Category: issues

“Given the thematic unity of this year’s prize – from long- to shortlist, there has been an emphasis on experimentation and engagement with the present day – it’s not immediately obvious where divergence of opinions will begin; as ever, it’s a pin in a donkey’s tail.” – The Guardian

“Everyone entering the buildings prior to public events will be required to walk through a metal detector (magnetometer) and have their bag searched or be screened with a hand-held metal detector to search for prohibited items.” – Cincinnati Business Journal

“What’s surprising is the similarity and the banality,” he says. “And the fact that people around the world do the same things with their phone. … It’s a new form of language — a very visual language.” – Los Angeles Times

“The action comes after [Science Museum Group’s] directors refused to increase a below-inflation 1.5% pay rise offered to more than 75% of staff this year. … Prospect, the union representing striking Science Museum Group staff, said a series a of below-inflation pay rises had left workers with a 13% real-terms pay cut since 2010” and that SMG had a profit of more than £4 million last year. – The Guardian

“There is a certain truth to this recent narrative of humanistic decline as it plays out in liberal arts schools, but it is not that of obsolescence or expense. Nor is it reducible to the liberal arts school itself, even as such schools often stand in for the fate of humanities in recent academic debates. Rather, this moment reveals shifts in the coalition among the humanities, government budgets, and institutional finance as each has assumed new dimensions since the 1970s.” – Los Angeles Review of Books

That figure, high as it seems, is down from $9.9 billion in 2017, the year that saw the completion of the Louvre Abu Dhabi. There were 148 such buildings — museums, performing arts centers, and other cultural hubs — completed in 2018, with the largest number of projects in North America but the three most expensive all in China. – Hyperallergic

The original urban crisis of the 1960s and 1970s was a crisis of economic failure, spurred on by the movement of people, jobs, and industry to the suburbs; the hollowing out of city economics; and the concentration of poverty and economic disadvantage in urban centers. The New Urban Crisis is a crisis of success, brought on by the movement of affluent and educated people, and of knowledge and tech jobs, back to the urban center. – CityLab

“Before you start loading up your fall culture calendar, take a moment this Labor Day Weekend to reflect on those people who make sure that the city’s cultural events … go off without a hitch. In a culture center like New York, that means there are thousands of people to thank; here, we introduce you to several of them. These are edited excerpts from conversations.” – The New York Times

Max Anderson: “If their portfolios continue to be awash with stocks in petroleum companies, big pharma, and arms merchants, they will remain open to charges of hypocrisy. But if they change course to ensure that their use and investment of funds are guided by an ethical compass, they may weather the storm.” – Apollo