Category: issues

The list of the cities with the highest share of college grads overlaps considerably with the list of leading metros, with eight places showing up on both. – CityLab

What’s going on in Britain? The claim: This is to provide more full-time jobs! But, like National Gallery educators who just experienced something similar and won their court case, the freelancers are fighting back. One Member of Parliament about the NG case, which cost the institution at least £64,000: “This is money … which could have been used to provide full rights and a decent wage for the gallery’s workers which has instead been wasted defending illegal and indefensible employment practices.” – The Observer (UK)

New York’s major arts organizations, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Lincoln Center, are now intertwined with the Koch name for decades. Not that there wasn’t dissent – from the outside. On the inside: “He also sat on several cultural boards, hobnobbing there and at galas, with people of varying political persuasions. The longstanding decorum of such gatherings suggested that, like sedate family Thanksgiving dinners, politics was not generally a polite topic for conversation.” – The New York Times

This is how the recently revealed program worked in Ireland: “Fixed-term workers in Cork were hired to listen to and ‘grade’ Siri recordings. …Staff then transcribed and ‘graded’ these recordings based on a number of different factors.” Now those contractors – around 300 people – have been laid off by Apple. – The Irish Examiner

Arti Prashar: “We operate in a climate where we have been asked to grow and grow, following a business model that just doesn’t work for the arts – of seeking bigger turnover and bigger and wider audiences. We need a mixed economy – always have, always will. I hear of many venues and organisations running huge deficits – how are they going to plug those holes?” – Arts Professional

Fewer than one-third of businesses do. “Most individuals surveyed by the funder wanted more cultural opportunities where they live (55%), but businesses were less enthusiastic: they prioritised other spending, felt local arts groups were “not business minded enough”, and didn’t see how investing in arts and culture would benefit them.” – Arts Professional

The letter states that recent job losses for arts critics at the Guardian and the Evening Standard highlight this issue. It goes on to quote figures from the List magazine that reveal the number of reviews in eight major national and arts titles dropped from 5,134 in 2012 to 3,169 in 2017. – The Stage