Detroit Skyline, by Flickr user Wigwag Jones (via Creative Commons)

The picture of Detroit painted by the media often conveys a city in peril. Its dramatic story – the decline of the auto industry, population loss, high crime and drug-infested neighborhoods – has made the Motor City an easy target for sensational journalism and “ruin porn.” But the flip side of the tale is Detroit’s ongoing re-emergence from its 2014 Chapter 9 bankruptcy, the largest municipal bankruptcy case in U.S. history. Against this backdrop, mayor Mike Duggan has appointed journalist Aaron Foley as Detroit’s “chief storyteller,” the first position of its kind in the United States. Foley and other local journalists have noted that those who aren’t wallowing in Detroit’s past woes have made the mistake of overcompensating, painting the city as a beacon – a burgeoning, tech-savvy, foodie town saved by hipsters. The chief storyteller’s job is to redirect the media to stories that more fully capture the city’s complex soul, often with a tinge of self-deprecation and a focus on its more than 200 local neighborhoods in which some 80 percent of residents are African American. Getting in on the storytelling act, local museums are marking the 50-year anniversary of Detroit’s 1967 race riots with widely divergent exhibits, reflecting the complexities of a rebellion that erupted after three black men were beaten, shot, and killed by white police officers. On the silver screen, director Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit has been accused of taking undue creative license for political and marketing reasons in depicting the riots. Foley’s appointment comes at an auspicious time for Mayor Duggan, who is up for re-election in November and opposed by, among others, arts advocate Ingrid LaFleur, who announced her bid in February.

Murdoch Wins Some, Loses Some. New legislation introduced by Australia’s Liberal party would make it easier for the country’s big media conglomerates to get even bigger. The bill, expected before parliament this month and widely anticipated to pass, would likely most benefit media mogul Rupert Murdoch, owner of broadcasting giant 21st Century Fox as well as News Corporation, which accounts for nearly two-thirds of Australia’s newspaper circulation. If passed, the law would lift current restrictions on a single owner controlling both broadcast and print media outlets in a given market. Proponents see the bill as a way for Australian traditional media to compete with Internet titans like Google and Facebook; opponents point to the potential consolidation of power as a political move that favors the conservative, Murdoch-backed Liberal party. Meanwhile in the UK, Murdoch’s attempt to buy up the remaining 61% of Sky plc seems to have hit a wall, with Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Karen Bradley launching an investigation into whether Fox meets the country’s broadcasting standards.

Whose Art Is It, Anyway? Outcry from animal rights’ activists resulted in the Guggenheim pulling three works using live animals from an exhibition highlighting modern Chinese art. The museum cited safety as the primary reason for pulling the provocative artwork, which includes video depictions of pigs fornicating to an audience and dogs strapped on treadmills charging each other, citing “explicit and repeated threats of violence,” while artists and free speech advocates are blasting the museum’s choice to relent to the pressure. The Guggenheim episode comes just months after Minnesota’s Walker Art Center came under fire for displaying Sam Durant’s “Scaffold,” which depicted the site of a mass hanging of Native American warriors on land formerly held by the Dakota Indians. The pieces of the sculpture are set to be buried in a secret location determined by Dakota elders, but the museum is still dealing with the fallout. Museums are not the only institutions facing challenges from activists; in Berlin, a group of left-wing protesters occupied the Volksbühne Theater with the goal of converting it into a community-driven public theater.

New Museum Aims for Increased Representation of Africa – by Africa. The long-awaited Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa opened this month in Cape Town, South Africa. Housed in a 102,000-square-foot converted grain silo dating from 1912, the museum highlights contemporary art from Africa, and its diasporas, in an effort to reclaim the legacies of African countries and of Africans living in other countries throughout the world. It’s an approach that contrasts with another massive museum set to open in November: the Louvre Abu Dhabi – created through bilateral deals between France and United Arab Emirates – will feature 620 works from the national collection of Abu Dhabi; the other half will be works on loan from the Louvre in Paris. The international museum will host an eclectic blend of artifacts including Roman columns, Egyptian statues, nymphs commissioned for the Palace of Versailles, African figures, and Byzantine coins.

Declining Lottery Fund is Bad News for British Museums. Since 1994, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has played a key role in supporting capital campaigns that create new museums in the United Kingdom or maintain and refurbish existing ones. But the fund relies on sales of lottery tickets, which have steadily declined. The HLF has predicted a lottery contribution of £300 million for the 2016-17 fiscal year, down £85 million from 2015-16. The slump in sales is thought to be a result of a 25% increase to the cost of tickets combined with a change to the odds which sharply impacts players’ chances of winning. And it’s not just museums that rely on the lottery; funds also support artists, Olympic athletes, education, and other charitable causes. On the upside, Camelot, the company that operates the National Lottery, has pledged an in-depth review to explore ways to “re-engage players” after an 8.8% decline in sales from last year. The probe will be led by Nigel Railton, the CEO of Camelot Global and acting chief executive at Camelot UK after Andy Duncan stepped down in April.

MUSICAL CHAIRS / COOL JOBS:

• Johnnetta Betsch Cole, recently retired director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, was named a senior consulting fellow at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, from which president Earl Lewis announced he will step down in March 2018.
• Helen Gayle has been appointed president and CEO of the Chicago Community Trust.
• After a national search, Santa Cruz local Susan True has been named CEO of Community Foundation Santa Cruz County.
• Kathy Halbreich, associate director of MoMA, has taken a new position as executive director at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.
• Philip Horn, executive director of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, has announced his retirement.
• Houston Arts Alliance has named John Abodeely, who was acting executive director for the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities prior to the committee’s disbanding, as its new CEO.
• Peter Herrndorf will step down after nearly 20 years as the head of Canada’s National Arts Centre.
• Former U.S. ambassador to South Africa and current VP Patrick Gaspard will take over as acting president of Open Society Foundations.
• Judilee Reed, former director of Surdna Foundation in New York City, has been appointed to lead the Creative Communities Program at the William Penn Foundation.
• The Cincinnati Enquirer has laid off its sole arts critic, Janelle Gelfand.

NEW RESEARCH OF NOTE:

• Visual Capitalist used data from the University of Oxford to create a chart outlining how many jobs will eventually give way to automation. Fields requiring social skills and creativity at at the least risk, while entry-level jobs face a great probability of automation.
• Spektrix used data from its pool of more than 300 arts organizations to look for trends in marketing, sales and fundraising in the UK and Ireland.
• The Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking has released the Commission’s final report and recommendations in a free download on “how to increase the availability and use of data in order to build evidence about government programs, while protecting privacy and confidentiality.”
• Philanthropy is on the rise among Chinese and Chinese-American donors, according to a report by the Global Chinese Philanthropy Initiative.
• A report from GuideStar indicates that nonprofit CEO compensation has nearly recovered from the recession, but a gender gap remains.
• The transportation sector takes a look at challenges in creative placemaking, and identifies ways to participate in a new report called Arts, Culture and Transportation: A Creative Placemaking Field Scan.
• While conducting research for her a book, on tax incentives, Sigrid Hemels uncovered information about free ports, where art can be stored – sometimes indefinitely – tax-free.
• A new paper outlines potential consequences resulting from reductions to arts education.
• Belgian researchers say blindness creates “empty real estate” in the brain’s visual areas, which could be taken up for use by language.
• Different cultures have varied numbers of words for colors. Scientists say that people developed words for the things they most wanted to talk about, using colors as descriptive terms.
• A report from the National Endowment for the Arts supports the large body of evidence suggesting arts participation (making and doing) among older adults leads to better health outcomes.
• The first of a series of reports connecting heritage and cultural practice to well-being is a case-study on issues affecting the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles.
• A report ranking European countries on cultural engagement and creativity gives Edinburgh the top spot for cities of a similar size.
• The first installment of the “Inquiry into the Civic Role of Arts Organisations” has been released, investigating barriers and opportunities for arts groups in civic engagement.
• A report commissioned by the Wallace Foundation indicates that forming partnerships is a successful strategy for nonprofits to increase their impact and effectiveness.
• Data analysis by IMPACTS shows that time is more valuable than money when it comes to visiting cultural organizations.
• A Nesta literature review yields four key findings on the integration of digital technology in the arts.
• The U.K.-based Creative People and Places has published a comprehensive report on the approaches, methods and models aimed at evaluating the agencies programs and developed over a three-year period.
• An article published by Journal of Cultural Economics reveals that cultural heritage can play a role in determining where highly skilled individuals live.
• An Ofcom report warns British TV broadcasters they are “failing to represent society” through lack of representation from women, ethnic minorities, and differently abled people.
• A report commissioned by the E.U couldn’t establish a link between piracy and displaced sales of copyrighted film, literature, or video game content, with the exception of recently released top films.
• A recent study argues that foundation-funded nonprofit publications are not the answer to the decline of commercial journalism.
• Publishers are claiming that the Trump era has shifted Americans’ reading habits, but a new HuffPost/YouGov poll suggests otherwise.
• New data from publishers suggests audiobooks are here to stay.
• American Theatre selected the top 10 most-produced plays and top 20 most-produced playwrights for the 2017-18 Season.
• According to a TripAdvisor survey of museums, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is the world’s favorite, capping the site’s top 25.
• Some new research suggests the public still favors artwork created by humans over robot-generated works, ranking those they perceived as computer-generated to be less visually appealing.
• Medical students at the University of Philadelphia who interacted with visual art improved their observational skills.
• An RBC survey confirms substantial losses in paid cable TV, and indicates that the trend is likely to accelerate.
• Pianist and scientist Elaine Chew is creating music made from ECG data, hoping to understanding to patients with arrhythmia diagnoses.
• Austrian researchers are testing technology that facilitates direct brain-to-page music composition.
• Music lessons assist with cognition and decision making, but a new study suggests the effects are greater for those who started training after age 8.
• Classical music is believed to stimulate creativity; a new study points specifically to the baroque era.
• A research study headed by the University of Vienna unveiled “the Bach effect,” which claims that playing classical music in the background can result in women finding men more attractive. BBC Music Magazine recommends Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, voted the greatest opera of all time by a pool of 172 opera singers.
• New York University discovered some unique musical preferences that are common among individuals with high psychopath scores. So, it’s good news for you if you like “My Sharona” and Sia’s “Titanium,” which were least likely to be favored by psychopaths.

“Confederate Statue” | by Flickr user Paul Sableman via Creative Commons

A deadly protest in Charlottesville, VA on August 12 against the removal of a monument to Robert E. Lee fomented an immediate national uproar that only intensified after President Trump’s equivocal statements refusing to concentrate blame for the violence on the white nationalist demonstrators who organized the event. (Angry responses from the arts community included Kennedy Center honorees bowing out from the awards’ festivities, which Trump subsequently cancelled plans to attend, and the mass resignation of the entire President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, which had in recent years promoted national initiatives and research in arts education.) But amid the controversy focusing on the specific people involved, a parallel maelstrom has formed over the broader relationship between Confederate iconography, bigotry, and hate speech. In the aftermath of Charlottesville, both elected officials and vigilante activists in numerous U.S. cities took quick action to remove monuments lauding the Confederacy. Others took a more cautious approach, perhaps concerned that taking down Confederate relics may diminish the role art can play in processing and contextualizing that history. The mayor of Louisville, KY initiated a review of public art in the city to determine which pieces could be interpreted as “honoring racism” in an effort to create a public dialogue around the monuments’ potential removal; this type of citizen-engaged process was strongly favored in a statement from Americans for the Arts. Meanwhile, corporations around the country took steps to distance themselves from white supremacist culture and the organizations at the center of the Charlottesville protest, with Spotify taking action to ban racist music from its platform. Too often, arts advocates speak of the arts as if all that humans create is virtuous; the events of this past month offer a sobering reminder to the contrary.

