ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

ISSUES

Marfa, Texas Is Getting An(other) Arts Center

"For the last year, Michael Phelan — a contemporary artist who has lived in Marfa full time since 2014 — has been quietly planning another destination within miles of both sites: Marfa Invitational, an interdisciplinary, year-round arts and cultural foundation, set on five acres of high desert." - The New York Times

What Better Use For An Empty IKEA Store Than As An Arts Center?

That's what could happen in the English city of Coventry: the Swedish furniture chain closed its store there last year, Coventry is the UK's City of Culture for 2021, and the big interior space could hold artwork that the current museum can't. The city council votes on a plan next week. - BBC

Keeping Up Live Performance As The World Goes Virtual

"We have a total commitment to live performance. That's what we do. We're not a film company," says the director of the Annenberg Center in Philadelphia. What's more, "we really wanted to maintain work for artists as much as possible, as well as our staff, … at a time when they really didn't have a lot of options." And...

What The New Movie ‘Judas And The Black Messiah’ Reveals About The United States’ History – And Present

In short, and in no surprise to anyone who has studied the history of the U.S., or indeed lived that history: "Judas and the Black Messiah makes an urgent case for why the FBI, and, by extension, American law enforcement, must change priorities. Violence from white extremists poses a far greater threat to the country’s safety than activism from groups...

Zoom – It’s A Song Lyric, It’s A Facilitator Of Romance…

As a nonsense word perfect for a doo-wop song. It's a video app that connects people and (sometimes) facilitates romance. - WBUR

At Last Minute, Trump Made The Arts Commission Overseeing Capitol All-Male, All-White

"After Donald Trump made a flurry of hasty, last-minute appointments to the board that oversees the design of much of what is built in the capital, the CFA is once again all White and all male after decades of more diverse membership." - Washington Post

Southern Hemisphere’s Largest Arts Festival Watches And Waits As COVID Restrictions Come And Go

"Adelaide Fringe festival is scrambling to determine how the sudden closure of South Australia's borders to Melbourne residents may affect dozens of its shows. The festival, the second largest open-access arts festival in the world after the Edinburgh Fringe and the largest in the southern hemisphere, is scheduled to open on 19 February and run for four weeks." Last...

Criticism As Context

Understanding postcritique begins with understanding what has been the dominant mode of interpretation in literary studies for many decades: critique. Critique involves giving an account of a text that is not the account the text would give of itself. The novel or story or poem, from this perspective, is never really about what it says it’s about. Nor is...

Polish Region Loses $2.25 Million European Cultural Grant After Declaring Itself ‘LGBT-Free Zone’

The money was to go toward developing a Carpathian "heritage" trail" in Poland's Podkarpackie region. After a local activist brought to funders' attention a resolution passed by the regional government "expressing opposition to the promotion and affirmation of the ideology of the so-called LGBT movements," the grant was withdrawn. - Thomson Reuters

Canadian Artists Debate Universal Basic Income

“If we artists had a basic income, that stress and fear over basic necessities would no longer weigh over our heads and we could be much more productive. It would help grow the economy, because when people have the means to do more than just get by, they put more back into the economy.” - The Tyee

Central, Eastern European Governments Take Aim At Museums

Hungary, Poland, and now Slovenia are assembling and executing a “playbook” to shift cultural institutions to the right. Often, the rhetoric around this has blended fears of anti-communism with populist, nationalist, anti-immigrant, and, in some cases, anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. In the process, political memory has become a flashpoint in Europe’s so-called culture war. - Artnet

New L.A. Arts Recovery Fund Has $38.5 Million For Small And Midsize Nonprofits

"The J. Paul Getty Trust initiated the fund, to be officially announced Tuesday, and the California Community Foundation is administering it. Struggling arts organizations with an annual operating budget of under $10 million prior to the pandemic are eligible to apply for unrestricted funds that can go toward programming or operating expenses such as rent, utilities and staff compensation...

California’s Gig Worker Law Is Hurting Artists

Used to hiring artists who work as independent contractors in exchange for program or project fees, it’s been tough for these small nonprofit arts groups in particular to adapt to AB5, the labor law intended to give the state’s workers more benefits by preventing employers from misclassifying them as contractors in order to save money. - KQED

Governor And Mayor Announce Programs To Revive New York’s Live Performance Industry

And, given the notorious personal relationship between the two men, it's no surprise that their plans are entirely separate. Governor Cuomo's scheme, called NY PopsUp, will consist of 300 free events over the next 100 days and 1,000 by Labor Day, many featuring very well-known artists, at "existing landscapes" throughout the state. Mayor de Blasio's program, called Open Culture...

Germany Earmarks Another €1 Billion In COVID Relief To Its Arts Sector

"This marks the second chapter of the so-called 'Neustart Kultur' program (New Start Culture), which was first launched last July with a bailout of €1 billion dispersed across cultural sectors in the nation of 83 million. The program consists over 60 sub-programs and supports cinemas, museums, theaters, and other venues and creatives." - Artnet

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