From Noam Chomsky on the responsibility of intellectuals after 9/11, to our forum on why empathy can be a bad thing, the following were all ambitious efforts and help chart a decade of thinking. – Boston Review
Tag: 12.26.19
Fifty Years Of The Community Museum Movement
“How should museums relate to their surroundings? What are the most meaningful ways for them to connect and work with their communities? … These questions date to the beginning of the community museum movement in the 1960s and remain foundational to the field.” Anna Diamond reports from a Smithsonian symposium on the subject. – Smithsonian Magazine
After Six Years, Broadcasters Of Syrian Exile Radio Station Marooned In Istanbul
Since 2013, Radio Alwan, which started as community radio in a Syria just breaking out in civil war, broadcast politically neutral news and other programming to Aleppo and Idlib on FM as well as online. The U.S. funding that supported the station has been withdrawn by the Trump administration, Radio Alwan is now off the air, and its staffers are stuck in a country that seems not to want them. – BBC
The Biggest Art World Controversies Of 2019
“This past year saw no shortage of controversies in both the art world and the real world. And perhaps more than ever before, the distance between those two worlds seemed to collapse, as artists and activists began demanding with unprecedented strength that patrons — both board members and corporate sponsors — answer for their actions outside the confines of the museum. We zeroed in on 11 hot-button issues that ignited heated debate in the art world this year, and the particular questions they provoked.” – artnet
Christianist Extremists In Brazil Firebomb Satirical Troupe That Made Holiday Special With Gay Jesus
A previously unknown groups calling itself the “Popular Nationalist Insurgency Command of the Large Brazilian Integralist Family” has claimed credit for a Christmas Eve incident in which Molotov cocktails were thrown at the Rio de Janeiro offices of Porta dos Fundos, the comedy group that created The First Temptation of Christ, which depicts a stoner Mary and put-upon Joseph throwing a 30th-birthday party for Jesus as he returns from his 40 days in the desert with a “close friend” named Orlando. – BBC
Opera Star Peter Schreier, 84
He performed at the Berlin State Opera in his native East Germany and at Milan’s La Scala, as well as a 25-year run at the famed Salzburg festival. One of his specialties was performing and recording the songs of composers Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann. – Washington Post (AP)
Burning Man Sues US Government Over Sharply Rising Fees
In 2012, Burning Man organizers reimbursed the BLM nearly $1.4 million in expenses, a 60 per cent year-over-year increase, though the event population increased by only 4 per cent that year, according to the lawsuit. The following year, the same bill was $2.9 million, according to the lawsuit. In three years, the cost recovery charges increased by 291 per cent, and the Burning Man event population increased by 39 per cent, Black Rock City attorneys said. CBC (AP)
Ten Books That Shaped And Changed The 2010s
From “The Big Short” to Naomi Klein to “Normal People,” a list of books that made an impact. – The Guardian
What’s Funny Changes. And So Does Comedy
Humor is about connection—shared references, shared emotions, shared perspectives. The best comedians both surprise and unite the audience. They create a moment. But moments keep coming. Over time, attitudes change, and humor has to change with them. When older comedians complain that they can’t perform at colleges anymore because the audiences are too “politically correct,” they are missing the point. – The New Yorker
The Year in CultureGrrl, 2019 Edition: Museums Become Easy Targets in Difficult Times
This was the year of our national discontent and contentiousness, as manifested in the artworld by the rallying cry, “Decolonize Museums!” – Lee Rosenbaum