Hyperallergic’s Post

April is Arts Month in Marin! If you didn’t see the Sunday’s Marin IJ article by Gabriella Calicchio, here are a few takeaways: *California is home to more artists than anywhere else in the nation. *Our state’s creative sector accounts for $18.67 billion in assets and 15.4% of California’s total employment. *According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the arts represent a larger share of the gross domestic product than transportation, tourism and agriculture. *In Marin County alone, the arts contribute $76 million to our local economy, employing over 1,700 people in 162 arts organizations. *We understand the value of culture and innovation. https://lnkd.in/g5CUkvCC

Ahead of the 60th Venice Biennale, I wrote this about the past, future (and possible end) of the Biennale (and biennials more widely). For ArtReview

Here's a link to my latest post on Cultural Capital-Art, Politics, and Everything Else https://lnkd.in/e5uq5AUB #whitneymuseum #art #artworld #protest #feminism #feministprotest #whitneyannual

Evaluation in the arts is a topic that gets us culture folks riled up. What are the results of an artistic experience? For many, this question subjects our most precious and indescribable experiences to crude, invasive, belittling, and demoralizing descriptions as we try and find language and metrics to capture them. Evaluation, we worry, is inevitably reductive, limiting something that carries us beyond language and numbers to crude categories of value. However, an increasing number of arts leaders well-aware of these risks are growing convinced that the risks of NOT evaluating, of not learning to build metrics and language for impact and value, outweigh the risks of doing so. That in today's funding climate, we need the means to participate more effectively in comparative conversations about the public good. Otherwise, the ineffable becomes the invisible, as the public imagination grows more diverse in its sense of intrinsic values, and beliefs about the inherent public benefit of the arts are not as widely shared as we might think or hope. Jumping into discussion with me on this critical topic was my valued colleague Robin Sokoloski at Mass Culture. https://lnkd.in/gdhAJqBE

Writing in today's Arts Professional about the work of Freedom in the Arts; "If artists are silenced, we risk losing a generation of talent, as well as deterring new, unique voices from joining the profession. We must avoid realising a conformist arts sector, where beliefs may be policed by colleagues or bureaucracies. To reflect the breadth of artistic talent in the UK, FITA aims to a support the arts to properly commit to artistic freedom with the mechanisms and confidence to actively protect it." "We need to nurture excellence, which takes time and effort, and look for more than just the Instagram slogan of the week. We can respect our artistic history while responding to the present. Finally, could we please stop posturing, stop pretending, stop being empathic and earnest and try instead to embody values of discipline, integrity and impartiality. "Instead of safe spaces, let us now have brave spaces." https://lnkd.in/eb5jtyZM

Though our eyes This heritage month. Come join us in celebrating culture and art through the eyes of Indigenous Khoe and San Arts Perspective is everything. Context is often misconstrued and subjective. Timeless and tasteful, or modern and messy, culture demands to be examined! “Many people take great comfort in the bathroom towels being the same color as the soap, toilet paper, and tiles. It means there is a connection between them, and an environment of order. Home becomes a place not only of comfort, but of control. This sense of order, in whatever form it takes, acts as a shield against the unpredictability and lurking “chaos” of the outside world.” The world has always seemed to own indigenous ideas and worlds. Owning it is a way of controlling the attitudes, fears and unwritten rules which have formed our environment and our behaviour within it. The “it” being Contemporary Indigenous Khoe and San Culture. But what is the alternative to the controlled environment? What if it does not consist of “unpredictable lurking chaos” Come and explore indigenous contemporary art unsolicited and uninfluenced. Where Indigenous artists share their art, their culture, their stories. Through their Eyes.

Dynamite Durhamites: this is the last push to get your input into the Cultural Roadmap to plan next steps for Bull City arts and cultural infrastructure. Please take a tiny bit of time to complete these surveys so that your ideas don't just remain in your head. The Cultural Roadmap Community-wide Survey for all members of our community and informs city representatives on arts preferences and a broader vision for Durham’s arts and cultural communities.      Survey 1, Durham Cultural Roadmap Community Survey: https://lnkd.in/gRXp7VAh     Survey 2, Facility Needs Survey for Cultural Organizations, Artists and Cultural Workers: https://lnkd.in/gSTRfAH2    This survey is specially for cultural organizations, artists, writers, musicians, public historians, etc.  We want to hear from you about how you use creative spaces and how you think Durham can improve or expand these resources. 

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We explore curatorial projects that give voice to communities that have been disfranchised by the ideology of neo-liberalism. Defining contemporary art galleries as public spheres, curatorial projects that are based in dialogue and dialogics reveal the conflicting and contradictory aspects of dominant cultural narratives. Through collaborative and participatory methods, progressive we co-create artworks with communities, creating alternatives to the traditional gallery system in which artists, artworks, audiences and institutions are abstracted from the world around them. With a focus on the work of artists Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge, and their collaborations with individuals representing various communities – labour organizations, activist groups, cultural groups and the art world – insurgent curating is defined in terms of dialogue-based activism. Dialogue-based projects are championed as ways to catalyse emancipatory insights and the critique of neo-liberal capitalism.

Explore the transformative surge in the Indigenous American art market, its cultural impact, and the future of Indigenous art. Embrace the richness of Indigenous cultures through art.