journalism – Alexis Clements

Recent Arts Journalism and Discussion

I was asked to take part in Flux Factory’s Death Match: Arts Funding, Follow the $$$$ in January of this year. It was a bit raucous and a laugh, but it got me thinking about a few things. Lucky for me, the National Endowment for the Arts blog editor asked me to write a recap of the event for them, so I had a chance to think through some of what we talked about in the debate. Read it here:

• A Fight to the Death for Arts Funding?

That piece follows up on a series of articles and essays I’ve been writing over at Hyperallergic about the role of the arts in US society. All this writing builds on the research I’m doing for a book that I’m writing about the value of the arts in America.

Here are a couple of the other pieces that I’ve written lately:

• Failure, Success, and Community in Contemporary Performance

• Recovering the History of the Puerto Rican Art Workers’ Coalition

• A Grand Unified Theory of Art?

• The Perplexing Role of Metrics in the Arts

• It Is Broke, We Should Probably Fix It: The Nonprofit Model and the Arts

• Good Intentions and Big Ideas: Feel Good Grants That Exploit Artists and Reduce Arts Funding

View the complete archive of my pieces for Hyperallergic here.

Why I Write Arts Journalism

A handful of times this year I’ve been asked or had to provide a blurb about why/how I go about my arts journalism work. These are my latest thoughts on that.

The Role of Artists

As some of you may know, I’m working on a book about the role of artists and the arts in society, particularly the US. While I’m working on the book, I’m also working on publishing journalism around the topic. Just recently I’ve published two OpEds on the subject, specifically related to funding for artists:

• New Data Reveals Artists Aren’t Gettin’ Paid

• Aren’t They Happier That Way? Artists and the NEA

There will be more articles on the subject going forward, so keep an eye out on my Twitter feed.

Cultural Strategies Initiative

I’ve recently joined the Cultural Strategies Initiative as a Fellow. It’s a relatively new organization that’s focused on building “cross-sector projects and knowledge that will help to illuminate and activate art’s role in saving the world.” No small ambitions here!

Anyhow, as a fellow I’ll be continuing my arts journalism work and undertake a new book project that I started on late last year. In this book I’ll be examining the ways that the arts are currently valued in the US and suggest an entirely new way of thinking about their value. No small ambitions here either…