Category: issues

“[Security] guards were filmed punching and knocking down the women after preventing them from entering the city’s 798 art zone, a complex of former military factories now known for its galleries and cafes. … An employee of the 798 district’s property management department told the [Global Times] newspaper guards had ‘a right to stop illegal activity. Wearing a rainbow badge is illegal to me, and they, the homosexuals, have distorted sexual orientation. It is terrifying.'” (includes video)

The Art Newspaper has looked back over the past two years, when just over 100 heritage projects with grant applications of over £2m were considered annually by the board. In 2016, 41% of projects got their grants, but last year it was much more difficult to win an award, and only 30% were approved. In December, the last round for which the results are public, the success rate plunged to 17%, with only three of the 18 projects receiving approval.

“The two great advantages of a royal association are publicity and trust. ‘For smaller organisations, the biggest advantage is publicity because it can be very difficult to draw attention to yourself. For larger organisations, the publicity benefit might not be so obvious unless you’re staging a big event, but trust is a big issue at the moment, and if you have a royal patron there is an assumption that there’s a royal stamp of approval and that you will have been thoroughly vetted.”

In a time of heightened anxiety about school shootings, Logic Amen’s after-class rapping, posted on the website Bandcamp.com, has raised questions about the limits of free speech and artistic expression for a public figure whose job is guiding young people – at least among the hundreds of commenters weighing in on social media.

On the date of its fifth anniversary, the company employs 140 people from its San Francisco offices, hosting 100,000 creators who are supported by two million patrons. Since its foundation, it has paid out more than $350m, and this year alone it’s on course to pay out “well over $300m”, according to a spokesperson, twice what it distributed in 2017.

Here’s the thing: “Studies have long shown that gun violence in PG-13 movies has been rising, sometimes exceeding what is shown in popular R-rated films. Now there is research suggesting that some parents think 13 is too young to see intense shooting, even when it appears justified.”

At Cannes, she said, “If actors ask such inflated fees it will leave nothing for actresses. If the movie’s budget is $10m, the (male) actor has to understand that if he is making $9.7m, it is going to be hard for equality.”

After the 82 women, including Jane Fonda, Selma Hayek, Ava DuVernay, Cate Blanchett, and Agnes Varda, climbed the steps on the red carpet, Blanchett and Varda read a statement. “The group said that the number of women present was chosen to match the total number of films made by female film-makers that have appeared in competition at the festival in its 71-year history. In that time 1,645 films directed by men have been selected in competition.”

By invitation only, selected organizations are being offered unrestricted support — roughly 10 percent of their annual operating budgets — in addition to arts-management training. That includes a consulting mentor for each organization and a series of seminars for all grantees in a given city on topics such as fund-raising, strategic planning, marketing and board development.

Here is the etymology the Oxford English Dictionary provides for the word genius, imported to English straight from the Latin: “male spirit of a family, existing in the head of the family and subsequently in the divine or spiritual part of each individual, personification of a person’s natural appetites, spirit or personality of an emperor regarded as an object of worship, spirit of a place, spirit of a corporation, (in literature) talent, inspiration, person endowed with talent, also demon or spiritual being in general.” There’s more, but there’s already so much: genius, by definition a male condition. Genius, a male condition that inflects its maleness on the individual soul. Genius, an object of worship. Genius, perhaps slightly demonic.