Art News from Around the World

Visual Arts Mon, 27 Jul 2026 16:20 How Museums Are Using Data To Shape The Experience Perhaps the biggest opportunity created by detailed data is the ability to provide personalized recommendations. Supplementing traditional curation with analytical methods, more recently including machine learning and artificial intelligence, has become more common. – Ars TechnicaSource: Visual Arts Mon, 27 Jul 2026 15:20 The Failures To Save The Glasgow School Of Art Building A 12-year saga of destruction, rebuilding and yet more destruction, all underscored by an unedifying seam of political and institutional wrangling, reached an apologetic conclusion of sorts, with the recent announcement that Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s exquisite art nouveau creation is unlikely to be rebuilt in its original form because of stratospheric cost. – The GuardianSource: Visual Arts Mon, 27 Jul 2026 15:00 What The UK Used To Think Of Georgia O’Keeffe “After her Hayward show in 1993, Britain’s male critics unleashed a torrent of dismissive reviews. She was called a ‘commercial illustrator,’ ‘irredeemably amateur,’ an artist who ‘made good monthly images on calendars’ and ‘grossly overrated.’” – The Guardian (UK)Source: Visual Arts Mon, 27 Jul 2026 11:15 In London, Museum Workers Want The Right To Carry Water During Heat Waves The workers at V&A are unionized, and the ballot “is taking place because of concerns about soaring temperatures and access to drinking water, along with pay and conditions.” – The Guardian (UK)Source: Issues Mon, 27 Jul 2026 16:40 Kennicott: Trump’s Smithsonian Complaints Are Laughable Visitors who pass these signs on the way into the museum may find them concerning; when they pass them on the way out, they will probably find them laughably at odds with what they have just experienced. – Washington PostSource: Music Mon, 27 Jul 2026 16:22 Vancouver Music Organizations Propose Four New Concert Halls A coalition of 32 performing arts organizations has unveiled an ambitious vision to create four new and/or substantially renovated performance venues in Downtown Vancouver, with four possible location options identified. – Daily HiveSource: Words Mon, 27 Jul 2026 16:01 Students Are No Longer Reading Full Books Before we ask our students to read difficult material, those of us who teach in college owe it to all of them to explain that reading books in their entirety matters. If we won’t, or can’t, then higher education will have a bleak future. – The ConversationSource: Words Mon, 27 Jul 2026 15:40 AI Companies Are Buying Up Old Books And Destroying Them As They Scan Once focused on helping libraries, distributors, and book shops find and sell books, ISBNdb now helps AI companies bulk-buy anywhere between 1,000 to one million books per order, according to 404. – FuturismSource: Theatre Mon, 27 Jul 2026 14:30 What ‘A Chorus Line,’ Now Celebrating Its 50-Plus Anniversary, Taught Us About Theatre “A Chorus Line celebrates artists’ commitment while demonstrating — both at the story level and in the way the script itself was assembled — how easy it is to bully or exploit them.” – The New York TimesSource: Issues Mon, 27 Jul 2026 14:00 In The Ongoing Saga Of Portland’s Performing Arts Centers, The Mayor Has Made His Support Clear Mayor Wilson now supports a 3,000-seat city-owned performance hall at Portland State University, while the venerable, earthquake-unprepared Keller Auditorium would be rebuilt as as 1,200-1,800 seat venue. Keller supporters are incensed. – Oregon ArtsWatchSource: Theatre Mon, 27 Jul 2026 13:45 The Hadestown ProShot Film Was So Popular This Weekend That It’s Getting An Extended Run The live show capture came close to toppling Hamilton from its perch. – DeadlineSource: Dance Mon, 27 Jul 2026 13:30 In A Good News Moment, Pacific Northwest Ballet’s School Is Opening A New, Big Space “As with many ballet companies, PNB’s school provides significant funding for the organization. Tucker said the school’s income is approximately 18% of the organization’s annual revenue. The school also serves as a feeder both for audience members and eventual company members.” – Seattle TimesSource: People Mon, 27 Jul 2026 13:15 Guy Tudor, Who Brought Obscure Birds To Vivid Life, Has Died At 81 “Digital avian databases like eBird were far in the future when Mr. Tudor first set about documenting swaths of the avian world in watercolors and gouaches renowned for their delicacy and precision, and for the artist’s singular knack for capturing the quiddities of winged creatures.” – The New York TimesSource: Ideas Mon, 27 Jul 2026 13:00 This Booker-Winning Book Set In Taiwan Has Sparked A Cultural Reckoning The author says she “wanted to tell Taiwanese people, ‘We do not really understand our own land’s history,’” partly because of the time Taiwan was a colony of Japan. – NPRSource: Words Mon, 27 Jul 2026 12:45 From Nearly Forgotten Author To Japanese Literary Hero “Much of the Japanese fiction translated into English fits into broad categories – cats, crime, coffee shops – but one surprise bestseller stands alone. Sales of books by Osamu Dazai, who killed himself in 1948 aged 38, have rocketed in the last few years.” – The Guardian (UK)Source: Media Mon, 27 Jul 2026 12:30 A High-Quality Bootleg Of ‘The Odyssey’ Leaked And Streamed For Hours On X A message on X (Twitter) “included a high-quality version of the film, as confirmed by Variety, and climbed to over 2.1 million views within two and a half hours.” – VarietySource: Ideas Mon, 27 Jul 2026 12:15 Alert: Don’t Throw Away Your Old E-Reader Of course don’t throw it away – get it to an e-waste recycler or dealer – but also, you can turn it into a Spotify controller or, perhaps coolest of all, a literary clock. – WiredSource: Words Mon, 27 Jul 2026 12:00 The Perfect Books For A Summer At The Pool, The River, Or The Beach “It is important to follow a balanced diet on holiday. … You need to be able to chop and change depending on your mood, which means fiction and nonfiction. And finally, you need to be able to throw all of these rules out of the window.” – The Guardian (UK)Source: Media Mon, 27 Jul 2026 11:45 Blame Social Media, But First Of All Phones, For Everything Turning Vertical “Short-form, vertical video has effectively won the internet. Business is booming, and viewers show no sign of tuning out.” – The VergeSource: Theatre Mon, 27 Jul 2026 11:30 Kenneth Branagh Returns To The Site Of His First Grand Success “His time in Stratford was professionally formative, but rocky. Branagh tangled with the management over workloads and pay, and eventually felt that he had to move on to flourish.” That worked out pretty well for him, too. – The New York TimesSource: