The question of just how to execute creative placemaking without inviting gentrification sits at the forefront of creative placemaking circles. Jamie Hand, a researcher for ArtPlace America, says the friction between placemaking’s benefits and the onrush of gentrifying forces has happened frequently enough to spark vigorous discussion and dialogue on the efforts to walk a tightrope between uplift and displacement of the community. – NextCity
Category: issues
Why More Than A Third Of The Board At Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre Quit
A letter from eight of the 13 departing board members noted that two leading candidates for CEO of the theater withdrew after meeting with the president of Roosevelt University (which owns the theatre) and said that, “As a result, we lack confidence about the future outlook for the Theatre, are unable to advance the Theatre’s mission, and have been stymied in our attempts to work with the University’s leadership to find a solution.” – Crain’s Chicago Business
Once Again, An Errant Tweet Is The Last Straw: Director Of Berlin Jewish Museum Resigns
“Pressure had been mounting against the director, Peter Schäfer, over what critics said was an inappropriately political stance for the head of a cultural institution tasked with explaining Jewish traditions, history and art. … But it was a post by the museum’s Twitter account last week that sparked the backlash that Mr. Schäfer could no longer withstand.” – The New York Times
Edinburgh International Festival Faces Big Cuts
The proposal would mean the EIF has taken a 19.4% cut in its funding since 2015/16. EIF director Fergus Linehan questioned the lack of a strategic plan for the festival, which took £3.8 million in ticket sales in 2018. Linehan told The Stage: “There has been 10 years of decline and now this is accelerated decline. So what is the plan?” – The Stage
Too Many People Want To Go To Burning Man
Burning Man organizers had proposed raising the current 80,000 limit as high as 100,000 in coming years. But the Bureau of Land Management said in releasing the final environmental impact statement on Friday its preferred alternative for the proposed 10-year renewal of Burning Man’s special recreation would stick with the cap that’s been in place since 2017. – Washington Post
Climate Activists Protest BP Funding At London Outdoor Screening Of Royal Ballet
Campaigners from Extinction Rebellion descended on the big-screen event, which live-streamed a Royal Ballet performance of Romeo and Juliet for free on June 11. BP has sponsored the free screenings for more than a decade and has a 30-year relationship with the Opera House, which has come under fire from climate change campaigners for accepting money from the oil and gas giant because of its “devastating impact on the natural world”. – The Stage
Funders Are Asking For More Data From Arts Organizations. This Is A Trap
“Constantly demanding data, while changing formats, metrics, methodology and requirements every few years, creates the illusion of order and control, while actually making meaningful insight more difficult. The situation is convenient for funders, as it reinforces their power while making it harder to hold their own performance to account. It also provides useful work for consultants and researchers. For arts organisations themselves, however, the advantages are less obvious.” – Arts Professional
A New Funding Model For Opera, Ballet In Europe That Aims For Younger Audiences
“Since 2014, Fedora has awarded €1 million to help launch 10 new opera and ballet projects, co-produced by 64 cultural institutions across Europe. To do this, they’ve tested new models of raising money and new ways of awarding it to operas and ballets.” – Forbes
Redefining London Culturally
“More of us than ever consider ourselves culturally engaged, and we are now expanding the definition of culture “possibly to the point of extinction”. ‘Big c’ and ‘small c’ culture now intermix with a day-to-day theatricality that we all welcome, and the stage for this activity is places, from small community-owned plots to large brownfield regeneration sites, where these elements can be brought together in ways that benefit a range of communities and tell great stories.” – Arts Professional
Why Medieval History(!) Has Become A Modern Battleground
Last week The New York Times reported in detail on YouTube’s recommendation algorithm, which is “capable of drawing users deeper into the platform by figuring out ‘adjacent relationships’ between videos that a human would never identify.” The Crusades are a plum example of a topic that turns into a thread, leading the viewer through a labyrinth towards potential radicalization. You can search “Knights Templar” on YouTube and reach conspiracy theories (“Ten Secret Societies Ruling The World”) within three intuitive clicks. – The New Republic