NO SURPRISE – The big news late yesterday — yes, other than the Rangers win — was the DMA’s hiring of Maxwell Anderson from the Indianapolis Museum of Art, a highly welcome choice. Here’s the News interview and the NYTimes’ notice. No one seems to have thought to ask him the obvious questions: Based on the acclaim for your tenure at the IMA, do you intend to institute a free admissions policy at the DMA? And what about the exceptional ‘transparency’ the IMA practiced online, even tracking such financial details as the museum’s contributed support as a percentage of its total budget? And someone could have asked a DMA board member: What about Anderson’s famous departure from the Whitney, after disputes with the board?  Are they prepared to deal with a director willing to put up such a fight? I’m just asking …

SURPRISE! – The Dallas Observer‘s music awards are out, and over on on FrontRow, Christopher Mosley Does Not Approve (“How long can we bear to be this redundant?”). But being concerned about such things is his job — though not Observer music editor Pete Freedman’s job. Not any more. After nearly four years, he quit to “pursue other opportunities.” The happy news in all this? KXT’s own Paul Slavens was named best jazz artist. Cheers.

ROUNDING UP THE REST – The square dance has become ‘a public art project‘ …  Meadows Prize winner Will Power unveiled his new Alice of Wonderland, a collaborative project with SMU students (pay wall) … If you haven’t gotten to the excellent Richard Diebenkorn exhibition at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, here’s Scott Cantrell’s review (pay wall) and here’s Art This Week’s video interview.