Category: issues

“Museums in America and abroad, including institutions in Massachusetts, Ohio, Hawaii, Singapore and Australia, are shedding rare holdings because they came from Art of the Past, which closed in 2012. The next year, investigators seized two statues Mr. Kapoor had boldly put on display inside the Indian-owned Pierre Hotel in New York, trundling them through the lobby in front of aghast executives.”

“I’m writing this, somewhat shamefacedly, under a pseudonym, because I’ve seen many examples of the threatening emails and online trolling that would immediately target me … [and] I understand that anger … But artists will work for very low pay for as long as there are more people wanting to make art than there are audiences willing to pay them enough to live on. And we have to talk about it. So how do artists make a rational decision about whether to take on low-paid or unpaid work?”

“It’s hardly surprising that writers and artists should increasingly tackle the subject. But can the arts ever illuminate a condition that by its very nature resists all understanding?”

“The round of grants issued this week … gives boosts to ‘Local Impact’ projects that are aimed at helping small arts organizations work in poor and rural communities that lack cultural resources. Another category is Creative California Communities, in which nonprofit arts organizations use grant money to connect with neighborhoods in ways aimed at helping economic development or community cohesiveness. The third is an Artists in Schools program.”

“Instead of the regular four annual funding rounds, the Australia Council will only run two grant rounds in 2015-16, one in September 2015 and one in February 2016. These two funding rounds will distribute $12 million of grants.”

“Major arts companies will be expected to help dig smaller companies and artists out of the $105 million hole the federal Arts Minister George Brandis has left in the Australia Council budget – at least in [the state of] Victoria, says its Minister for Creative Industries, Martin Foley.”

“Simple in design, yet evocative of the utmost drama and intrigue, capes are sartorial shorthand for imminent action. To fasten one around your shoulders is to say to the world: ‘Some pretty major scenes are about to go down. And make no mistake: I am ready.’ It’s a message that comes across regardless of whether the wearer is a warrior, a superhero, or Liberace. But how did capes come to be imbued with excitement and peril?”

“Chancellor George Osborne announced that in order to make £20 million of government savings, unprotected departments – everything aside from health, schools, defence and foreign aid – needed to plan for two scenarios: a 25% cut or a 40% cut. Savings would have to be made over the course of the next five years.”

“Artists remain pretty firmly entrenched as contract workers – with some of the advantages, but most of the negatives associated with being in the Gig Economy. There are some areas in which artists have moved to being employees with the attendant benefits, but often little of the real security.”