Disney splits from Netflix in the streaming race. Disney has announced it will not renew its licensing agreement with Netflix in 2019, with plans to launch a new Disney-owned streaming service. Given that Disney owns not just its self-branded properties like Mickey Mouse but also Pixar, ESPN, and the Star Wars and Marvel Comics franchises, this is no small matter. Netflix appears to have braced for the change by continuing to produce original content at a ferocious rate, signing ABC/Disney producer Shonda Rhimes and acquiring the Scottish comic book company Millarworld. Netflix seems to be banking on continued success despite debts tipping the $20 billion mark. Up to now Netflix has outpaced its streaming rivals, anticipating the shift from licensing to original content and growing steadily in subscribers despite an ever-shrinking library of licensed titles. In essence, Netflix is a platform that has become a network; while Disney is late to the streaming game, it’s also the biggest and perhaps most recognizable company to attempt what Netflix has already done, in reverse.

Big News starts competing for nonprofit cash. Yet another one bites the dust: New York City’s famed Village Voice finally ceased its print operations, a trend among struggling alt-weeklies. With advertising revenues failing to keep up across the board, a new dot-org has been created for the U.S. arm of the Guardian to raise money from donors and organizations committed to independent journalism. Others don’t appear to be far behind; The Atlantic’s new majority stakeholder is Emerson Collective (which is run by philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs and expected to have full ownership of the publication within five years), and longtime New York Times newsroom manager Janet Elder will be in charge of building a similar philanthropic arm at that media behemoth. While the Times has explored revenue incentives such as limiting online views for non-subscribers to 10 clicks-per-month, the Guardian has resisted a paywall, opting instead for Wikipedia-style box ads requesting donations at the end of each article. These nonprofit inroads by major media outlets will likely place further pressure on the few foundations that already support journalism (many of which support the arts as well), which could be bad news for smaller media sources like the Voice that are already feeling the squeeze.

Hurricane Harvey lashes the Houston arts scene. Catastrophic flooding in the Houston’s major performing arts venues and municipal parking garages throughout the local theater district have brought the city’s major dance, theater and opera companies’ fall season openers to a halt. Arts advocates have quickly banded together to provide aid for Houstonians and fellow arts organizations, some of which had only recently finished multi-million dollar renovations addressing damage from 2001’s Hurricane Allison, and the National Endowment for the Humanities committed $1 million to the effort. As the waters recede from the largest storm Texas has ever recorded, the region faces daunting and costly recovery efforts potentially lasting several years, just as Hurricane Irma barrels toward Miami and the Southeastern United States.

Venezuelan President freezes out Dudamel and the National Youth Orchestra. Superstar Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor Gustavo Dudamel, pressured for years to speak up about deteriorating conditions in his native Venezuela, now finds himself ensnared in exactly the sort of political controversy he had hoped to avoid. Dudamel has recently become increasingly vocal about the political strife in his home country, and is rumored to have assisted a musician who was arrested and allegedly beaten for participating in anti-government protests. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro openly criticized Dudamel on television, and shortly after the remarks it was announced that a government-sponsored tour in which Dudamel was to conduct the National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela – with stops in Illinois, California and Virginia – would be cancelled. Though it’s likely a move of political retaliation, no official reason has been provided by the government.

MUSICAL CHAIRS / COOL JOBS:

• The hunt for a new leader of Grantmakers in the Arts is over: Eddie Torres will be the organization’s new CEO starting this fall. Torres comes to GIA from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, where he has been Deputy Commissioner. And in another twist, GIA is moving its offices from Seattle to New York, likely spurring additional turnover.
• Dianne S. Harris has joined the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as a senior program officer in the humanities and higher education division.
• Cinematographer John Bailey is the newly appointed president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
• The Mid-America Arts Alliance has acquired local arts service organization Artists INC; the latter’s head, Lisa Cordes, has joined MAAA as director of artists’ services.
• The arts community has suffered two untimely deaths in recent months: first, Ebony McKinney, program officer at the San Francisco Art Commission, passed away July 29 at age 41; and Dr. James Catterall, author and founder of the Centers for Research on Creativity (CRoC) and professor emeritus at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, passed away August 23 at age 69.

NEW RESEARCH OF NOTE:

• Ten to 12 minutes of mindfulness is enough to boost creativity, according to an experiment conducted by Erasmus University.
• Employment in the UK culture sector is up 20% in past five years, according to the Creative Industries Federation.
• UK research suggests people who engage with the arts as a participant or observer are more likely to be charitable with their time and dollars. And arts patrons who buy their tickets online are most likely to add a donation, compared to walk-up and phone buyers.
• Dancing rewires the brain, improving multi-tasking ability, says research from the Universities of Houston and Maryland.
• A new report from IFACCA shares key findings on the governance and operation of national arts councils and cultural ministries.
• An article published the Center for Effective Philanthropy points to research debunking myths about differences between “new” and “established” funders.
• Rutgers scientists have created technology that makes art – and study participants prefer these paintings over works shown at Art Basel.
• Atlantic Media Strategies has synthesized research predicting trends in media consumption over the next few years.
• How is print is surviving in the digital age? Just fine. Fine, that is, for current affairs or news publications in the UK.
• TV dramas with diverse characters and storylines have been linked to improved tolerance and changed attitudes among those who watch. A new study suggests this effect holds true specifically for transgender rights.
• The Guardian reports that binge-watching and on-demand television services have all but ended family TV time. Meanwhile 100,000 Canadians cancelled TV service in the first half of 2017 – a figure that’s down 22% from last year’s pace.
• Google queries about suicide rose by 20% in the days after 13 Reasons Why – a show about teen suicide – hit Netflix, according to research published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
• An analysis of BBC’s “culture poll” suggests male and female film critics find different things funny in comedies. And a USC study finds that movies are still dominated by men, on- and off-screen.
• A report from a summit co-organized by the National Endowment for the Arts and the International Documentary Association explores issues related to the sustainability of the documentary film industry.
• Arts engagement can ease economic, cultural and political divisions, says research coordinated by the University of Kent based on survey data from more than 20,000 UK respondents.
• Economists say college educations, long thought to be a neutralizer of inequality, do not provide equal access to upward mobility for students from low socioeconomic households.
• Multiple studies cite the varied benefits of snapping photos. Taking pictures can increase enjoyment and enhances memory of certain experiences, provided you’re documenting moments by choice.
• A study on the listening habits of millennials shows they hold high regard for public radio, particularly local coverage, but wish it would go further with reporting.
• A study by Music Reports claims one key to landing a song on the Billboard Top 10 is working with a team of collaborators.
• One in three respondents think classical music is “aloof” and needs to “lighten up” in order to survive, according to a YouGov poll in the UK.
• Economists have evaluated the impact of the European Capital of Culture program on GDP. Various European cities selected to participate in the year-long arts and culture program have seen a boost of nearly 5%, with residual positive effects lasting years.
• A survey commissioned by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation reveals gaps in diversity among professionals holding leadership roles in university libraries.
• The arts are key to building belonging among communities, according to research conducted in Canada, which advocates for improvements to facilities and programs committed to community arts engagement.
• The UK Labour Party conducted an inquiry on class-related gaps in arts participation, citing cost as a barrier, and reporting suggestions and recommendations.
• A new survey reveals details about Russia’s book piracy problems. And books contain far more naughty words than they used to, but some say, “who f*)&ing cares?”

“Dance” illustration by Flickr user Luciana Ruivo

Quickly advancing technologies are altering reality in ways that, not long ago, were the stuff of science-fiction movies. Computer scientists have developed a Photoshop-like tool for video, allowing users to paste audio files into a video and manipulate the subject’s lip movements to depict speeches that never happened, or took place in a different context. The algorithm was developed by researchers at the University of Washington, who claim that the lip-synch technology could improve communication and be a boon for the film industry – for example, by enabling editors to save on reshooting already filmed scenes. But there are obvious concerns that the tool might (umm, will) be used to create deceptive videos or propagate hoaxes. Still, investors like Samsung, Google, Facebook, and Intel see the the new technology’s potential in the realms of artificial intelligence and augmented reality – which have themselves seen lots of new developments this month. Apple is developing augmented reality salsa dance lessons with its new ARKit, which allows aspiring dancers to practice their technique at home, with or without a partner. Bots for poetry and art are producing work that’s competitive with human creations. And neurologists have created an instrument that can be played – wait for it – with your mind. The breakneck pace of bot and AI technologies has sparked discussion of the best practices for using these tools, as well as potential ethical and regulatory guidelines that will need to be implemented as humans and machines increasingly live side-by-side.

Things are looking up for the NEA and NEH. Nearly level funding for the major federal arts and culture agencies has been approved by the House of Representatives appropriations committee. The committee’s proposed insignificant cuts stand in stark contrast to those in President Trump’s budget proposal, which would completely have defunded both agencies. Trump first touted widespread cuts to federal arts and humanities funding in January, which some saw as more of a symbolic gesture than a genuine effort to balance the budget. Nevertheless, a call to action among arts advocacy groups and constituents has put pressure on Congress, which has demonstrated support for the arts from both sides of the aisle. The ultimate fate of the NEA and NEH won’t be known for some time: while the House could vote on the bill as soon as the summer recess ends, it likely won’t reach the Senate until the end of the year. Nevertheless, with the most conservative arm of Congress having already taken its turn, it seems likely at this point that the Endowments are safe for another year.

Arts funding for the 2%. Five years ago, Holly Sidford’s research report “Fusing Arts, Culture, and Social Change” shook the arts funding world to its core, revealing that top 2% of arts organizations (in terms of budget size) received 55% of charitable contributions to the sector. Now, “Not Just Money,” a follow-up study from Sidford’s Helicon Collaborative, reveals that the gap has actually widened among 41,000 arts organizations nationwide, with big-budget institutions increasing their take to 58%. “Not Just Money” further traces the majority of funding to 925 culturally non-specific groups whose work centers around Eurocentric art forms and reaches predominantly white audiences. Helicon reports that communities of color are represented by a quarter of nonprofit arts organizations, but they only get 4% of the funding; meanwhile organizations representing LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, and rural or low-income communities are similarly underserved by funders. The trend raises questions about whether ethnocultural organizations must concentrate efforts on collaboration with bigger institutions in order to remain sustainable, and whether continued efforts to close the gap are actually making a difference. Speaking of such efforts, as part of New York City’s newly released cultural plan – which made diversity, equity, and inclusion a top priority – mayor Bill de Blasio has proposed linking future city funding to cultural institutions’ staff and board demographic makeup. Although de Blasio declined to specify target goals, the move has raised concerns of “class warfare” over arts funding between established institutions and smaller ones in disadvantaged neighborhoods, along with predictable pushback from the conservative press.

Fixing the arts education crisis in Detroit schools. Detroit’s public school board seeks to address a yawning gap in arts instruction in the city’s public schools, of which nearly half offer no formal education in music or visual arts. Detroit’s decline in arts education stems, in part, from the public school system’s exclusion from the city’s reorganization after filing for bankruptcy. (The situation is not restricted to Detroit: In 2012 a reported 108,000 students across Michigan were lacking arts education despite the State Board of Education’s mandate that students earn at least one arts credit to graduate high school.) After Detroit’s new superintendent Nikolai Vitti started in June, a freshly elected school board has allocated $500,000 for Vitti to hire art and music teachers who will travel between schools and begin to fill the gap, which is most prominent in elementary and middle schools.

Separation of church and retail? Controversy surrounding Washington, D.C.’s proposed Museum of the Bible has come to a head regarding the museum’s Green Collection. Scholars have long expressed concerns about the Green family, which began acquiring extraordinary numbers of biblical artifacts in 2009. The evangelical Christian family also owns Hobby Lobby, a U.S. chain of retail arts and craft stores, which received shipments containing ancient clay cuneiform tablets in 2010 as packages marked “tile samples.” The artifacts have now been seized as part of a federal investigation claiming that the items were smuggled from historical sites in Iraq. Hobby Lobby’s failure to verify the artifacts’ origins means the company is facing a hefty $3 million fine, on top of relinquishing a majority of the 5,500 pieces, which were bought for $1.6 million. Controversy is not new to Hobby Lobby, which in 2014 won a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the company’s right to refuse contraception coverage to full-time employees, but the new probe also casts a cloud over the Museum of the Bible – for which Steve Green sits as chairman of the board. Museum leaders claim they were not aware they were smuggling artifacts into the country, despite obtaining legal advice from an expert in cultural properties law warning against the 2010 purchase.

