Arts news

• Gone Fishing

  06-02-2026 17:12 via artsjournal.com
  <a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2026/02/gone-fishing.html" title="Gone Fishing” rel=”nofollow”><img width="150" height="150" src="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/JH-offprintparis-beaux-arts-2-1200-150×150.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="Jan Herman at Offprint Paris, 2013 [Photo: Ben Schot]" link_thumbnail="1" decoding="async" srcset="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/1
  
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• The Dictator’s Paint Job Didn’t Hold

  22-07-2026 00:56 via artsjournal.com
  Good Morning,For decades, Julio Escámez’s monumental mural in Chile was thought destroyed — Pinochet ordered it eliminated after the coup. Then conservators discovered it had only been painted over, and now it’s coming back into the light (Artnet). Worth remembering on a day when the wannabe censors are busy: both houses of Congress now have bills that would enable nationwide book bans in public schools (Publishers Weekly), and German broadcaster ZDF pulled an anti-fasci
  
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• Monumental Chilean Mural Painted Over By Pinochet Is Being Uncovered

  21-07-2026 21:04 via news.artnet.com
  
  Beginning and End, a 452-square-foot mural painted by Julio Escámez, was unveiled in 1972 by the Allende-aligned government of the city of Chillán, 250 miles south of Santiago. After Pinochet’s coup, he ordered the mural destroyed, and it was thought lost; in 2021, conservators discovered that it had been only painted over. – Artnet
  
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• Disney Cutting Hundreds Of Creative Jobs

  21-07-2026 20:31 via deadline.com
  
  Disney is cutting several hundred positions, with Pixar and National Geographic among the divisions most affected by the move. – Deadline
  
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• Many Theatregoers No Longer Know The Difference Between Previews And Post-Opening Night

  21-07-2026 20:02 via whatsonstage.com
  
  “The distinction between a preview and an official opening night, once a universally understood boundary, has become increasingly blurred. In an era dominated by instant social media reaction, some no longer seem to realise there is a difference at all.” – WhatsOnStage (UK)
  
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• Ten New Stadiums That Will Change The Form

  21-07-2026 19:44 via dezeen.com
  Stadiums are no longer just being designed for matchdays, with architects boldly pursuing novelty to create distinctive year-round landmarks. – Dezeen
  
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• How $50 Million Could Make An Impact On American Literary Arts

  21-07-2026 19:32 via publishingperspectives.com
  
  Stabilizing a modest number of impactful, sustainable nonprofit literary organizations via large, annual gifts puts them in the best position to do what they do best—which is find great books to publish, support translations, and dream up new ways to reach readers—rather than having to spend so much time drumming up funding. – Publishing Perspectives
  
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• Revisiting The Tortured History Of America’s Culture Wars

  21-07-2026 19:15 via theguardian.com
  “One of the sad things about this story is that we did not emerge with a more active, permanent activist constituency for the arts in America. We got complacent and people were exhausted. – The Guardian
  
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• What Leading Classics Scholars Have To Say About Christopher Nolan’s “Odyssey” Film

  21-07-2026 19:03 via apnews.com
  
  Both Emily Wilson, who published a widely acclaimed English translation of The Odyssey in 2017, and well-known professor/writer/editor Daniel Mendelsohn are glad the movie is out there and doing so well, and they praise a number of the film’s elements, but they each think Nolan missed something crucial in the original. – AP
  
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• The Power Of Coffee Houses To Change History

  21-07-2026 18:44 via aeon.co
  It was debated whether coffeehouses were truly a place of creativity or frivolous laziness. Many resolved to leave the coffeehouse behind, as if it were a vice, and then failed to kick the habit. – Aeon
  
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• How do We Define American Architecture?

