Arts news

• Germany To Start Reopening Museums

  05-03-2021 14:10 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  “Chancellor Angela Merkel and German state leaders have agreed to start easing restrictions. If coronavirus cases are below 100 per 100,000 people over seven days – as in Berlin with a rate of 67.8 – people should be able to visit museums from Monday after booking a slot.” – Reuters
  
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• Surprise! “Melania” Did Great Box Office Its Opening Weekend

  02-02-2026 20:55 via bbc.com
  It was expected to generate in the region of $5m (£3.7m) in its first weekend, but its actual takings are “a huge start for a documentary”, Variety said, and “no one saw that coming”, according to the Hollywood Reporter. – BBC
  
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• So You Can Make An Audience Cry. Not Necessarily Good.

  02-02-2026 20:15 via theconversation.com
  Is the direct representation of emotion to provoke emotion in fact a turn-off? – The Conversation
  
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• People Fear That Reading Is Dying. Don’t Believe It

  02-02-2026 19:44 via persuasion.community
  All serious intellectual work happens on the page, and we shouldn’t pretend otherwise. If you want to contribute to the world of ideas, if you want to entertain and manipulate complex thoughts, you have to read and write. – Persuasion
  
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• Opera As “A State Of Emergency”

  02-02-2026 19:21 via msn.com
  Created to commemorate the company’s 50th anniversary, Complications in Sue opens Wednesday with 10 composers commissioned to write eight-minute scenes. These collectively encompass the century-long life of a mythical everywoman named Sue. – Philadelphia Inquirer
  
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• South African Artist Sues Her Government For Blocking Her Venice Biennale Artwork

  02-02-2026 19:02 via theguardian.com
  A South African artist is suing the arts minister after he blocked her from representing the country at the Venice Biennale, having called her work addressing Israel’s killing of Palestinians in Gaza “highly divisive”. – The Guardian
  
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• Struggling San Antonio Philharmonic Cancels February Concerts

  02-02-2026 18:40 via tpr.org
  The news comes as the Philharmonic is embroiled in a legal dispute with the Scottish Rite over payments related to renovations of the historic building. – Texas Public Radio
  
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• Trump Wants To Build A 250-Foot Triumphal Arch In Washington

  02-02-2026 18:22 via washingtonpost.com
  Trump has grown attached to the idea of a 250-foot-tall structure overlooking the Potomac River, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe his comments, a scale that has alarmed some architectural experts who initially supported the idea of an arch but expected a far smaller one. – Washington Post
  
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• I Write For A Living. I Tested My Students. They Preferred The AI Writing To My Own (That Hurt!)

  02-02-2026 18:01 via independent.co.uk
  I gave the students time to read both pieces, and then asked for their comments. To my surprise, the majority told me the AI version was better. They said it was better argued, more clearly structured, more ambitious in scope, and, this was the real kick in the guts, a few even told me it was more personal than my own. – The Independent
  
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• How The Metropolitan Opera Got To Be In Such Dire Straits

  02-02-2026 17:41 via nypost.com
  How did America’s greatest operatic institution get to the point of needing Saudi money to cover its $330 million annual operating budget? Ticket sales account for less than a third of that. – New York Post
  
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• The Latest Art Basel Opens — In Qatar

  02-02-2026 17:16 via nytimes.com
  It was the unlikely, but ultimately successful, host of the 2022 soccer World Cup. Its Grand Prix has become a Formula One fixture. And this week it will premiere a new event from Art Basel, the world’s biggest, most prestigious art fair franchise. – The New York Times
  
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• Are Tribeca Galleries Planning To Report Immigrant Street Vendors?

  02-02-2026 16:30 via hyperallergic.com
  The “report,” encouraged in an email after a meeting among many galleries, would be to New York’s 311 system. Then the mostly immigrant vendors would be entered into a system that shares info with many different law enforcement operations. – Hyperallergic
  
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• Three Men From Oscar-Nominated Documentary Moved To Solitary In Alabama Prison

  02-02-2026 16:00 via theguardian.com
  “Family members of the three men said they fear for their loved ones’ safety and are concerned the moves to solitary confinement are a form of retaliation for outspokenness about problems within the prison system.” – The Guardian (UK)
  
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• Why Some Theatre Critics Hate Contemporary Musicals

  02-02-2026 15:45 via theparisreview.org
  “Since the gargantuan success of Hamilton, … Broadway productions have leaned in to liberal identity politics as their state ideology, favoring ‘message musicals’ (like the women’s suffrage show Suffs) and casting stunts (an all-female 1776) that marry liberal identity politics with the genre’s emotional sincerity.” – The Paris Review
  
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• The 8-Year-Old Who’s The Breakout Star Of Sundance

  02-02-2026 15:30 via msn.com
  “Despite the presence of stars Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan, it’s [Mason] Reeves, who de Araújo discovered at a Richmond District farmer’s market on Clement Street, who captured the hearts of festival viewers.” – San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
  
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• Oscar-Nominated Screenwriter Of ‘It Was Just An Accident’ Arrested In Tehran

  02-02-2026 15:15 via hollywoodreporter.com
  “Mehdi Mahmoudian, the Oscar-nominated co-screenwriter of Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident, was arrested in Tehran yesterday after signing a statement condemning the actions of Iran‘s supreme leader, Ali Khameni, during the recent violent crackdown on government protesters.” – The Hollywood Reporter
  
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• Twenty-Eight Films For The Twenty-Eight Days Of The 100th Black History Month

  02-02-2026 15:00 via blackfilmarchive.substack.com
  “Art is here to be a guide to construct new modes of understanding, communicating, and believing. In this moment of collective reckoning, Black cinematic history remains a prism of possibility that reflects the times and illuminates the possibilities of our beings.” – Black Film Archive
  
