[NEohioPAL] Opinion piece on arts journalism

[Bob Abelman]

Making a case for an endangered species

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This opinion piece appeared in the News-Herald on 11/19/10

 

When colleges and universities are faced with budget cuts reflective of the nation's economic woes, it is usually the arts that are earmarked.

Just last year, aSkip to next paragrapht Washington State University, the department of theatre arts and dance was eliminated. At Florida State University, the undergraduate program in art education and two graduate theatre programs were phased out. The University of Arizona cut three-quarters of its funds for visiting classical music, dance and theatre performers.  Wesleyan University's Center for the Arts, which supports four arts departments, lost $1.2 million from its budget.

Similarly, many private institutions encountered larger classes and trimmed offerings in the arts in addition to higher tuition and fewer services.

As a result, the traditional benefits of performing the arts, such as increased creativity, abstract thinking, cultural awareness and social conscience have been relegated to secondary outcomes for graduating students.  Courses in arts appreciation and criticism have never been core requirements, partly because they fall into the crevices between edgily linked disciplines such as literary studies and performance, scholarship and journalism, and art and entertainment.  These, too, have been cut.

The obvious result is that fewer students are given opportunities to witness, engage in or think about the arts.  This, in turn, impacts on their perception of the importance of arts, their consumption of the arts, and their support of the arts.

The responsibility of facilitating a working knowledge of and growing appreciation for the fine and performing arts, and inspiring their practice, consumption and support, has fallen upon professional critics in the nation's daily newspapers, magazines and broadcast media.

Arts criticism was once a thriving enterprise.  Beginning in the early 20th-century, the professional critics' opinions were revered and often feared by their respective industries.  They helped inform our own opinions, dictated box office sales, and kept the arts the topic of conversation.   Critics the likes of George Bernard Shaw (theatre), Clement Greenberg (art), H.T. Parker (music), Carl Van Vechten  (dance), James Agee (film) and Northrop Frye (literature) shaped the arts themselves.

Only a few short decades ago, critics were part of an elite corps of taste makers and culture shapers.

They are now collateral damage in the more recent digital revolution that has sent the newspaper business into financial turmoil.  As total print advertising revenue declined 9.4% to $42 billion from 2006 to 2007, according to the Newspaper Association of America, the ranks of professional arts critics have dwindled from 2008 to 2010.  Significantly.

Variety magazine stunned the industry by laying off its chief film critic and its theatre critic.  Two longtime film critics at Newsday were pressured into taking buyouts.  Ruth Reichl was one of the last towering food critics, but her magazine, Gourmet, folded.  

Nathan Lee, one of The Village Voice's full-time film critics, was laid off.  More than one-dozen longtime TV critics at major-market dailies-including the Dallas Morning News, Seattle-Post Intelligencer, New York's Daily News, and the Houston Chronicle- have been either let go or reassigned.  After 24 seasons on television, "At the Movies"-the nationally syndicated showcase for dueling film critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel (and, more recently, Richard Roeper)-was cancelled.



These are merely the most high-profile casualties in an industry ravaged by them.



These professionals have been replaced by an explosion of uncredentialed, online opinions-including amateur filmgoers on Rotten Tomatoes, typical readers on Amazon.com, pedestrian diners on Yelp, and casual theatre goers on Hotreviews.



"Now, we're all critics," noted veteran editor and onetime TV Guide critic Jeff Jarvis, which is fine.  More voices have the potential to enrich the dialogue about the arts.



Unfortunately, many of these voices are woefully uninformed, uninspired and, according to Washington Post columnist Howard Kurtz, "not very interesting," the result (in part) of the demise of the arts and arts education in our colleges and universities.



The Internet's speed is also making a difference.  Reviews by Internet news sites' designated critics get posted the minute a show opens, void of reflection and critical analysis.  Even these are being supplanted by the posting of instant reactions texted or tweeted to chat boards and networking sites.

 

"The multiplicity of opinions online can be refreshing, like a spring rain," suggested Village Voice critic Michael Feingold, "but their instant, unremitting inundation of all discourse seems more like the Johnstown Flood: The sane person instinctively retreats to higher ground."



"With the newspaper industry shrinking," says Terry Teachout, a Wall Street Journal drama critic, "it's not enough to have a [casual critic] say the local museum has bought a new Picasso. It's also necessary to have someone who knows whether it's museum-quality and is worth $5 million."



Thus far, Cleveland area newspapers-including the News-Herald-have retained their arts critics, although at some outlets they have had their voices muted or their presence marginalized by reduced column inches.  Still, here we are. even in these troubled times or, perhaps, because of them.



If you appreciate the arts and the function served by their critics, hug your local arts and entertainment editors as a sign of support.



And while you are at it, hug your local college and university administrators.  They have made some difficult and bone headed decisions of late, and could benefit from a bit of human kindness.  
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