  21-07-2026 18:31 via thenation.com
  
  Chicago, where the skyscraper was born, stood between the Western frontier of violence, timber, and gold and the banking capitals of the East Coast. It was at the center of a bridgeable world and the resources that flowed through it, requiring a degree of capital consolidation the likes of which had never been seen before. – The Nation
  
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• Rethinking Dance Education

  21-07-2026 18:15 via dance-teacher.com
  
  “The data shows that the majority of kids who enroll in dance will not pursue it as a career, and 90 percent will quit in their preteen years. There’s an opportunity for dance education to rethink its approach: How do we teach kids to love dance and the skin they’re in for all stages of life?” – Dance Teacher
  
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• A New York Times Reporter Becomes A Supernumerary For ABT’s “Swan Lake”

  21-07-2026 18:02 via nytimes.com
  “Being onstage, although well out of the spotlight, brought once-familiar sensations flooding back: the particular dry-mouth feel that comes from nerves and heavy lipstick, the sweat-and-velvet musk of the costumes. But nothing can quite prepare you for your first look into the Met audience — faceless and staggeringly vast.” – The New York Times
  
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• Data: A Widening Gap In Financial Health Of Arts In American Cities

  21-07-2026 17:44 via culturaldata.org
  
  We found that as federal relief funding waned, the gap between the strongest- and weakest-performing cities widened sharply. – SMU Data Arts
  
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• Sony Sues AI Music-Creator Udio Over Copyright Theft

  21-07-2026 17:31 via musicbusinessworldwide.com
  
  Sony Music Entertainment has filed a second copyright infringement lawsuit against Udio, asserting 30,117 sound recordings it says the AI music company copied without permission to train its generative AI models. – Music Business Worldwide
  
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• Clothing Fashion Turned Over To Algorithms

  21-07-2026 17:15 via nytimes.com
  It monitors customers’ social media activity and internet searches, factors in Hailey Bieber’s latest outfits and spits out 300 styles a month made cheaply in China. After it reached $460 million in sales in 2025, one of its founders boasted to The Wall Street Journal, “We’re more like a data company than a fashion company.” – The New York Times
  
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• German Public Broadcaster Canceled Performance Of “Anti-Fascist” Song By Igor Levit

  21-07-2026 17:01 via hollywoodreporter.com
  
  “ZDF dropped plans to air ‘Keine Angst’ (‘No Fear’), the new song by rapper Danger Dan and classical (pianist) Igor Levit, in its weekly current affairs satire show Die Anstalt. The network said the song, which calls for Germans to take action against the far-right, could be interpreted as an ‘incitement to violence.’” – The Hollywood Reporter
  
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• Netflix Paid Over Half A Billion Dollars — Cash — For Ben Affleck’s AI Startup

  21-07-2026 16:33 via hollywoodreporter.com
  
  “Netflix disclosed in an SEC filing Friday that it paid $587 million for InterPositive, in cash. … InterPositive was formed in 2022 as (Affleck) began to explore the AI space, with a particular emphasis on upending visual effects without impacting the creative part of filmmaking.” – The Hollywood Reporter
  
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• Both Houses Of Congress Introduce Bill Allowing Nationwide Book Bans In Public Schools

  21-07-2026 16:05 via publishersweekly.com
  “Senate Bill 4925, a partisan effort to control materials in public schools, … was introduced June 24 by Republican Senators. … Like its companion legislation, House Bill 7661, SB 4925 would amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to prohibit the use of federal funding for ‘sexually oriented material’ in public schools.” – Publishers Weekly
  
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• UK’s Culture Secretary Will Stay On Under New Prime Minister

  21-07-2026 15:36 via variety.com
  
  “Despite new Prime Minister Andy Burnham undergoing an extensive cabinet reshuffle, incumbent culture minister Lisa Nandy is set to remain in post. Nandy, who has been a member of Parliament since 2010 …, was appointed secretary of state for culture, media and sport by previous Prime Minister Keir Starmer in July 2024.” – Variety
  
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• After Five Years In Prison And Nine Days Missing, Dissident Cuban Artist Arrives In US

