“Slender Man is scary not because of what you know about him but because of what you don’t know. … The character is a blank canvas for our fears but also for online storytelling. Now the namesake of a new horror film, Slender Man started to take shape in an online forum nearly a decade ago, at a time when daily life was shifting to social media and the border between the online world and the real one was starting to blur. Here’s a look at Slender Man’s evolution.”
Category: issues
Chile’s New Culture Minister Dissed Country’s Human Rights Museum, And Now He’s No Longer Culture Minister
“Mauricio Rojas, a Chilean-Swedish political economist and member of [president Sebastián] Piñera’s center-right coalition, questioned the validity of the Museum of History and Human Rights, which opened in 2010 and documents abuses during the 1973-1990 military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.”
How Tate Gallery Revitalized Liverpool
“Coming from the Left, my idea of economic regeneration was to do with factories and shipyards – the idea that art could be an economic driver didn’t figure for me. But, looking back, that was out of date. I would never have guessed that tourism, looking at things and shopping could have become economic drivers, but they have. In some parts of Liverpool, you are more likely to hear Spanish than Scouse.”
How Should Arts Orgs Present Work Whose Creators Are Now Seen As Morally Reprehensible? Here’s A Case Study
Journalist Cynthia Durcanin at how the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston have handled this year’s Casanova exhibition, whose curators weren’t exactly expecting the #MeToo movement when they started planning the show in 2014.
Star Actor Asks His Twitter Followers If It’s Okay To Play An Irredeemable Racist
Vincent D’Onofrio posed the question over the weekend and a 3,800+-tweet thread arose, including a number of responses from fellow actors and further contributions from D’Onofrio himself. As Patricia Hernandez reports, “opinions were all over the place.”
The Art Institute Of Chicago Is A Fundraising Powerhouse – How Do The Folks There Do It?
“Interviews with six of the museum’s 40-person development team reveal that it’s a mix of art, science and alchemy.”
The First-Ever Museum Of European History (Of Course It’s Contentious)
“It begins with the Greek myth of Europa and the bull carved in stone and it ends with the Brexit promise of Vote Leave on an official campaign T-shirt. Both items find their place in the House of European History, an EU-funded museum [in Brussels] that aims to tell the story of a continent. … But those seeking details on the French Revolution, or the life and times of Winston Churchill, will be disappointed. ‘The harshest criticisms comes from those who expected to see their national heroes,’ says [the director].”
Study: Arts Organizations Have Opportunities To Engage Outside Urban Centers
The authors say that “there is cultural activity taking place in non-city centre areas that are perceived to be barren, undesirable places to live and not common destinations to engage in cultural activity.” They believe the research demonstrates that “this activity has an audience that is interested and willing to engage, and that the venues not only generate audiences within their local communities but also contribute to the movement of audiences across and into the city.”
Study: Young People Don’t Participate In Arts Because Of Cost, Lack Of Confidence
A survey by ART31, a network of arts groups for young people facilitated by the University of Kent, found anxiety to be the biggest barrier of all among young people aged 10 and 25. Its report says: “It seems likely that this is related to joining a new group or attending a new venue, but it may also be about fear of failure.”
The British Home Office Keeps Refusing Visas To Writers And Artists, Causing Big Problems For Festivals
The UK publisher of a Palestinian journalist whose visa was denied and denied before finally – too late for her to get to the festival, of course – being OK’d at the last minute: “It feels like we’re all sleepwalking into a new age of nativism. … We’re not just talking about classic, difficult-to-prove institutional racism. We’re talking about quiet, effective cultural censorship. The Home Office is saying, in effect: British readers shouldn’t be hearing from other perspectives at our book festivals; their voices are of less worth; British voices first.”