How Jeff Koons’s ‘Banality’ Established Current Copyright Law For Artists

“The Banality shows spurred five lawsuits, some decades after the original exhibit. One is pending today, almost 30 years after the show, while another settled out of court. Koons lost the remaining three, with courts finding him liable for copyright infringement and rejecting his fair use defense: that he was parodying the source material. But importantly for the art world, … [those judgments] have helped to define when artists can and cannot use the work of others for their own pieces, making a lasting impact on copyright law.” Jessica Meiselman recounts the history.

There Is No Money In American Theatre. So How Is It Going To Continue?

“At a time when funding for the arts is in absolute peril, how will we inspire the next generation of theater artists to still see the theater as an art form worth dedicating their lives to? How can theaters keep the focus of not only their audiences, but now their artists too? Perhaps playwrights could bounce seamlessly between stage and screen. But as so many are finding themselves fulfilled both artistically and monetarily by other mediums, will the theater become what it often does for successful TV and film actors, something they return to here and there when their shooting schedule allows it?”

Shonda Rhimes Departure From ABC Illustrates Bleak Prospects For Traditional Network TV

Shonda Rhimes’s just-announced decision to sign with Netflix and leave ABC/Disney points to a bleak new reality for old-school broadcasters trying to hold on to big names. For some Hollywood creatives, particularly those at the peak of their careers, offers of big bucks and promises of creative autonomy aren’t enough to overcome the view that network television is now the least attractive medium in which to work. Rhimes didn’t leave just leave ABC. She left network TV.

London’s Garden Bridge Officially Killed

More than £37 million of public money has already been spent on what was supposed to be a privately funded £200 million project, which was conceived by the actress Joanna Lumley and designed by Thomas Heatherwick. Private fundraising for the bridge stalled last year after London’s new mayor, Sadiq Khan, joined many city residents in opposing it and refused to commit any funding for its maintenance.