Singing Complaints Aloud, and Other Tips for a Harmonious Society

Finland's Tellervo Kalleinen Tells How Participatory Art Can Be Both Serious and Playful

A little more than 10 years ago, someone emailed me a video of the Helsinki Complaints Choir, a group of people very seriously singing about complaints that were both mundane and funny and large and significant. I watched it over and over. A few years later I saw a film about the artists behind the group, Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, who were organizing Complaints Choirs in other countries, including Singapore. Their work took on a profound and even political air. Zócalo Public Square talked recently to Kalleinen about the …

Arts Organizations Need to Teach Their Audiences Self-Defense

Government Arts Funding Is Vital, and Could Be Zeroed Out. The Threat Should Be Part of the Show.

The engagement that arts institutions need most right now is about their own survival.

I’m glad to see that the many worthy examples of how arts organizations engage the public are …

Bringing Forward Important, if Forgotten, Artists from Deep in the American South

Our Museums Are Filled with Art by the Well-Connected. But We Need to Find the Truly Important Works to Reach Audiences.

What makes some artwork timeless?

History shows that neither high prices at auction nor gallery attendance figures are good predictors of how artists, artworks, and art movements will be viewed in …

Can a Small Slovenian Innovation Democratize the Art World?

A "Tinder for Art" Can Take Power from Critics and Gallerists—and Return It to the Masses

The art trade broadly, and art criticism more specifically, badly need a Reformation. The institutions of art are too much like the medieval Catholic Church.

Just as the Church has always …

The Happy Accident of San Jose Jazz

A Festival Had the Good Luck to Start with Few Resources, and That Allowed It to Stay Close to Downtown and Its Community

San Jose is the tenth largest city by population in the country, but its downtown became sleepy after retail moved to the malls in the 1970s. In 1991, a group …