While Trump appears to have sparked a progressive uprising in the art world, there remains a battle between a grassroots struggle to redistribute power, and those who place institutional preservation at the center.
Category: Opinion
How We Can Hold Art Galleries Accountable
Let’s be real: galleries are feudal systems for hoarding wealth, property, and people that cannot be reformed with momentary or incremental adjustments.
Pondering Rituals and Considering Resolve for Queer Artists at the Opening of a New Year
Though we may be eager to be move past the year’s events, the reality is that they will persist. Artists share practical applications for ritual, deeply introspective thoughts on survival and approaches to remedying inequity.
Wonder Woman the Museum Worker Is a Less Convincing Disguise Than Clark Kent’s
Wonder Woman’s use of her ancestor’s objects as they were intended (despite bits of metal feathers breaking off, alert the museum’s conservators!) offers a vision of why museums should exist and continue to keep all these things.
What It’s Really Like to Work at the California Arts Council
I and other arts program specialists found it to be a space that causes fear of retaliation, targeting and silencing, and where leadership lacks accountability.
Representation Alone Will Not Save Us
We love representation, the power of signifying, and the incisiveness of well-argued critique, but by themselves, these tools won’t effect structural change.
Reflecting on a Year of Vulnerability, Discontent, Hiatus, and Refusal
Institutional trauma is real.
How’d You Sleep in 2020?
I developed the bad habit of falling asleep at night to reruns of Governor Cuomo’s daily COVID briefing performances.
I Hope This Essay Finds You Well
Emails started to change toward the end of March: “I hope this message finds you well, despite it all,” wrote people who would otherwise never express any interest in my personal life.
The Vicious Cynicism of Installing Noguchi at the White House
While some imagine that Noguchi would be proud to have his work displayed at the White House under these circumstances, I would bet that he is turning in his grave.
What Winning a Grant for my Art Writing Meant to Me
The money gave me the chance to prioritize my writing — something that I wish didn’t feel like a privilege but does — and it gave me the encouragement I needed to keep going.