Not that I have anything against stale bread - on the contrary, David Rocco has imparted wonderful recipes that involve the use of stale Tuscan bread. But I’m already digressing on the first sentence.
David Rocco’s scrumptious panzanella
I had no pressing interest in driving into Toronto for the Canadian Journalism Foundation’s panel discussion this past Tuesday April 20th despite the enticing relevance of its topic: Arts Journalism: Staying Critical in the Digital Age. Both Leah Sandals and Paddy Johnson laid down my reason for not bothering to attend, namely that none of the participating journalists - Kamal Al-Solaylee, Seamus O’Regan and Kate Taylor - are particularly invested in online modes of art criticism.
Judging from View on Canadian Art’s report of the discussion, however, perhaps that was rather the point. Granting that Andrea Carson’s report is a brief one, there’s every chance that I’m mistaken but the general thrust of the debate seems to have been one of defending the authoritative voice and longevity of the arts journalist as positioned in traditional media. Contrary to a near-identically named panel at last year’s Art Toronto in which online publishing and blogs were being duly considered as valid critical platforms, this panel’s question would appear to be one of staying critical in spite of the digital age.
For the sake of arts journalism, I hope that wasn’t the point.
Leah Sandals had said she intended to attend this panel in her initial post, so I’d be very interested to see if she has anything to report on the tenor of the discussion. For now, though, I think I might need to find some lunch.
- BROWSE / IN TIMELINE
- « The 2010 Sobey Art Award Longlist
- » Muse Me: 2010 Summa Show at the McMaster Museum of Art
- BROWSE / IN Canadian Art Criticism Lectures
- « The 2010 Sobey Art Award Longlist
- » Addendum to ‘Staying Critical in the Digital Age’
SPEAK / ADD YOUR COMMENT
Comments are moderated.
