Do we need art critics?

If you ask Bob Hicks, executive editor of Oregon ArtsWatch, he says “critic” is a dumb word. As he argues in his recently published piece, the role of art criticism isn’t to be the final say in whether a piece of work is good or bad, but rather to be the start of a conversation.

At the same time, arts journalism as a whole has faced a number of setbacks in the industry this year, including the Associated Press ending its book reviews, Vanity Fair eliminating its reviews and the Chicago Tribune losing full-time movie reviewer Michael Phillips.

But as Portland-based arts and culture writer Justin Duyao writes in his piece in response to Hicks, arts and cultural criticism isn’t dead, but has evolved to online spaces, including social media.

Hicks and Duyao both join us to share their thoughts on modern day criticism.

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News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/01/08/think-out-loud-art-critic-oregon/