Hyperallergic was founded the year I started college. I was studying art history in Chicago, and I was told there were a few paths available to me after graduation: I could pursue an academic or curatorial career, or get a commercial job at a gallery or auction house. The possibility of becoming an arts journalist — a reporter at the intersection of current events and visual culture — rarely came up, perhaps because there were so few spaces to do it. News was the realm of legacy media, not art magazines. As the years went by and Hyperallergic grew, it carved a special place in media where politics, activism, and policy not only convene with art, but are often inseparable from it. Our staff reporters cover the most urgent local and global issues by focusing on the lived experiences of artists and creative workers — from Rhea Nayyar’s piece on the future of artistic freedom in Bangladesh to Maya Pontone’s report on artists making work in war-torn Sudan. When I began working here almost five years ago, first as staff writer and then news editor, I became keenly aware of another differentiating factor: We are not beholden to a giant media conglomerate or wealthy investor. We don’t have a paywall. And we never, ever do pay-to-play “journalism.” That means that Hyperallergic is independent because of YOU. For as low as $8/month or $80/year, you can help keep the art world accountable. Your small monthly contribution goes straight to compensating writers, empowering them to produce some of the stories I’m most proud of: Contributor Erin Thompson’s investigation into the American Museum of Natural History’s human remains collection Senior Editor Hakim Bishara’s dispatch from a PAIN protest against the Sackler family at Harvard University Staff Reporter Rhea Nayyar’s deep-dive into Azerbaijan’s destruction of Armenian cultural heritage in Artsakh Staff Reporter Maya Pontone’s report on the wave of recent NYC gallery closures LA correspondent Matt Stromberg’s explainer on the art world’s misleading rebranding of a diverse Los Angeles neighborhood If this coverage is important to you, please consider a Hyperallergic membership for the price of a cappuccino. And as always: Thank you! | 