  21-07-2026 15:04 via hyperallergic.com
  
  “After over a week of ambiguity surrounding his whereabouts following his scheduled release from a five-year sentence for ‘contempt, defamation, and public disorder,’ Cuban dissident performance artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara arrived in Miami on Saturday, July 18.” – Hyperallergic
  
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• Lam Wing-Kee, Bookseller Who Became Hero Of Hong Kong Resistance, Has Died At 70

  21-07-2026 14:32 via apnews.com
  “Lam Wing-kee, a former Hong Kong bookseller who became a symbol of resistance to Beijing’s crackdown on speech freedom after he was seized by Chinese authorities in late 2015, has died in Taiwan. … Lam was one of five people affiliated with Causeway Bay Books who disappeared in late 2015.” – AP
  
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• Here Are The Books All Students In Texas Schools Will Be Required To Read

  21-07-2026 14:00 via nytimes.com
  “(The state) is doing something unusual, attempting to create a common canon of books that all students statewide will be required to read. The list was approved last month by the Republican-led Texas State Board of Education and is in the process of being finalized. It will take effect starting in 2030.” – The New York Times
  
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• Chief Executive Officer, Organ Historical Society

  21-07-2026 06:24 via artsjournal.com
  The Organ Historical Society welcomes nominations and applications for the position of Chief Executive Officer, available in September 2026.
  Organ Historical Society
  www.organhistoricalsociety.orgNow celebrating the 70th Anniversary of its founding, the Organ Historical Society (OHS) enriches public knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the pipe organ and its place in history and culture.OHS began in 1956 with an impromptu meeting of young organ enthusiasts who shared an interest in loc
  
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• The Kids Are Fine. Check On Grandpa.

  18-07-2026 05:46 via artsjournal.com
  Good Morning,Every few years America convenes a panic about young people abandoning culture. Today’s stories suggest we’ve been watching the wrong generation. Since 2003, daily reading time among older Americans has nearly halved. BUT it’s the young whose reading habits are growing (New York Times). And they’re not just holding: Gen Z is choosing culture that puts bodies in rooms together, movie theaters included (New York Times), buying novels by the pallet because BookT
  
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• Surrealists Were The Original Antifa

  17-07-2026 20:50 via artnews.com
  
  “While Surrealism is figured as a style in popular imagination — trippy, dreamy, and escapist, detached from reality in every way — (the exhibition) ‘In the Very Bowels of Change: Surrealism and Antifascism’ reminds just how much the movement was formed in response to the politics of its time.” – Art in America
  
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• AI-Created Music – What We Can Learn From Copyright History

  17-07-2026 20:31 via theconversation.com
  
  AI can now generate songs, images, novels and artworks in seconds. Many of these works are already being streamed, licensed and sold. This raises an increasingly important question: should works produced without direct human authorship receive copyright protection? – The Conversation
  
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• How The Pedant Became A Stock Character In Theater

  17-07-2026 20:03 via publicdomainreview.org
  
  Going all the way back to before 1600, the cantankerous, pompous, book-smart nincompoop has been a figure of mockery on European stages, a target for venting people’s dislike for know-it-all behavior. Some of the stereotypes associated with the character, however, were rather nasty. – The Public Domain Review
  
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• We Should Worry About How AI Might Change Us With Its Use

  17-07-2026 19:44 via humanistreview.ai
  How, then, could an automated oracle help? It cannot tell you what to feel, because feeling is not something you can summon by obedience. But neither can it settle the matter by telling you what to do. Reasons matter, and to be a morally responsible agent you must reason for yourself. – Humanist Review
  
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• What If Smartphones Are Not Responsible For What Ails Our Kids?

  17-07-2026 19:15 via theatlantic.com
  
  Which change that happened 15 years ago was the real source of so much misery for children? “You can’t run experiments on history,” Haidt said, so we’ll never be able to prove that smartphones and social media caused the steep decline in youth mental health. – The Atlantic
  
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