Arts news

• Why Literary Prizes Are A Bad Idea

  13-06-2025 17:44 via persuasion.community
  As I got older and developed a more mature understanding of what literature is, the prizes started to seem increasingly bizarre and then sort of embarrassing. – Persuasion
  
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• Plastic paradise: on the frontlines of the fight to clean up pollution in Bali – in pictures

  15-11-2025 15:00
  In January the island’s beaches were inundated with waves of plastic pollution, a phenomenon that has been getting worse by the year. Photographer and film-maker Sean Gallagher travelled to Bali to document the increasing tide of rubbish washing up on beaches and riverbanks, and the people facing the monumental challenge of cleaning up. His portraits are on show as part of the 2025 Head On photo festival at Bondi Beach promenade until 30 November Continue reading...
  
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• ‘The speeding car created the perfect, eclectic scene’: Demétrio Jereissati’s best phone picture

  15-11-2025 12:00
  Initially drawn by the distinctive architecture, the Brazilian photographer struck lucky on a morning run in CubaAs a marathon runner and amateur photographer, Demétrio Jereissati has taken to the streets of his home town of Fortaleza, Brazil almost daily for the past two decades. “Each morning I head out early for a run – observing and storing the city in my memory,” Jereissati says. “Every day reveals new angles and unexpected scenes. For me, these early hours ar
  
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• ‘He was quite a private person’: expansive auction shows Gene Hackman as actor and artist

  15-11-2025 11:02
  Bonhams is selling over 400 items from the estate of the late Oscar-winning actor, from a draft script of The Silence of the Lambs to his own unique artworkHe was Lex Luthor to Christopher Reeve’s Superman. But could he have been Hannibal Lecter to Jodie Foster’s Clarice Starling?The intriguing prospect is raised by an unlikely 33-page draft script for The Silence of the Lambs lurking in a collection of the late actor Gene Hackman’s possessions that goes up for auction later th
  
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• The Running Man to David Hockney: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

  15-11-2025 07:00
  Stephen King’s dystopian novel gets an Edgar Wright reboot with Glen Powell, while the prolific British master is back with new paintingsThe Running Man
  Out now
  Edgar Wright directs this reimagining of the 1987 sci-fi cult classic based on Stephen King’s 1982 novel, which envisioned a fictional America of 2025 sliding into totalitarianism. Glen Powell stars as the contestant attempting to survive a deadly televised game. Continue reading...
  
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• Man who stole Banksy print to pay off drug debt given 13-month sentence

  14-11-2025 19:27
  Larry Fraser, 49, burgled Grove gallery in London, stealing limited edition print from Girl With Balloon seriesA man who stole a Banksy print from an art gallery to pay off a drug debt has been given a 13-month prison sentence.Larry Fraser, 49, stole the limited edition print from the street artist’s Girl With Balloon series after breaking into the Grove gallery in Fitzrovia, central London, last September. Continue reading...
  
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• Almshouse in Dorset discovers its 15th-century Flemish triptych is worth £3.5m

  14-11-2025 16:06
  Artwork that hung for centuries at St John’s Almshouse in Sherborne will be sold to raise funds for social housing“The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, and He adds no sorrow with it,” so says the Bible, Proverbs 10:22.On Friday, a church almshouse was counting its blessings after discovering that a triptych painting that has hung in the chapel for centuries is a 15th-century Flemish masterpiece worth £3.5m. Continue reading...
  
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• Maggi meets Sarah, Anish Kapoor takes on Ice and Suffolk seduces Spencer – the week in art

  14-11-2025 13:00
  Hambling and Lucas join forces, Roger Fry gets a rare show and an aerial daredevil captures stormy Scotland – all in your weekly dispatchMaggi Hambling and Sarah Lucas
  These two very different artists became friends after meeting at the Colony Room (where else?) and now show together in an encounter of British art generations. • Sadie Coles HQ, London, 20 November to 24 January Continue reading...
  
