"Almost on the hour, we’re hearing about cultural boycotts, departures of curators and directors, and the shuttering of institutions. The moral convictions behind these choices cannot be doubted. Yet I feel compelled to caution about cutting ties too rashly, and with no clear pathway back to normalcy." - Artnet
Looking in particular at the High Line, the 606 in Chicago, and Buffalo Bayou Park in Houston — all of which turned urban industrial detritus into expensively landscaped attractions — Kevin Loughran argues that these privately funded spaces divert city resources from parks in poor areas and enrich real-estate developers. - Bloomberg CityLab
Daily journalists, for better or for worse, are hard-wired to leap on departures from the norm, regardless of how miserable, unethical, unfair, and doomed the norm is. - Press Watchers
The creative potential of the relationship between performers and audience has preoccupied Berlin-based Australian composer Cathy Milliken for decades. - The Guardian
"Complaints about drunken, chaotic and argumentative audience behaviour have been reaching fever pitch. 'It feels like every bloody day there's a new debate about theatre etiquette,' says one theatre usher. 'And I hate to stereotype, but the worst incidents seem to happen at jukebox musicals.'" - The Observer (UK)
Awkwardly, the list was finalized before Putin's forces attacked Ukraine. The locations included range from world-renowned (Teotihuacán) to very ancient (cave paintings in the Amazon) to African Modernist (the People's Palace in Ouagadougou) to embattled (the old cities of Beirut and Benghazi) to offbeat (Kolkata's Chinatown). - Smithsonian Magazine
Institutions are demanding that artists who have supported Mr. Putin in the past issue clear condemnations of the Russian president and his invasion as a prerequisite for performing. Others are checking their rosters and poring over social media posts to ensure Russian performers have not made contentious statements about the war. - The New York Times
Republicans and Democrats alike lose faith in the (mostly broadcast) reporters who have the word "storyteller" in their bios, a study says. "Some negative responses included sentiments like 'Storyteller to me sounds like a well-trained liar.'" - Nieman Lab
Time to pull up and reconsider that lightning-fast reshare impulse: Did the Kremlin make the image you're about to share? (In one prominent case just as Russia's invasion of Ukraine began, it sure did.) - Vice
"Aid HQ -- a palatial faux Art Nouveau exhibition and cultural centre -- runs like clockwork. Basement: medicines. Ground floor: food and a stand where displaced people can register their needs. First floor concert hall: children's clothes and toys. Second floor: supplies for newborn babies." - France 24
As the war in Ukraine enters its second week, cultural institutions worldwide are grappling with the question of whether to boycott Russian artists, in debates reminiscent of those around South Africa during the apartheid era. - The New York Times
The idea was that Gergiev could somehow retract his blatant politicization of music and adopt a purist guise when he walked onstage. In fact, if he had appeared at Carnegie during the invasion, it would have been a Putinist triumph: hard power and soft power operating in tandem. - The New Yorker
“It looks like the entire curriculum is developed to normalize sexuality, normalize nudity and normalize vulgar language,” said Mike Cochran, a school board member. “I think we need to re-look at the entire curriculum.” - The New York Times
What is happening here represents just the latest, though perhaps the most glaring, iteration of an age-old conundrum. What expectations do we have — should we have — for artists and other ostensibly nonpolitical actors in a time of crisis? Is it incumbent on literally everyone to declare their allegiances? - San Francisco Chronicle
Executive Editor Scott Freeman: "In the summer of 2020, we were in another bad spot and it became obvious that our board planned to shutter ArtsATL. ... (Patti Siegel) suggested we put together a new board of directors and take over the publication. And that's exactly what we did." - ArtsATL (Atlanta)
