Eh, Who Has Time To Get It Right Anymore?
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Wot is ARTicles, anyhow?
Well, we're back, and to judge from the March 1 postings, we're a lively crew, full of beans. Plus a gentle facilitateuse in Laura, who will ride herd without digging in her spurs (love those metaphors).
What we are, whether this will be an assortment of comments or a conversation, will evolve in time. From the outset, there were differences of emphasis among the original ARTicles bloggers. Most of us saw the site as a place to comment ABOUT arts journalism, and especially the issues surrounding the senescence of print and the rude birth of Internet journalism. Others, especially those without a regular blog of their own, put more stress on the actual practice of arts journalism, writing directly about the arts, though Bob Christgau did tie in an arts-journalistic angle most (if not all) of the time.
The March 1 postings, especially those by Wendy Lesser, Larry Blumenfeld and Richard Goldstein, seem to me to have shifted the balance more to the arts and away from arts journalism per se. Which is not a bad thing, though as I say, maybe themes and conversations will sort themselves out from the initial conceptual white noise.
Whatever works, since arts journalism as traditionally practiced is not working. If ARTicles becomes a site readers turn to for good writing about artistic events the writers have encountered, with no further comment on how the arts-journalistic profession has responded to those events, fine. Me, I hope to keep more of my focus on the secondary art of arts journalism, and to save whatever I may write about the arts themselves for my Rockwell Matters blog -- when and if I revive that.
The key is to have this conversation, and I'm proud that we have been able to attract such a bustling crew of new contributors. Let's keep the momentum going!
You're right, John, that my own post (and probably most future posts from me) will be about the arts as opposed to arts journalism. After my years in Eng. Lit. graduate school during the theory era, I am less than enamored with most kinds of "meta" conversation; that is, it seems to me that what drew us to this field in the first place (our love of the arts themselves) should prevail over our own occupational anxieties and turf wars. But that's just me, and as you say, I welcome a variety of commentaries and viewpoints in this crossroads of a space. Thanks for inviting me to be part of it!
All best, Wendy (or doesn't one sign blog comments? I am new to the etiquette)