MUSICAL CHAIRS / COOL JOBS:

• Ted Russell has been appointed associate director of arts strategy and ventures at the Kenneth Rainin Foundation in Oakland, CA.
• Karen Mittelman has been appointed director of the Vermont Arts Council. Mittelman was previously at the National Endowment for the Humanities.
• The Robert W. Deutsch Foundation has appointed Jessica Solomon as its new senior program officer overseeing arts and culture.
• Arts research and strategy consultant Victoria Plettner-Saunders has joined WolfBrown as principal.
• The International Federation of Arts Councils and Cultural Agencies has appointed Magdalena Moreno Mujica as executive director.
• Dennis Scholl, former vice president of the Knight Foundation, has moved to Miami’s ArtsCenter as its new president and chief executive.
• Former NEH chairman William Adams and Spencer Foundation’s Michael McPherson have been appointed senior fellows at the Mellon Foundation.
• The arts management program at George Mason University has announced a new director: alum Aimee Fullman.
• New York magazine has named theater director Sara Holdren as its lead theater critic.
• DataArts seeks a new president and CEO.
• Dance/USA is accepting applications for director of programs through August 18.
• The Glorya Kaufman School of Dance at USC is seeking a part-time professor specializing in Dance Leadership.

NEW RESEARCH OF NOTE:

• Consumers are spending more on the arts, according to data collected between 2000 and 2014 by the Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account. The trend is particularly strong for opera and musical theater.
• Research by British publication The Stage indicated a nine-to-one ratio of male to female writers in books, lyrics, or musical scores across musicals presented in the West End over the last decade. Howlround looked at designers and directors within the League of Resident Theatres and similarly found a staggering gender gap in all areas except costume design.
• On the heels of the successful Wonder Woman film, a new report analyzes the gender expression and representation of female comic book characters.
• In the UK, jobs in creative industries are growing as a faster-than-average pace compared to the general workforce.
• A data analysis from Know Your Own Bone suggests Generation X citizens and Millennials will not “grow into” caring about arts and culture as much as previous generations.
• R&B and hip-hop are the top music genres in the U.S. this year, while classical music registers last with just 1% of sales so far. Research in the Journal of Popular Music Education has tried to get to the bottom of why millennials aren’t into classical music, citing length of concerts, restrained audience behavior, and lack of emotional attachment as barriers to appreciation.
• New York City is still king for artists, says a CityLab report, but artists are increasingly moving out of neighborhoods traditionally considered to be “artsy.” With work space at a premium, some artists are looking to school facilities as a potential resource.
• A report from the Creative Industries Federation offers policy recommendations on how governments can provide support to the creative freelance economy.
• Results for All recently published the Global Landscape Review, which aims to understand approaches governments take in using data to make decisions.
• New online tools provide insight on the arts and culture sector. GEOLOOM co>map visualizes cultural activity in Baltimore, neighborhood by neighborhood, and the National Center for Arts Research has created a visitor-to-staff index for comparing performance among similar sized organizations.
• Two reports looking at creative placemaking as a driver for community development show promising results in Cleveland and Washington, D.C.
• A new monitor provides comparable data on European cities across multiple domains related to culture and creativity. Meanwhile, an index published by the Joint Research Centre identifies the ideal European locale as a combination of eight cities.
• A new report makes a case for funding amateur choirs at the same level as sports teams.
• Survey data confirms that Australians place high personal and societal value on the arts.
• The Asia Europe Foundation has released the Indonesia edition of its series of guides looking at the connection between art and sustainability in Asian countries.
• A report of pilot projects by the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation evaluates a framework by which social issues might be positively impacted by indigenous artists’ work.
• Digital tools are reducing opportunities for kids to create original artwork. The trend is not exclusive to the U.S. and recently supported by research from the Netherlands.
• A University of London study reports that one in three professional musicians have suffered from an eating disorder at some point in their lives.
• Two years in the making, the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing has released findings on the potential benefits of arts participation.
• The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies has published its annual report forecasting arts funding at the state level.
• GrantCraft’s paper on theoretical frameworks shaping private foundations offers tools for aligning purpose, public benefit, and action.
• In a survey of 3,200 donors, women gave differently and more generously than men.
• A Grantmakers in the Arts report offers proposals on how funders might reshape their strategies to better reflect the cultural landscape in the 21st century.
• Writing for the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Megan O’Neil and Joshua Hatch’s analysis of 1600 organizations shows that many big nonprofits are stockpiling cash, with more money coming in than goes out.
• Art hung above eye-level is perceived by most to be aesthetically inspiring.
• Surprise! Democrats and Republicans don’t agree on whether the impact of the news media on society is positive or negative.

“Masterpiece,” by Roy Lichtenstein (1962). Photo by Lindsey Davis, via Creative Commons

Art collector and patron Agnes Gund has sold the 1962 artwork “Masterpiece” by Roy Lichtenstein for $150 million – the bulk of which she’ll use to fund the creation of the Art for Justice Fund. In addition to supporting organizations working toward criminal justice reform, the Art for Justice Fund will finance a select number of artistic initiatives aimed at addressing mass incarceration. Currently president emerita of the Museum of Modern Art, Gund will work with the Ford Foundation – whom she’s partnered with to administer the fund – in hopes of encouraging other art collectors to follow her lead and doubling her $100 million seed money over the next five years. The peer pressure appears to be working: at least four additional “founding donors” are selling some of their holdings to contribute to the fund. Among them is Laurie M. Tisch, a chairwoman of the board at the Whitney Museum, who donated $500,000 to the Fund with proceeds from a Max Weber painting.

Snapchat gets in the original content game. The media giant Time Warner recently signed a $100 million deal to produce content exclusively for the social media platform Snapchat. Running no more than seven minutes, the made-for-Snapchat mini-shows are designed to assure Snapchat’s advertisers that its users are spending plenty of time engaging with the platform, while the benefit to Time Warner is unfettered access to market its other holdings – including HBO, Turner and Warner Bros. – on the app. Time Warner’s $85 billion deal with AT&T last year is expected to go through by the end of 2017 (despite President Trump’s intentions of blocking the deal), meaning Snapchat is potentially getting in bed with the largest media company in the nation. The deal is yet another example of service providers following Netflix and Hulu’s leads by developing original content for streaming (see also: Apple, The Onion, Sony and Buzzfeed).

Shakespearean depiction of Trump prompts outrage and debate. A recent performance of Julius Caesar depicting the authoritarian Roman dictator in the image of Donald Trump has sparked a wide-ranging debate about free speech in the arts. The show was staged in Central Park by New York’s Public Theater, whose artistic director Oskar Eustis, among others, defended the provocative production as a commentary on current events. Despite theater critics’ appeals to free speech rights and reminders that the play does not condone assassination, right-wing activists have vehemently opposed the Caesar/Trump parallel, rushing the stage at a performance, threatening other theater companies performing Shakespeare (even ones that had nothing to do with Julius Caesar), and speaking out online in conservative-leaning media. In the wake of the controversy, corporate sponsors Bank of America and Delta Airlines withdrew their funding of the production (though a 2012 production of Julius Caesar funded by Delta in Minneapolis depicting a likeness of president Obama as Caesar got to keep the check), while the City of New York and the lead sponsor Jerome L. Greene Foundation have stood by Eustis and the Public Theater.

Malaysian film company in hot water over money laundering scandal. Associates of the film production company Red Granite are under investigation for embezzlement after allegedly diverting $4.5 billion from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) fund. Red Granite was co-founded by Jho Low and Riza Aziz, who is stepson of Malaysia’s prime minister Najib Razak. Razak established the 1MDB fund to promote economic development in the country, and several top officials in the government are accused of participating in the scheme by stashing its money in offshore accounts. As part of the investigation, the U.S. Justice Department is seeking the rights to two films funded by Red Granite: Dumb and Dumber To and Daddy’s Home. Additionally, Leonardo DiCaprio has agreed to hand over three pieces from his art collection (including a $3.2 million Picasso) that are tied up in the scandal, which had been gifted to DiCaprio after the production of another Red Granite film, The Wolf of Wall Street. DiCaprio had intended to auction the artwork for his charity, but instead they are now en route to the FBI, which is attempting to recover an additional $100 million worth of art thought to be acquired by Jho Low with 1MDB money. Works by Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, Yves Klein and Roy Lichtenstein are among those on the list.

Facebook hate speech rules are under scrutiny. Facebook’s stringent policies regarding images – specifically its hard line against nudity – have long been a topic of conversation in arts circles, with artists and journalists whose work depicts nakedness or content otherwise deemed offensive by Facebook unable to present their work on the world’s biggest social media platform. Now, a ProPublica investigation of internal documents at Facebook is shedding new light on the company’s hate speech policies. Giving equal weight to all races, ethnicities and religions in defining what constitutes “protected groups,” Facebook’s policy is an attempt to create a more unilateral approach that might be perceived as fair across the world, rather than guided by the norms around free speech and political expression prevalent in the United States. But these rules can counterintuitively favor white men (because race and gender are both “protected” categories) over marginalized groups who may be more likely to experience threatening or inflammatory speech online. To make matters worse, content is reviewed by actual people, and therefore subject to human biases; many exceptions to the rules – such as when then-candidate Donald Trump got a pass on exclusionary statements about Muslims, a violation of Facebook’s written policy, at the behest of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg – have been granted. Another concern: Facebook’s lack of transparency about what is and isn’t allowed on the platform presents potential barriers to artists, who rely on free access to the network’s two billion users as one of their most effective tools for promoting and selling their work.

MUSICAL CHAIRS / COOL JOBS:

• Upheaval continues in the print publication world: after a late-May announcement that the staff and board of the arts-focused publication Brooklyn Rail would be dissolved, longtime publisher/editor Phong Bui says it will relaunch with a bigger staff and no planned break in the publication schedule. Meanwhile, publisher Louise Blouin – whose publications include Art + Auction and Modern Painters – has terminated all of her full-time employees, giving them the option to re-apply as contract freelancers.
• Christine Morse has announced her retirement as CEO of Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies. She will stay on as the organization’s board chair and will be CEO Emeritus through January 2018. The foundation’s current president, Paul Busch, assumed the CEO role on July 1.
• The president of New York’s F.B. Heron Foundation, Clara Miller, will step down in December.
• Cleveland-area arts leader Tom Schorgl recently announced he will retire from the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture ‏at the end of the year.
• DataArts president and CEO Beth Tuttle announced she will step down from her role October 6 to become president of the American Horticultural Society.
• The executive director of Alternate ROOTS, Carlton Turner, is likewise stepping down to lead the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production.
• The Montana Arts Council announced Tatiana Gant as its new executive director. Gant was previously executive director for the Illinois Arts Council.
• Kansas City’s Mid-America Arts Alliance has secured its interim director Todd Stein for the permanent position. Stein has filled the director role since Mary Kennedy’s retirement in August 2016.
• SueEllen Kroll has been named the Barr Foundation’s program officer for arts & creativity.
• Vanessa Camarena-Arredondo joins the Oakland-based Akonadi Foundation as its new program officer.
• Louise Bernard, former director of exhibitions at the New York Public Library, has been named museum director for Chicago’s future Obama Presidential Center.
• American University is seeking Arts Management faculty for the 2017-18 academic year.

