For What It's Worth

It's an evergreen story: great books are removed from a school's library because a few parents have complained about their being unsuitable for children. Today it's two American classics: To Kill a Mockingbird, and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. From Reason: Marie Rothstein-Williams, a white parent of a biracial high school student first raised objections to the books' presence in school libraries and classrooms at a school board meeting last month, saying: "I keep hearing 'This is a classic, this is a classic.' I understand this is a … [Read more...]

Can you remember the movie Breaking Away? From 1979, and set at that time, in my current home town of Bloomington, Indiana. Four lads just out of high school, all lacking a sense of purpose. It's a terrific movie, highly recommended. This week Alex Usher (you should follow him on Twitter @AlexUsherHESA) suggested we ought to rewatch to understand something about the recent US Presidential election, which to a large degree turned on the Midwestern states going with Trump. So this is a riff on that suggestion, which I think is excellent. In … [Read more...]

This is my last attempt at this topic, based on some recent (friendly!) twitter conversations and questions. One. Let me start with some data. Here, from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, are sector shares of GDP (i.e. the total value added from each sector) for recent years. If you are interested in a broad-based conception of the creative industries, I would look to line 49, with the Information sector (publishing; motion picture and sound recording; broadcast and telecommunications; and data processing and internet publishing) at 4.7% … [Read more...]

In a guest blog at Scientific American, social psychologist Clay Routledge asks whether American (and presumably this applies to other countries) universities allot an excessive amount of attention to racial, gender, and cultural diversity, but insufficient attention to viewpoint diversity. He notes that his own field of study is particularly distorted by the prevalence of liberals over conservatives in most university departments: Considering how harmful prejudice can be, most people would agree that it is a worthy topic of research. The … [Read more...]

This week The New Yorker had some shocking news: Andy Borowitz is only their second least funny humorist. In his "Shouts and Murmurs" piece "The Pences Visit Manhattan", Douglas McGrath takes the blue ribbon. He begins: Governor Mike Pence was having a romantic dinner with the love of his life, Mrs. Mike Pence, at the Red Lobster in Times Square. The Governor knew that as Vice-President he would have to attend foreign banquets, so he and Mrs. Pence were trying to broaden their palates. Luckily, they had already found a couple of dishes at the … [Read more...]

A few days ago blog neighbour Doug McLennan lamented that Congress seems to have no interest in arts-related legislation, with no bills coming to floor on which we could even guess at how elected officials actually weigh the arts as a matter of national importance. I responded that we should be careful what we wish for, that any legislation dealing with cultural sector would likely be a source of conflict, that would not necessarily result in a positive result for the arts (where by "the arts" I refer to those who are the audience and … [Read more...]

Blog neighbour Doug McLennan reviews the recent Congressional Arts Report Card produced by the Americans for the Arts Action Fund PAC. He notes that there isn't really a lot of material on which to base a report card - indeed, there were no recorded floor votes that were solely concerned with the arts. And so in reckoning how to distribute their modest funds to assist pro-arts candidates, they looked to past votes, and to whether the member of Congress had taken part in any activities that showed at least an interest in the arts. Putting aside … [Read more...]

The people at Createquity have put together a great piece on different ways of thinking about what has surely become the hot discussion topic in the art world: diversity. They reveal the depth and complexity of the issue, and provide many links worth pursuing. A good read. But still... Go ahead and talk about diversity all you want. But in the end, the representatives of the elite art world, writing for a national newspaper, will still say: But let's be serious. You are supposed to like this art, not that art. This meaning 'the … [Read more...]

The Italian government has announced that it will give all eighteen-year olds, on their birthday, a €500 voucher to spend on books, film, music or theatre. The Independent reports here, and The Atlantic here, which says: The initiative “reminds [youth] how important cultural consumption is, both for enriching yourself as a person and strengthening the fabric of our society,” the Italian parliamentary undersecretary Tommaso Nannicini said in The Local. I think cultural vouchers are an interesting idea: they fund the arts by giving directly to … [Read more...]

The Verge reports on new efforts from Lin-Manuel Miranda and New York Senator Chuck Schumer to crack down on those who use "bots" to quickly, and in bulk, purchase scarce tickets on primary sites to then resell on secondary markets at a mark-up. The story quotes Mr. Miranda saying, "My concern is that our show [Hamilton] is about the founding of our country and if bots are buying up all the tickets and charging this insane secondary market price, most of the country can't see it." I can see Mr. Miranda wanting something done about bots - he … [Read more...]