Category: issues

David Copelin: “The belief prevalent in some quarters that, given my background, I can’t write authentically about a character from another background, is a plain old attempt at censorship. … There is such a thing as artistic empathy. Similarly, consider the commonplace ‘It’s our story and you have no right to write it.’ I certainly have no right to write it instead of you, but I’m not asking for that and never would.”

“The teachers are still receiving salaries, but funds for instruments and equipment are drying up, leading to the cancellation of performances and raising concerns that the school – which has always recruited based on talent alone – may one day only serve the wealthy or close altogether.”

Visitor numbers at Tate Modern fell by more than 1 million in 2015 to 4.7 million – the lowest since 2005. The steep decline represents a 19% fall compared with the previous year. It reverses attendance figures for 2014, when Tate Modern’s visitor numbers grew by 1 million to reach a record-breaking 5.8 million, due in part to the success of the exhibition ‘Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs’.

“Never apologise for art. Art entertains and delights. It also shocks us into awareness. It shows us aspects of life we may prefer to turn away from. If you are seriously sensitive, enquire ahead.”

“Russia’s deputy culture minister Grigory Pirumov has been detained on embezzlement charges, Russian state media reported on 15 March. Earlier in the day, the Federal Security Service (FSB) announced that several high-ranking culture ministry officials and businessmen were under investigation for allegedly ’embezzling state funds allocated for restoration work on cultural heritage sites’.”

“In an hour’s conversation, she” – Rachel Moore, a retired ABT corps member – “tirelessly emphasized that the business of the Music Center was art. Budgets were barely mentioned, and when they were it was with a skilled performer’s roll of her eyes and an engaging laugh. Instead, Moore avidly presented her broad artistic vision for a performing arts center that desperately needs one.”

“There are no science critics… Science is not founded on a compact between maker and receiver. The art critic, however, formalizes and deliberately exemplifies the role of the spectator who realizes the artist’s work—not by leaving it just as it is, but by adding something to it, making a personal contribution.”

“On Wednesday, Luminato CEO Anthony Sargent and festival co-founder/chair Tony Gagliano announced they had hired Josephine Ridge, former creative director of the Melbourne Festival, to helm the Toronto showcase, starting with the 2017 edition.”

“We trivialise art. We venerate nonsense. We can’t see past our own bullshit. Enough of that! It’s the job of art to free our minds, and the task of criticism to figure out what to do with that freedom.”