Talking with a man who won a photography contest with an AI-produced image, "you definitely get this feeling of almost resentment toward human artists, too, where he’s saying, like, you know, you all think you’re so special. And I just proved that you’re not." - Slate
Free speech requires a robust exchange of views without the coercion of threats and violence, and self-censorship in response to social pressure is a genuine risk. Yet by definition, there is no free speech if one person is allowed to make an argument and another is not allowed to object to it. - The Atlantic
The great fortunes of today's robber-barons have a vast, distorting influence on our society, bending our most urgent projects away from evidence-based policy and towards the pet theories of billionaire dilettantes. - Pluralistic
As Goethe later recalled in his autobiography, it was to the house that he owed his literary awakening. It was there, gazing at his family’s prints, that he had learned to love Italy, antiquity and nature; there that his passion for drama was first fired; and there that he wrote some of his most famous works. - History Today
It's hard to say just yet — partly because she's so new and partly because she has a reputation for changing positions on almost anything. But there are hints to be gleaned. One: she's talking about cutting taxes on rich people, so there will probably no increase in arts funding. - Artnet
‘When you get it right, it affects our health policy, our education policy, our environment policy, foreign affairs, trade, veterans’ affairs, tourism… A nation with a strong cultural policy is a nation where we know ourselves, know each other and invite the world to better know us.’ - ArtsHub
Jair Bolsonaro abolished the culture ministry, slashed arts funding, and demonized the entire sector — which largely returns his hatred and fears he'll stage a coup. Lula, who supports the arts, leads in the polls. One good sign: Brazil's Congress just overrode Bolsonaro's veto of a new arts funding scheme. - The Art Newspaper
Arts presenters "know that some audience members will be deterred by mask requirements at a time when they have vanished from so many other settings, while others will be reluctant to attend indoor performances if masks are not required. Whatever they decide to do, they risk alienating some ticket buyers." - The New York Times
"Michelle Donelan, a former WWE marketing manager who was Boris Johnson's Education Secretary for just 48 hours, is to replace Nadine Dorries as Culture Secretary in UK Prime Minister Liz Truss's first cabinet." - Deadline
In her New York Times Op-Ed column last week, Goldberg, drawing on a new book by W. David Marx, seems to argue that the internet's ease of access has made things too easy to be interesting. Not so, responds Ben Davis: the real problem is the clickbait-driven attention economy. - Artnet
Criticism in the broadest sense is a key tactic for maintaining a nonrigid, noncomplacent orientation toward the world. You’re always stepping back and looking at everything afresh, never taking anything for granted, never turning a blind eye to your own complicities and flaws—ideally, anyway. - ArtForum
Arts funding, under the current government, is a zero-sum game. There’s no new money, beyond a tiny, 2% rise in the ACE budget. If the Tories really wanted to “level up” funding for the arts they would increase provision in Bolsover without knocking someone else back. - The Guardian
During an 11-week national tour, each member of the company was responsible for approximately seven tonnes of carbon emitted. The average per-capita emission in Australia over a year is about 21 tonnes (far above the global average of 4.5 tonnes). - The Guardian
Theresa May first proposed the festival in 2018 to showcase the liberated UK as a creative powerhouse. Yet, by 2022, nobody was in a festive mood, many of the artists (mostly Remainers and fiercely anti-Tory) considered themselves Robin Hoods, and most people don't even know Unboxed exists. - The House (UK)
The program would be somewhat akin to Amazon Prime, which offers advantages such as free shipping, discounts at Whole Foods and a complementary streaming video service for a monthly or annual fee, the people said. Internally, some executives have referred to Disney’s initiative as “Disney Prime." - The Wall Street Journal
