Issues

Zola, the wedding planner site that was running the ads, was not OK with the channel’s response to the anti-gay freakout from a notoriously homophobic group. “‘All kisses, couples and marriages are equal celebrations of love and we will no longer be advertising on Hallmark,’ Mike Chi, Zola’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement.” (And #BoycottHallmark has been trending on Twitter for hours.) – The Hollywood Reporter

“Actors and directors led Monday evening’s rally in Budapest against a bill that they say threatens artistic freedom and extends the nationalist government’s reach into areas that should be politically independent. The city’s liberal opposition mayor Gergely Karácsony also addressed the crowd. … [The legislation will] establish a national cultural council to determine ‘the unified strategic direction of various segments of culture’.” – The Irish Times

“By the 1980s, Soviet political jokes had become so widely enjoyed that even the US president Ronald Reagan loved to collect and retell them. But, 50 years earlier, under Stalin’s paranoid and brutal reign, why would ordinary Soviet people share jokes ridiculing their leaders and the Soviet system if they ran the risk of the NKVD (state security) breaking down the door to their apartment and tearing them away from their families, perhaps never to return? … And yet, countless diaries, memoirs and even the state’s own archives reveal that people [did].” – Aeon

Many think there’s a separation of politics and art. But simply ignoring elections seems an abdication of responsibility. There are ways to think about how to address elections if you’re an artist. – Clyde Fitch Report

A new class action lawsuit, filed Friday in California Superior Court and announced in a press advisory Monday, argues that the Walt Disney Company, worth approximately $130 billion as of this year, failed to pay hundreds of those workers a living wage. The complaint was filed by five Disney employees on behalf of more than 400 hospitality workers. – The Daily Beast

“This stirring performance, titled ‘Un violador en tu camino‘ (“A Rapist in Your Path), was first brought to life by the feminist art collective called Lastesis at a protest in the port city of Valparaíso, Chile, late last month, as a way of drawing attention to violence against women. Since then, this viral action has materialized in Colombia, Mexico, France, India, the U.S. and Turkey (where an attempt to stage it on Sunday was broken up by police).” – Los Angeles Times

The business school at Oxford has students try to conduct a choir. Carnegie Mellon uses a book club and art installations. The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts offers courses to business types. And what lessons get learned in all this? – The Economist

Superman was “too chubby” to play James Bond, Kevin Hart (The Rock’s “non-ripped” co-star) starts at the gym at 5 every morning, and movie men are partnering, i.e. getting sweet but addicting brand money from, a variety of “fitness” products, companies, and routines. “It is a worrying state of affairs when the measure of an actor is how hard they work on their bodies rather than how good they are at, you know, acting.” (Uh, yes, the women in these movies probably have a thing or two to say about that as well.) – The Guardian (UK)

Grant said in one candidate’s video, “I, for the first time in my life, am getting active politically, because I think that the country is on the edge of a true abyss.” He’s campaigning strategically, to block Boris Johnson’s majority. “He described what he said would be ‘the catastrophe of a no-deal Brexit’ under Mr. Johnson.” – The New York Times

Peter Englund, the former permanent secretary for the Swedish Academy and a current member, said, ““To celebrate Peter Handke’s Nobel prize would be gross hypocrisy on my part” He is the only current member of the Academy with firsthand experience in Bosnia, according to a journalist, and Handke’s win has been met with horror by “politicians and writers lining up to condemn his denial of Serb atrocities during the war in the former Yugoslavia, as well as his presence at the funeral of war criminal Slobodan Miloševic.” – The Guardian (UK)

As many countries have continued to cut funding for the arts, Canada’s government has gone the other way and embraced culture and the idea of getting it seen around the world. Had the Liberal party lost in Canada’s October elections, a different attitude may have been taken by the country’s politicians. Instead a great deal of optimism has been generated through Canada Council for the Arts’ commitment to sending domestic work abroad. – The Stage

