Colored Criticism

A fresh take on art.

Tiffany Bradley

September Style Guides

We wrestle with language on the daily. The struggle to make ourselves understood is a constant – whether through a dashed-off text, hours of online coronavirus-lockdown meetings, or work emails. Sometimes we get it right, and sometimes we make a mess of communication.

That’s why I love a good style guide. There’s a precision to feeling like there’s a “right” way to use language. In this moment, every form of communication feels more fraught. We’re displaced from our “normal” lives, and the context of our communities change rapidly. I’ve heard some version of “I don’t want to sound insensitive/ignorant/uncaring, but I’m honestly not sure what to call people.” I’ve also said some version of this. The way we were taught the English language simply doesn’t hold up right now, and that’s okay.

Naming is a way to define an experience, but our lives are more complex than any words. Luckily, we have our entire lives to keep learning from each other! Below are some style guides and resources to keep the conversation flowing…

Image credit: My first impulse was to pick some Mel Bochner, but there are so many goodies in digital collections. I found this Willie Cole blackboard via The Studio Museum in Harlem. A.R.T. (in the new world order), 1994. Museum purchase made possible by a gift from E.T. Williams and Auldlyn Higgins Williams.

Learning It up!

Announcing Keep NYS Creating Grant Recipients!

As an extension of its ongoing support of artists who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) announced today that it has awarded $42,000 to 42 artists statewide through the new “Keep NYS Creating” grant program in partnership with the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). These $1,000 grants are supported by National Endowment for the Arts funding through the CARES Act and will help artists continue their indispensable work within their communities throughout New York.   

Among the Keep NYS Creating recipients is Tiffany Bradley of Westchester, who will create #ArtOffPause, a digital conversation in which artists, curators, and scholars explore how the COVID and structural racism crises are shaping their practice. The series features arts workers with a social practice or public engagement process, with an emphasis on those from LGBTQ and communities of color.

“Communities of color are at the center of the COVID crisis yet remain at the periphery of the art world,” said Bradley. “This pandemic has been a force multiplier on existing financial, health, and housing disparities for people of color in the United States. But it can also be a catalyst for change. During this social rupture, artists need space for advocacy, imagination, and reflection. This is the most important critical work we can do right now.”         

Read more 

Read In, Speak Out!

I’m an art critic, so I get a lot of press releases. Over the first five years of Colored Criticism, my inbox has been flooded with messages about acquisitions, initiatives, and programs aimed at “diversity” in the arts. As our country burns with righteous anger, I received nothing. The deafening silence of the art world reverberates. The only acknowledgement of the national crisis and emotional trauma has come from organizations run by people of color. (And for reference, 88% of museum executive staff are White-non Hispanic by race/ethnicity.) Despite the rising financial value of Black art, there’s scarce support for Black lives. Silence = death, as the impassioned elders of ACT-UP taught us.

Image credit: Betye Saar always brings the heat. “Liberation of Aunt Jemima: Cocktail, 1973.” Mixed Media assemblage. Brooklyn Museum permanent collection.

Required Reading
Independent Study for times of turmoil

Culture To Do From Your Couch

New England Public Media recommends #ArtOffPause for “Culture To Do From Your Couch” during May 2020.

Tiffany Bradley of Colored Criticism hosts #ArtOffPause, which keeps people engaged in art as we look ahead. Hear curators Dr. Emma Chubb and Yao Wu talk about changes at the Smith College Museum of Art, including closing “Black Refractions” on loan from the Studio Museum and preparing for “SCMA100: Then\Now\Next.”

Read more: https://www.nepm.org/post/culture-do-your-couch-week-4-edition

Art Off Pause Playlist

Did you miss us? That’s okay – every episode of #ArtOffPause is available for viewing on YouTube.

Watch the Playlist

Previous Guests on #ArtOffPause

  • Wednesday 8/12: Dr. Bimbola Akinbola on portraiture, diaspora, and COVID philanthropy in Chicago 
  • 7/ 1: Tammy Johnson on bellydance, community, and Black resilience in the Bay Area.
  • Tuesday 5/12:  Kevin Seaman on toxic masculinity, drag culture and #femMASCULINE in San Francisco.
  • Tuesday 5/5:  Dr. Ndubuisi Ezeluomba on insider/outsider visions of ancestor worship at the New Orleans Museum of Art.
  • Monday 5/4:  Alexander Hernandez on textiles, migration, and resilience in Latino communities in California.
  • Tuesday 4/28:  Marcela Torres on agentic modes, Muay Thai, and moving past violence in Chicago.
  • Monday 4/27:  Channing Kennedy on preschool storytimes and equity in California.
  • Friday 4/25: Kale Roberts on hijacking the ritual of tailgating in Florida.
  • Thursday 4/24: Betty Yu on imagining de-gentrified futures in New York.
  • Wednesday 4/23: Dr. Kimberli Gant on showcasing Black artists at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Virginia.
  • Tuesday 4/21: Dr. Emma Chubb and Yao Wu on shifting curatorial approaches at the Smith College Museum of Art in Massachusetts.
  • Monday 4/20: Lexa Walsh on radical hospitality and artist residencies in California.

Art Off Pause Livestream

We need art, and we need each other. Every part of our world has been disrupted by the COVID-19 outbreak.  Americans have turned to arts as a refuge. Since we can’t gather in person, we’ve moved our socializing online.

#ArtOffPause is a livestream series and social media campaign that helps us to stay connected as we look ahead. Our arts institutions are “on pause” to stop the spread of COVID-19. Artists, curators, and scholars will preview their suspended or upcoming projects via livestream. Our community can envision what the future might bring after the public health crisis.

We can’t access our museums and galleries, but we have access to each other. This crisis gives us an opportunity to highlight the people and process of art, instead of objects. Through connecting on a daily basis, we can deepen our relationship to our work and to our larger community. We need something to look forward to in the face of national adversity.

Register for Art Off Puase
Watch on YouTube

Stay tuned for more from #ArtOffPause this summer!