“This is a new kind of cultural amenity, a new kind of institution—a hybrid gallery, media archive and library, and community center. It is an institution of and for the South Side—a repository for African American culture and history, a laboratory for the next generation of black artists and culture-interested people; a platform to showcase future leaders—be they painters, educators, scholars, or curators.”
Category: issues
The Case For Food As An Art (Like Music Or Painting)
“There is a growing global movement to establish a culinary canon and to restore the actual local ingredients that composed it. Why shouldn’t there be a canon of taste, like other canons of our civilisation, those of literature, art, music, architecture, religion and science? We have a global palate now, and with that, a new willingness to cross-pollinate and revivify regional foodways – and even ways of staging food at the table.”
Cultural Appropriation Is Wrong? Then How Does Art Evolve?
“Throughout human history, different groups coming together, for whatever reason – even in war – and catching a glimpse of the other, have ended up influencing each other. Mostly it’s for the better; sometimes it’s for the worse. If we did not eye each other up, listening in and looking at what the other is doing, there would be no substantive change in art, or in society for that matter. It’s one of the ways that culture progresses.”
The Hot Degree In Silicon Valley? Liberal Arts?
“Throughout the major U.S. tech hubs, whether Silicon Valley or Seattle, Boston or Austin, Tex., software companies are discovering that liberal arts thinking makes them stronger. Engineers may still command the biggest salaries, but at disruptive juggernauts such as Facebook and Uber, the war for talent has moved to nontechnical jobs, particularly sales and marketing.”
What We Do When Our Icons Tumble Or Crumble: A Field Guide
“For as long as humans have lived with symbols we have created strategies for effacing or revaluing them. Destruction is the most dramatic. But statues can also be reinstalled in less symbolically fraught places … Forgetting is a powerful force, as well … Iconoclasm can be accidental or purposeful, an act of liberation or oppression, and there’s never any guarantee that it will work.”
Born To Riot: Why Sports Fans Love To Brawl, Smash And Set Things On Fire (And Not Just In Philadelphia)
Steve Almond talks to author Justine Gubar (Fanaticus: Mischief and Madness in the Modern Sports Fan), whose thesis is that “just about anyone can turn into a rioter.” (Even Vancouverites.)
When Japanese Manga Started To Deal With Hiroshima And Nagasaki
“The children in the story, drawn in the typical doe-eyed style of Japanese comics, are suddenly blinded by broken glass, burned alive and maddened by pain and grief.”
Why Is The Hirshhorn Director Holding A Gala In NY Instead Of DC?
“The Nov. 9 gala will include 400 invited guests and honor 40 living artists whom the museum considers essential to its identity. But despite Chiu’s statement in the Times story announcing the event — that she intends no snub to the Washington arts crowd — it is a snub, and a distressing indication that she doesn’t understand the purpose, the history or the identity of the museum she now leads.”
Ready To Declare War On Hollywood (Or At Least Its Sexism)
Rose McGowan: “I feel really bad for that kid that I was who was discovered on a street corner at age 17 and a half. I got battered around, and it was a very treacherous place with no protection. I feel really bad for her, but what I’m trying to do is make it better for the next girl. We need the men to help too. We can do this.”
Ukraine Blacklists Artists, Including Gerard Depardieu, Who Support Pro-Russian Rebels
“Ukraine said they were a ‘threat to national security’ for supporting Russia’s annexation of Crimea and pro-Russian separatists in the east.” They may not appear on Ukranian TV, radio or movie screens for five years.