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AEA Consulting: The Platform

Dispatches

A round-up of articles focused on commentary and analysis of current developments in the cultural sector.

Some articles may be behind a paywall. 

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It’s Time to Change. Why We Should No Longer Abandon or Hide the Artist Within Us

AEA Senior Associate and President and CEO of the Fund for the Arts Andre Kimo Stone Guess writes, “I bet you are an artist, too. The quicker you admit it to yourself and others, the quicker you can begin to make it through life being who you are.” (Courier Journal)

Afghans Are Painting Over Images of Women While Culture Workers Are Putting Art in Storage as Afghanistan Braces for Taliban Control

Against the backdrop of this swift change in power, many in the Afghan cultural sector are stuck in a tense holding pattern. They fear that restrictions limiting freedom of expression and women’s rights, as well as the looting and destruction of ancient monuments, are not far off. (Artnet News)

New Models

What Do We Mean by a Systemic Conversation?

Building on Culture Reset, Richard Watts of People Make It Work shares a range of new initiatives aimed at supporting the cultural sector to change and develop to meet the urgent demands for inclusion, improved governance and more dispersed models of leadership. (Arts Professional

Cultural Infrastructure

The Curse of Mies van der Rohe: Berlin’s six-year, £120m Fight to Fix His Dysfunctional, Puddle-Strewn Gallery

After a process of forensic archival research and archaeological examination, 35,000 building components have been carefully dismantled, restored and returned to their precise positions in a meticulous €140m (£120m) refurbishment. (The Guardian)

‘The Opposite of Airlines’: When Larger Audiences Require Fewer Seats

Since the pandemic struck, the owners of theaters and live venues have come to see such investments as more urgent than ever. As coronavirus restrictions are dropped, presenters face the challenge of luring back patrons who, during more than a year without theaters, have grown accustomed to consuming home entertainment from the sprawling comfort of their own couches and recliners. (The New York Times)

Equity & Social Justice

It’s Time to Commission a Memorial to Slavery at McGill University

Dr. Shelly Ruth Butler and Simone Cambridge write that as McGill University celebrates its Bicentennial – and in the wake of global reckonings with racism – it is an opportune time to reflect critically and act on the university’s history, including founder James McGill’s ownership of Black and Indigenous slaves. (Hyperallergic

Funding & Philanthropy

Reflections on Fundraising in the Time of COVID-19

The last 18 months have seen arts fundraisers face numerous challenges in trying to bring in income when the sector has been in such flux, says Michelle Wright, CEO of Cause4 and Programme Director of the Arts Fundraising & Philanthropy Programme. (Arts Professional)

The UK Government’s Decision to Slash Arts Funding in Higher Education is Short Sighted

With the news that the U.K. government will be progressing with their brutal 50 percent cuts to arts and design courses across higher education in England, the director of the Contemporary Visual Arts Network, England, comments on the recent decision to slash subsidies for arts education. (Artnet News)

Urban Imaginations

Forget Shops: How One UK Town Ripped Up the Rule Book to Revive Its High Street

Stockton-on-Tees is leading a radical rethink of our urban centres, which is now even more urgent as Covid takes its toll. (The Guardian

Reentry

New York Art Fairs Are Returning, Eyes Open and Fingers Crossed

Major exhibitions like the Armory Show are coming back from a pandemic hiatus, but travel restrictions and the rise of the Delta variant are challenging their plans. (The New York Times)

Higher COVID Rates for Festivals in Test Events Scheme

The UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport says its Events Research Programme is proof events "can be conducted safely" despite thousands testing positive after attending festivals in the scheme. (Arts Professional)

Ecological Sustainability

Museums and Climate Change: From Passive Bystander to Agent of Change

CEO of the Anchorage Museum in Alaska Dr Julie Decker looks at how museums can become an impactful and meaningful force in communities, and can respond to climate change by decolonising Indigenous knowledge and strengthening a museum’s relevance to its place and people. (The Good Men Project


AEA Consulting is a global firm setting the standard in strategy and planning for the cultural and creative industries.

We are known for our candid and impartial advice that draws on deep knowledge of the cultural sector as well as robust research and analytical insight.

Since 1991, we have successfully delivered more than 1,200 assignments in 40 countries, helping clients around the world plan and realize vital and sustainable cultural projects.