arts-criticism

Arts Commentary: The Declining State of the Art of Arts Journalism

February 13, 2024
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Theater critics, film reviewers, A&E editors, and arts columnists have been stripped from our dailies and weeklies. Why should you care? Oscar Wilde warned that an age without criticism is “an age that possesses no art at all.”

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Theater Commentary: Facing Some Hard Truths

February 13, 2024
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The time is overdue for a serious discussion of what is happening (or not happening) in Boston-area theaters. Just don’t expect to see anything in our sheepish mainstream media.

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Short Fuse Podcast #65: Arts Commentary and Criticism — The Canary in the Mine Shaft

November 16, 2023
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In this episode of the Short Fuse, host Elizabeth Howard and Editor-in-Chief and founder of the “Arts Fuse,” Bill Marx, discuss the vital role arts commentary and criticism play in nurturing an open and democratic society

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Arts Commentary: More Cultural Coverage — But Less Culture?

October 24, 2023
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The journalistic value of blathering out weekend tips to the ears of the comfortable in a social media world awash with likes is dubious.

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Arts Commentary: Arts Criticism — Stuck in the Bunker

August 21, 2022
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Arts critics are not expected to take the cultural temperature; they are there to reinforce the assumption that the business of the arts in America is … business.

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Critical Commentary: A Few Thoughts about John Simon

November 28, 2019
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Few critics proclaimed that the emperor was naked as a jaybird with as much savvy panache.

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Cultural Commentary: Arts Criticism — An Embarrassment of Whiteness

July 24, 2019
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Can anyone — with a straight face — argue that our largely white critical contingent in Boston is interested in generating hard hitting debate, controversy, and unconventional ideas?

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Arts Fuse Podcast #13: Everything You’ve Wanted to Know About Book Reviews But Were Afraid to Ask

April 9, 2019
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If you’re a fan of the podcast or the magazine, you know that Arts Fuse writers are sworn adversaries of the dreaded algorithm.

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For the Love of Arts Criticism II: Arts Magazines and Bloggers Speak Out

April 6, 2018
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We need more serious, informed, and diverse voices evaluating and reporting on the arts at a time newspapers and magazines are cutting back and/or dumbing down their arts sections.

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Critical Condition: Why Be Negative? Don’t Ask “The New York Times”

March 26, 2018
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If the New York Times can’t make a reasonable case for the need for discrimination rather than salesmanship, we are in real trouble.

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