So after a stretch in university administration, I am back full-time in the classroom this fall. One of my classes is in Cultural Planning and Community Development - i.e. "place-based" cultural policy - and though I've taught bits and pieces of the subject here and there, have never had the course actually assigned to me until now. So, this is what I've put together. It's a lot of reading, with some preliminaries on what's going on in the economy right now (since I don't think anyone can do "placemaking" policy without a good understanding … [Read more...]
Let’s move before they change the parking rate
No, I cannot quit writing about economic-impact-of-the-arts reports. Let's try something a little more focused, and talk about ... parking. Parking is part of the cost of attending a show, if it takes place in an area without free parking and you don't live nearby. Economists think charging for parking is ok because your car is taking up scarce space that has to be allocated somehow. Free parking means space is allocated on a first-come-first-serve basis, which is not all that efficient (people have to arrive much earlier for events than … [Read more...]
Is there an ethical case against deaccessioning by museums? Updated
In response to a post by artsjournal.com blog neighbor Lee Rosenbaum on proposed sales of works by the Berkshire Museum and the Lasalle University Art Museum, I asked via Twitter whether there was a coherent case to be made that deaccessioning is unethical, and not simply (sometimes) a case of bad management and oversight, or indeed sometimes simply a rational and defensible adjustment to changes in circumstances and/or mission. Ms. Rosenbaum replied to me on Twitter saying "deaccessioning is not unethical. Certain kinds of deaccessioning are … [Read more...]
Dream academy
What happened to the genre of academic satire? In the Chronicle Review, Andrew Kay has some ideas; I'd like to offer a different take. Disclaimer: I'm no literary critic. But (a) I am an academic, and (b) I've read all of the novels he cites, suggesting that yes, I'm something of a fan. He takes us through the common list - from the UK, Kingsley Amis' Lucky Jim, and various novels by David Lodge (he doesn't single it out, but Nice Work has always been my favourite of his), and from the US Jane Smiley's Moo, Richard Russo's Straight Man, … [Read more...]
Decorative but not useful: the instrumental benefits of the arts
What good are the arts beyond the personal aesthetic pleasure we gain from them? There is quite a list out there, of these so-called instrumental benefits of the arts: they make us more empathetic people, or so a grant to the Minneapolis Institute of Art hopes (in a recent review essay I claim that we still don't really know much as to whether this is true, or even whether it would be a good thing if it were true)*, they help doctors be better at their job, and suffer less burnout, and Americans for the Arts has a long list, some of which … [Read more...]
Tainted money
The New York Times reports on a stunt by New York magazine art critic Jerry Saltz, in which at the Metropolitan Museum of Art he registers his protest of the plaza named for donor David Koch: Mr. Saltz was carrying a long strip of paper that had been printed to blend in with the granite used for the fountain. The words on it matched the typeface of the fountain’s inscription. Mr. Saltz then attached his sign to the fountain, so that it no longer read “David H. Koch Plaza.” Instead it declared, “Climate Change Denier Plaza.” This is not the … [Read more...]
Artists as speculators
A new working paper from Amy Whitaker and Roman Kräussl suggests a new model of finance for visual artists (described by Isaac Kaplan in Artsy here). The abstract of the paper (free download here) is: Using unique historical sales data from the Leo Castelli Gallery, we introduce a novel model of evaluating art market returns using first-sale prices alongside auction results. We create a sample portfolio to analyze what would have happened if the artists Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg had retained 10% equity in the work they sold through … [Read more...]
Should museums have free admission?
I won't link to all the stories on the Metropolitan Museum's new policy of charging out-of-state residents $25 for daily admission - if you're reading this you've seen them already. Here are few additional considerations: A common refrain is that the museum can "afford" to have free admission for all, either through better management of costs, or through increased donations from the very rich. I don't doubt this. But is it a good idea? When a museum chooses free admission it is making a choice on how to use its limited resources. It is … [Read more...]
Women’s wages and employment at the top of the art world
In a new blog post, Anna Bull talks about the paucity of women orchestra conductors, noting only 1.4% of working conductors in the UK are women, and riffing on this statement by award-winning (male) conductor Mariss Jansons: “Hmm, well. Well I don’t want to give offence,” said Jansons, “and I am not against it, that would be very wrong. I understand the world has changed, and there is now no profession that can be confined to this or that gender. It’s a question of what one is used to. I grew up in a different world, and for me seeing a woman … [Read more...]
Soft power and the arts (3/3)
Soft power is the ability for a country to have international influence through means other than the threat of military action or aggressive economic policy (i.e. hard power). How do the arts and cultural diplomacy work as soft power? What ends are being pursued, and how do the arts serve as a means to that end? Researchers through King's College London conducted a study, with extensive interviews of diplomats, at the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG). This is a fascinating paper that I will be sure to add to future syllabi in courses … [Read more...]