“Who has the power to write the news, or make art, and by extension to create something called history? What are the similarities between newspapers and museums? To what degree are both responsible for providing social information as well as entertainment?”
These are questions raised by art reviewer Holland Cotter in his recent article entitled “Art and News, Intersecting in the Digital Age“.
This piece reviews a new exhibit in the New Museum in Manhattan entitled “The Last Newspaper”, which revolves around the recycling of newspapers into pieces of art such as sculpture, collages, and performance pieces (to name a few mediums). This exhibit questions the role of print journalism in the artistic world. Where does one draw the line between truth and interpretation? What duty does the journalism world owe the public? How does one balance entertainment with fact?
According to Cotter, “If the show does nothing else, it demonstrates how widely and variously newspapers have served as raw material for contemporary art, old and new.” This is a new angle to journalism which I had not previously considered, but it is definitely intriguing!
The New Museum would make a good “small group” report venue.