“Just days ago, Malaysian cartoonist Zulkifli Anwar Ulhaque, better known as Zunar, was arrested over a tweet he posted criticizing Malaysia’s judiciary. A cartoon he posted on his Twitter account showed Prime Minister Najib Razak as the judge in a high-profile case involving an opposition leader.”
Category: issues
In A Comedy Central World, Saturday Night Live Has Been Mostly Meh With Political Satire
“It’s fair to say that ‘SNL’ producer Lorne Michaels’ approach to politics was nurtured by the Ford-Albert spirit of non-confrontation, and that it now looks about as outdated as they do.” Except for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, of course.
Museums Ban Selfie Sticks
“One by one, museums across the United States have been imposing bans on using selfie sticks for photographs inside galleries (adding them to existing rules on umbrellas, backpacks, tripods and monopods), yet another example of how controlling overcrowding has become part of the museum mission.”
An Ugly (And Dangerous?) New Turn In Arts And Politics
“Protesters shouting down concertgoers; musicians silenced by hecklers; agitators taking the stages of our performances. All this represents a new turn in the relationship between arts and politics. There’s even the whiff of a new blacklist.”
“Outreach And Access” Will Be Conditions For Funding UK Arts Orgs If Labour Wins May Election
Harriet Harman, Labour’s shadow culture minister: “The money that goes into an arts organisation is taxpayers’ money. Outreach and access are not options, they must be part and parcel. … Taxpayers will not be happy to finance something if they think it’s not anything to do with them, especially in hard times.”
Copyright And Copywrong: A New Fair Use Guide Helps You Find The Line Between Them
“Hoping to remedy pervasive and often crippling uncertainty among artists and art professionals over how and when to invoke fair use when dealing with copyrighted materials, the College Art Association (CAA) has released a Code of Best Practices in Fair Use … [which] offers very clear and concise guidelines for artists, scholars, instructors, curators, and editors whose work may involve using others’ artworks.”
The Art Of Cowboys – Alive And Kicking
“Ranchers, open-range cattle, and working cowboys are seen as creatures of a hazy, bygone era straddling the fence between history and fantasy, swallowed up long ago by the maw of industrial agriculture. Consequently, the art associated with them is often reckoned to be naive, little more than kitsch.”
How To Advocate For Your Art Form? (It’s Not Sexy, But It Works)
“As with any political issue, your inner Che Guevara might be telling you to organize a protest or to occupy a square on your campus. While that could be a good way to draw attention to an issue, it’s clearly not the best way to get lasting results.”
Jonathan Katz Talks About The State Of State Arts Agencies
“I know that the arts are a symbol system (we can call it sensory imagery) of equal importance to literacy and numeracy. I know that if you don’t include and resource arts education as you do literacy and numeracy that a large portion of the student population will learn much less of all subject matter, and all students will not learn to their potential. But I don’t know what research substantiates this claim.”
Why Reselling Tickets At An Inflated Value Hurts Us All
“I am a Bollinger Bolshevik, apparently, because I believe I should have a final say in what my tickets cost, in order to manage audience expectation of the work itself, to control perceptions of my own apparent avarice and to make sure that money that is spent on me by punters reflects the cost savings I and the venue have cut corners to make, and the public subsidies the venue may have received, all of which are designed to make entry to the show viable, so that all sorts of people can come along and think I am shit together.”