This week we continue with the second installment of our conversation about critics of color. Colin and Henry talk to Carolina Miranda, a writer and art critic at the LA Times, and Elizabeth Mendez Berry, Director of Voice, Creativity and Culture at the Nathan Cummings Foundation. Both critics came from a background of studying social movements and politics, but realized they could make a living as critics of art and music. We discuss that as a critic of color, you understand not to pigeonhole an artist, and that ethnicity or race can influence a piece of art, yet so can a film watched in childhood. Yet in a moment where artists have direct access to their audience online, does everyone want criticism, and if so, how do we create a more inclusive infrastructure and economy to incentivize a diversity of voices?
Here are some of the things mentioned in this episode, for those who want to dig a little deeper:
Carolina’s critique on the redesign of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
What it Means to Write About Art by Jarrett Earnest
ARTS.BLACK – a journal of art criticism from Black perspectives
SongExploder podcast
Elizabeth’s essay, Why Cultural Critics of Color Matter
