Issues

Well, there’s bad traffic. And unaffordable housing. Unaffordable everything. And income inequality. And forget about getting anything done. But why should this be? Rich cities should be places where things get better. The fact they don’t lies with policy. – James Russell

Opened in 1960 as the home of the Canadian Opera Company and National Ballet of Canada as well as a venue for rock, jazz and other concerts, the O’Keefe Centre was renamed the Hummingbird Centre in 1996 under a sponsorship deal. After another such deal in 2006, it was called the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts. Now, thanks to the large credit union of the same name, it will be Meridian Hall — at least through 2034. — Ludwig van Toronto

The tour starts with a mock-up of a chief officer’s work space. A mannequin wearing a K.G.B. chief officer’s uniformis at a desk with a flag of Soviet Russia behind him. To the mannequin’s left sits a bronze desk lamp, which, according to the curators, sat in a villa belonging to the former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.  – The New York Times

The research has shone new light on the portfolio careers of artists: 20% of respondents work three or more jobs, and of those taking jobs, a third have roles in fields with nothing to do with the arts. Similarly, the report finds only one in five visual artists believe their work/art balance is correct. — Arts Professional

Every winter the Harbin (China) Ice and Snow Festival assembles 200,000 blocks of ice to make a city. Millions come to see it. “The workers, most recruited from local villages, spend over a month each year cutting 3-foot-thick blocks of ice from the river and transporting them to the festival site, where they are sculpted and stacked by an even larger team of workers. Beginning before dawn and working through the day in temperatures that average -13 degrees Fahrenheit, the workers earn around $35 a day for some of the world’s most backbreaking labor.” – Wired

In the museum’s storage areas and display rooms, there are some 3,800 suitcases, along with 5,000 toothbrushes and 110,000 shoes and shoe remnants. There are also mountains of human hair, prosthetic limbs, eyeglasses and other things left behind by the prisoners. It all amounts to a huge number of artifacts given the museum’s storage capacity — but relative to the vast number of victims, it isn’t much. – Der Spiegel

‘We really see that we have a role in creating pathways for creative people who are local and who are in the community to create work, have their ideas and get their work onto a stage – pathways for their work to find its way out into the wider world. And then the other way is pathways into this region, bringing work from the rest of the world to Geelong to keep us excited about what the arts are. That’s one of the ways that we’re starting to think about it for ourselves.’ – ArtsHub

Administrators in the UK culture ministry took proposals for specific projects of up to £7 million. The first five winners, to share £20 million, are the Thames Estuary, Wakefield in Yorkshire, Worcester in the English Midlands, Grimsby in northeast England, and Plymouth in the southwest. — The Guardian

Low value? The right-leaning group says that some arts degrees offer poor income prospects for graduates and little economic return for the government that supports such degrees. This thinking, of course, assumes that “value” is purely economic… – The Stage

For centuries, the Catholic Church was one of the world’s most important collectors and patrons of art, but in recent decades, the Vatican’s holiday nativity scene has often been one of its most high-profile artistic contributions. This shift didn’t happen overnight—or even in a generation—but across centuries, and it is inseparable from the evolution of modern European nations, the secularization of public life, and the rise of the art market. – Artsy

The dropout rate at American universities has been high. What to do? Use mountains of data to find better ways of predicting who will do well when they get in. And no, it’s not just looking at whether you got good grades (duh)… – Politico

Dan Vo leads groups on #QueerMuseum tours of Cambridge museums and the V&A, pointing out things like an Antarctic explorer’s scandalized notes on male-on-male penguin sex and a “gender-fluid” statue of Lucifer. Alice Procter’s “Uncomfortable Art” tours through the likes of the British Museum point out the ways colonialism pervades the collections. — The New York Times

Even if the person wearing dreadlocks is not racist himself, the group says, the chosen hairstyle “conveys racism.” It calls cultural appropriation “a form of passive oppression, a privilege to be deconstructed and in particular a manifestation of ordinary racism.” – Toronto Star (CP)

“Who are Extremely Bad Reviews written for? What do they hope to accomplish? Are they spiteful acts of vengeance, or more principled demands for justice? Are outright slams more prevalent now, or more effective now, or both, or neither? The answers change with the medium, and the target, and the reviewer in question.” — The Ringer

Often, reporting results after a grant can be long, arduous and ultimately not of much use. To anyone. So now there’s a new initiative to see if reporting can be made more useful and less cumbersome. After all, we all hope that grants make an impact, right? – Arts Professional

Historically, diversity is something America fights, or accepts begrudgingly with remorse and reservations, or fights anew when it challenges economic dominance. In a country born of the original sin of slavery — to keep labor cheap; to ensure high profits for the richest one percent (sound familiar?) — this shouldn’t be surprising. What is surprising is how we keep being surprised. – Clyde Fitch Report

Enrollments have been declining, and state funding has declined. So what to do? Respond to the market and try to offer courses (and majors) that can attract students and their tuition.

The chain, which accounts for a third of all physical music sales in Britain and a quarter of all physical DVD sales, had a terrible holiday season and is going under – but there are offers with those “hoping to buy the long-established music retailer, which employs 2,200 people, [given] a deadline of Tuesday to submit bids.” – The Guardian (UK)

So you think your phone, or tablet, or computer, was stolen and then landed at an address in South Africa? Er, no. This was all a big mistake. “John and Ann’s house must have just missed MaxMind’s cut-off for remediation. Theirs was the 104th most popular location in the database, with over a million IP addresses mapped to it.” – Gizmodo

Is it that other Hollywood guys simply don’t give a damn what kind of damage the former head of Pixar did with years of harassment? Uh, basically. “With Lasseter’s return, Hollywood can finally get back to the business of celebrating all those geniuses who just happen to be male because so many of the women have left the room to avoid being groped and/or ejaculated in front of.” – Los Angeles Times

Yes, it’s about soft power in the European Union’s farthest border to the east – a stone’s throw from Russia. “From a defense perspective, building a happy, prosperous community in our border area is crucial. … But from a human perspective, it’s the decent thing to do anyway.” – The New York Times