Arts news

• Viability

  07-10-2020 20:55 via feedproxy.google.com
  Arts and culture organizations that can learn to grow their audiences and leverage these connections into long-term financial stability may learn that a successful pivot is often one that turns toward their neighbors. – Doug Borwick
  
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• Remember hedgehog flavour? Moon cheese? The weirdest, wildest, coolest crisp packet designs ever

  19-01-2026 09:00 via theguardian.com
  From the Space Raiders cooked up by a 2000AD artist to Odduns with their Dark Side of the Moon style packet, we pop open a new 140-page celebration of crisps and the garishly beautiful bags they’re sold inWould you eat a smoky spider flavour Monster Munch? What about a Bovril crisp, cooked up to celebrate the release of Back to the Future? Then there’s hedgehog flavour – and even a Wallace and Gromit corn snack designed to capture the unique taste of moon cheese, which the duo
  
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• Beatriz González obituary

  18-01-2026 17:03 via theguardian.com
  Colombian artist whose haunting work dealt with questions of power and conflict for six decadesIn the middle of Bogotá’s Central Cemetery stands the columbarium, built in 1943 to house the bodies of poor and unidentified people. Abandoned and neglected, in 2009 the decaying mausoleum was transformed by the Colombian artist Beatriz González, who has died aged 93. On each of the 8,957 tombstones, she had silkscreened one of eight silhouetted motifs, each featuring two figures h
  
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• ‘Radical and joyous’: Beryl Cook show aims to prove she was a serious artist

  18-01-2026 15:02 via theguardian.com
  Major retrospective in Plymouth, her adopted city, presents her as a skilful chronicler of social transformationIn her lifetime, Beryl Cook’s colourful, vibrant paintings tended to be dismissed by most critics as mere kitsch or whimsy.A major retrospective of Cook’s work opening in her adopted city of Plymouth next weekend makes the case that she was a serious, significant artist who skilfully chronicled a tumultuous period of social transformation. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘I always knew my dogs loved the wind on their faces’: Thiago Bernardes de Souza’s best phone picture

  17-01-2026 12:00 via theguardian.com
  When the Brazilian photographer heads out on his motorbike, his rescue pets come along for the ride …Brasília’s sky was bright and beautiful on the day Thiago Bernardes de Souza took this shot. Exploring Brazil’s capital city on his motorbike is a pleasure when the weather is like this, he says, and his canine cavalcade had effectively invited themselves along for the ride.“The first member of our pack, Filo, isn’t in the photo, but she was there that d
  
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• Six great reads: Mondrian’s hidden inspiration, the friendship secret and heat for Heated Rivalry

  17-01-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days Continue reading...
  
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• From 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple to A$AP Rocky: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

  17-01-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Another visit to the UK’s putrid zombie aftermath, and the polymath rapper returns after eight years with a collb-packed blockbuster28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
  Out now
  It would have been hard to imagine in 2002 that 28 Days Later would spawn something so different (and that’s probably a good thing; who wants identikit sequels?). The post-apocalyptic UK is now almost unrecognisable in this Nia DaCosta-directed, Alex Garland-scripted instalment, with violent tribes competing for sc
  
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• How Madrid’s Prado Museum is trying to avoid becoming like ‘the Metro at rush-hour’

  17-01-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  The famous gallery, home to masterpieces from Goya and Velázquez, is exploring how best to preserve, and improve, the visitor experienceFriday morning found Diego Velázquez striking the familiar pose he has held for the past 370 years, staring out, brush in one hand, palette in the other, from the huge canvas of Las Meninas.The 14 people who stood before the painting to meet the Spanish artist’s haughty gaze – not to mention the heavy eyes of the dozy mastiff in the pic
  
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• Art is good for mental health? Not when you’re a novelist in poverty | Letter

  16-01-2026 18:45 via theguardian.com
  Publishing pays abysmally, says an anonymous writer, who feels closer to their neighbours on benefits than to their former peers in teaching and academiaAccess to the arts might be good for mental health (The Guardian view on living more creatively: a daily dose of art, 9 January), but the conditions in which most artists have to produce their work does nothing to improve their own.I’m a novelist, and I was paid £1,000 and £500 respectively for my last two books. The latter was
  
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• Dark depths with Emin, a homoerotic saint and punchy political posters – the week in art

  16-01-2026 12:55 via theguardian.com
  Tracey gathers the melancholy giants, a lost London is remembered and collages celebrate Scots strugglers – all in your weekly dispatchCrossing into Darkness
  Tracey Emin curates an exhibition about thresholds of despair and the power of melancholy featuring Goya, Munch, Bourgeois, Baselitz and other visionary artists.• Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate, opens Sunday Continue reading...
  