Big donors have grown and small/medium-size donors have gone away. Empirically, this does not seem to have hurt total giving much in the recent past. However, what happens in the long run? Will bigger and bigger donors continue to bail out philanthropy? Will the elimination of the tax deduction for most former tax itemizers continue to erode household giving? – NonProfit Quarterly

Of the more than 500 cultural professionals they surveyed, 78% said they were either “somewhat concerned” or “very concerned” about about philanthropic trends. A similar percentage said that the giving strategies for the next generation differed substantially from those of their predecessors. – The Art Newspaper

“The Arts, already an addendum to the Department of Communications and the Arts, will be merged along with the rest of the department into a new one with the unwieldy title of the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications.” What’s more, Prime Minister Scott Morrison did not consult department head Mike Mrdak — and only notified him the afternoon before the announcement. – Limelight (Australia)

Archaeologists using ground-penetrating radar found a big mound carved into a western Norwegian island — along with the remains of a “huge” ship as long as 55 feet, Paasche told The Washington Post, in a discovery that may tell new tales about how the ships evolved to become fearsome and agile vessels more than 1,000 years ago. – Washington Post

Phil Kennicott: “The artists’ appeal, and the jury’s willingness to grant it, says a lot about the kind of art these particular artists make, which is political, documentary, socially engaged and deeply intertwined with activism. This wasn’t just about refusing the idea that one of them take home the 25,000 pound first prize while the other three received the 5,000 pound finalist awards. Rather, it was about giving one social concern priority over the others.” – Washington Post

About 28% of the donors to the public TV stations who got thank you calls gave to the same charity within the next year. And 28% of the donors who didn’t get the calls did as well. Likewise, about 31% of the donors to the national nonprofit gave to that group again, whether or not someone called to thank them for their first donation. – The Conversation

Diep Tran: “When I was first hired at American Theatre, I thought arts journalism was two things: reviewing shows and interviewing celebrities. But as I’ve grown in my career, I realized that it has become something else for me: Journalism is an act of service. The theatre industry, like most industries, is notoriously tight-lipped in many sensitive areas: compensation (or the lack of it), race and power dynamics, and sexual harassment, to name just a few. Those in power would rather you, the reader and the viewer, look at the art and not look too closely at what’s going on behind the curtain.” – American Theatre

“Instead of filling The Sun’s pages almost exclusively with reports about crime and corruption in our city, thereby cementing its negative image locally and abroad, does The Sun not have a duty to also highlight and honor its amazing cultural life and support it every way possible, rather than just chide institutions for failing? – Baltimore Sun

Yes, the water’s up, but the population is also dropping fast. “In the central Castello District, master artisan Paolo Brandolisio — one of only four remaining makers of oars and oar posts for the city’s legendary gondolas — is trying to put his workshop back in order. Brandolisio is trying to salvage his waterlogged oak worktable.” Brandolisio says, “If no one’s left to make wooden boats, they’ll disappear and be replaced by plastic ones.” – NPR

“After the six-week intervention, we found the rhythm of salivary cortisol across the day to be improved. We also found the intervention improved some aspects of well-being. We think if both these physiological and psychological benefits could be sustained for long periods, it could help to improve quality of life.” – Hyperallergic

“The Conservative Party confirmed in its manifesto that it plans to move forward with the cultural Festival of Great Britain and Northern Ireland if it wins the UK general election on 12 December. … But arts professionals have raised concerns about this proposed showcase of Great Britain’s talents, once dubbed ‘the festival of Brexit’ by the [hardline anti-EU] Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg.” – The Art Newspaper

“The Conservative Party election manifesto, launched yesterday afternoon by the UK prime minister Boris Johnson, pledges the establishment of a £250m fund ‘to support local libraries and regional museums’. The Tories describe this as ‘the largest cultural capital programme in a century’.” Last week, the Labour manifesto released by Jeremy Corbyn included a pledge to budget £1 billion for arts and culture. – The Art Newspaper