Artistic Director at Large Nataki Garrett

Let's See What We've Done to Ourselves

Nataki Garrett is the co-artistic director of One Nation/One Project and the national Arts and Health initiative #ArtsforEveryBody. She was the sixth artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival–the first Black woman in the role–and the first executive artistic director of the organization. Before taking part in the Zócalo, Thomas Mann House, and L.A. Review of Books program “How Should Arts Institutions Navigate the Culture Wars?”—part of the two-day conference “Arts in Times of Crises”—Garrett joined us in the green room to talk about directing, creativity, and being a “director …

Shelby Williams-González

Inner-City Arts CEO and President Shelby Williams-González

You Can Only Make So Many Flower Pots in COVID

Shelby Williams-González is president and chief executive officer of downtown L.A. arts education provider Inner-City Arts. Previously the executive director of artworxLA, she is also a company member of the …

Sorry, Reading Jane Austen Doesn’t Make You a Better Person

But the Arts Have Plenty to Tell Researchers About How Emotions Work

In 2013, Science published a study with the intriguing title, “Reading Literary Fiction Improves Theory of Mind.” The authors (David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano) claimed to have proven that …

Can Engaging with Art Turn a Bunch of Selfie-Takers into Citizens?

Changing Audiences Are Making Creators and Institutions Rethink Art Itself

If the essence of art is necessarily elusive and hard to define, so too is the essence of arts engagement. As audiences grow more diverse and demanding, and new digital …

Seeing Art from a Local Perspective in Hyper-Global Hong Kong

On an Island Connecting East and West, Our Stories Can Speak to the World

The Hong Kong Museum of Art, where I work, is 55 years old this year. Though we have changed a lot over the years, we still hold to a special …

California Can Reconceive the Arts by Offering More Choices and Ways to Participate

Demographic and Technological Shifts Could Let Arts in the Golden State Better Serve Communities

California is undergoing massive changes in technology, demography, the nature of work and, thus, in leisure activity. So is its cultural sector, with consequences for how Californians experience art and …