As Ethical Controversies Arise Around Their Donors And Collections, Can Museums Correct Themselves? Can They Afford (Not) To?

“In the space of barely a year, the very foundations of museums — the money that sustains them, the art that fills them, the decision makers that run them — have been called into question. And there’s no end to questioning in sight.” Holland Carter considers the issues. – The New York Times

One Of World’s Largest Corporate Art Collections To Be Sold Off To Fund Social Projects

“The Italian bank UniCredit has announced plans to sell off its art collection — one of the largest corporate holdings in the world — to help finance social initiatives across Europe. … The collection of 60,000 works includes those by Gustav Klimt, Giorgio de Chirico, Fernand Léger and Gerhard Richter.” – The Art Newspaper

Blunt Instrument: The Complexity Of Using Quotas To Drive Equity

“In the future, 50/50 ideologies fade to dust because they are too narrow, too binary and mistake equality for equity or justice. To paraphrase political activist Angela Davis, equality is not to be understood as achieving status or parity with white, able-bodied, cis men because that status is contingent on the oppression of other peoples. In the future, everyone has transformed the meaning of patriarchy so that it no longer operates by domination. This has been done without loss of men or manhood.” – Arts Professional

How Can We Prepare Arts Students From *All* Backgrounds For The Arts Workforce?

“Many programs focus exclusively on craft and artistry, but rarely — if ever — address the nitty-gritty topics such as finding work, money management, or entrepreneurship, although these are all critical to finding success in many areas of the arts.” Camille Schenkkan writes about how she’s worked on these issues as Next Generation Initiatives Director at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles. – Americans for the Arts

Cancel Culture, Miss Saigon, And Butterfly

Cancel culture is not the same as the rising desire to engage with art’s social implications. But both phenomena are indications of a country that is fundamentally shifting the way it engages with entertainment. As such, the titles in Houston have been criticized for inaccurate and stereotypical portrayals of Asians. Since its premiere in 2017, theater critics have taken issue with the representation of women and Vietnamese people in “Miss Saigon.” And the local production of “Madama Butterfly” was itself a piece of self-commentary. – Houston Chronicle

The Former Heart Of The Confederacy Gets A New Civil War Museum That Refocuses The Lens

It’s got the collection of the former Museum of the Confederacy, so can it ever truly tell all of the stories suppressed and neglected over the years? Well, that’s the plan: “It’s unprecedented in its attempt to tell the entire story of the war, not just from the Northern and Southern [white men’s] perspectives but through the eyes of women, immigrants, Native Americans and enslaved African Americans.”- NPR