Monster Mash: NEA recognizes video games as art; James Levine withdraws from summer concerts

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Busy thumbs: The National Endowment for the Arts is offering grants for video-game creators, as well as for makers of art for mobile and interactive platforms. (IFC)

Ailing: Conductor James Levine has withdrawn from his summer engagements as he continues to struggle with back pain. (New York Times)

Busted: The leader of the union that represents architects and engineers for the city of Los Angeles was arrested earlier this week, along with his wife, on suspicion of grand theft. (Los Angeles Times)

Adios to Domingo: Ending his term as general director of the Washington National Opera, Placido Domingo got a huge send-off at Saturday’s Opera Ball at the Chinese Embassy. (Washington Post)

For sale: The Leopold Museum in Austria says it is selling an Egon Schiele painting to cover the cost of a loan. (Associated Press)

Creative stimulation: A scientific study shows that looking at certain masterpieces of art increases blood flow in a certain part of the brain by as much as 10%. (Telegraph)

Beating the odds: An autistic ballet dancer is competing in the reality series ‘Britain’s Got Talent.’ (Daily Record)

Heading home: A museum in France is returning the mummified, tattooed head of an ancient Maori warrior to New Zealand. (BBC News)

New hires: The Cleveland Orchestra is appointing four new musicians. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Free for a day: ‘The Book of Mormon,’ which was recently nominated for 14 Tony Awards, will present a free fan performance July 1 at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre in New York, using a lottery system for tickets. (Playbill)

Arrested: Police have apprehended a man on suspicion of stealing a violin at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. (San Francisco Examiner)

Also in the L.A. Times: Music critic Mark Swed reviews Lucinda Childs’ ’Dance’ at Royce Hall; architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne on changes to Lafayette Park.

-- David Ng