“Eleven major fixtures of Texas Monthly‘s editorial team have quit since a hedge fund bought the publication for $25 million in October 2016 … According to multiple interviews with former staffers, the environment inside the Austin-based publication is now largely characterized by fear and precariousness, with employees worried about job stability and unsure if they can trust their leadership.”
Blog
Chicago’s Spertus Institute Finally Stabilized And Flourishing
“The Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Chicago has turned a corner in recent months, re-emerging after years of financial problems and curatorial trepidation to organise more note-worthy shows … The slow and deliberate process of Spertus reinvigoration began in 2016,” with a new gallery space and new curator.
Scotland’s Arts Funding Body Backs Down, Reverses Elimination Of Funding For Five Key Orgs
Creative Scotland “has raided £2.6 million from other budgets to pay for the climbdown, which has been announced in the wake of widespread criticism online and an intervention from the Scottish Government.” Two of the five groups whose funding was restored after the outcry are children’s theatre companies; two more work with disabled artists; the fifth, the Dunedin Consort, has racked up many international awards for its recordings of Bach and Handel vocal works. Still among the zeroed-out is the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
India’s Art Market Comes Into Its Own, Despite Bureaucracy And Currency Upheaval
The country’s economy is growing at around 7% annually, and the art market has reportedly grown 13% in just the past year. Art fairs, led by the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in Kerala state (along with the Dhaka Art Summit in neighboring Bangladesh), are booming as well. All this is despite uncertainty around a new tax and last year’s tumultuous currency reform, which saw all 500- and 1,000-rupee notes withdrawn.
Australia’s National Radio Network Dismantles Its Sound Libraries
“The ABC is dismantling its historic sound and reference libraries across the country and making 10 specialist librarians redundant to free up floor space and save on wages. Radio National, Classic FM, JJJ and all the other ABC programs rely on the Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth and Hobart libraries, which are packed full of CDs and vinyl as well as books and journals after 85 years of collecting.”
Why Does The American Museum Of Natural History Have A Climate Change Denier On Its Board?
We cannot say that Rebekah Mercer and her family foundation are dictating museum exhibitions by virtue of her board seat, and the museum, in a statement, has said that she is not and that “its funders do not shape its curatorial decisions.” But that’s not really the issue. As a funder of climate-science disinformation, Ms. Mercer stands in direct contradiction to the museum’s mission “to discover, interpret, and disseminate — through scientific research and education — knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe.”
Performers In “Sleep No More”, The Immersive Theatre Sensation, Say Audience Members Groped Them
It’s a theatrical phenomenon, attracting celebrities and pop culture cameos. Performers say it is one of the most exciting productions they could list on a resume. But eight former Sleep No More performers and staffers told BuzzFeed News they were groped by audience members during the show. In all, BuzzFeed News confirmed 17 incidents of groping or sexual misconduct by patrons during the show — including of two former performers who were groped multiple times.
Is Artforum Magazine Really Taking Its Sexual Harassment Problem Seriously?
New beginnings often start with a truthful assessment of a situation. But it would seem Artforum has not followed through on their promise of being a “place of transparency, equity, and with zero tolerance for sexual harassment of any kind,” which they trumpeted on their website in October.
A “Museum Of Failure” That Embodies Its Very Name
A pseudo-scientific chart on the side of each label purports to rate objects according to “Innovation,” “Design,” and “Implementation,” resulting in a final “Fail-o-Meter” score, with no explanation as to the metrics involved. In essence, the Museum of Failure is a BuzzFeed listicle come to life.
Why Lost Books Loom Large In The Imaginations Of Bibliophiles
“There is a quotation from Proust: ‘To release that fount of sorrow, that sense of the irreparable, those agonies which prepare the way of love there must be … the risk of an impossibility’. I think that passion for a lost book, often like love for a person, arises from the impossibility of reading it.”