Good Morning,
The French are fighting for their cultural model in the street: an estimated 1,800 people protested arts funding cuts in front of Avignon’s Papal Palace, turning the festival into a month-long argument over what the state owes its artists (The New York Times). America had that argument 35 years ago, and The New Yorker revisits how it got ignited — an NEA chairman who believed in artistic freedom, flip-flopping between his principles and his politics. The most durable American answer turns out to be local: Cleveland just ranked first among ten U.S. cities for arts-organization revenue growth, on the strength of Cuyahoga County’s public funding (Ideastream).
The market model is hitting its ceiling at the same time. Artnet asks whether the mega-gallery era was the art world’s march on Moscow, and the auction houses’ half-year reports read less like art sales than financial-services prospectuses — a significant shift in the business model (ARTnews). The counterintuitive retail lesson comes from Costco, thriving as the anti-Amazon by selling less choice, not more (The Walrus).
And the World Cup staged its first-ever halftime show. “Well, that happened” is a review (The New York Times).
All of our stories below.