“This protest is not simply about counting faces and looking for an accurate representation of the world, although that would be a start. It’s about whose experiences count. Whose stories get told? Whose emotions in the movie theatre are validated and amplified by awards, and whose are rejected or ignored? Creative awards like the Oscars aren’t based on merit. They never have been. Oscars are based on visibility and resonance.”
Tag: 01.21.16
Seattle Wants A Writer-In-Residence… For A Bridge
“The selected writer – who could be a poet, fiction or “creative non-fiction” author – will receive $10,000 (£7,000) to work in the space for three months, and is expected to “undertake an in-depth exploration of the bridge” and write a literary response to the experience, to coincide with the 100th birthday of the structure in 2017.”
Numbers: A Boom In Private Museums Worldwide
The report’s most starling statistic may be that 53% of the world’s private contemporary art museums were founded between 2001 and 2010. Another 18% have been founded since 2010, which lends further credence to the widespread perception that more and more wealthy collectors are opting to build their own museums rather than pledge their holdings to existing institutions
How The Museum Visitor Experience Has Been Transformed
“In plain terms, across the field, in museums, art institutions, performance forums, and even historical societies, the visitor’s experience is now being personalized. This means that not only is the visit marked by enhanced, interactive, and “dialogic” engagement, but also there is an institutional recognition of the visitor as an independent maker of meaning who uses the museum in a variety of ways to fulfill particular, individual needs and desires.”
Data: Getty Images Says These Trends Are Defining Visual Culture In 2016
“Creative In Focus 2016 sorts its emerging threads in visual culture into six categories, each with its own snappy, slightly cutesy title. I think of them as offering the outlines of the boxes our corporate image-overlords are sorting our tastes into.”
Charlotte Rampling: Oscar Diversity Protest Is Racist Against Whites?
“One can never really know, perhaps the black actors did not deserve to make the final list … Do we have to take from this that there should be lots of minorities everywhere?”
Michel Tournier, French Novelist Who Fused Myth and Philosophy, Dead at 91
“Mr. Tournier, a failed philosopher, came late to literature – his first novel, Friday, was published in 1967, when he was 43 – but got off to a running start. The Académie Française awarded its grand prize to that novel, his retelling of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe … Ogre (published in England as The Erl-King), the twisting story of a French prisoner of war who ends up procuring boys for an elite Hitler youth camp, won France’s top literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, in 1970.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 01.21.16
What Makes A Great Blog(ger)? Five Observations
As inconsistent and distracted a blogger as I am, I am hardly a great blogger. But as someone who runs a network of arts blogs, I do have some observations. Great bloggers don’t just … read more
AJBlog: Diacritical Published 2016-01-21
Wikipedia Brown and the Case of the Half-Baked Idea
Celebrate it or hate it as you will, Wikipedia has metamorphosed from its beginnings as a gangly cultural interloper into the de facto reference work of first resort. … read more
AJBlog: Quick Study Published 2016-01-21
Objects of Creative Attention
Here’s an obvious premise: As we grow from children to adults, we gain proficiency in engaging the world around us. We learn its conventions, assumptions, and physical laws, and we learn to occupy, navigate, and … read more
AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published 2016-01-21
Meier, Ingels, Seldorf, Cook: My Storify from Architects’ Panel on NYC’s Skyline
I would have hoped for more incisive questions from journalist/moderator C.J. Hughes for the inter-generational panel of major architects who shared tidbits last night in a conversation at the 92nd Street Y in New York. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-01-21
Historical Materialism 2016
It’s not complete, but I’ve received a list of things scheduled to run in the journal Historical Materialism in 2016 and it’s impressive. Here it is: … read more
AJBlog: Quick Study Published 2016-01-21
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Turning The Art Of Knot-Tying Into Theatre
“With naked torsos shining, artists Daniel Kok and Luke George slowly, carefully, bind each other in rope. They string themselves – and later audience members – from the ceiling, like colourful trussed chickens. … [Their piece] Bunny explores the ancient Japanese knot-tying technique of shibari, but also taps into bondage and rock climbing.”
Boston: Rich In Arts Institutions, Meager Foundation And Government Support
“Boston places near the top of 11 major cities across the United States in the number of nonprofit cultural organizations in the city and the revenue they earn. But the city’s wealth of arts organizations receive comparatively meager foundation and corporate support, are overburdened with facilities costs, and place dead last in per-capita government funding for the arts.”