NEW RESEARCH OF NOTE:

• The latest Arts & Economic Prosperity report is out from Americans for the Arts, estimating that arts-based nonprofits generated $166.3 billion in spending in 2015. (Read Createquity’s analysis of an earlier edition of Arts & Economic Prosperity here.)
• A new Creative Artists Agency study indicates diverse casts are good for box office revenues.
• According to a report by Themed Entertainment Association and an engineering firm called AECOM, which ranks public attractions worldwide, the National Museum of China in Beijing was the world’s most-visited museum in 2016.
• Neighborhood walkability is a factor contributing to the success of large arts organizations, according to a study published in Economic Development Quarterly. Renting gallery spaces in affordable neighborhoods widens the gap between smaller, independent organizations due to a lack of foot traffic, the study says.
• While New York and Los Angeles remain arts meccas in the U.S., arts and culture sectors in southern and western states are growing at a faster pace. A report by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy and Grantmakers for Southern Progress looks at opportunities in which philanthropic investments may be used to preserve local culture and build wealth in marginalized communities.
• A Pew report says kids are going to the library, with millennials leading the way.
• Research conducted at Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum analyzes differences in how adults and children view works of art.
• Studies in California and New York City have found focusing on academics in pre-K yields stronger students overall, with no significant social or emotional consequences. In response, New York Times writer Dana Goldstein argues that play-based learning enhances, rather than competes with, academic rigor.
• An analysis published by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences indicates a significant drop in humanities majors at four-year colleges, while the number of liberal arts degrees at community colleges has increased. Data from the United Kingdom’s Department of Education also indicates that graduates obtaining arts degrees go on to earn the least of any other major.
• High degrees of “donor governance,” in which donors have control over how their money is used, has been shown to shift organizational focus more toward programming, and may strengthen and stabilize nonprofit arts organizations.
• Charitable donations in the U.S. grew to $390 billion in 2016, according to a report by Giving USA. Data analysis showed the third straight year of record-breaking growth, though the 1.4% increase in giving last year reflects a slight slowdown of the recent upward trend.
• The 2016 Columbus Survey profiling more than 250 community foundations is now available as part of a new interactive platform.
• The Center for Effective Philanthropy surveyed 150 program officers at foundations to gain better understanding of their critical role in foundations and non-profits.
• A study conducted by the Council on Foundations found persistent gaps in age, gender, race, and ethnicity throughout the philanthropic sector. And a report from the Building Movement Project and the Annie E. Casey Foundation indicates that people of color aspiring to jobs in nonprofit leadership face unique stressors and challenges, including being held to higher standards than white candidates with similar education.
• A study conducted by CUNY students taking an “Arts in NYC” course claims that 80.5% of artists represented by NYC’s top 45 galleries are white. Meanwhile, the Actors’ Equity Association reports that women and minority actors and stage managers have fewer available jobs and receive lower pay than their white male counterparts.
• A new Association of Art Museum Directors survey breaks down average salaries among museum employees, ranging from museum directors to security and volunteer management.
• According to paper published in the journal Human Relations, dual leadership can alleviate tension between artistic and economic goals in arts organizations, but the complexities that come with multiple directors can trickle down the organizational hierarchy.
• A report commissioned by the Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre blames a lack of professionalism among theater workers on poor work environments, low pay, and a “damaging culture of overwork.”
• Media strategist Tracey Friesen’s new book, Story Money Impact, compiles case studies and interview data to suggest best practices for using media to effect change and impact in the philanthropic sector.
• IFACCA wraps up the 2016 World Summit on Arts and Culture with a revised discussion paper on 21st century cultural leadership.
• A new report out of the UK, “Towards Cultural Democracy,” strategizes how to frame policies promoting increased public engagement with arts and culture.
• Researchers publishing in Cultural Trends caution against Arts Council England’s use of quality metrics in the granting processes.
• Netflix and Amazon are predicted to outperform U.K. cinema box offices by 2020, says the consulting firm PwC.
• A study analyzing the “long-tail effect” in smaller publishing companies indicates that e-commerce could be a beneficial way to extend the shelf-life of niche products.
• A report of a new study by Robert W. Crandall argues that net neutrality “isn’t as big a deal as you might think.” The claim is based on the finding that recent public-utility regulations on broadband services had effects that were short-lived and/or minimal.

“I am the walrus” by Steven Coutts | via Flickr (Creative Commons)

A controversial editorial published by the Writers’ Union of Canada’s magazine Write has resulted in resignations from the author of the piece, Hal Niedzviecki, and an editorial board member, as well as a formal apology from the union and statement from its Equity Task Force. Niedzviecki had made the interesting choice to publish an editorial brushing off the harms of cultural appropriation and calling for a tongue-in-cheek “Appropriation Prize” as the introduction to an issue of the magazine dedicated to the voices of indigenous Canadian writers. Niedzviecki’s prize would have encouraged writers to reach outside their personal experiences to “imagine other peoples, other cultures, other identities.” The backlash was swift, but many top members of Canada’s literary community defended Niedzviecki’s statements on Twitter – which in turn led to editor-in-chief Jonathan Kay’s resignation from The Walrus, a highly esteemed literary magazine. Debates about cultural appropriation and representation in the arts world appear to be only intensifying in recent months. Also in May, the Walker Arts Center in Minnesota decided to work with Native American elders to dismantle a sculpture by a white artist evoking the hanging of 38 Dakota men in 1862 that it had started to install in a public park, following a public outcry that echoed the strong opposition to a white artist’s painting of Emmett Till’s casket showcased at the Whitney Biennial earlier this year. Meanwhile in the theater world, the Edward Albee estate’s decision to block the casting of a black actor in a production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is likewise stirring widespread contention.

Terrorists make arts and culture targets the new normal. The May 22 suicide bombing killing 22 and injuring more than 100 people outside an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England signaled a direct attack on young people enjoying a cultural event and engaging in leisure activities. On the heels of the one-year anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, Florida, the Manchester atrocity came just days before terrorist attacks – with responsibility claimed by ISIS – on an ice cream parlor in Baghdad and unassuming pedestrians on London Bridge. The attacks point to a larger trend: the desire to bring chaos to cultural products and turn places of joy into tragedy. It remains to be seen whether and how heightened security measures at live events and heritage sites will alter the ways in which people engage in arts and culture.

Federal arts agencies get a boost – for now. Despite the potential threats of federal slashing of agencies such as the National Endowments for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Corporation for Public Broadcasting that made headlines in January, February, and March, arts organizations can breathe a small sigh of relief: the final federal spending bill for fiscal year 2017 spares the CPB and actually increases the budgets for both the NEA and NEH through September. The Trump administration had sought to cut the current year’s budget as well as next year’s, but those recommendations met opposition on both sides of the aisle, with several key Republicans among those fighting to maintain arts funding. Nevertheless, with President Trump’s proposed 2018 budget officially released this month. Entitled “A New Foundation for American Greatness,” the budget, if enacted, would take deep bites out of funding for the arts, education, scientific exploration and scholarly research – it remains to be seen whether the future will be sunny on Sesame Street.

Seattle’s art tax goes to the ballot box. King County residents will vote in August on whether or not to raise sales taxes in an initiative intended to fund more than 300 arts organizations across the region. Modeled after the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District in metropolitan Denver and other tax initiatives in places like St. Louis and Cleveland, the bill imposes an additional 0.1% sales tax hike, yielding approximately $67 million a year toward Seattle-based arts and culture. Amid concerns that the arts would get a bump over critical issues such as homelessness, poverty, and the criminal justice system, council members ultimately altered the measure to ensure the county’s outlying areas see an equal share of the money in an effort to encourage Washingtonians to start and maintain arts organizations in rural locations.

New rights and protections for NYC and Hollywood freelancers. On May 15, New York became the first U.S. city to enact a law aimed at shoring up protections for freelance workers. The Freelance Isn’t Free Act places harsh penalties on employers who withhold payment from independent contractors or fail to pay on time or in full. The law rose out of an extensive 2015 report created by the Freelancers Union illustrating the impact of freelancers and the high percentage of workers who have struggled to receive payment. Under the new law, New York freelancers stiffed by their employers can file a complaint with the city, which will intervene on their behalf. The news follows the announcement earlier in the month of a new labor agreement between the Writers Guild of America and Hollywood studios which was widely seen as a win for struggling television and movie writers.

MUSICAL CHAIRS / COOL JOBS:

• Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities William D. Adams unexpectedly announced his resignation on May 22. Deputy Chair Margaret Plympton will serve as acting chair until a replacement is named, which could be a while since that replacement would have to be nominated by the Trump administration.
• Publisher Françoise Nyssen has been appointed the new Culture Minister of France.
• Jaime Dempsey will be the new Executive Director at the Arizona Commission on the Arts in August. Previously deputy director of the agency, she succeeds Robert Booker, who will retire after 40 years in the arts.
• Rose Ann Cleveland will retire from the D.C.–based Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation in October.
• Executive director Eloise Damrosch of Portland’s Regional Arts & Culture Council will retire at the end of June.
• The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving announced its new president, Jay Williams, will begin in July.
• Motion Picture Association of America chief Chris Dodd will leave his post five months before his contract ends, to be replaced by Charles Rivkin. Rivkin was an assistant Secretary of State for economic and business affairs during the Obama administration.
• Juilliard has named Damian Woetzel as its seventh president. The former New York City Ballet star was previously the director of the Aspen Institute Arts Program.
• The New York Review of Books named Ian Buruma as its new editor after the death of founding editor Robert B. Silvers.

NEW RESEARCH OF NOTE:

• A recent study from Berlin promotes incentives for donors, with results indicating that those provided with a certificate stating the quality of the charitable product or organization gave approximately 10 percent higher contributions. However, a study by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy indicates that President Trump’s proposed tax reforms could reduce charitable giving by as much as $13.1 billion in the United States.
• The first ever World Cities Culture Finance Report analyzes how cities fund cultural activity. Results indicate that Paris, Moscow and London spend the most on arts and culture.
• A new report analyzes results from a pilot program by the National Endowment for the Arts aimed at increasing access to arts education in rural areas. Access is proving to be key: A deeper analysis of the 2016 National Assessment of Educational Progress in the Arts indicates that access and opportunity take precedence over achievement in the arts.
• A policy briefing from the Brookings Institute provides a framework for implementing the goals of the Every Student Succeeds Act and measuring success in arts education.
• Aesthetic Perspectives is a new framework produced by Americans for the Arts’s Animating Democracy program. It establishes 11 attributes that may be used to describe and assess creative work intersecting community engagement and social justice.
• Across the pond, the UK’s Department for Culture, Media & Sport published an in-depth review of Arts Council England’s priorities and positioning. A House of Lords report indicates that theater patronage in the UK is “still dominated by rich, white people.” These findings are supported by additional survey data indicating a 7 percent drop in participation among Asian audiences across all artforms in the UK over the last 10 years. And MyCake founder Sarah Thelwall completed her fourth annual ‏report on the Arts Council’s grantees, analyzing income sources across creative organizations, and differences between small and large organizations.
• George Windsor and Cath Sleeman have completed an analysis of job advertisements in the country to determine what skills creatives need to be successful professionals in the UK.
• A new publication explores the current status of urban cultural policy at local levels across Europe and outlines the challenges that lie ahead.
• People from working-class backgrounds tend to view themselves as relatively more interdependent with and connected to others, according to new research.
• Some librarians really hate those cute “Little Free Libraries.” Research indicates that they are most present in upper-middle class, white neighborhoods – areas that already have increased access to public libraries.
• Apparently rainy days motivate people to visit museums, but more so if storms ease up in the afternoon. And though tourism and leisure are many visitors’ primary goals when visiting museums, measurable learning occurs even when it’s not their intention.
• UNESCO-funded initiatives safeguarding and rebuilding indigenous architecture in Vanuatu following the 2015 Tropical Cyclone Pam are evaluated in this final report.
• New data indicates that automation will affect jobs in Las Vegas and California’s Inland Empire more than the so-called “Rust Belt.”
• A visual interpretation of research spanning three years, 75,000 concerts and 7,000 bands analyzes the chances of a band “making it” big in New York City. The odds? Roughly 0.3 percent.
• The fiction books you read can shape your world view and tilt your moral compass, according to newly published research in the journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Poetry may also have a profound effect: scientists researched physiological responses to “this is your brain on poetry” and discovered that responses differ from those of music or movies.
• Research suggests a gap between fact and myth in what music teachers believe about music and the brain.
• Last but certainly not least, is the Biebs responsible for killing the good, old fashioned love song? According to the journal Sexuality & Culture, hit songs are more likely than ever to be all about sex.

