ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

ISSUES

Iranian Actress Arrested After Voicing Support For Protests

Taraneh Alidoosti, 38, posted messages on social media supporting the protests after Iranian authorities executed a 23-year-old prisoner. "'Your silence means supporting oppression and oppressors,' she wrote." - The New York Times

Smithsonian’s Tsione Wolde-Michael To Lead President’s Council On The Arts And Humanities

Under a new Executive Order PCAH has been established to engage the nation’s artists, humanities scholars, and cultural heritage practitioners on ways to promote excellence in the arts, the humanities, and museum and library services and demonstrate their relevance to the country’s health, economy, equity, and civic life. - NEA

Here’s One Country Where Putin-Supporting Russian Performers Are Still Invited

"While artists identifying with the Russian president are boycotted all over the world, the gates remain open for them in Israel – and these Ukrainian activists are not going to let it slide." - Haaretz (Israel)

The Top 40 Most Arts-Vibrant Communities of 2022

The list is broken out into the top 20 large communities and the top 10 each of medium-sized and small communities.  Because of the unpredictable and uneven nature of recovery from COVID-related shutdowns, this year the list is not ranked. - SMU Data Arts

Are Public Protests Undemocratic?

The fact that people protest when they don’t accept the outcome of the democratic process is a rather clear sign that protests are a non-democratic activity at best, and at worst an attempt to override and undermine democracy itself. - 3 Quarks Daily

Lula Brings Back Brazil’s Culture Ministry, Which Bolsonaro Dissolved, And Appoints A Musician To Lead It

Jair Bolsonaro, the mercurial right-winger whom President da Silva succeeds, abolished the culture ministry on his first day in office.  Lula wasted no time in restoring the department, and he's appointed as minister renowned singer Margareth Menezes, who founded a major cultural nonprofit in her home state of Bahia. - Artnet

Could Cleveland Become America’s First Big “15-Minute-City”?

“We’re working toward being the first city in North America to implement a 15-minute city planning framework, where people—not developers—are at the center of urban revitalization. - Fast Company

Tech Enthusiast Makes AI-Created Children’s Book. He Gets Death Threats

I’m honestly just saddened by how that debate has played out. The hateful rhetoric and the abuse is really not fun to read." - Buzzfeed News

Russian High Culture Feels Very Different Since The Invasion of Ukraine: Philip Kennicott

"The war recalibrates everything. The humanism and decency of Chekhov now seem less relevant than the survey of Russian violence in the works of Maxim Gorky. ... Everything is situated around burning questions: How could a country come to this? How could a people commit these crimes?" - MSN (The Washington Post)

Actors’ Equity Lobbies Congress To Pass Performing Artist Tax Parity Act

"The bill, if passed, would allow more performing artists to deduct essential work expenses from their taxes by updating what's called the Qualified Performing Artist (QPA) deduction." - Broadway News

London’s New “Ticket Bank” Will Offer Unsold Seats At Performances To Social Services Clients

In partnership with food pantries, housing nonprofits, support organizations for ex-prisoners, and similar groups, the Ticket Bank will offer 1,000 free or pay-what-you-wish tickets each week to performances at the National Theatre, the Barbican, the Roundhouse, and four nonprofit theatres, with more to be added. - The Guardian

ChatGPT Is Wildly Popular. The Site Keeps Crashing, And The AI Will Explain What’s Wrong While You Wait

Having only launched as a public beta on Nov. 30, ChatGPT crested well over a million users in five days. Since then, media coverage has ballooned, and its user base has only continued to grow. - Gizmodo

Yoga Practitioners Push Back Against Cultural Appropriation

This week, practitioners in India have once again sought to draw attention to what they see as cultural appropriation of yoga, amid allegations it has been whitewashed. Vikram Jeet Singh, a yoga instructor in Goa said that “his own culture” has been “wiped out and suppressed by colonisation”. - The Guardian

Adjunct Professors At Mannes School Of Music And Parsons School of Design End Their Strike

The walkout by part-time faculty (87% of the total) at the New School University, which encompasses both Parsons and Mannes, began on November 16 and ended over the weekend with tentative agreement on a new contract which includes pay raises, health insurance, and compensation for work outside the classroom. - Artforum

The Parasite Companies Killing Creative Artists

Books on Amazon are cheap and arrive quickly. Spotify offers tens of millions of songs and podcasts for less per month than what we pay for a single CD. But for creators, chokepoint capitalists—the firms that control access to their work—are an exploitative nightmare. - The Atlantic

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