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
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
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
"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
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
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
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
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
"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
The fire "was first reported shortly after 11 p.m. involving 10 trees at the location of Highland Avenue and the Hollywood Freeway, near the storied outdoor concert venue." No injuries were reported, and the fire was quickly extinguished. - The Hollywood Reporter
No beloved arts Princess, no Prince Consort, no Queen: Who will take over? "Although a 2020 study found no proof that charities benefit financially from a royal patron, kudos is hard to evaluate. 'It is a competitive moment,' said one former museum head." - The Observer (UK)
"The People’s Joker is ... an extremely loose retelling of the Batman villain’s origin story, reinterpreting the Joker as a trans woman trying to break into the mob-like world of Gotham’s stand-up comedy scene." Of course, it was pulled from the TIFF line-up. - The Verge
"If it shocks us that the novelist was attacked after so long, it should also shock us that commentary looks much as it did thirty years ago. ... The effect is to obscure the central historical question: how, exactly, the publication of Rushdie's novel became a global geopolitical phenomenon." - Boston Review
Most college students, according to a FIRE report published this week, do not believe that speakers who hold various conservative beliefs should be allowed on campus; I am grateful that these students do not (yet) run a whole country, as the ayatollahs do. - The Atlantic
If you are presenting art because you enjoy art and only because you enjoy art, you are not respecting your charter as a nonprofit. That’s vanity, not service. Vanity has weighed down this portion of the sector with 16 tons of irrelevance. - Medium