“Variations on a windows theme,” near the Ford Foundation in New York City | Photo: O Palsson via Flikr (Creative Commons)

Among major foundations, impact investment is gathering new steam. The Ford Foundation announced it will commit up to $1 billion over the next ten years toward mission-related investments, the biggest commitment of its kind by a private foundation, in an effort to use part of its $12 billion endowment to impact social conditions. Initial investments will focus on poverty-reduction goals such as affordable housing and access to financial services in emerging markets. Ford is the highest-profile of a number of recent wins for impact investing advocates; in the last several months, the F.B. Heron Foundation achieved 100 percent of its mission goal for anti-poverty investments and is now committed to more “connective investing”; and the Nathan Cummings Foundation has brought in two new experts to guide its own impact investing. Though these developments are in alignment with data showing a steady rise in impact investing, it remains to be seen whether other big foundations will follow Ford’s lead. The arts have been relative latecomers to the impact investing party (perhaps because of slow returns on investments in the arts sector), but the heretofore lonely efforts of UpStart Co-Lab and Artspace have recently been joined by Fractured Atlas, whose CEO Adam Huttler recently announced a don’t-call-it-a-sabbatical to focus on the Exponential Creativity Fund, a $10–20 million venture capital initiative funding entrepreneurs who are using exponential technologies to enhance human creativity.

Culture UK extends arts participation to the small screen. The United Kingdom’s four arts councils – Arts Council England, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, the Arts Council of Wales, and Creative Scotland – have partnered with the BBC for a $4 million initiative to commission and broadcast arts events on the network and online. The partnership will also produce three live arts festivals per year, each based on a common theme. This year highlights poetry and opera, with a TV adaptation of the Brexit-themed “My Country; a Work in Progress” at the forefront, and works celebrating the centennial of women’s suffrage planned for 2018. It may be a strategic move for Culture UK to focus on British themes while pushing equal representation across the four countries; the BBC faces new regulatory oversight from the UK government in response to complaints among pro-Brexit conservatives about the network’s alleged impartiality and commercial interests. Meanwhile arts organizations – who were predominantly opposed to Brexit last summer – laud Culture UK’s increased channels of access to arts participation for folks who may not otherwise have opportunities to take part.

European museums pressured to present nationalist versions of history. This spring, the highly anticipated opening of Poland’s Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk was closely followed by news that courts had given a green light to the right-wing government to take control of the museum, which culture minister Piotr Glinski claims will be merged with a not-yet-built museum focused on the Polish perspective of the war. Many see the merger, which included the ousting of director Pawel Machcewicz, as an attempt to shape the historical narrative to center on Polish citizens under the nationalist Law and Justice Party. Meanwhile in nearby Turkey, president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan plans a museum dedicated to the failed 2016 coup that resulted in at least 240 deaths. The focus of the proposed $2.7 million museum: the “martyrs and warriors” who defended the attempted overthrow of Erdoğan’s increasingly authoritarian regime. The move coincides with Erdoğan’s recent (and contested) narrow victory in a national referendum granting the president new, sweeping constitutional powers.

Amazon grows its translation business. AmazonCrossing, an arm of the online behemoth, was responsible for 10 percent of English prose translations in 2016 – with an announced infusion of $10 million over five years – marking a spike in translation services since the initiative launched in 2010. Relying on the huge amazon.com database, the service targets titles that are most likely to appeal to general readers than those generated by smaller high-end publishers, helping to fill a niche that many find too expensive to pursue. Thus AmazonCrossing has sparked less criticism than did Amazon’s ventures in brick and mortar bookstores – and in other physical storefronts, further threatening already-weakened department stores and malls. On the flip side of that trend, vacant storefronts and lower rent might represent opportunities for arts organizations to infuse retail therapy with cultural activities above and beyond the mall cineplex.

Tax breaks to boost music and film industries move through the legislative process. A bill supporting Georgia’s music industry has sailed through the state’s legislature with bipartisan support and now awaits Governor Nathan Deal’s signature. The Georgia Music Investment Act aims to generate jobs, attract musicians to the state and keep them there by providing tax breaks for professionals recording albums and film scores, as well as bands who kick off tours in the state; it’s modeled after a similar bill credited with boosting Georgia’s now-booming film industry. In other states, a Montana bill awarding tax credits to filmmakers passed the state’s House of Representatives despite doubts it would make it to the floor, and New York’s statewide Film Production Tax Credit program received a three-year extension, in an effort to ensure that the uptick in TV and movies produced in New York City and across the state continue. Yet for creators, the news is not all positive. Minimum spending limits and increased income tax rates may edge out local artists working on small budgets. And as Createquity reported in February, movie producers chasing incentives are straining Hollywood, with an increasing number of competing locales drawing production out of the U.S. altogether.

MUSICAL CHAIRS / COOL JOBS:

• Rene Rodriguez – the Miami Herald’s last remaining full-time film critic, having covered the genre for the paper since 1995 – recently moved to the paper’s real estate beat.
• Creative placemaking industry leader Jason Schupbach departs the National Endowment for the Arts to head the Design School at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.
• The Utah Division of Arts & Museums has named a new director, Victoria Panella Bourns, who for 12 years directed arts programming at the Salt Lake County Zoo.
• Australia’s International Federation of Arts Councils and Cultural Agencies (IFACCA) is seeking a new executive director to replace Sarah Gardner, who has filled the seat since the agency’s founding in 2001.
• The William Penn Foundation is in search of a program director for Creative Communities, responsible for leading a grantmaking team focused on arts and cultural organizations, arts education, and public spaces in the city of Philadelphia.

NEW RESEARCH OF NOTE:

• The Art Newspaper’s annual surveys revealed a marked shift toward contemporary art at U.S. museums in recent years, with 44 percent of exhibits emphasizing work produced since 1970, rather than historic shows. And a newly published analysis of every piece of art acquired by the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art categorizes the collection by type, size, country of origin and year acquired. The data came out about the same time the Met announced it was releasing 375,000 images of its artwork for free, unrestricted use under a Creative Commons Zero license.
• Modeled after the carbon footprint, a new project assesses urban spaces to give cities a “creative footprint” as a measure of cultural impact.
• A series of studies by Columbia University indicate that maintaining intercultural romantic relationships can boost creativity. And frequent readers make the best lovers, say the users of the My Bae dating app. Academic research supports the claim, stating reading improves brain function, empathy and reductions in depression and dementia.
• Social dance has a stronger anti-aging effects on cognition than walking or light stretching, according to research out of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In a randomized controlled trial, participants in a social dance intervention were the only group that did not experience loss of white matter after six months, despite no apparent cognitive impairment.
• Data from the League of American Orchestras confirms homogeneity among board members and organizational leadership, but notes that orchestras with smaller budgets tend to be more diverse.
• Researchers Christina Starmans, Mark Sheskin, and Paul Bloom say that economic unfairness resulting from inequity bothers people more than inequality itself.
• Artfinder, an online website that sells artwork by independent artists, claims its sales are at a 50/50 balance comparing men and women, while men still dominate sales of high-end art at auction. In the U.S., men also continue to outnumber women in media, though the gender gap is narrowing.
• Evidence suggests a voting bias in Euro-zone song competitions, with voters gravitating toward culturally similar contestants. The same appears to be true for national TV music competitions within a particular country.
• Research indicates that for cultural institutions, dedicated mobile apps may not be worth the investment in terms of visitor usage and satisfaction.
• A case study on non-profit organization The Princess of Asturias Foundation illustrates how nonprofits can efficient despite functioning outside the market.
• Updated data from the Arts & Cultural Production Satellite Account (ACPSA), a collaboration of the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, tracks U.S. arts and culture jobs by state. Meanwhile, Nesta in the U.K. analyzed job postings to identify the skill needs for creative jobs.
• The NEA also summarized research based on the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA). The Nation’s Report Card indicates that 63 percent of 8th graders took music classes, and 42 percent took art in schools in 2016, but out-of-school arts activities have trended downward since 2008. Across the pond, a report titled “Every Child: equality and diversity in arts and culture with, by and for children and young people” provides insight about arts participation and the diversity profile of arts and culture in Britain.
• A paper from Southern Methodist University’s National Center for Arts Research indicates that 42 percent of operating expenses at arts organizations are allocated to personnel, with wages growing faster than the pace of inflation between 2011 and 2015. The authors make no claim, however, as to whether or not artists are making a living wage.
• Golden oldies from even numbered decades (1940s, ’60s, and ’80s) are more likely to be favorites among young listeners, according to psychologists at Cornell University.
• If you had any doubts, Nielsen figures confirm that music streaming is still on the rise, up 35.2 percent compared to the first quarter in 2016. The same goes for podcasts, with a 4 percent increase in listeners since just last year, according to an annual report from Edison Research and Triton Digital. Despite the rapidly climbing use of digital technology, data indicates that more young Brits are visiting libraries, though it can’t say whether it’s for books or free wifi for music and podcast streaming.

Digital Painting Caricature of Paul Ryan by David Lacasse | via Creative Commons

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as Obamacare, will live to see another day after the American Health Care Act (AHCA, a.k.a. Trumpcare or Ryancare) failed to make it to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote March 24. Despite the president’s campaign promise to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, Republicans who had spent eight years vehemently opposing the ACA could not come to an agreement on a bill that would appease enough conservative GOP Congressmen to secure passage. The kibosh placed on the AHCA means the survival of the status quo, at least for the time being. It remains to be seen whether the administration will take any measures to save the current system from “exploding,” as Trump termed it. The longer Obamacare (or some form of it) survives, the bigger of a win it is for self-employed artists and creative workers, many of whom have depended on Obamacare to gain access to health insurance. (See Createquity’s coverage of the original passage of the Affordable Care Act here.) For now, Trump seems disinclined to try again with a new healthcare bill, preferring to move on to new legislation including tax reform and infrastructure.

Trump follows through on threats to cultural agencies. In a widely anticipated move, the Trump administration’s initial budget proposal cuts large swaths of the arts and culture sector, fully defunding several key federal agencies including the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB, which funds NPR and PBS), the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and others. We shared our thinking on this development earlier this month, but it’s hard not to notice that the NEA and CPB tend to suck up all the energy in this particular debate. In reality, the NEH and IMLS are significant in their own right, with IMLS’s budget greater than either Endowment. As with most policy questions, the issues here are not black and white: in an op-ed for the Washington Post, for example, CPB board member (and Obama appointee) Howard Husock questions whether federal subsidies on television and radio remain necessary in a totally different media landscape that now creates plenty of content for audiences that, 50 years ago when the CPB was formed, had few to no options. People can and do make similar arguments about whether public libraries, museums, and other cultural institutions are still needed in the digital age, but we tend to side with Cosmo on that one. Ironically, some of the greatest contributions of agencies like the NEH, IMLS, and NEA are in research, which is useful in determining whether such institutions are remaining relevant. In any case, Congress ultimately must sign off on the new budget, and while it may not vote strictly down party lines, state agencies, philanthropic organizations and arts organizations are bracing for a blow, with rural, red states standing to lose the most if Trump gets his way.

Borrowers “cannot rely on” student loan forgiveness. For the 550,000 people working in public service, the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program provides an “out” to student loan debt. Or at least that’s what they’ve been led to expect. The program promises to cover student loan debt for individuals who work at least ten years in the public sector for national, state, or local government agencies; service fields such as public school teachers, police and firefighters; or non-profit organizations, many of which serve the arts. While the program especially benefits professionals such as lawyers working as public defenders, it has also enrolled many artists who work in the public sector and have likewise amassed considerable debt. But enrollees got a jolt when, on March 23, the Department of Education issued a legal filing indicating that borrowers enrolled in the program may no longer qualify for loan forgiveness, and that the offer may be rescinded at any time. This filing comes on the cusp of the program’s tenth anniversary in October of this year, when the first wave of qualified workers can file claims after the required ten years of service. While legal battles over loan forgiveness will likely unfold case-by-case, the development has raised red flags among student-loan advocacy groups. For his part, President Trump campaigned on the idea of an income-based repayment program for everyone, whereas the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program requires consistent full-time employment with an organization for ten years (which is perhaps less beneficial for artists given the growing freelance economy).

