“Shelly C. Lowe, the first Native American to lead the National Endowment for the Humanities, has left her role at the direction of President Donald Trump. … The Senate confirmed her appointment in February 2022. The chair (normally) serves a four-year term, according to the agency.” - The Washington Post (MSN)
Unveiled in February, this year’s CFD will distribute a new record of $59.3 million—north of $1 million more than the previous record—in grants to over a thousand non-profits across the boroughs. Recipients span a wide breadth of cultural, arts, and historical organizations, from marquee NPOs to smaller, more specialized outfits. - BKMag
The Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Milwaukee Repertory Theater each received a gift of $5 million from philanthropists Ellen and Joe Checota, the institutions announced Monday. - WPR
The need for responsible AI approaches is becoming increasingly urgent as artists deal with serious concerns regarding copyright infringement and job security. In the UK, the creative industries are worth £126 billion, employing 2.4 million people in 2022. - The Conversation
“The essence of drag is its exaggeration of gender stereotypes in a theatrical style that gives the performer permission to say outrageous, often offensive things. ... That is also the definition of Trump’s style: … performing with hypermasculine bravado in a space where one can’t quite take him seriously.” - The Washington Post (MSN)
Five years after the lethal coronavirus arrived, “the recovery has been uneven, but there are signs that audiences are finally coming back. Here’s a snapshot of where things stand.” - The New York Times
In response to a lawsuit filed last week by the ACLU, the National Endowment for the Arts dropped its requirement that applicants pledge on their applications not to use grant money to “promote gender ideology.” The NEA has not, however, revoked the new criteria making organizations which do so ineligible for grants. - Artnet
In her landmark 1975 essay in The New York Review of Books, Susan Sontag explains how fascism isn’t just an ideology, but an aestheticized politics that emphasizes the “contrast between the clean and the impure, the incorruptible and the defiled, the physical and the mental.” - Hyperallergic
“That has been the biggest surprise, just how fast corporate and foundation America has closed its doors and is reducing the size and scope of the public conversation on important issues like freedom, justice, diversity, healthcare, relationships, economics, and just about everything else.” - Hyperallergic
Everything hobbyists love - from graphic novels to BluRays to vinyl to, yes, yarn - is in a constant state of flux and higher prices thanks to the U.S. president’s "tariff bonanza.” - Slate
A prominent human rights lawyer warns that “when a political leader tries to ‘capture culture' it's something ... typical of an authoritarian. ‘Right by the playbook.’” - CBC
And now that backsliding is more like an avalanche crushing BIPOC creators of any gender — and women of all races and ethnicities — as the rush to the bottom speeds up under the current U.S. president. - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
Perhaps the most beautiful part of this digital heist is that all of this knowledge is being stolen in broad daylight. Napster was a rather minor and petty crime in comparison. - The Guardian
A nation’s “soft power” is “the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments” — foreign aid, public perception, and especially cultural exports such as movies and music. American soft power has been enormous, and Lily Janiak considers how it's being frittered away. - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
The lawsuit argues that the new requirement — that grant applicants must affirm that their projects will not “promote gender ideology” — violates the First and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act. - The Guardian