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• Andean artist Antonio Paucar wins Artes Mundi prize in Wales

  15-01-2026 21:00 via theguardian.com
  Artist and beekeeper who highlights eco crisis plans to spend £40,000 award on building cultural centre in PeruAn artist and beekeeper from a remote corner of the Andes has won one of the UK’s most prestigious contemporary arts awards and plans to spend the £40,000 prize on building a cultural centre in the Peruvian mountains.Antonio Paucar was declared the winner of the biennial Artes Mundi prize after presenting work ranging from a spiral made of alpaca wool to a video of him
  
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• Prado cannot be like ‘the Metro at rush hour’, says Madrid museum’s chief

  15-01-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Record 3.5 million visited in 2025 and plans are afoot to ensure gallery does not become overburdened like LouvreThe head of the Prado has said the Madrid art museum does not need “a single visitor more” after it welcomed a record 3.5 million people last year, adding that plans are being drawn up to ensure it does not become a victim of its own success like the Louvre in Paris.In 2025 the Prado, which is home to such masterpieces as Velázquez’s Las Meninas and Hieronymus
  
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• ‘Bigger and lower’: bull in Dutch painting once had much larger testicles

  15-01-2026 14:43 via theguardian.com
  Experts at the Mauritshuis in The Hague believe Paulus Potter toned down The Bull to respect 17th-century sensibilitiesThe Bull by Paulus Potter is one of the star paintings at the Mauritshuis in The Hague, a bucolic image of animals and a farmer.But new research suggests the painting has unexpected hidden depths: conservators restoring the artwork say the bull’s testicles were originally much larger, and appeared to have been halved in size by the artist to respect 17th-century sensibilit
  
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• The Louvre Has Raised Ticket Prices By Half For Non-Europeans. Here’s What To Know.

  15-01-2026 14:01 via apnews.com
  “The museum said the 45% price hike to 32 euros ($37) from 22 euros is part of a national ‘differentiated pricing’ policy announced early last year that’s coming into force across major cultural sites. … The change affects visitors from most non-EU countries, including the United States.” – AP
  
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• Andy Warhol would have hated safe spaces. So why keep dragging dead artists into today’s culture wars?

  15-01-2026 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Critics and curators are reframing great artists, from Gentileschi to Soutine, to fit with modern ethical narratives. But this ignores the glorious ambivalence of their creationsOne rainy afternoon last winter, sitting under a blanket with a cup of tea, I found myself Googling paintings by Chaïm Soutine. It’s a pastime I’ve indulged ever since visiting an exhibition of his portraits of hotel staff on the French Riviera during the 1920s – paintings that combine such a mixtu
  
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• ‘Love can be an addiction’: Nan Goldin’s Ballad of Sexual Dependency – in pictures

  15-01-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  For the first time in the UK, the photographer’s magnum opus is going on display in its entirety – introducing new viewers to New York’s edgy downtown scene and a generation lost to Aids. Here, she looks back at the ‘fearlessness and wildness’ of her life and times Continue reading...
  
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• My New Novel: “The Disciple”

  15-01-2026 05:35 via artsjournal.com
  My forthcoming novel, The Disciple: A Wagnerian Tale of the Gilded Age, may be my best book. A prequel to The Marriage: The Mahlers in New York (2023), it’s already available via pre-order. (And if you order both books, you get a discount.)My story tracks the prodigious American
  
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• Seeking Senior Audience Services Manager for Box Office Operations

  15-01-2026 01:41 via artsjournal.com
  TO BE CONSIDERED FOR THIS POSITION, PLEASE SUBMIT A COVER LETTER AND RESUME. Seattle Theatre Group is seeking a highly skilled and successful candidate to provide strong leadership and oversee the smooth operation of the audience services department. The ideal candidate should have extensive knowledge of Ticketmaster’s suite, including HOST, Archtics, TM1, and Account Manager.
  The right candidate must demonstrate a proven track record of delivering exceptional customer service to both int
  
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• Handel and Haydn seeks President and Chief Executive Officer

  15-01-2026 01:38 via artsjournal.com
  Organization Handel and Haydn Society (H+H) is the oldest continuously operating performing arts organization in the United States. Founded in 1815 in Boston, H+H has remained a cultural leader for more than two centuries, advancing a mission and vision to inspire, elevate, and connect through transformative performances of Baroque and Classical music, and to bring the joy and rigor of this repertoire to audiences across Greater Boston and beyond. It remains steadfast in its commitments to quali
  
