Episode 26: Reimagining the ecology of cultural criticism: Elizabeth Mendez Berry and Carolina A. Miranda

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

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