ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

ISSUES

UCLA’s Hollywood Diversity Report Doesn’t Include Disability Or LGBTQ Representation

And activists, including the co-director of last year's documentary nominee Crip Camp, would very much like that to change. (The report focuses on representation of and by Black, indigenous, and other people of color, and women of all races and ethnicities.) - Variety

What If Shakespeare Had A Sister – Or If Anne Hathaway Wrote Plays?

The novel Brother of the More Famous Jack has just been reissued - and "The title alone deserves a party. It puts its finger on a big category – the person who gets used to being an adjunct. It’s a category traditionally inhabited by women." - The Observer (UK)

Production Companies Have Paused Some Will Smith Projects, But What About His Family?

This seems transparently foolish. After all, it wasn't Jada Pinkett Smith or their adult children up there smacking Chris Rock. Yet: "Public relations specialists who focus on crisis management warned that the incident could erode the good will that the Smiths have built up." - The New York Times

The Shocking Costs, And Deep Censorship, Of Trying To Read Books While In Prison

First, physical books get banned for transparently hysterical "reasons." Then e-readers might be provided for free - with content that is outrageously expensive. But incarcerated people, say advocates, desperately need, and want, the tools that will keep their minds engaged. - Publishers Weekly

Why Australia Needs A Ministry Of Culture

There is abundant evidence to show the government’s financial support for the arts and culture has been significantly reduced over many years. Today the arts don’t even rate a mention in the title of the government department responsible for them. - ArtsHub

Russian Artists Abroad On Putin’s War And Oppression And The Prospects Of Returning Home

Sarah Kaufman talks to performers who've been expatriates for decades but sometimes work in Russia (such as conductor Vladimir Jurowski) and one (theater director Dmitry Krymov) who happened to be traveling to a gig in Philadelphia when the war started and won't be going back. - The Washington Post

The Protestors Who Have Been Protesting Russian Performers For Years

Even as the annexation of Crimea faded from the media, Signerbusters kept showing up to concerts, draped in Ukrainian flags, equipped with signs and spirit. Sometimes there were just two or three of them present. Still, for eight years, Signerbusters say they have never missed a show. - Washington Post

Audiences Still Want Mask Requirements And Vaccine Checks: Study

"Based on responses from 2,128 D.C. area theatregoers from March 14-17, significantly more audience members responded negatively than positively about ending these requirements in theatres." - American Theatre

How The Letter “Z” Got Co-Opted By The Russian Army Invading Ukraine

In short, the letter Z (which doesn’t actually exist in the Cyrillic alphabet used in Russia) has been transformed and made toxic; it’s a remarkable example of how swiftly and decisively the meaning of a symbol can be completely reinvented, seeming at random. - Fast Company

Why Giving Grades Is Counter-Productive

They are demotivating, they don’t actually measure learning and they increase students’ stress. - The Conversation

As The Pandemic Hit, Which Funders Came To The Rescue?

With so many venues losing earned income by closing their doors as COVID spread, individual donors and foundations increased their giving, but government emergency funding made the biggest difference. - SMU Data Arts

Why This Moment Of Crises Is An Opportunity For Artists

Change is an act of creation, and that’s what artists do: Through a process of imagining, trying and building, artists create experiences that connect us to our own agency and power. We are in a moment when we urgently need these artists, culture bearers and creative workers. - Bloomberg

New York City’s New Mayor Suggests Cutting $72 Million From Arts Budget

In February "the mayor released a preliminary budget for fiscal year 2023 that proposes slashing one-third of the city's culture budget. So how does the mayor's grandiose rhetoric about New York's cultural comeback match up with his budgetary policy?" (Poorly.) - Hyperallergic

Putin Suggests Merging Bolshoi And Mariinsky Theaters Under Valery Gergiev’s Direction

After Bolshoi director Vladimir Urin signed a petition for ending Russia's war in Ukraine and one of the Bolshoi's star ballerinas abruptly emigrated, the Russian president reportedly asked Gergiev, artistic director of the Mariinsky and longtime Putin friend, to consider bringing both houses under his management. - MSN (The Washington Post)

Supreme Court To Rule On Fair Use In Warhol Work

The case will test fair use defense to copyright infringement and how to assess if a new work based on an older one meaningfully transformed it. The black-and-white image that Warhol used was taken in 1981 by Lynn Goldsmith, whose work has appeared on more than 100 album covers. - The New York Times

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