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• Dorothy Waugh’s epic 1930s US national park posters – in pictures

  14-11-2025 11:03
  Between 1934 and 1936, artist Dorothy Waugh was commissioned to create 17 posters for the National Park Service, a groundbreaking opportunity for a female designer at the time. Her designs, which were both accessible and avant-garde, are being celebrated in an exhibition for the first time at New York’s Poster House. Blazing A Trail: Dorothy Waugh’s National Parks Posters is on display until 22 February 2026 Continue reading...
  
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• Why I can’t judge art gallery visitors for getting snap-happy | Letters

  13-11-2025 18:33
  Martin Cooper and Lillian Adams on photographs being taken of artworksI too have been irritated by fellow gallery visitors photographing the works (Letters, 7 November). That is until I did it myself. On a visit to Tate Britain recently, I found myself in The Exhibition Age gallery. Unusually, there were no obvious labels with the pictures, which were hung all the way to the ceiling as they might have been in a Royal Academy exhibition in the 18th century.I thought the pictures rather disappoint
  
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• ‘It’s unexpected joy’: the guerrilla mosaic artists adding colour to potholes, benches and bomb craters

  13-11-2025 09:00
  From Southampton to Sarajevo, urban mosaicists are transforming city spaces and bringing communities together – one tile at a timeOur cities are full of grey tower blocks built for efficiency rather than aesthetics. Public benches are made of cheap concrete, pavements are falling apart, old structures are left derelict. Amid this backdrop of unloved, muted ugliness, a new wave of guerrilla mosaicists are enlivening their cities with beautiful, colourful designs.These artists rare
  
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• San Diego City Council Promises Not To Cut Arts Funding In Next Budget

  12-11-2025 20:04 via msn.com
  
  “Council members have declared city arts funding off limits for budget cuts next spring, even as they face a projected $111 million deficit. … While the move falls far short of a long-unfulfilled council pledge known as ‘penny for the arts,’ council members said it’s a strong message.” – The San Diego Union-Tribune (MSN)
  
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• Bill Ivey

  12-11-2025 19:52 via artsjournal.com
  
  Bill Ivey died this past weekend; he was eighty-one years old. It came as a shock to us – just last week he was here in Bloomington meeting with our arts policy students, something he loved doing. He was a great friend to our program, generous with his time and advice to students and to younger faculty. He had studied Folklore and Ethnomusicology here at IU, and enjoyed visiting.
  He is best known for having been Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts in the last years of the Clint
  
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• The Resurgence Of Music On Physical Objects

  12-11-2025 19:44 via thetonearm.com
  
  Continuing one of the more surprising comebacks of the digital age, vinyl album sales in the United States increased for the 18th consecutive year in 2024.” While CD sales are on the decline, “Cassette tape sales jumped by 204.7% in the first quarter of 2025, hitting 63,288 units. – ToneArm
  
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• The Muppets Come To Netflix And Go Global

  12-11-2025 19:31 via theguardian.com
  
  More than almost any other children’s show, Sesame Street seemed to crack the code on how to simultaneously educate and entertain children. – The Guardian
  
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• LA’s TV Commercial Business Is Tanking Too

  12-11-2025 19:15 via nytimes.com
  
  Production in the third quarter of this year was 18 percent lower than last year, and 40 percent lower than the five-year average, according to a new report from FilmLA, the local government organization that tracks production in the area. – The New York Times
  
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• Explainer: The Crisis At The BBC That Cost The Director-General His Job And Drew A Billion-Dollar Lawsuit Threat From Trump

  12-11-2025 19:01 via hollywoodreporter.com
  
  “(A journalist) takes a deep-dive into all the facts of this fast-developing story, and why it’s brought the BBC to an inflection point.” – The Hollywood Reporter
  
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• The Antique Movie Camera Reviving A Technology

  12-11-2025 18:44 via wsj.com
  
  A handful of rare and cranky antiques are powering the ungainly Hollywood resurgence of VistaVision. The format, developed in 1954 by Paramount, was once used to glorious effect by filmmakers such as Cecil B. DeMille. – The Wall Street Journal
  
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• Masterworks Sold Shares In $1 Billion Of Art. Good Investment?

