Category: issues

“If the base salary in our field is $0, then it’s no wonder that the next step up is not much higher. We know what working for free does to the chances of truly diversifying or addressing equity within any intersection of art and museum labor.” – Hyperallergic

That makes the state the only one in the US not to have an arts agency. Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican who took office in December, used a line-item budget veto to eliminate the council’s funding of $2.8 million. Alaska lawmakers fell short last week in attempts to override the vetoes. – Anchorage Press

“At its most comical, the Florida Man phenomenon encapsulates the wildness of both America and the Internet. At its most salacious, it’s a social-media update on the true-crime TV of America’s Dumbest Criminals and the gallows humor of tabloid headlines. At its most insensitive, Florida Man profits by punching down at the homeless, drug-addicted or mentally ill.” Reporter Logan Hill travels to a Florida prison to meet an actual subject of a Florida Man story — and he talks with the guy who started the Florida Man Twitter feed about the moral qualms he began to feel. – The Washington Post Magazine

Designed by the Dutch architectural firm Mecanoo, the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Kaohsiung is a city of nearly 3 million at the southern end of Taiwan) opened last fall and includes a 434-seat recital hall, a 1,210-seat theatre, a 1,981-seat concert hall, a 2,236-seat opera house, an art gallery, and an outdoor amphitheatre incorporated into the roof. – Bachtrack

“You’re trying to do something new to you, and in some cases new to anyone. One of the sources of power for doing things like that is having really broad experiences.” That often requires trying, and failing, at a number of different activities. – Artsy

“Its reputation as a hub where artists and creative types can rent inexpensively and still afford to do as they please is eroding. Certain neighborhoods, such as Kreuzberg, … [which] was pressed up against the Wall and became home to immigrants with few other choices, have had the hex of coolness cast upon them.” – The New Yorker

The site draws up to 5,600 foreign visitors daily, more than double the 2,500 recommended by Unesco. The new airport could quadruple tourists, to 6 million from 1.5 million a year, which would mean a lethal burden of 22,000 visitors a day, or almost 10 times the limit set by Unesco. – The New York Times

Shafak wants the world to pay attention to what Erdogan has been doing since the failed 2016 coup: “Much has been said about the anti-liberal nature of authoritarian populism, but relatively little about two other features concomitant with its rise: anti-intellectualism and anti-feminism. Authoritarian populism likes to divide society into two camps: the pure people versus the corrupt elite. Writers, poets, journalists and scholars are often associated with the latter group. In the populist imagination, being elite has nothing to do with economic power or social status. It is about values.” – The Guardian (UK)

Oh boy. This is going to end well. “‘As an actor I should be allowed to play any person, or any tree, or any animal because that is my job and the requirements of my job,’ Johansson explained. ‘I feel like it’s a trend in my business and it needs to happen for various social reasons, yet there are times it does get uncomfortable when it affects the art because I feel art should be free of restrictions.'” – Vulture