art-agenda began sending email announcements in 2004 to provide timely information on upcoming exhibitions at international contemporary art galleries. In 2010, art-agenda started publishing reviews to ensure that independent criticism continues to play a fundamental role in the production, exhibition, and reception of contemporary art. As the space for thoughtful and committed cultural criticism comes under ever greater threat, it feels necessary not only to maintain but to expand the platform established over the past eighteen years.
In the New Year, art-agenda will be moving to e-flux.com and expanding both the scope and the frequency of its editorial output. The move will bring greater visibility to the platform and position it more clearly within the broader constellation of e-flux.
art-agenda Editorial will henceforth be known as e-flux Criticism, making clear its relation to sister publications e-flux Journal, e-flux Architecture, and e-flux Notes. This is part of a wider effort to coalesce the different branches of e-flux and reveal the many ways their activities crossover, inform, and illuminate each other.
The number of texts published each month will increase, with coverage of exhibitions supplemented by more reviews of books, films, and other forms intersecting with the expanding field of contemporary art. These new features and reviews will grow the invaluable archive of nearly 1,500 texts published since 2010, which will remain freely accessible to all.
art-agenda Announcements—the service through which galleries, independent art spaces, projects, and publications circulate their news, and a primary research resource for international art professionals—will continue under the name e-flux Agenda.
Delivered by email newsletter to our expanding subscriber base, e-flux Agenda announcements will be visible on the e-flux website, which garners more than 6 million unique page views annually. This move will increase the visibility of independent and regional programs by positioning them alongside e-flux announcements.
The move to position criticism at the heart of e-flux’s production also responds to art-agenda’s recent growth. Its online readership has increased by more than forty percent over the past three years, which gives us confidence that the audience for independent criticism is growing even as the number of established outlets for it dwindles.
e-flux Criticism aspires to be the home for independent cultural criticism. e-flux Agenda will continue to be a primary tool for disseminating exhibitions and news to art industry professionals worldwide. In concert with the various branches of e-flux, the aim remains to set the agenda of contemporary cultural discourse and provide an unrivaled—and freely accessible—resource for all.
For more information about e-flux Agenda announcements, contact agenda [at] e-flux.com.
