2012 Art Highlights

Happy 2013!

I would like to open the first post of the year by reviewing the most common themes discussed within contemporary culture (or blogged by me) about the arts during the period of 2011-2012. I have selected a few articles from a variety of sources that reiterate the impending challenges that artists and the arts sector are faced with, as well as recognizing accomplishments and success stories within the creative sector. Here I have depicted a chart to illustrate the most popular topics—as determined by the number of tweets.

Summary of arts-related articles read and tweeted 2011-2012

2011-12 Art Highlithts_graph

On Artists

This section is comprised of articles on artists, including the promotion of particular artist or the cultural value of artists:

Funding cuts

Funding the arts has become a hot button issue and one of the major challenges that have been discussed in the past year:

Creativity

Creativity has become a popular topic, particularly in a time where there has been a resurgence of DIY and crafting, and so many articles have been written in this topic. I have selected a number of my favourite articles from the past year:

Graffiti

Generally speaking, the following articles address the debate regarding graffiti as ‘art’ and graffiti as ‘vandalism’, and question what defines something like graffiti as high art:

Does street art show encourage graffiti?
Graffiti: is it art or vandalism? Toronto sets up official Graffiti panel
Arab graffiti: vandalism or art?
Graffiti Writers and their Construct of Reality
Heritage site graffiti will be reviewed for cultural merit– Does graffiti has a cultural merit?

Art World in Question

Debates on what is art and what should be justified as such has raised concerns for centuries, and continues to be debated in the contemporary arts scene. For example, a recent article by Roger Scruton entitled “The great swindle” illuminates how fake ideas can be played out by high culture. Furthermore, the art world is in spiritual crisis, which is argued by cultural critic and feminist provocateur Camille Paglia in her new book, Glittering Images: A Journey Through Art From Egypt to Star Wars. Some further examples are below:

NEA (National Endowment for the Arts)

The NEA has played a huge role in cultural production in the United States. The following highlights some historical moments within the NEA:

Struggling Arts

The difficulties faced by artists have been a long-standing issue, with artists struggling with low incomes and underployment. Now, artists facing obstacles while larger cultural policies are at stake: