Bill Marx
Northrop Frye, inspired by the poet William Blake, demands that the critic be a warrior in a “mental fight,” articulating the liberating value of literature as a source of imaginative energy that generates possibilities.
WGBH is not even attempting to make any excuses, not bothering to put in the energy to explain why the station isn’t using funding from its supporters to hire first-class journalists or to create news programming that builds community and educates because it challenges, investigates, and digs deeper.
Jazz is dying on WGBH — long live the arts, and let us all eat cake financed by Citizens Bank at the upcoming Arts Weekend, created by WGBH and The Boston Globe
As a long time arts critic for print, broadcast, and the Web, the potential for cultural coverage online strikes me then and now as exhilarating. The challenge for The Arts Fuse is to foster dialogue that articulates the value of the arts in our lives.
WGBH is exploring an interesting question — how little can you invest in arts coverage and still have the chutzpah to ask for money from supporters who mistake crumbs for a loaf?
Early on I was given these words of wisdom by my friend, the late theater critic Arthur Friedman: “Criticism should not read as if it had been written by a publicist.
Director Robert Lepage’s spectacular projections, aided by a savvy use of sound effects and lighting, move the dramatic focus of Cirque du Soleil’s Totem with ease, opening up the imaginative boundaries of the stage.
I have read the Harvard Business School study about critics and it is clueless on so many levels about the craft and mechanics of reviewing that it is astonishing that major newspapers and magazines have taken it seriously.
Arts Commentary: “The New York Times” — Shouldn’t It Know the Purpose of Arts Criticism?
Based on Public Editor Arthur S. Brisbane’s recent New York Times column on arts criticism, he and others at the newspaper haven’t much of a clue regarding what a serious arts review is supposed to be.
Read More about Arts Commentary: “The New York Times” — Shouldn’t It Know the Purpose of Arts Criticism?