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• Sydney Biennale 2026: Hoor Al Qasimi unveils expansive program for 25th edition

  02-02-2026 15:00
  Work from 37 countries will take over five key venues in March, including an expanded footprint in Western SydneyGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailThe Biennale of Sydney has revealed the final line-up details for its 25th edition, scheduled to open mid-March across five key venues, including White Bay Power Station, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and Penrith Regional Gallery.Featuring 84 artists, collaborations and collectives from 37 countries including Australia, the 25th Biennale
  
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• In Case You Don’t Already Love Sondheim, Take Five Minutes And Fall

  02-02-2026 14:45 via nytimes.com
  “Sondheim, who died in 2021 at the age of 91, was also just a damn fine tunesmith, turning out songs that, in context or out, pop style or classical, slip easily into your ears en route to your soul.” – The New York Times
  
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• Artists Who Embrace Rejection Can Change Their Worlds

  02-02-2026 14:15 via theguardian.com
  “Rejection has often functioned as a crucible, helping to forge some of the most extraordinary artistic movements, from impressionism to punk. A reject has less to lose and doesn’t have to behave in the way the group dictates.” – The Guardian (UK)
  
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• Demond Wilson, Who Played The Long-Suffering Son On Sanford And Son, Has Died At 79

  02-02-2026 14:00 via nytimes.com
  “When Mr. Wilson landed the role of Lamont, he was only in his mid-20s, a theater veteran but a newcomer to the screen. The show was a hit” — and Wilson, playing the straight man to Redd Foxx’s cantankerous star, was also a hit. – The New York Times
  
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• Netflix Gets Into The Grammies Game With K-Pop Demon Hunters

  02-02-2026 13:45 via latimes.com
  “The breakout single, ‘Golden,’ which spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, [was] nominated for song of the year, the first time a Netflix production has been nominated in one of the Grammys’ big four categories.” – Los Angeles Times
  
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• What Franco Paid For The Goya Painting He Wanted To Give To Hitler

  02-02-2026 13:30 via english.elpais.com
  The story of this plan “has gone from urban legend to proven fact in a series of chapters that have been unfolding over almost a decade,” with this episode coming to light from a letter found at a Madrid flea market. – El País English
  
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• Yo-Yo Ma Wins His 20th Grammy And Stephen Spielberg Gets His EGOT

  02-02-2026 13:15 via forbes.com
  “Ma has won Grammys across multiple classical categories including Best Chamber Music Performance, Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (with orchestra), Best Classical Crossover Album, and Best World Music Album for his work with the Silkroad Ensemble.” – Forbes
  
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• ‘They don’t see the need for division any more’: how teenagers of Belfast are escaping the city’s past – in pictures

  02-02-2026 09:00
  Going beyond the well-worn stories of division, the Irish photographer depicts young people trying to live normally in the shadow of violenceWhen riots broke out in Belfast in 2021 between mainly young loyalists and republicans, Irish photographer Hazel Gaskin asked herself: why does the world only see Belfast’s young people through stories of tension, division and violence? So, in the wake of the riots, she spent four years visiting the city, documenting youth clubs, boxing gyms, dance gr
  
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• Hidden detail found in Anne Boleyn portrait was ‘witchcraft rebuttal’, say historians

  02-02-2026 07:00
  Exclusive: Underdrawing suggests attempt to debunk myth that former wife of Henry VIII had sixth fingerAnne Boleyn’s Hever “Rose” portrait is one of history’s most iconic faces, with her “B” pendant, her French hood, her dark eyes and a red rose in her right hand. Now a secret that has remained hidden for nearly 500 years has been discovered beneath the layers of paint.Scientific analysis of the painting at Hever Castle, her childhood home in Kent, has uncover
  
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• Likeness of restored angel to Giorgia Meloni triggers investigations in Rome

  01-02-2026 17:04
  Cherub at landmark church causes ecclesiastical and political uproar with alleged resemblance to Italian PMItaly’s culture minister and the diocese of Rome have launched investigations after claims were made that an angel in a landmark church in Rome was restored in the likeness of the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.The resemblance was first flagged by the newspaper La Repubblica, which noted that one of the two angels flanking a marble bust of Italy’s last king in the Basili
  
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• ‘I was really surprised by the swimmers’ powerful energy’: Jorge Perez Ortiz’s best phone picture

  31-01-2026 12:00
  After undergoing emergency surgery following an accident, the photographer discovered a newfound appreciation for the human bodyThree years ago, Jorge Perez Ortiz was on a small wooden boat travelling from Cartagena in Colombia to a group of nearby islands when the sea became unexpectedly rough. As a strong wave hit, Ortiz, sitting at the bow, felt his body lift and come down sharply on his seat. The sudden impact fractured a vertebra. He was taken to hospital and underwent emergency surgery.&ld
  
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• From Nouvelle Vague to Mock the Week: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

  31-01-2026 07:00
  Richard Linklater pens a love letter to the greats of French cinema, and the satirical panel show finds a new homeNouvelle Vague
  Out nowNever bet against Richard Linklater: the veteran director (Dazed and Confused, Boyhood) loves turning his hand to different genres, and his latest is a typically mellow dramatisation of the period in French film history that saw the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut and Claude Chabrol shake off their lives as critics and become bona fide film le
  
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• Artists can’t buy into these fantasy houses | Brief letters

  30-01-2026 17:44
  House price fantasies | Coyote confirmation | Premier Inns | Longevity advice | ApostrophesI always regard the house prices in your fantasy house hunt feature with wry amusement. After all, it is supposed to be fantasy. However, last weekend’s selection made my blood boil (Homes for sale to inspire artists in England – in pictures, 23 January). In 2024, the Guardian reported that the median income of visual artists had dropped to £12,500, a fall of 40% since 2010. Even the most
  
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