Author: Douglas McLennan

Framing A Debate On The Purpose Of Museums In Contemporary Culture

In recent years, we have witnessed public calls to decolonize the museum space: the return of objects taken from other cultures, fierce debates about who has the right to tell whose story, exhibitions of alleged #MeToo offenders deferred or canceled, and artworks memorializing nations’ racist pasts taken down and/or recontextualized. Artists and activists, including hundreds of museum staff, have urged organizational leaders to disavow patrons involved in socially irresponsible investments that perpetuate violence and addiction. These events have shaped contemporary museum culture, motivating a profound questioning of the ongoing relevance and purpose of museums. – American Alliance of Museums

If Attention Is Currency, Critics Need To Reconsider How They Spend It

“It’s time for arts writers, critics, journalists, gatekeepers, and arbiters of culture—anyone whose job it is to bestow attention onto others—to reconsider how to allocate that currency. More specifically, the most responsible thing we can do, as people who professionally dole out attention, is to withhold it more often than not. But hear me out—there’s more to it than that.” Oregon Arts Watch

John Richardson, Picasso Biographer, 95

Richardson’s grandest and most acclaimed project was his multivolume biography of Pablo Picasso, the first part of which was published in 1991. (Two more volumes have been put out since; a fourth is expected to follow, though a publication date has not yet been set.) In 2008, Richardson was asked what made his biography different from books on the painter. He told Artinfo, “The fact that I knew him well and he opened up to me.” – ARTnews

The Venerable Dance Critic At 85

Deborah Jowitt, who has been reviewing since 1964, has probably vexed fewer choreographers than most other leading critics. She speaks of Taylor tenderly (“a genius”), and with gratitude. As the subject of her first review for The Village Voice (Nov. 9, 1967), he immediately wrote her with advice: She should have more confidence in her own views and not quote a senior critic to prop herself up. – The New York Times

Should Spotify Ban Michael Jackson And R Kelly From Its Platform?

There’s a big difference between no-platforming and not promoting. I know that’s obvious, but it feels like this distinction isn’t stressed enough in debates about free speech. Spotify was right to remove Kelly from its featured playlists because that equals promotion. And it was right not to ban his songs altogether because that gets you into really dangerous territory: it turns the likes of Spotify into a moral arbiter and opens up a can of worms about who deserves to be banned next. – The Guardian

The YouTube Movie Critic Who Has Become A Breakout Star

Lindsay Ellis has recently emerged as one of the medium’s breakout stars. She earns more than $10,000 a month on Patreon, the crowdfunding site that’s her primary source of revenue. It helps pay for a small staff of mostly part-time employees and allows her to turn out video series like last year’s three-part deep-dive into the Hobbit trilogy, which cost nearly $20,000. Ellis and some of her team went to New Zealand as part of the production, which she feared her supporters would find excessive; instead, the videos gave her the biggest Patreon boost ever. And in the last year, the number of her YouTube subscribers and Twitter followers has doubled. – Wired

We’re Trying To Teach People That Failure Is Just An Opportunity To Improve. But What If It Isn’t?

According to the theory, if students believe that their ability is fixed, they will not want to do anything to reveal that, so a major focus of the growth mindset in schools is shifting students away from seeing failure as an indication of their ability, to seeing failure as a chance to improve that ability. As Jeff Howard noted almost 30 years ago: ‘Smart is not something that you just are, smart is something that you can get.’ – Aeon

Once Again Trump Proposes Killing PBS. Congress Won’t. So Why Keep Trying?

There are a few reasons. A presidential budget is essentially a messaging tool these days, a way to show your supporters that you’re addressing their priorities; Congress has to actually decide where real money will go. Just about every member of Congress has a public radio or TV station in his or her district; any transition from rhetoric to reality would be felt back home. But it’s also because public broadcasting is actually pretty popular and pretty trusted by Americans. – NiemenLab