Lead singer Nadya Tolokonnikova, who has been imprisoned before for her music and activism: "Art is the most important weapon I have against a repressive regime." - BBC
This is not a democratic move: "The Muslim comic thrown in a Madhya Pradesh jail on January 1, 2021 with four others on suspicion that he might make some jokes about Hinduism." - Vice
It's not usually after a disaster: in those cases, great cities tend to rebuild and often become grander. (Think of London and Chicago after great fires, Lisbon and San Francisco after earthquakes, Berlin and Tokyo after bombing.) "Mismanagement and inertia are more formidable foes than cataclysm, though they administer less dramatic death." - Curbed
With misinformation and disinformation (here’s the difference) flourishing unchecked online, being able to discern fact from fiction is especially crucial. We witnessed the fatal violence and the humiliation on the world stage that ensues when a critical mass of our citizens can’t tell the difference between lies and truth. How can democracy, which relies on an informed citizenry, prevail...
"Two Polish historians are facing a libel trial over a book examining Poles' behaviour during the Second World War, a case whose outcome is expected to determine the future of independent Holocaust research under Poland's nationalist government. … comes in the wake of a 2018 law that makes it a crime to falsely accuse the Polish nation of...
Converting "qualities to quantities”, replacing “critical evaluation with economic, technical evaluation”, making “the price system” the ultimate judge, turning institutions into markets and individuals into competing contestants are all hallmarks of the neoliberal vision of a more efficient, productive society. They also characterise quite a lot of what is going on in the art world at the moment. -...
Just as journalistic embargoes aren’t universally bad or unprofessional, academic embargoes might not be either. But conversations about the ethics of “access scholarship” are far less mature than debates about “access journalism.” (Though such journalism still dominates cultures of political reporting, it at least has a name and prominent critics.) - NiemanLab
Yes, 2020 was a no-good-very-bad year for the arts (and most everything else), but a new study from TRG Arts and Purple Seven has at least a few glad tidings. In the U.S. and Canada, half of the arts organizations surveyed took in more total gift income than in 2019, and three-quarters attracted more individual donors than the previous...
“I’d say that size, discipline, history of percentage split of earned/contributed revenue, and dependency on partnerships and fee-for-service have all played a role in an organization’s ability to adapt, survive and even thrive during the pandemic.” - Colorado Sun
For an artwork to be copyrightable, it must possess some “minimal degree of creativity” and be original to the “author.” This leads us to ask questions that test the boundaries of the traditional legal framework: Can AI generated work be deemed creative, and if so, who would be credited as the creative author? - Americans for the Arts
Applied to the cultural and creative industries, this involves asking tough questions on the current working conditions, financial stability and social recognition of artists, as well as extending sustained non-monetary support such as counselling for those who have had to weather a seemingly perpetual storm. Only then can the sector turn to long-term rebuilding strategies, which must include reinvestment...
"The idea that the festivals can't go ahead and be socially-distanced is inaccurate," one festival director told the House of Commons Culture Select Committee, which is examining the live music sector. - BBC
Dan-el Padilla Peralta came to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic at age 4 and grew up extremely poor; it was his childhood fascination with ancient Greece and Rome, combined with his academic talents, that got him school scholarships and pulled him out of poverty and into a professorship at Princeton. Today he argues that his discipline, as it...
It has been educating future artists and entertainers for 47 years. It also ranks in the top 7 percent of U.S. schools in challenging its students academically. Few campuses nationally have students as enthusiastic about their school. Yet Ellington officials say the people who run D.C. public schools have failed to honor promises they made in 2017 to put the...
There are early signs that new president Biden and his vice-president, Kamala Harris, "could provide a much-needed boost for cultural scene hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and focus attention on the District of Columbia’s (DC’s) long campaign for statehood." - The Guardian
