art Basel’s demand to essentially halve the nearly $1 million annual rent the fair had previously paid to Miami Beach.” – The New York Times
  
  Read more

• What If Climate Fiction And Movies Have Been Hitting The Wrong Buttons?

  19-10-2026 16:00 via ArtsJournal
  Fear spreads its message more quickly – but it also paralyzes most people to inaction, exactly not what most writers of climate fiction would prefer. – The Guardian (UK)
  
  Read more

• Toledo Still Wants To Be The City Of Glass

  19-10-2026 15:45 via ArtsJournal
  
  “Toledo’s art scene has long been tied to its glass industry. In 1962 … local workers created the studio glass art movement here.” – NPR
  
  Read more

• We’ve Never Seen Numbers Like This Before

  19-10-2026 15:30 via ArtsJournal
  
  That is to say, Netflix is reporting box office numbers, for the very first time, for La Bola Negra. – Los Angeles Times
  
  Read more

• The Tyranny Of Those Who Hate Colorful Buildings Made The Guggenheim White

  19-10-2026 15:15 via ArtsJournal
  
  “Pink was precisely the color Frank Lloyd Wright envisioned for this museum in his plans, and it’s the color we would see across the street from Central Park today had prejudices not stood in the way.” – El País English
  
  Read more

• Will Humans Still Know How To Clean It Up When AI Flubs Major Tasks?

  19-10-2026 15:00 via ArtsJournal
  
  “As people become less involved in a task, they can become less prepared to step in when needed. Researchers have called this the out-of-the-loop performance problem.” – The Conversation
  
  Read more

• Saturday Night Live UK Ripped Into US SNL For Shane Gillis’s Blithering Misogyny

  19-10-2026 14:45 via ArtsJournal
  “A representative for [Lorne] Michaels did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.” – The New York Times
  
  Read more

• The Fine Art Of Literary Adaptation

  19-10-2026 14:30 via ArtsJournal
  Though some books are more easily adapted than others, “the quality of the source is irrelevant.” – The Guardian (UK)
  
  Read more

• A New Collective In Portland Would Really Like To Provide A Living Wage To Theatre Workers

  18-10-2026 22:00 via ArtsJournal
  
  Possible? Maybe: “Davidson found sources for Puddletown’s business structure by looking backward, to the kind of cooperative arrangements used by first traveling commedia dell’arte companies to Shakespeare’s players, on down to late 19th and early [20th] century repertory troupes.” Its first show is free. – Oregon ArtsWatch
  
  Read more

• The Art Bird News Outrage Cycle Continues, But Why?

  18-10-2026 21:30 via ArtsJournal
  If you have miraculously missed most of the Kelly Clarkson/small business/rudeness cycle, it’s back. The art bird at the center of the Brooklyn storm, once tagged at $15,000, now retails for $15 million. – Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)
  
  Read more

• Recreating The Mona Lisa, By Plane

  18-10-2026 20:30 via ArtsJournal
  “Pilots looking to clock in flight hours and practice tricky turns can have a bit of fun by tracing the shapes of animals, words, phrases, or in Mr. McDaniel’s case, world-class art. Mr. McDaniel’s Instagram moniker is Pilot Picasso.” – The New York Times
  
  Read more

• Lessons about Value and AI from the Digital Revolution

  18-10-2026 20:02 via ArtsJournal
  Twenty-five years ago the digital revolution rewrote the ways culture gets found, valued and paid for. The battles were fought in a series of skirmishes over disruptive technologies that remade the ways creative marketplaces were organized. AI is poised to do the same. So… lessons?
  
  Read more

Follow @ArtsUK1 on Twitter!