Last week, the Mills Gallery at the Boston Center for the Arts hosted the most recent of its informal, semi-monthly artist-generated/artist-hosted conversation series, Gertrude's Artists Salon, which explores ideas that grow out of and into art. This installment, presented in collaboration with Big Red & Shiny, delved into the broad and somewhat ill-defined realm of "art writing".
When we talk about “art writing" we are referring to the act of writing about the arts. But is it criticism, journalism, or research? What are its uses: assessment, promotion, or community-building? In 2018, arts writers are grappling with these questions in the midst of shifting platforms and audiences. Each publication has a different approach to its geographical location, audience, and kinds of coverage. And each writer has a different relationship to the field as well, coming to their writing through the lens of curator, artist, critic, art historian, journalist, or some combination.
To address some of these questions, this meeting of Gertrude's took the form of a more traditional panel discussion to flesh out these ideas. During the panel and subsequent conversation with the audience in attendance, the varied forms and purposes of art criticism and art writing were considered to explore the way that contrasting publications and writers deal with questions that concern the art world, large and small.
The panel, moderated by our Senior Editor Leah Triplett Harrington, featured Jameson Johnson, Founder and Editor in Chief of Boston Art Review; Jamilee Lacy, Director and Curator of Providence College Galleries and Collections; Cate McQuaid, Art Critic for The Boston Globe; and artist Juan Obando.
