The takeaway: “At a high level, the study has found some meaningful progress in the representation of people of color in a number of different museum functions, including the curatorial. We also found an increase in the number of women in museum leadership positions from 2015 to 2018. Nevertheless, the data also shows that progress has been uneven. While trends in recent hiring are encouraging, certain parts of the museum appear not as quick to change, especially the most senior leadership positions.” Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Blog
A Dismal Trajectory For Investment In American Culture
Tim Schneider: “A sharp fall in public funding for cultural organizations since the 1980s has coincided with a sharp rise in private wealth held by the very few. And rather than being some wacky coincidence, these developments have a direct causal relationship, as many elites have spent billions of dollars on think tanks, lobbying firms, and politicians to enact policies that keepsafe mountains of revenue that once went to public causes, including arts and cultural institutions.” – Artnet
Taiwan Art Fair Points To Enormous Changes In Asian Art Market
“After a week spent in Taipei for the art fair and its orbiting constellation of events, one thing is clear: how these two forces—the dynamism of the regional scene and the growing number of Western galleries prospecting for business—intersect over the coming years will do much to shape the future of art in this century.” – Artnet
Man Wanders Into A Moscow Museum, Takes Painting Off Wall And Casually Walks Out
The work, titled “Ai Petri, Crimea” and painted by Arkhip Kuindzhi in 1908, had been insured for $182,000, according to a spokeswoman for the museum. – The New York Times
A Conservative’s Case For Classical Music
Roger Scruton: “To my way of thinking, there cannot be a coherent conservatism, either in everyday life or in politics, that does not take high culture seriously. It really matters to the future of our societies that classical music should survive, not as a museum exhibit but as a live tradition of performance and enjoyment, radiating its grace and graciousness across our communities, and providing us all, whether as performers or as listeners, with a sense of the intrinsic value of being here, now, and among our fellows.” – Future Symphony
A Rising Chorus Urges Journalists To Get Off Social Media. Jeff Jarvis Dissents
“When journalists delete, dismiss, or disengage from Twitter or Facebook or YouTube or Instagram or Reddit or blogs, they turn their backs on the people who finally — like the journalists — have a printing press to call their own. For too long — since Habermas’ alleged birth of the public sphere in the coffee houses and salons of London and Paris — that sphere has excluded too many people, whom social media finally can include. Listen to them.” – Medium
Artistic Transgression Is So 1990s
What does transgression mean now – and what are artists transgressing against? Laura Miller: “Much of what transgressive art rebels against is politeness, but politeness has many dimensions. It may dictate that you never swear or discuss sex, religion, or politics in ‘mixed company.’ And it also decrees that you don’t use racial slurs when referring to groups you don’t belong to.” Some (not so great) artists can’t figure out the distinction. – Slate
Why Do Americans Love The Great British Bake Off So Very Much?
With binge-watching on Netflix, themed baking groups, self-GBBO challenges, and more, the U.S. seriously adores the Great British Bake Off. But why? Hm: “Many US viewers have said that they decompress watching the show, and they like that it is the antithesis of the nation’s fraught politics.” – BBC
A Writer’s Take On Literary Festivals
“For years I have not participated in collective activities, especially if they force me to move from one continent to another. … The round table was a disaster, since the other two participants, very young, started a binge yesterday evening that has lasted throughout the day, and presented themselves in a deplorable state. As they are mystery authors, they feel obliged to show a degree of alcoholism that they may not have.” – El País (Spain)
Untangling Nostalgia For The World Of The Hardy Boys
The brothers’ adventures appealed to many young readers, as the boys filled their lives with adventures that always ended safely. But it’s also true that there were no gay characters and a paucity of characters of color – and racism throughout, despite decades of revisions. Still, there was Chet. “There was always something delightfully transgressive about the fact that Chet’s car, depicted in the books as the ‘pride’ of his life, is named The Queen.” – The Atlantic