The cultural loyalty oath is now official policy. Federal museum and library grant applicants are being told to align their work with the president’s “vision” — and the directive has unsettled grant writers and former recipients accustomed to the agency’s traditional nonpartisanship (Washington Post). Meanwhile, the FCC chair has asked broadcasters to sign a pledge committing to programming that “celebrates the American journey” — which is a polite way of saying the government would like your content to be cheerful (NPR). The pressure on cultural institutions to perform patriotism is apparently not limited to one agency.
South Africa has pulled out of the Venice Biennale entirely after its right-wing culture minister scrapped the selected pavilion proposal. The artists and curator put it plainly: the space will remain empty — a deliberate monument to erasure (Hyperallergic). And Ireland’s basic income for artists has been made permanent, which sounds like good news until you read that more than half of Irish artists still experience enforced deprivation — three times the national rate — in a country that relentlessly markets its culture to tourists (Irish Times).
Willie Colón, the Bronx-born trombonist and salsa luminary known as “El Malo,” has died at 75. His 1978 collaboration with Rubén Blades, Siembra, remains one of the best-selling salsa albums ever made (The New York Times). A loss worth pausing on.
All of today’s stories below.
