“Without this much needed arts tax reform, including indexing it to inflation, we risk losing the very institutions that make Portland vibrant, and we also risk losing the next generation of arts lovers by failing to sustain arts education in our schools.” - KATU
A little over a year later, after the Department of Government Efficiency eliminated more than half of the NEH staff and tried to terminate 97 percent of its grants, Trump fired all but four members of the 26-person advisory board, called the National Council on the Humanities. - Chronicle of Higher Education
“The Trump administration’s cancellation of more than $100 million in humanities grants to scholars, writers, research groups and other organizations was unconstitutional, and the Department of Government Efficiency had no authority to end the funding, a federal judge in New York ruled on Thursday.” - AP
What is the Ministry of Awe? “Is it an art gallery?” she asked rhetorically. “Is it a theater? Is a museum? Is it a dream? It’s none of those and all of those and it doesn’t matter exactly what it is because there’s no one right way to experience it.” - The New York Times
This despite the fact that the San Diego County government is facing a budget cliff of its own, just as the city is. - The San Diego Union-Tribune (MSN)
“The Holocaust Museum LA, the first survivor-founded and oldest Holocaust museum in the United States, will reopen after a 10-month closure as part of the new Goldrich Cultural Center — a $70-million campus expansion set to debut June 14 in Pan Pacific Park (near downtown).” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
The process of relocating people from New Orleans should start immediately, as the city has reached a “point of no return” that will see it surrounded by the ocean within decades due to the climate crisis, a stark new study has concluded. - The Guardian
As one artist told ArtsHub: ‘Artistic director and executive director jobs are so few and far between in Australia that it is no wonder that when someone is appointed to one, they hold on to them for more than 10 years. - ArtsHub
“The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) has filed charges (with the National Labor relations Board) against the Kennedy Center, accusing management of permanently cutting union jobs as it prepares to close for a two-year renovation at the behest of President Trump.” - TheWrap (Yahoo!)
“It is not that hard for me to imagine a near future in which workers in all industries are pushed to work not only harder and more, but more happily and more agreeably. This is the new era of employee surveillance: invisible, AI-supercharged, always on.” - The Atlantic
Why does that matter? Robert Redford, for one, “insisted that fearless owners were every bit as important in preserving democracy as the reporters he and Hoffman helped glamorize.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
Why? “Your TV and smartphone are far more interoperable and indistinguishable than ever before, and an inescapable user-tracking singularity is developing, accordingly, in your own living room.” - Slate
“Each fence, bollard, and inch of blast-resistant laminated glass is a barrier between the people and their government. Virtually every modern presidency has understood this, leaning into discretion. ... It was a bit of a fiction, but now we see the alternative, and it is grim.” - The Atlantic
“Longtime arts and city government veteran Matthew Goudeau has been named San Francisco's first executive director of arts and culture. … To that end, Goudeau will oversee three of the city's most important arts entities: the San Francisco Arts Commission, Grants for the Arts and the Film Commission.” - San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)
“The museum and research center … plans to lay off 53 employees and scale back some programs as it grapples with a growing budget deficit driven by rising costs and lagging revenue. The cuts, announced Tuesday, will affect about 9.3% of the academy's workforce.” - San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)