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• Churchill’s desk and rare artwork among items donated to UK cultural institutions

  15-01-2026 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Items worth £59.7m allocated to museums, galleries, libraries and archives as part of Arts Council England schemeWinston Churchill and Benjamin Disraeli’s desk, a painting by Vanessa Bell and a rare artwork by Edgar Degas are among the items of cultural importance saved for the nation this year.The items, worth a total of £59.7m, will be allocated to museums, galleries, libraries and archives around the UK as part of Art Council England’s cultural gifts and acceptance in
  
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• Why Film Star Michael Sheen Has Put His Own Money Into The New Welsh National Theatre

  14-01-2026 21:03 via yahoo.com
  When the old National Theatre of Wales closed in late 2024, Sheen came up with a plan. “Ultimately, I found myself arguing for something that I realised I” — with fame, professional connections, and deep-ish pockets — “was in the best position to deliver. … It could happen, but only if I did it.” – BBC (Yahoo!)
  
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• Texas Has Taken Plato Off The Menu

  14-01-2026 20:31 via theatlantic.com
  A philosophy professor was ordered to remove Plato’s Symposium from the list of assigned readings for the class “Contemporary Moral Issues.” Plato fell victim to a policy adopted by the university in the fall, which states that classes cannot “advocate race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity.” – The Atlantic
  
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• How All The Changes In U.S. Immigration Policy Are Affecting The Country’s Dance Sector

  14-01-2026 20:01 via dancemagazine.com
  “For artists entering or exiting the country for professional purposes, some of these challenges stem from clearly stated updates to fees, forms, and policies. But there are also greater degrees of uncertainty embedded within application and approval processes, making it harder to predict … the potential outcomes.” – Dance Magazine
  
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• The Trump Effect On Museums

  14-01-2026 19:44 via theguardian.com
  The Trump effect is being felt through executive orders and federal cuts: 34% of museums suffered the cancellation of government grants or contracts; 29% saw a decrease in attendance due to changes in travel/tourism and/or economic uncertainty… – The Guardian
  
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• Ian McKellen to star as LS Lowry in documentary revealing trove of unheard tapes

  14-01-2026 19:37 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Artist reminisces about his life in film using interviews recorded in last four years of his lifeFifteen years ago, Sir Ian McKellen was among the leading arts figures who criticised the Tate for not showing its collection of paintings by LS Lowry in its London galleries and questioned whether the “matchstick men painter” had been sidelined as too northern and provincial.Now, 50 years after Lowry’s death, McKellen is to star in a BBC documentary that will reveal a tr
  
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• How TikTok Transformed Social Media

  14-01-2026 19:31 via thenation.com
  By presenting an alternative to Meta and Twitter TikTok challenged the idea, pervasive in the early 2020s, that social media’s destiny was terminal decline, what the extremely online would call a “vibe sink.”  – The Nation
  
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• Paramount Goes To War To Try To Buy Warner

  14-01-2026 19:15 via msn.com
  While Paramount is hoping to find a weakness in the Netflix offer, experts say the lawsuit has a low chance of success and would only add further complications and delays to what is expected to be a protracted approval process. – The Wrap (MSN)
  
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• Spain’s Official Language Authority Is Criticized For Not Being Purist Enough

  14-01-2026 19:04 via theguardian.com
  “Novelist Arturo Pérez-Reverte (accused) the Spanish Royal Academy (RAE) – of which he is a member – of failing (its mission) of ‘cleaning, fixing and giving shine’ to the Spanish language. These days ‘an illiterate pundit, YouTuber or influencer can have more linguistic influence than a Cervantes prize winner’, he said.” – The Guardian
  
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• Zoe Saldaña Becomes Highest-Earning Actor In History

  14-01-2026 18:44 via theguardian.com
  The 47-year-old Oscar winner has overtaken Scarlett Johansson after the success of Avatar: Fire and Ash added more than $1.2bn to her total. Saldaña’s films have now made more than $15.46bn worldwide, according to the Numbers. – The Guardian
  
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• Musician Site Bandcamp Prohibits Music Created With AI

  14-01-2026 18:32 via engadget.com
   “We believe that the human connection found through music is a vital part of our society and culture, and that music is much more than a product to be consumed,” the company wrote. – Engadget
  
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