Category: issues

Funding Data Reveals Problematic Diversity Funding At Arts Council England

“Diversity data is not considered when applications are checked for eligibility, so we do not think unconscious bias is playing a role. However, as an organisation we recognise the importance of tackling unconscious bias – this is particularly important to consider when eligible applications are being reviewed by panels – and have rolled out training on this for all staff.” – Arts Professional

As Plantation Museums Turn Their Focus To Enslaved People, Certain Tourists Are Not Happy

“‘It was just not what we expected.’ ‘I was depressed by the time I left.’ ‘… the tour was more of a scolding of the old South.’ ‘The brief mentions of the former owners were defamatory.’ ‘Would not recommend.’ These are a few of the apparently negative reviews posted online about guided tours of Southern plantations.” – The Washington Post

You Think Venice And Barcelona Have Too Many Tourists? Pity This Poor Austrian Village

Hallstatt, a pretty lakeside hamlet of 800 people, got 19,344 tour buses last year (that’s an average of 53 a day, year-round) and more than a million visitors. Residents have encountered strangers in their bathrooms and camera drones by their bedroom windows. The flood began after Chinese developers, unbeknownst to Hallstatters, built a life-size replica of the village in Guangdong and Asian tourists came flocking to see the real thing. – The Washington Post

Is Venice Really Banning Cruise Ships From The Lagoon? Not Exactly, No

Despite many an international headline to the contrary (not to mention the wishes of some local campaigners and residents), no ban has yet been adopted into law or even government policy. There’s a proposal from Italy’s transport minister to begin, as of September, diverting the largest ships away from Venice’s historic center to the other side of the lagoon. Clare Speak explains what is and is not happening. – The Local (Italy)

It Will Soon Be Easier For Artists To Enter The UK To Work

Rule changes mean that from autumn, employers wanting to recruit non-European artists will no longer have to advertise the role to citizens of the European Economic Area first, and artists will no longer be subject to a salary threshold of £30,000. “We accept there is a national shortage,” the MAC wrote in a wholesale review of the labour market in May. – Arts Professional

How Can Arts Organizations Trying To Lead On Equity Issues Oppose Paying Overtime For Their Own Workers?

That’s what most of Seattle’s major arts organizations are doing, writing to protest Washington State proposals that would dramatically increase the number of workers eligible for overtime pay. “It’s illuminating that the argument Seattle’s arts organizations are making isn’t about whether paying overtime is fair, but whether it’s affordable.” – Post Alley Seattle

Tourists Are No Longer Allowed To Sit On Rome’s Spanish Steps

If they do, they can get €400 tickets. And if they try to wade in the Trevi Fountain the way Anita Ekberg did in La Dolce Vita? €450. Those guys in centurion costumes who pose with tourists at the Colosseum are now forbidden, and there are plenty of other new rules “intended to ‘guarantee decorum, security and legality’ by prohibiting actions that are ‘not compatible with the historic and artistic decorum'” of the historic center of the Eternal City. – The New York Times