Disney refuses to go back in the closet for Malaysia. The new live-action version of the beloved 1991 animated film Beauty and the Beast has received a whole lot of press, in part because it’s the first Disney film to include an openly gay character. The reaction has been mixed, with LGBTQ activists questioning the choice of Gaston’s bumbling sidekick LeFou as its only LGBT character ever, while anti-gay activists at home and abroad are either refusing to screen the film or asking for amendments to the “gay moment.” In Malaysia, Disney postponed the film’s release in response to film censors’ request that they cut out the “scenes promoting homosexuality,” which is punishable by law in the country. But befitting a Disney movie, this story has a happy ending … kind of. Shortly after Disney announced it would not alter the film, the Film Censorship Board of Malaysia relented and will let the four minutes of gay stuff slide, but you’ve got to be 13 years old to get in to see it.

Destruction of cultural heritage is now a war crime. While the rise of ISIS and the Syrian war have taken their toll on precious art, artifacts and global heritage sites in a culturally significant region of the world, donors and the United Nations are fighting for conservation – with dollars and legislation (if that’s any kind of reassurance in a war zone). The UN was already focused on addressing the looting and an international trafficking ring of artifacts from war-torn areas of the Middle East into Europe and the US, but upped the ante significantly on March 24 when the UN Security Council declared that intentional destruction of cultural artifacts and heritage sites could be punished as a war crime. While a welcome measure, it remains to be seen whether this move will successfully prevent the total demolition of culturally relevant sites such as Palmyra as the conflict continues.

MUSICAL CHAIRS / COOL JOBS:

• The New York Times announced that Jesse Green (formerly of New York magazine) will fill the vacancy left by Charles Isherwood on May 1 as a co-chief theater critic with Ben Brantley. Isherwood, who was suddenly fired by the Times last month, is reportedly moving to Broadway News, a new online source spearheaded by the daily theater newsletter service Broadway Briefing.
• The New Yorker hired Kevin Young as its new poetry editor. He replaces Paul Muldoon, who stepped down March 15 after a decade in the job.
• After 15 years, executive director Pam David will step down from the Walter & Elise Haas Fund at the end of 2017.
• Baltimore’s Mid Atlantic Arts ‏Foundation named Theresa Colvin as its new executive director following the retirement of Alan W. Cooper. Colvin is leaving behind 30 years at the Maryland State Arts Council, 16 of which she served as executive director.
• The Vermont Arts Council’s Alex Aldrich has announced he will step down as executive director after 20+ years at the agency.
• In the past year, three of the six major Hollywood film studios have had a change in leadership involving replacements of top executives.
• London-based charity Julie’s Bicycle has multiple administrative positions available. The organization focuses on creativity as a resource for combatting climate change and promoting environmental sustainability.
• Metris Arts Consulting, a firm based in Easton, PA, and committed to measuring and evaluating arts impact and improve cultural vitality, is seeking a senior researcher.

NEW RESEARCH OF NOTE:

• A number of new studies look at artists’ attitudes about engaging with new technologies and the sharing economy. An arm of the UK-based Nesta analyzes the digital economy across Europe, ranking Bulgarians and Spaniards most optimistic about incorporating new technologies, and Germany the most skeptical. Regarding the arts, Nesta suggests that technology is changing audience expectations at a rapid pace, and adopting new digital technologies could bolster arts organizations toward sustainability and reduce barriers to arts participation. Across the pond in Canada, two extensive reports by Canada Council for the Arts explore how the arts in that country have adapted to, and impacted, the digital era.
• Another Nesta report offers ideas on how a revised, more inclusive definition of “R & D” might better serve creative industries pursuing cultural knowledge.
• The Economist reports that conducting statistical analysis on literature presents a unique set of challenges for researchers, as when one author imitates another, but new and improved computational analysis leading to correct attribution provides useful contextual clues.
• A nationwide study conducted by NYU found that middle-school students of all races are likely to have more positive perceptions of teachers of color than white, non-Hispanic instructors. And Boston-area Brandeis University researchers suggest that white, non-Hispanic Americans likely inherit the economic mobility enjoyed by previous generations under racially discriminatory policies, challenging the “bootstrap theory” that the racial wealth gap results from effort alone. Nevertheless, mid-life mortality rates are rising among white, non-Hispanic people in the U.S. with a high school education or less, mainly attributed to increased “deaths of despair” from drugs, alcohol, and suicide.
• Ghent University researchers found that boys who consider themselves “typical males” or feel pressure to conform to gender stereotypes show less interest in cultural activities.
• In her RAND Graduate School dissertation, Jennifer Novak-Leonard investigates un- and under-explored questions regarding arts participation, noting the significant impact immigrant groups make to the arts and culture sector.
• Music psychologists from Oxford and Exeter have conducted research on the effects of world music. The results indicate that as little as five minutes of listening to West African or Indian pop music can elicit more positive attitudes towards those cultures.
• A UN report by Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights Karima Bennoune analyzes the impact of fundamentalism and extremism on the pursuit of equality and the expression of cultural rights across genders, races, religions, and sexualities.
• A new report from PolicyLink provides examples of policies that utilize arts and culture to help reach goals in communities of color and low-income communities.
• Rising rents and gentrification in London may force 3,500 artists out by 2019, according to a new report by the London Assembly Regeneration Committee.
• A University of Pennsylvania study examines the impact of culture on social wellbeing in NYC, with a focus on micro-cultures existing within urban neighborhoods. The social, economic, and psychological impact of arts and culture were also measured in Minnesota, through a joint effect of Creative Minnesota and Minnesota Citizens for the Arts.
• An evaluation of Aesop’s Dance to Health program suggests that dance specialists can deliver effective health care programs at a lower cost to participants. The report suggests that such programs aimed at fall prevention and social interaction could be a viable source of income to arts organizations.
• Despite decrements in executive function, older adults maintain the ability to detect dissonance in music as they age. Meanwhile, new fMRI data contributes to scientists’ understanding of musical anhedonia, in which a person has no physiological response to music, and finds it boring or distracting.
• Dolby Labs is using EEG and other biofeedback technologies to conduct its own research on physiological responses to TV and films. The results may be used to create media that elicit a particular response.
• In the audience engagement arena, a report by the Audience Agency revealed trends in classical music attendance. Results indicate that most participation in the UK is through single ticket sales, with patrons booking once in a two-year period and gravitating toward lower prices. And WolfBrown recently published a two-year study assessing the audiences of 23 North American choirs; participation and personal relationships with the performers were cited as having a positive impact on audiences.
• Attendance at cultural institutions benefits from marketing to adults rather than families, according to research from the IMPACTS consultancy. Promoting family-friendly events and institutions as “just for kids” can be a barrier to adults, even if they have children. The same group’s surveys suggest the reputation of New York’s Museum of Modern Art got a boost after featuring Muslim artists as a response to the travel ban.
• Museums are presenting more exhibitions than ever as they try to draw in new audiences, focusing on a wider variety of offerings that cater to niche crowds.
• A report by the Motion Picture Association of America indicates that 2016 was a record year for movie theater attendance by African Americans.
• The 2017 edition of the TEFAF Global Arts Market Report indicates art sales are up worldwide, with the Asian art market particularly booming. While purchases continue to away from declining auction houses, private transactions are on the rise.
• Mindless television is thought to make people impressionable and vulnerable. A working paper in Italy questions whether it is a factor in the rise of populist leaders. Meanwhile, in their new book, psychologists Patrick Markey and Christopher Ferguson push back on the belief that video games are responsible violent behavior and an uptick in school shootings.
• According to the Center for Effective Philanthropy, limited life foundations share few similarities regarding spending down strategies apart from a desire to create impact.
• Timothy Ogden weighs the pros and cons of randomized controlled trials in a section of his new book, Experimental Conversations: Perspectives on Randomized Trials in Development Economics.

Demonstrators protest in front of the White House in support of Net Neutrality | Photo by Joseph Gruber via Creative Commons

Just days past his confirmation, Ajit Pai, the Trump administration’s pick for Federal Communications Commission chairman, is already rolling back regulations put in place by the Obama administration in 2015 to protect net neutrality and increase access to the Internet. Changes that have already been enacted include the removal of nine companies from the Lifeline subsidy program, former chairman Tom Wheeler’s initiative which reduced the cost of broadband access for low-income families; the FCC also put a stop to data-security rules enacted in October. These actions signal a rapid-fire change in the FCC’s direction and portend new battles over Internet access. Pai has yet to lay out a specific plan to reverse the FCC’s classification of broadband internet as a utility like electricity or water – one of the landmark decisions under Wheeler’s tenure – but he’s made clear that he sees that move as a “mistake” that has depressed growth in new broadband investment. Some critics consider the loss of a free, open, and affordable Internet one of the biggest potential threats to the arts, favoring corporate interests at best, with the looming possibility of censorship at worst.

Brits attempt to impose quality standards on art. Arts Council England has earmarked £2.7 million to implement Quality Metrics, a controversial process aimed at measuring the quality of art presented to the public by government grantees. Drawn from a series of evaluations by peers, audiences, and the grantees themselves, the system seeks to measure artistic quality across various art forms and types of arts organizations, and will be mandatory for all organizations receiving at least £250,000 per year in operating support from the Arts Council. The plan is set to roll out despite many concerns raised following an independent review of the pilot phase of the program, particularly regarding the use of a single set of metrics across a plethora of artistic disciplines and questions regarding feasibility, data ownership, and anonymity. Buy-in from artists has been equally lukewarm, with many expressing resistance to the very idea of quantifying the arts.

It’s getting even harder to make it in Hollywood. A recent episode of the NPR podcast Freakonomics examined America’s ailing visual effects industry, which has endured economic troubles as jobs continue to migrate out of Hollywood. Despite visual effects playing an increasingly large role in filmmaking (and obliterating trades like special effects in the process), multiple companies in the industry remain in dire economic straits. Their job attrition likely stems from producers and directors chasing tax rebates in neighboring states, and increasingly abroad, forcing many film jobs out of California and hastening the globalization of the industry. At least one Hollywood profession may be getting some help: the Los Angeles City Attorney brought charges last month against five casting workshops accused of using a pay-to-play scheme trading acting roles for cash. In announcing the charges following an investigation involving an undercover actor, the city cited the Krekorian Talent Scam Prevention Act, which bars casting agents from requiring actors to pay fees for auditions.

Libraries grapple between access and ownership. In an era of inevitable change for public libraries, some are relaxing or even doing away entirely with overdue fines, questioning whether the penalties ultimately hurt Americans who need libraries the most. The decision stands in stark contrast to recent crackdowns on overdue books in Alabama and Texas, in which authorities threatened delinquent borrowers with jail time in an effort to recover hundreds of thousands, even millions, of dollars in lost property. The US is not alone; in the UK, more than 25 million books are lost and unaccounted for in that country’s libraries according to industry sources. So, while releasing borrowers from fines may remove the economic barrier and increase libraries’ appeal for marginalized communities, it also inevitably means fewer titles to chose from.

