Art News from Around the World

Visual Arts Thu, 10 Sep 2026 17:15 Louisville’s Speed Museum Gets A New Leader The Speed Art Museum, which is Kentucky’s oldest and largest museum with around 15,000 objects in its collection, will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year. – ARTnewsSource: Visual Arts Thu, 10 Sep 2026 16:01 Brussels’s Big, Contentious, Expensive New Contemporary Art Museum Has Set Its Opening Date “After a crisis-ridden decade of planning and renovations and more than €250 million ($290 million), the 430,000-square-foot Kanal-Centre Pompidou complex is set to open on November 28, when it will become the Belgian capital city’s only major modern and contemporary art museum.” – ARTnewsSource: Visual Arts Thu, 10 Sep 2026 15:15 London’s Bayeux Mania When it arrived at the British Museum in mid-July from its home in Bayeux, northern France, news channels covered the tapestry’s return as though it were a returning war hero rather than an embroidery inside a crate in the back of a truck. The interest has barely let up since. – The New York TimesSource: Visual Arts Thu, 10 Sep 2026 12:01 Getty Center In L.A. Temporarily Closed Due To Brush Fire The fire, which was reported around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, apparently broke out near the Getty Center parking lot and progressed along the 405 Freeway. The blaze was contained later that evening and evacuation orders have been lifted, but the museum will remain closed on Thursday. – Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)Source: Dance Thu, 10 Sep 2026 19:04 The Acrobats Who Entertain Drivers Stuck In Nairobi’s Horrendous Traffic Jams “Nairobi’s street acrobats first began appearing in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and they have since become normalized at traffic stops in and around the city, with acrobats taking advantage of gridlocks to perform in exchange for cash tips. It is how they earn a living.” – APSource: Ideas Thu, 10 Sep 2026 18:31 What Jonathan Swift Warned Us About Reading “Far from merely raising a reactionary fist in the air at the new science, Swift identified an attitude that is still around today — and one that has created many of the greatest challenges now facing educators.” – The DialSource: Media Thu, 10 Sep 2026 18:02 How, And Why, The BBC Must Renegotiate The Terms Of Its Existence Every Decade The BBC’s charter, the legal document which enables the national broadcaster’s existence, must be renewed every ten years. That renewal results from a multi-year negotiation, with plenty of public participation, between the network and the national government — a process largely hidden from public view. – The GuardianSource: Media Thu, 10 Sep 2026 17:31 For The First Time, Netflix Will Report Box Office Numbers Netflix will start reporting box office grosses with its upcoming expected Oscar contender, “La Bola Negra,” a queer drama from directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi that the mega-streamer acquired after its acclaimed premiere at Cannes earlier this year. – The WrapSource: Theatre Thu, 10 Sep 2026 17:03 Bristol Old Vic, One Of UK’s Top Regional Theatres, Announces Staff Buyouts The company, saying it needs to cut personnel costs by 5%, is launching what it calls a “‘Voluntary Leavers Scheme.” Britain’s oldest continuously operating theatre, the Bristol Old Vic has for years been struggling with a pandemic-related decline in attendance and sharp reductions in arts funding from the city. – Bristol LiveSource: Ideas Thu, 10 Sep 2026 16:44 When “Average-Level” Work Is Worth Nothing When competent work is available at nearly zero cost, it provides little competitive advantage. We have seen versions of this value shift before: Cloud computing changed the skills required to manage infrastructure and GPS reduced the value of navigational skills. AI brought on a similar reset across a broader range of knowledge work. – Fast […]Source: Ideas Thu, 10 Sep 2026 16:31 Could AI Ever Make a Relativity-Level Discovery? As philosophers of science have long recognized, that such advances require not inductive reasoning that derives a general rule from the accumulation of data or examples, but abductive reasoning: “a creative leap that invents a cause for a singular phenomenon”. – NatureSource: Issues Thu, 10 Sep 2026 16:15 Arts Centre Melbourne Workers’ Conflicts To Win Better Pay Where in most other industries bargaining occurs between workers and employers, in subsidised cultural institutions wage negotiations are often inseparable from questions of government support. – The ConversationSource: Words Thu, 10 Sep 2026 15:44 The Market For Non-Fiction Is Collapsing The nonfiction collapse has profound implications for the industry. Nonfiction, historically, has always been seen as the more stable part of the business for logical reasons. The demand for nonfiction has always felt more predictable than fiction. – Dear Head of MineSource: Words Thu, 10 Sep 2026 15:31 Helen Vendler On Inhabiting Poetry Vendler spent a lifetime – which ended in April 2024 – writing about lyric poetry. She believed literary criticism was about the pleasure of describing complex things and conveying the joy of understanding them to others.  – London Review of BooksSource: People Thu, 10 Sep 2026 15:02 55-Year-Old Tenor Dies Onstage Mid-Performance Joaquín Ledesma Marquina, a singer and choral conductor who was at the heart of a growing vocal music scene in the city of Querétaro, was giving a concert at the Centro de las Artes there when he suffered a heart attack. – OperaWireSource: Media Thu, 10 Sep 2026 14:34 San Francisco’s Flagship Public Media Station Pays $895K To Settle Wage-Theft Lawsuit “The (class-action) lawsuit … alleged that KQED failed to properly pay hourly workers and provide legally required meal and rest breaks. The complaint also accused the outlet of failing to provide accurate wage statements, reimburse certain employee expenses, timely pay final wages and produce employment records when requested.” – San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)Source: Issues Thu, 10 Sep 2026 14:06 Can The 9/11 Museum Keep Going Like This? “As one of New York’s most popular cultural destinations, it faces a number of challenges: how to evolve its sensitive content, reach a generation with no memory of the tragedy, and secure its financial future as former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, its primary benefactor, ages.” – The New York TimesSource: Music Thu, 10 Sep 2026 13:30 Fired Trinity Wall Street Music Director Gets Probation For Possession Of Child Sexual Abuse Material “The formerly prominent conductor Julian Wachner has been sentenced to nearly six years of probation after having pleaded guilty in July to five counts of possession of child sex abuse material and one count of possession of cocaine. Wachner must also register as a sex offender.” – NPRSource: The World Thu, 10 Sep 2026 13:10 Vice President of Human Resources and Labor Relations – LA Opera via TOC Arts Partners Los Angeles Opera seeks a new Vice President of Human Resources and Labor Relations.Source: Music Thu, 10 Sep 2026 13:05 Detroit Symphony Quietly Lays Off Three Key Staffers “Last week leadership at the DSO informed employees that the positions of Director of Safety & Security, Manager of Volunteer & Patron Experiences, and Director of Culture & Inclusion had all been eliminated and that the responsibilities connected to these positions would now be managed by other members of the current staff.” – Encore MichiganSource: