Ceilings, Canons, and Code: This Week in Culture
A week in arts news spanned a fallen ceiling at the Kennedy Center, the Lucas Museum’s opening bet on comics, illustration and film, a two-film tally for women in Venice, Stanford’s case for art-AI accountability, a national-security argument in the OpenAI lawsuit, and a globe you can listen to.
Clio Sze To Maps Paris in Light: “Échos” Opens at Crèvecœur
Clio Sze To’s solo exhibition Échos at Crèvecœur in Paris, on view September 4 to October 10, brings together oil paintings shaped by her walks through the city, where dusk, street lamps, and tree-filtered shadows drive the compositions. Works from 2026 include “Englobés,” “En musique,” “Rendez-vous,” “Vers minuit,” “Boîtes mystères,” “Arc de nuit,” and “Fête.”
When Culture Is Funded Like Roads and Bridges
Across the U.S., stories from Philadelphia, Chicago, and Washington show cultural support shrinking or used as leverage, while Scotland, Edinburgh, California, and Toronto are building stable funding channels that treat culture like infrastructure.
‘Giant Arc’ at SFMOMA: Jacob Hashimoto’s Largest Installation Suspends Nearly 75,000 Paper Kites
Jacob Hashimoto’s largest installation to date, Giant Arc, suspends nearly 75,000 bamboo-and-printed-Japanese-paper kite-like elements at SFMOMA. The work fills the ground floor gallery, shifts with the daylight, and remains on view through mid-2028.
A New Book Turns Spaceward Curiosity Back Toward Earth
Forthcoming from Delmonico Books, Inploration: Art Exploring Space to Understand Earth brings together work by nearly 100 contributors, edited by Lawrence Azerrad and Richelle Ellis, to consider how cosmic inquiry can sharpen our attention to the planet. The volume features artists including Cannupa Hanska Luger, Tavares Strachan, Wangechi Mutu, Cai Guo-Qiang, and James Turrell, among others, and is due at the end of October.
Florida Studio Theatre Opens Search for Artistic Director Amid Leadership Shift
Florida Studio Theatre has launched a search for a new Artistic Director, a role within a reimagined leadership team, with programming oversight across Mainstage, Stage III, Children’s Theatre, and New Play Development. Management Consultants for the Arts is managing the search; FST targets Spring of 2027 for a decision, Fall of 2027 for transition, and lists a starting salary of $160,000 with full benefits.
Blackwing’s Analog Craft, From Japan’s Factories to Stockton’s Finish Line
A behind-the-scenes video from Blackwing traces the making of its signature pencils across specialized factories in Japan and a final assembly in Stockton, California, where a proprietary machine attaches each eraser before hand inspection and boxing by the dozen.
Ronald Jackson Stages a Cast of Characters in An American Fiction at Galerie Myrtis
At Galerie Myrtis in Baltimore from September 5 to October 3, Ronald Jacksons An American Fiction presents oil-on-canvas portraits titled like a casting sheet, extending themes raised by the Oscar-winning film American Fiction. The series reprises Jacksons mask motif and includes works such as Pervis Brown (2026) and Guy Story (2026).
Who Gets to Be “Best” — And Who Gets Saved?
A roundup of recent arts stories frames Tom Service’s Guardian question about calling the Berlin Philharmonic “the best orchestra in the world” alongside cases where attention — not age or quality — determined survival, from Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences to Boston Ballet and Edinburgh’s visitor levy.
Super Nature unspools a global chorus on Super 8, from 25 countries and five continents
Ed Sayers’s Super Nature brings together 40 collaborators in 25 countries across five continents to create a collective ode to the planet, shot entirely on Super 8. Released by BFI Distribution, the film screens in the U.K. and Ireland this month and features voices in 11 languages stitched from scenes at home, underwater, in air, and on land.