Category: issues

The Writers Guild Is Deadlocked In An Argument With Agencies – And Now Some Want New Leadership

The upheaval hasn’t ended – it’s barely begun: “Shonda Rhimes, Ryan Murphy and Ava DuVernay are among more than 300 writers who have declared their support for dissidents in upcoming board elections, injecting a new level of drama into a conflict that has created widespread unease across the film and TV business.” – Los Angeles Times

For Those Who Listened, The Fall Of The Facebook-Dependent News Site Mic Sounded An Alarm

As founders bragged about round after round of funding, those doing the actual work of providing content were getting fed up – and exploited. Millennials who were watching took nervous note. “Like its cousins BuzzFeed, HuffPost and Vice, Mic at times relied on its young and diverse staff to churn out content, respond nimbly to every change in the Facebook algorithm and sometimes even mine their personal pain for clicks in the pursuit of blistering traffic growth.” – HuffPost

Same Old Blah – Why We Need To Reinvigorate Arts Criticism (Get Some New Voices!)

Can anyone argue that our largely white critical contingent in Boston is interested in generating hard hitting debate, controversy, and unconventional ideas? In the hands of these white critics and their editors, arts coverage is shrinking into terminal boredom — in the Globe, ARTery, and elsewhere — as critics embrace the role of diplomat/consumer guides, dispensers of ad-copy happy talk. Reviews that market to the lowest common denominator may sell tickets, and that reassures the powers-that-be. But so what? We need criticism to become critical again. – Arts Fuse

Drag Queens, Officially Approved By The Chinese Communist Party (But Only One Kind)

“Wang Zhi … says he can make a tidy 2m yuan ($290,000) a year from his cross-dressing routines. … He regularly appears on nationally televised variety shows. Officials often invite him to entertain people in poor areas.” And why does Xi Jinping’s increasingly conservative government tolerate this? Wang Zhi and his fellows do drag Beijing opera-style. – The Economist

Meet Boris Johnson’s New Culture Minister

A former education secretary, Nicky Morgan came under fire from the arts sector in 2015 when she claimed that young people choosing to study creative subjects at school could “hold them back for the rest of their lives”, and argued that the subjects that “keep people’s options open and unlock doors to all sorts of careers are the STEM [science, technology, engineering and maths] subjects.” – The Stage

Is Gentrification Really That Bad For Original Residents?

According to one just-released study, original residents gain more from gentrification than the traditional neighborhood narrative lets on. And the harms of gentrification, while hard to fully gauge, may not be so severe for original residents, especially for those who stay but even for those who choose to leave. What if the conventional wisdom about gentrification is kind of wrong? – CityLab

Can Protesting The Donors And Board Members Of Museums Really Right The World’s Wrongs?

Sebastian Smee: “Let’s be clear: the idea of moral purity in the arts is a fantasy. We are not going to return to innocence by hanging out with like-minded people at the Whitney as we contemplate a biennial where some of the works are poignantly missing. … I hope the drama at the Whitney has positive outcomes. But it is not a revolution. It is a spectacle.” – The Washington Post

If Chicago Wants A Big Casino, It Needs To Learn From Vegas: Arts And Entertainment Make The Difference

Chris Jones: “At your typical large Las Vegas casino, gambling only accounts for 34 percent of revenue. The rest of the money comes from hotel rooms, fancy restaurants, cocktail bars and, of course, more live entertainment than any other city in the world. This month on the Strip where Lady Gaga roams, you can see Gwen Stefani, Jay Leno, Janet Jackson, Cedric the Entertainer and, of course, a suite of fabulous market-segmented shows created by the Cirque du Soleil, which is constantly renewing its offerings and paying attention to the needs of all demographics.” – Chicago Tribune