Article and essays about the arts have become threatened species given the downturn in the newspapers.

The number of arts writers has continuously being reduced. So it is wonderful that a few survive.

Occasionally there are statements made that could be questioned.

For instance, there was a piece about Tracey Moffatt and the AGNSW exhibition. The writer stated that she has always refused pigeonholing as an “Aboriginal artist”.

To quote a friend to whom I read that statement – “until now!”

Here’s the Australia Council celebrating this fact – click here.

Then there is an article in the Monthly about the current Degas exhibition at the state gallery in Melbourne. The writer says “The National Gallery of Victoria is getting in early with the first full-blown Degas retrospective anywhere in the world in more than 20 years.”

The trouble being that I still have a memory of enjoying the magnificent exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia in late 2008 – 2009. Click here.

To be positive – in both cases it is good to see visual arts writers present in these publications. May there be far more of it.

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Paul Costigan