  12-11-2025 18:31 via nytimes.com
  
  In just eight years, it has become one of the art market’s biggest buyers. Its collection of 500 artworks is now valued at more than $1 billion and its platform has drawn 70,000 investors. – The New York Times
  
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• London’s Royal Opera Institutes Dynamic Pricing, And Top Ticket Prices Soar

  12-11-2025 18:06 via thetimes.com
  
  “(The house) is selling tickets for Siegfried, the third instalment of Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle, for up to £415 ($546). This is the priciest known ticket offered for sale in Britain by any publicly subsidised performing arts organisation. RBO receives a state subsidy of over £22 million each year.” – The Times (UK)
  
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• Netflix’s First Venture Into Theme Parks

  12-11-2025 17:44 via npr.org
  
  “This is the first permanent physical manifestation of Netflix for our fans,” says the company’s chief marking officer, Marian Lee. “They’ve been inviting us into their homes for years and years.” – NPR
  
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• Striking British Library Workers Expose Dire Low Pay Consequences

  12-11-2025 17:31 via theguardian.com
  
  According to their union, they are offered pay deals so dire that many of them work multiple jobs and live in substandard housing. Seventy-one per cent of respondents to a union survey find their salary insufficient to meet basic needs. – The Guardian
  
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• Hollywood Has Slipped Dramatically In Diversifying

  12-11-2025 17:15 via theankler.com
  
  To my shock, when I looked at the numbers, I found that not only are things not significantly better, 2025 has been worse than any moment in recent times; worse, in fact, than pre-#MeToo. – The Ankler
  
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• Choreography In Space: Exploring The Possibilities

  12-11-2025 17:03 via dancemagazine.com
  
  “How? The answer in (one) case was Velcro-covered suits, … just one form of technology that dancers are using to simulate the effects of weightlessness here on Earth. But for some, the end goal is to experience a true lack of gravity by bringing dance to space.” – Dance Magazine
  
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• Staffers Call Strike At Britain’s Tate Galleries

  12-11-2025 16:32 via theguardian.com
  
  Workers at all four galleries — Tate Britain and Tate Modern in London, Tate St. Ives in Cornwall, and Tate Liverpool — represented by the Public and Commercial Services Union voted 98% to 2% to walk out from November 26 to December 2 over a pay offer they insist is too low. – The Guardian
  
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• Some US Bookstores Have Set Up Food Banks To Help Cut-Off SNAP Recipients

  12-11-2025 16:04 via nytimes.com
  
  “With the (federal government) shutdown creating anxiety and uncertainty for those who depend on government aid, many independent bookstores took on a new role as hubs for food donations.” – The New York Times
  
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• Tate staff vote to strike over pay after union members reject ‘inadequate’ offer

  12-11-2025 15:33
  Exclusive: More than 150 workers to strike from 26 November to 2 December, raising possibility of disruption to major showsStaff at Tate have voted overwhelmingly to strike over pay, which could seriously disrupt major shows at the cultural institution.More than 150 workers will go on strike from 26 November to 2 December after a ballot by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), in which 98% of members voted for action on a turnout of more than 87%. Continue reading...
  
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• US Museums Have Had A Pretty Rough 2025, Finds Survey

  12-11-2025 15:31 via theguardian.com
  
  An American Alliance of Museums survey of over 500 museum directors found that one-third of responding museums have lost government grants or contracts under the Trump administration, one-fourth of them have had to cut targeted programs (e.g., for students or senior citizens), and over one-fourth have canceled programs for the general public. – The Guardian
  
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• Disney’s Standoff With YouTube Could Cost It Quite A Lot

  12-11-2025 15:05 via finance.yahoo.com
  
  “Disney may lose $30 million in revenue per week as its carriage dispute with YouTube TV has left ABC, ESPN and more of the media giant’s channels and programming dark on the Google-owned platform for 12 days.” – TheWrap (Yahoo!)
  
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• Antiquities Stolen From National Museum Of Damascus

  12-11-2025 14:30 via artnews.com
  
  Thieves smashed open a door on Sunday night and reportedly took ancient Roman marble statues and gold items. The museum had reopened for good, with its collection intact, only this past January after extended closures due to the Syrian civil war and subsequent uprising against the Assad regime. – ARTnews
  
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