Federal arts funding hangs in the balance. Arts organizations are gearing up for battle as the Trump administration continues to toy with the idea of cutting arts agencies such as the National Endowment for the Arts in first drafts of the federal budget. While these cuts have not yet been formally instigated, their possibility has spurred activists to flood congressional offices in opposition. Much attention is focusing on the small but politically significant cadre of Republican arts champions, including New Jersey congressman Leonard Lance and senators Shelley Moore Capito and Susan Collins, both of whom signed a letter of support organized by fellow senator Kirsten Gillibrand. The ramifications of losing these agencies would be most deeply felt in rural areas, which receive less support from state and municipal arts funding. Despite a gradual uptick in appropriations to state agencies dating from the recession, the biggest gains of recent years have been concentrated in populous states like Florida and California, while it’s one step forward two steps back in places like Iowa. Bigger cities may have the best chance for surviving a wholesale cut to the arts: Atlanta and New York are among those plotting ways to increase support at the local level by proposing dedicated arts and culture taxes, providing incentives to artists who live in particular cities or states, and bolstering public art programming.

MUSICAL CHAIRS / COOL JOBS:

• Director Craig Watson of the California Arts Council will step down from his role with the agency effective April 2017.
• Philadelphia’s William Penn Foundation has named Shawn McCaney as its new executive director. McCaney was previously director of Penn’s Creative Communities program.
• The Wallace Foundation named Giselle “Gigi” Antoni as its new director of learning and enrichment. Antoni had developed a national reputation as the leader of Dallas’s Big Thought arts education initiative.
• The Alaska-based Rasmuson Foundation has announced Alexandra McKay as its new vice president of programs.
• Seattle arts critic Jen Graves voluntarily resigned after more than a decade at The Stranger, stating that it’s “not a viable place for me to do the work I’ve always cared about.”
• Perhaps less voluntarily, the outspoken New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood is looking for work. Despite the implosion of jobs in arts criticism, the Times intends to fill the full-time position.
• DataArts is seeking a senior research manager to lead teams in study design, data analysis and interpretation and the delivery of the organization’s research services.
• The Boston-based Barr Foundation is hiring an arts & creativity program officer.

NEW RESEARCH OF NOTE:

• The National Endowment for the Arts shared its latest installment of data on economic trends in arts and culture, produced in collaboration with the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Upshot: artists add value to the economy, but public funding for arts education is in a sharp decline.
• Out of 1,000 responses to a survey by the UK’s Guardian Teacher Network, 80% claimed their schools made or are planning to make cuts to the arts.
• New evidence suggests that formal artistic education (i.e. conservatory training) can have a positive impact on artists’ career sustainability, as can financial and business training. Of course, one must be able to afford such training; indeed, the Sutton Trust noted that British actors from wealthy backgrounds are more likely successful than those with modest upbringings. Meanwhile, college-educated white adults make more than college-educated black and Latino adults according to Demos and the Institute on Assets and Social Policy, challenging the assumption that higher education can neutralize racial wage gaps.
• Exponent Philanthropy reported that small foundations and individual donors are developing strategies to up their impact potential in grantmaking. But larger funders tend to rely on their peers as the most trusted source of knowledge, according to a Hewlett Foundation report.
• An evaluation of Arts Council England’s Catalyst program indicates it provided a significant kick-start needed to increase the fundraising capacity of grantees.
• Museums and other cultural attractions continue to face challenges. A new metric indicates that visitor confidence to US cultural organizations is experiencing a sharp decline. However, a recent review of the literature indicates that museums are developing new fundraising strategies by looking beyond wealthy socialites as sources of individual donor support. Meanwhile, the American Alliance of Museums, as it does each year, published its TrendsWatch report considering what the future might hold for the industry.
• A new Ipsos survey asked Canadians across the county to define their culture and its products in the digital age.
• A new study identified hip and arm movement as the mark of good dancing in women. A rebuttal from Slate’s Daniel Engber, however, questions the relevance of the study, deeming it science’s version of clickbait.
• Grantmakers in the Arts produced a review of the literature regarding the arts in medicine, with a specific focus on optimizing investments.
• Research from the University of Chicago indicates that it’s easier to have a negative attitude then to look on the bright side.
• New research suggests that, compared to other teens, ballet dancers experience greater rates of “psychological inflexibility,” leading to anxiety and depression. Dancing may contribute to a greater fear of failure and pressure to achieve a physical aesthetic, which may also lead to such symptoms.
• Violent video games are thought to be associated with negative behaviors. Could uplifting games elicit the opposite effect? A UNESCO-sponsored study indicates they could.
• The Kennedy Center has partnered with the National Institutes of Health to create Sound Health, an initiative that explores music’s effects on health and wellness. Fast Company interviewed author Daniel Levitin about his new book on a similar topic: the neuroscience of music, and how playing music at home impacts behavior, attention span and productivity. Levitin’s work indicates that music is no longer as prevalent in the home, perhaps due to increased screen time, and could be used to facilitate mental breaks from focused tasks. His findings contrast evidence that positions silence (differentiated from quiet, or ambient noise) as an underutilized productivity tool.
• An annual report on freedom of expression around the world released by Freemuse finds that violations of artists’ rights more than doubled in 2016.
• The University of Wisconsin found that people of color accounted for 22% of children’s books characters in 2016, a 13-percentage-point increase over the course of two decades.
• Despite the success of high-profile female artists like Adele and Beyoncé, women are, on the whole, seriously underrepresented on the top 40 charts.
• #OscarsSoYoung could be the latest hashtag criticizing the Academy Awards. A new report from USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism indicates that there were only two characters over 60 nominated over the past three years…and both were played by Michael Keaton. USC researchers also found that women directors working on the top-grossing films were unlikely to have released more than one film in the last decade.

“Why ask why” sign from Defenestration: an art installation in San Francisco. Photo by Lynn Friedman via Creative Commons

Amidst the storm and thunder leading up to the Trump administration’s first days in office last month, The Hill reported that advisors to the president had suggested privatizing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (which supports PBS and NPR) and eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of a broader effort to reduce federal spending. Coming from former staffers from the far-right Heritage Foundation and drawing heavily on past Heritage Foundation positions, the proposal was not entirely unanticipated, but it certainly met with immediate resistance. As a number of commenters have pointed out, cutting the NEA and NEH wouldn’t do much to balance the federal budget, given that they account together for just $296 million out of a four trillion dollar total. Because of this, the NEA’s contribution to national arts infrastructure has often been described as “symbolic.” Yet that description ignores the fact that the agency’s state and local partnerships create significant impact at the state level, where its policy of offering matching funds for state arts councils helps a lot of those councils stay in existence. (It doesn’t help that about a third of US states have little to no local infrastructure for arts advocacy and rely heavily on federal resources.) The NEA’s research initiatives would likewise be hard to replace if they went away, particularly core activities like the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts conducted every five years in partnership with the US Census Bureau. Losing the NEA and NEH is far from a done deal: Trump would need the support of Congress to make it happen, and Americans for the Arts reports that there are “about a dozen procedural steps that Congress and its committees must take” before either agency can actually be eliminated. And it’s far from clear to what extent that plan represents the actual intentions of the administration, which seems to change its mind about major policy positions from one day to the next. In the meantime, life goes on for the NEA, with the administration already having appointed representatives to liaise between the West Wing and the Endowment.

Arts advocates who are laser-focused on the survival of the NEA may be missing the forest for the trees, though. In a move some see as an even bigger threat to the arts, the president nominated Ajit Pai to head the Federal Communications Commission. Pai is an avowed foe of net neutrality and his ascendancy at the agency is almost certain to bring the controversial measure back into government consideration. Meanwhile, executive orders affecting people’s ability to travel and obtain health care are leaving many artists bewildered, worried, and angry. As much as losing the Endowment would be a loss, the sad irony is that if we had a stronger agency to begin with, our arts infrastructure would presumably be under even more direct threat right now.

South Korean artists face consequences amidst controversy. Concerns are growing about artistic freedom in South Korea as the scandal surrounding President Park Geun-hye continues to unfold. Park’s questionable friendship with the daughter of a cult leader named Choi Tae-min resulted in corruption charges and Park’s impeachment. Now, the New York Times reports that government aides have blacklisted thousands of artists, quietly collecting information and threatening legal action against those whose work is critical of their recently ousted leader. The moves only deepen the scandal in South Korea, which when compared to its neighbors to the north and west — North Korea and China — is considered a mecca of artistic freedom and opportunity. South Korea is one of only a few countries to increase arts and culture spending in the last decade and its artists earn roughly 77% of the country’s average income. The state-funded Artist Welfare Act of 2012 insures nearly 60,000 artists with a form of workers’ compensation. Despite these promising stats, there’s a clear agenda for promoting nationalism and prioritizing positive depictions of South Korea in arts and culture, an ongoing effort since the end of the Korean War. The emergence of this situation in a country as democratically-oriented as South Korea indicates the tension between artists’ (and citizens’) rights to freedom of speech and expression and countries’ desire to control the narrative observes fewer national boundaries than we might have hoped.

A crack in art’s black market. An investigation involving 18 countries has resulted in the arrest of 75 people allegedly affiliated with an international crime ring smuggling historical artifacts and other pieces of art out of Middle Eastern countries under siege by ISIS. The investigation found that items from Syria, Iraq, and Libya, among other countries, were systematically transferred to Western countries and resold on the black market, very likely helping to finance the Islamic State’s reign of terror. Authorities say many of the 3,500 items recently recovered were found in Spain and Greece. In a landmark case last September, jihadist Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi was convicted and sentenced by the International Criminal Court to at least nine years in prison for war crimes after ordering the destruction of shrines in Timbuktu, Mali. It could be a precedent for what lies ahead in this latest investigation. Historians, archaeologists, and artists are attempting to retrieve and restore, and in some cases, recreate the important artifacts that have been recovered or destroyed in the conflicts. A team at St. Petersburg’s State Hemitage Museum is developing a 3-D model of Palmyra, Syria, and a 25-square-meter replica of an authentic Syrian home sits in the middle of Norway’s flagship IKEA store. Last year, the Roman Colosseum featured reproductions of Palmyra’s archive room of Ebla and the Temple of Bel. And last month it was reported the National Archives of Finland has taken custody of digital copies of key Syrian documents for safekeeping in case the originals don’t survive the country’s civil war.

The Lucas Museum finds a home in LALA Land. The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is expected to open in Exhibition Park in Los Angeles by 2021. More than a Star Wars museum, the $1 billion project will house items from George Lucas’s extensive personal art collection and Hollywood artifacts. The Marin County native’s museum was initially meant for San Francisco, but met strong opposition to the proposed site near the Presidio. The project then looked toward Chicago, where Lucas became embroiled in two years of negotiations over prime real estate on the city’s lakefront. A community group called Friends of the Parks filed suit — much to the dismay of Mayor Rahm Emanuel — contesting the notion that Chicago’s lakefront is public property, despite the fact that the site Lucas wanted (and on which he refused to budge) is currently occupied by a parking lot. The filmmaker eventually gave up on the idea, looking again to the West Coast at new locations in San Francisco and LA. LA won the sweepstakes, and area residents and local officials appear to be anxious for the project’s completion.

Apple wants what Netflix is having. Apple says it plans to begin creating movies and TV, hoping to capitalize on consumers’ hunger for streamed original series. The technology giant is experiencing a slump in sales for the first time in 15 years, back when Netflix was still primarily a mail-in-your-DVDs model. Netflix’s massive investment in original content ($5 billion last year) is paying off in spades, yielding the company’s biggest quarter in history last month amid hit after hit. Others are scrambling for a piece of the action and estimates indicate the number of original scripted television shows may soon surpass 500. Netflix remains the leader, but Hulu, Apple, AT&T (via Amazon), and Sony are all in hot pursuit. In an unusual twist, the satirical news giant The Onion signed a deal with Lionsgate to develop three feature films in partnership with Serious Business, an affiliate of Comedy Central. The move follows the lead of a recent Buzzfeed partnership with Warner Bros. to produce the film Brother Orange.

