ARTISTS AND THE RECESSION: Considering that many artists always have a tough time making ends meet, it’s a pretty safe bet that the current economic climate is making it especially difficult. But just how bad is it out there? A major study reports that more than half of 5,300 artists surveyed saw their income fall from 2008 to 2009. More than 60 percent of those artists make $40,000 or less per year. The New York Times breaks down the study in even more grim details.

BOOKER T. AT WORK: The visual arts students at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts have recently put together a senior show. If you weren’t able to make it over to the school to see the pieces on display, pegasusnews.com has unearthed this video montage from the show. Or you can watch it here on YouTube. Cool background music.

THEATER BITS: You may have seen Talley’s Folly, which Theatre Three opened on Monday, but you’ve never seen it with Shauna McLean and Chuck Huber in the lead roles. “They’re probably way more physically attractive, and their onstage chemistry could propel a jet,” Lawson Taitte writes in his dallasnews.com review. … Artisan Center Theater’s The Forgotten Carols shines a warm light on the Christmas’ side players, according to theaterjones.com … Meanwhile, Rockin’ Little Christmas at Granbury Live nicely blends the secular and spiritual music of the season, says dfw.com. … And speaking of holiday shows, the Denver Post asks if Christmas-themed shows are ruining or saving theater…. Finally, Unfair Park, faster than a speeding pixel, catches up with DTC artistic director Kevin Moriarty and what’s happening with that revived and re-written  Superman musical from 1966, coming to the DTC in June.