Economic support of the Arts continues to be under-prioritized, inadequate, and aspirational in an environment of fierce competition with political trends and sufficient provision of human services. The issue is not, however, that the Arts are deemed weak or unimportant to decision-making in those areas. The real issue is that, without a track record of impacts that clearly enhance those two areas in a predictably consistent way, the Arts are seen as optional except for those who will make...

It’s mid-2026, and the industrialized world is absorbing almost daily shocks from the hyper-speed of AI development. It’s the latest epochal change in work since the internet got real for everyone. This is perhaps why the exhibition of photographs about work, unveiled April 3rd at Oakland Photo Workshop, seems to reach backwards almost farther than nostalgia. It features industry still literally beyond the reach of automation, highlighting what must be done by hand. But for many viewers it...

Vincent Valdez's Historical Truth When Vincent Valdez was app r oached in 2023 by Arion Press to imagine h i s next project, the publisher and the artist were actual l y continu i ng an ongoing conversation , one that led to his selection as Arian's first King Residency a r t i st i n residence . The project they picked for the residency? Kurt Vonnegut ' s meditation on the catastrophic impact of war, Slaughterhouse-Five. The core of Va l dez ' s oe u v r e i s hi s m i...