"The purpose of the arts is to question, challenge, reflect and enlighten. Great art reveals a truth, and debate and disagreement about the nature of that truth is a function of art. But such is the rallying power of social media, debate is being stifled by self-censorship and fear of disagreeing. - Prospect
Financial reasons are the top barrier to attendance, affecting four in 10 audience members, especially the under-55s, according the audience research. - ArtsHub
"BP's sponsorship of the British Museum has ended after 27 years, new disclosures make clear, bringing to a close one of the highest-profile and most controversial of such deals in recent years, and marking the almost complete retreat of the fossil fuel giant from the British arts world." - The Guardian
Last year, when the average price of admission rose to $35.99 from $28.73, many customers—already battered by the highest level of inflation in decades—decided a visit to Six Flags wasn’t worth the price. The company recorded 20.4 million visits last year, 26% fewer than in 2021. - Wall Street Journal
This time, "Italy’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism won a lawsuit against Edizioni Condé Nast, which published a magazine cover with a model posing as the sculpture three years ago." - Hyperallergic
Aggressive one-star reviews, most from people or bots who have definitely not seen the movie, pepper IMdB and Rotten Tomatoes to such a degree that they've had to change their algorithms. And review bombing, with its roots in bad-faith gaming, is only likely to get worse. - CBC
"It’s not hard to imagine a future in which a wide-eyed actor signs up for one season of a vampire TV show, and then two seasons later their AI replacement busts out of a coffin. Meanwhile, they receive no additional compensation." - Wired
There was a K-Pop themed strike day, and the writers have also held "singles events, Greta Gerwig appreciation day, Pride and drag queen day, and reunions for writers of shows such as E.R. and the various Star Trek series." That all keeps morale up. - NPR
"What happened at (Gonville & Caius) demonstrates the collision between two different worldviews: one that sees research into the history of slavery as a routine, but vital, academic exercise; and another that sees it as an overtly biased undertaking and a threat to the way historical knowledge is produced." - The Guardian
Our remix culture has democratized art by letting anyone with a phone create new art from the pieces of previous works. The Supreme Court’s decision “stymies and suppresses that process,” as Kagan put it, in ways that we might not fully understand for years. - Slate
The decline of the newsroom itself is not the same thing as the decline of media, and conflating the two obscures how the newsroom culture venerated by legacy journalists is precisely what needs to die so that the industry itself can survive. - The Walrus
Fresno voters approved a ⅜-cent local sales tax, with 12% earmarked for arts and culture, in 2018; the city awards the first grants this summer. But the plan for administering the grants looks, to many arts folk in Fresno, like a money grab by the parks department. - The Fresno Bee
News outlets such as The New York Times and New York magazine are publishing more articles that cover the industry with skepticism. And DEI practitioners themselves are raising concerns about how their competitors operate. - The Atlantic
"Turkey's creative community fears Erdoğan could now intensify a long-running crackdown that has intimidated artists, musicians, filmmakers and other cultural activists. Kurdish, female and gay artists feel especially vulnerable." - The Art Newspaper
Even now, in the age of YouTube and TikTok, when you can catapult yourself into fame, riches and recognition for feats of all kinds with nothing more complicated than your phone, the Guinness Book of Records continues, somewhat incredibly, to exist. - The Guardian
