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Arts and Culture

Hollywood directors reach tentative 4-year deal with studios and streamers

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hollywood directors on Tuesday reached a four-year tentative contract agreement with studios and streaming services. The deal struck between the Directors Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers came four weeks after talks began. The talks were the first under new DGA President Christopher Nolan, who took the job in September. Along with similar four-year deals — longer than the industry three — ratified in recent weeks by unions representing writers and actors, the DGA agreement adds to the likelihood of long-term labor ...

Pop-up art show takes over German president’s residence before yearslong renovation

BERLIN (AP) — A pop-up art show featuring contemporary art, including video and audio installations, photography and traditional oil paintings, is set to open at Germany’s Bellevue Palace this week before the German presidential residence closes for renovation. At a press preview on Monday, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he was pleased that the mostly emptied-out Berlin residence was being opened to art and to the public. “We need art,” Steinmeier said. “A democracy without free art loses its capacity for self-criticism, and art without freedom loses its ...

LH couple donates $11.75M to benefit PSU’s Palmer Museum

UNIVERSITY PARK — Penn State has received a bequest of $11.75 million from the late Alvin L. and Jean Y. Snowiss, longtime donors to the University. The gift builds upon their support for the Palmer Museum of Art, which spans four decades, and expands the endowment of an already-established scholarship in their name. Alvin, an attorney and lifelong resident of Lock Haven, died in May 2025. He was preceded in death by his wife, Jean, in 2016, who was also a lifelong resident of Lock Haven. The gift from the estate of the Snowisses, who were both named honorary Penn State alumni in ...

Feeling a little bleak about the world? There’s a film festival for that

Bleak Week, a film festival celebrating “cinema of despair,” started as a contrarian response to cries for feel-good movies after the pandemic. Programmers at the American Cinematheque, a nonprofit arts group that curates for several historic theaters in Los Angeles, heard the cries for ...