MUSICAL CHAIRS / COOL JOBS

• The Rockefeller Foundation named board member Rajiv J. Shah as the foundation’s next president.
• Writer and historian Tristram Hunt has resigned his seat in the British parliament to lead the Victoria and Albert Museum.
• Andrea Noble-Pelant has been named executive director of the Alaska State Council on the Arts, consolidating the position with her role as the visual and literary arts program director.
• After 24 years with the agency, Nevada’s Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs Administrator Susan Boskoff is retiring this March.
• Deana Haggag is leaving The Contemporary to lead United States Artists, a Chicago-based granting organization.
• The Barack Obama Presidential Center on Chicago’s south side is hiring a museum director.

NEW RESEARCH OF NOTE

• Major UK government agencies have partnered to launch a pilot study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of crowdfunding matches on arts and heritage organizations. And the Center for Effective Philanthropy offers recommendations for measuring fundraising effectiveness.
• The initiative Community Catalyst has produced an in-depth report on strategies for museums and libraries to strengthen and evaluate social impact.
• A number of studies measure characteristics of art to determine social and economic impact, but few consider perceptions of quality, according to the NEA’s Sunil Iyengar. Meanwhile, a systematic review of arts papers in accounting journals discusses the challenges of evaluating the artistic performance of publicly funded organizations; similarly challenging is predicting the price of art, which doesn’t appear to follow specific trends.
• Lawyers Lena Saltos and Angela Lelo take a look at the legal precedent for applying copyright law to street art.
• A 2015 census by Americans for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts shows promising growth for arts agencies on the local level.
• Norway gets the top spot in the World Economic Forum’s new Inclusive Development Index. Factors included in the index go beyond GDP to include employment status, life expectancy, poverty rates, and dependency ratios. The United States, on top by GDP alone, ranks 23rd on the IDI.
• Children emulate superheroes’ aggression, but not their valor, according to a 2017 study on the behavior of 240 preschoolers.
• Research summarized by the New York Times column The Upshot illustrates how regional choices in TV are related to consumers’ political views. On a related note, studies suggest that viewing diverse characters in television and movies can increase empathy and reduce prejudice. And new data indicates that cultural attractions aren’t just competing with other organizations, but also with potential patrons who’d rather remain in their PJs on the couch.
• Colombian researchers found that recording in a daily dream journal boosts creativity.
• Millennials are often given credit for the migration revitalizing many American cities and invigorating arts and culture in downtown districts, but an article in The Upshot questions whether that now-aging generation will stay downtown for the long haul. Offering a strong rebuttal to the piece in CityLab, Joe Cortright predicts that Millennials are likely to remain in cities as they age and have children.
• According to a study by Isaac William Martin and Kevin Beck, renters are more greatly affected by gentrification than homeowners, and rising property taxes aren’t dissuading owners from staying.
• A report by the Association of British Orchestras notes that strategies to restructure ticketing and audience engagement may eventually leave them in the red. Over a three-year period, a 7% increase in the number of events produced only a 3% increase in audiences.
• Research confirms what musicians already know: that music training results in faster reaction times than that of non-musicians.
• The Louvre announced a $10 million loss and a sharp decline in visitors in 2016. An analysis of museum visitor numbers in the UK indicated a similar decline. The chief reason, say researchers, is that overseas visitors are staying home because of the fear of terror attacks. On the bright side, a new report suggests that London grassroots music venues are in the black for the first time in a decade.
• The UK also saw a 5% increase in book sales compared to last year, thanks to J.K. Rowling’s latest installment of the Harry Potter series and publications by fitness guru Joe Wicks. Despite speculation that digital readers would lead to the book’s demise, a Gallup poll indicated that Americans still read books at a rate comparable to that of 15 years ago, while ebook sales are starting to slip.

The Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland, CA (Photo by Jim Heaphy, via Creative Commons)

A deadly warehouse fire taking the lives of 36 people during a concert in Oakland, CA has ignited a series of legal and political flames throughout the country. Known as Ghost Ship, the warehouse flew under the radar operating as a music venue and DIY live/work space for the city’s artists without proper permits. The tragic events have brought forward conversations about the crushing cost of rent in American cities, the primary hubs of artistic activity. In the wake of the fire, underground spaces like Ghost Ship are facing increased pressure to get their buildings up to code, spurring forced closures in Nashville, Denver, Los Angeles and Baltimore so far. A group of right-wing whistleblowers mobilizing on the 4chan message board, calling themselves the “Safety Squad,” is using the Ghost Ship tragedy as an opportunity to crowdsource permit and fire code violations in these “hotbeds of liberal radicalism and degeneracy.” The call to action may have resulted in as many as 16 closures nationwide in a push that recalls the alt-right’s attacks against artists associated with #Pizzagate and attempt to take over science fiction’s Hugo awards.

On the bright side, Ghost Ship has brought the dire need for affordable artist housing to the attention of public officials and foundations. Just days after the fire, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf announced a previously-planned $1.7 million grant initiative involving her office and three Bay Area nonprofits establishing a capital fund to acquire affordable spaces for artists. Elsewhere, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh announced a new task force to create “safe art spaces” following a shuttering of the Bell Foundry warehouse, and the Austin Creative Alliance debuted an $100,000 program to aid displaced arts and music venues.

Will Rocky “Make Art Great Again?” Wide-ranging cabinet picks have been appearing in the news nearly every day, which means that it’s likewise time for the incoming Trump administration to select a new head honcho for the National Endowment for the Arts. Donald Trump has reportedly floated Sylvester Stallone as a potential pick, causing many an arts administrator’s head to explode over the past few weeks. On the other hand, Stallone’s recognizability, deep connections, and career-long love affair with big-budget box office hits could bode well for shoring up political support for the perpetually beleaguered agency. Though the actor (and sometimes painter) has praised Trump’s “bigger than life” persona, Stallone stopped short of endorsing his run for President. Stallone, reportedly flattered by the idea, doesn’t appear wholly interested, feeling he’s better suited to a job in veterans affairs. Regardless of who gets the job, the new Chairman of the NEA could well push a conservative agenda, with implications unclear for the Endowment’s otherwise promising, newly announced five-year research agenda and new research projects.

Diversity, coming soon to a theater near you (if you live in the UK). Beginning in 2019, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) will no longer give prominent awards to films or television shows lacking diversity onstage or backstage. According to Slate, projects will need to meet diversity standards in at least two of the following categories in order to be considered: “on-screen characters and themes, senior roles and crew, industry training and career progression, and audience access and appeal to underrepresented audiences.” The UK equivalent of the Oscars is perhaps hoping to avoid a controversy similar to the #OscarsSoWhite (and subsequent #OscarsStillSoWhite) blowups of the past two years after consecutive years of all-white contenders in the Academy Award acting categories.  Further policy changes at BAFTA include a new rule about voting members, in which candidates no longer require an endorsement by two existing members, echoing a similar move by the Academy Awards on this side of the pond. Britain has likewise been criticized for a lack of diversity in live theater, noted by playwright Andrew Lloyd Webber in a new research report that calls the industry “hideously white.” A report from the Arts Council of England, however, cites a significant uptick in representation for people of color working on the staffs of Council-funded theaters.

A new law could help you get Hamilton tickets. Despite the unprecedented success of Hamilton, it should be making even more money. Approximately $30,000 per performance is going to third-party vendors, who buy up huge swaths of seats and resell them at astronomical prices. Unlike ticket reselling services like Ticketmaster, which has a contract with concert venues, it has been estimated that third-party sales via ticket brokers are bringing in $12.5 million annually on Hamilton alone. In a report by New York’s Attorney General, less than 50% of all tickets to the city’s highest grossing concerts are made available to the general public, many of which are purchased en masse by automated ticket “bots” and resold far above market price. The controversy has gained some attention in Congress, and the bipartisan Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act, aimed at curbing online scalping by banning such bots, was passed into law December 14. Beyond the direct impact of this piece of legislation, its quick emergence out of a bitterly divided Congress is a very pleasant surprise.

Christmas tragedy in the Black Sea. A plane carrying the Alexandrov Russian Army Song and Dance Ensemble to Syria crashed in the Black Sea on December 25, killing all 92 passengers. Among the dead are 64 members of the Russian Army’s music and dance ensemble, known for promoting Soviet nationalism with military songs and traditional Russian instruments, which was on its way to Syria to perform for troops stationed at the Khmeimim Airbase in Latakia. Only three of the group’s singers survived, having stayed behind in Moscow for personal reasons. Though Russian officials have discredited accounts of the crash as an act of war or terrorist attack, the news has nevertheless sent shockwaves of sorrow across Russia with the loss of a beloved performing arts group. Perhaps the last transportation accident this disastrous for the arts was the 1962 crash of Air France Flight 007 that killed 106 Atlantans, many of whom were prominent figures in the city’s arts and culture sector.

MUSICAL CHAIRS / COOL JOBS:

• Grantmakers in the Arts president and CEO Janet Brown announced plans for her departure from the Seattle-based service organization at the end of 2017.
• Robert Rauschenberg Foundation chief Christy MacLear is moving to Sotheby’s, where she will expand the auction house’s capacity to advise living artists and foundations. Meanwhile, Guillaume Cerutti takes the top spot at Christie’s, as Patricia Barbizet steps down.
• Elizabeth Méndez Berry and Isaac Luria have been announced as the new joint directors of the Voice, Creativity & Culture program at the Nathan Cummings Foundation.
• Ballet B.C. Executive Director Branislav Henselmann will move into the public sector to lead cultural services in the City of Vancouver.
• Mark Sebba is the appointed chair of the newly formed MutualArt Group, a merger between the Artist Pension Trust and MutualArt.com. Both organizations were formerly led by Moti Shniberg.
• Arts criticism continued its slow decline at newspapers this month, with the Austin American-Statesman laying off Jeanne Claire van Ryzin after 17 years without announcing a replacement. Meanwhile, arts reporter and critic Mark Stryker posted a public statement to Facebook announcing his departure from the Detroit Free Press after 21 years.

NEW RESEARCH OF NOTE:

• Despite some progress, a group of actors set out to collect data on diversity in Broadway shows. The results of the Asian American Performers Action Coalition study indicate that nearly 80% of roles on Broadway are played by white actors, and audience demographics match those of the cast.
• The National Endowment for the Arts’s guide on community-engaged arts and health research is now available for free online. The guide is the latest of a series of resources produced by the NEA’s Federal Interagency Task Force on the Arts & Human Development. And a new book from the NEA includes essays and case studies illuminating the practice of creative placemaking.
• The US Bureau of Labor (BLS) has planned a new survey in 2017 that will make it easier to measure the economic impact of freelance workers. Known as the most reliable source of labor statistics in the country, the BLS has previously failed to provide an accurate picture of the “gig economy,” yielding mixed results about the size and impact of independent contractors.
• A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research is the first to produce concrete evidence suggesting that increased investment in schools really does result in better education.
• A study out of West Chester University suggests that arts education among low-income preschoolers may reduce stress and improve psychological functioning.
• New research investigates how musicians’ brains work while playing instruments. A study from Hong Kong suggests that MP3 compression of recorded music elicits a different emotional response than that of live instruments.
• “Don’t underestimate the effects of consistently communing with Hugh Grant,” says Pacific Standard’s Tom Jacobs in his piece synthesizing new research on the relationship between watching romantic comedies and moral sensitivity.
• Results of a Pew Research Center study indicate that the incidence of “information overload” is down, although the group’s findings suggest that anxiety produced by too much information depend on the situation.
• The Center for Effective Philanthropy gathered insights from more than 200 foundation CEOs captured in a new report titled “The Future of Foundation Philanthropy: The CEO Perspective.” Interview and survey data indicated that CEOs believe foundations make significant contributions to society, but are not fully exploiting opportunities to do so.
• A report by the Global Impact Investing Network shows solid growth for impact investments between 2013 and 2015.
• An Arts Council of England report shows promising growth of private investment in the UK, with arts and culture organizations drawing 18% of their total income from individual donations in 2014-15. The impact was higher for small budget organizations, with private investments comprising 29% of total income for those grossing less than £100,000.
• Defined as a physical or virtual space for creative individuals to gather, a new British Council report finds that creative hubs are “still largely misunderstood and undervalued” and provide professional and artistic opportunities beyond that of working alone.