Category: issues

The bad news: More than 9,000 cultural figures were barred from any government support and sometimes harassed.
The good news: Three of President Park Geun-hye’s aides have been arrested over the blacklist.

“Manchester’s proposed £110m arts centre, the Factory, has moved a step closer to being built after city councillors gave planning permission for the Rem Koolhaas-designed building.” The project is part of a larger plan to make Manchester and northern England “a genuine cultural counterbalance to London.”

“Children in early childhood may be particularly at risk for the negative effects of media violence exposure when the superhero medium is emphasized,” concludes a research team led by psychologist Sarah Coyne of Brigham Young University. “It appears to be difficult for young children to disentangle aggression and pro-social behavior when they are combined, as is common in the superhero genre.”

“Trumpism – a blanket term I’ll use in this piece to reference the election of the former Apprentice host, the struggle to come to grips with [the] election, and the ever-expanding list of concerns raised by his impending presidency – is such an overwhelming phenomenon that it’s … hard to ignore in a way that’s so massive, it needs to be broken down into categories to be properly understood.” So Jen Chaney does.

The president of a historically black college whose marching band will be there says, “We feel the inauguration of a new president is not a political event but a civil ceremony celebrating the transfer of power.” Alyssa Rosenberg takes apart the premises behind that position.

Nicholas Shaw of Harrods Estates said it was “the most expensive box we have ever offered for sale”. The box is on the western side of the auditorium and has approximately 849 years remaining on its lease.

The term first appeared in the mid-16th century, and it acquired its current meaning (a young girl interested in what are seen as “boyish” pursuits) by the 1590s. Elizabeth King follows the (stereo-) type through the age of slavery and emancipation and the Victorian era to late 20th-century feminism – and she considers whether the tomboy figure has outlived its usefulness.

“The creative industries are and will be at the heart of this government’s work on industrial strategy. It’s one of the major growth areas in the country and I want to assure you that I, Greg, the prime minister and others understand just how important our industries are to the UK economy.”  She emphasised the 1.9 million jobs in the creative sectors and the £87.4 billion the industries generate.

Mark Harris, responding to Meryl at the Golden Globes: “I sympathize with anyone in showbiz currently trying to figure out whether the job is to make art for Trump’s America, or about Trump’s America, or about an America that Trump fails to see or to appreciate, or about an America that is not defined by the word ‘Trump’s’ or any other possessory modifier. In the first month of the Trump years, ‘Where do we go from here?’ feels like the right question for artists to ask.”

They’ve been called the world’s largest nation without a state: roughly 30 million or more souls in the mountains where modern-day Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran meet. And of course there’s not yet any official museum to document the Kurds’ long history. Architect Daniel Libeskind and journalist Gwynne Roberts are working with the regional government of Iraqi Kurdistan to develop just such an institution – an even more challenging task than you’d think. (audio)