ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

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The Metaverse Looks Cool, But It Puts Everyone’s Privacy At Risk

How? Big data. "Headset devices are able to record things like a person’s movements, facial attributes, blinking, surroundings, and their activities when they’re in the metaverse." - Fast Company

Constance Wu Reveals Sexual Harassment From A Fresh Off The Boat Producer

The unnamed producer controlled what she wore and how she handled business matters. "One evening, she writes, after she and the man attended a sporting event, he placed his hand on her thigh, his hand ultimately grazing her crotch." - The New York Times

Art Made By AIs Is Powered By Everything From Execution Videos To Non-Consensual Porn

"With AI it’s all garbage in, garbage out. So who controls this data and is there anything we can do about it?" - Vice

Can It With The Fat Suits, Hollywood

Just hire fat actors. Truly, the easiest solution in the world. - The New York Times

The Three Thousand Seat Decision Facing Portland’s Civic And Arts Leaders

The Keller Auditorium's "setting and its bones mean that there is great potential here, at a time when downtown needs its cultural landmarks more than ever. Yet to close Keller for repairs would be to turn off the revenue stream that makes such investments possible." - Oregon ArtsWatch

The New Arts Censorship

‘Art is about allowing people not to have limits on their imaginations. So if audiences are starting to look for something political in the work that may or may not be there, and then they are interpreting it in those narrow terms, that’s a dangerous direction for art to be heading. It’s reducing art to propaganda.’ - ArtsHub

Is Unboxed (The “Festival Of Brexit”) A £120 Million Waste Of Taxpayers’ Money?  Or Does It Deserve More Credit Than It’s Getting?

On the waste-of-money side are several MPs, including one who's asked the National Audit Office to investigate the festival.  Unboxed's chief creative officer insists that the project is "absolutely value for money" and that millions have people have engaged with hundreds of events, many on local, under-the-radar levels. - BBC

Disney Heiress’ New Documentary Exposes Deplorable Theme Park Working Conditions

One out of every 10 full-time workers was homeless at some point in the previous two years, and two-thirds didn’t have enough money to pay for food. At the same time, in 2018, Disney’s CEO Bob Iger collected $65 million—or 1,424 times the median salary of a Disney employee. - Daily Beast

The Scandalous Origins Of The Family Theme Park

London's Pleasure Gardens transformed the concept of leisure. Offering an environment in which societal norms could be cast aside, if only for a few hours, they captivated the public with their heady mix of culture, fashion and vice.  - BBC

The New International African American Museum Will Be About Slavery, But It Won’t Be All Grim

"We have a real emphasis on cultural-competency training and cultural-empathy training with our staff," says the director, Dr. Tonya Matthews. "But ... there is actually a lot of joy in our site, and that has to do with how we put the story of slavery in full context." - The New York Times

Why Business As Usual May Kill Your Non-Profit

Did it become “comfortable” when leaders believed that the path of least resistance in business settings — kowtow to those to whom you report and abuse those who report to you — would always serve them? Did you, for example, take advantage of those who serve the organization by underpaying them? - Medium

Some Arts Organizations Are Turning To Real Estate Development, Building Mixed-Use Complexes

The Newark Museum of Art, National Black Theater in Harlem, Universal Hip Hop Museum in the Bronx, EastSide Arts Alliance in Oakland, and Arte Amėricas in Fresno are among the organizations building, alongside expansion space for themselves, entire complexes with retail, restaurants, and housing. - The New York Times

Why Does Having A Royal Patron Matter For British Arts Groups?

With the queen's death and the ascension of a new king (who won't have time for all the causes he supported as Prince of Wales), organizations are anxiously trying to line up new royal patrons. Here's an explainer about why this is felt to be so important. - The New York Times

The Numbers Are In: Seattle Audiences Aren’t Returning To Performances In Great Numbers

Across the board, attendance has not surpassed three-quarters of pre-pandemic levels in the past six months. Between February and July 2022, visitor numbers remained between 35% and 75% of those during that same period in 2019, with many hovering near 50% or 60% of pre-pandemic levels. - Crosscut

Sacheen Littlefeather Gets An Apology From The Academy

"The Native American activist, who endured decades of harassment after declining Marlon Brando's best actor prize at the 1973 Oscars ceremony, received a formal apology from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences." - CBC

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