Artist Lisa Kinoshita kicked off an important discussion on Facebook when she wrote, TACOMA (POP. 213,418) NEEDS AN ARTS CRITIC.” And what a dialog ensured!
I sat down with Rosemary Ponnekanti, the last full-time art critic in Tacoma (2006 to 2017), to learn more about how she approached the job and what she would love to see for the future of art criticism in the City of Destiny.
Enjoy.
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I am glad to hear this podcast with you and Rosemary Ponnekanti, Tacomans have voted in some substantial Arts funding. Clearly they want increasing levels of involvement and exposure to the arts. I personally get some information about what is coming up with the various Art scenes from the Tacoma List Serve, but miss seeing the informed write-ups, educated criticisms, opinion pieces which I would expect from a city paper. Is the News Tribune not looking at all, for someone (yes to Rosemary Ponnekanti) to fill this role? I wonder if a grant written for some of the recent Tacoman public funding could be used for this, since as you and Rosemary Ponnekanti pointed out, this sort of thing has been important to prevents the decline of Art groups in other cities.
We need art critics! Thank you, Rosemary, for being the voice of reason on the matter.