WU, Chin-Tao

PERSONAL:

Female. Education: City University, M.A.; University College London, Ph.D..

ADDRESSES:

Agent—c/o Author Mail, Verso Books, 180 Varick St., 10th Fl., New York, NY 10014-4606. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood, London, England, part-time art worker, 1991-2000; University of East Anglia, School of World Art Studies and Museology, J. Paul Getty post-doctoral research fellow, 1998-99; University College London, Department of History of Art, honorary research fellow, 1999—; Nanhua University, Taiwan, assistant professor, 2001—.

WRITINGS:

Privatising Culture: Corporate Art Intervention since the 1980s, Verso (New York, NY), 2002.

Contributor to New Left Review and Kunst und Politik Jahrbach der Guernica-Gesellschaft.

SIDELIGHTS:

Chin-Tao Wu earned a Master of Arts degree in arts administration and also a Ph.D. in the history of art. Her degrees, along with her work and research, have earned for her the status of an internationally recognized specialist on corporate art patronage and cultural politics.

In Privatising Culture: Corporate Art Intervention since the 1980s, Wu examines the increasing amount of corporate involvement in the visual arts since the 1980s in the United States and in Great Britain. Corporations in both countries now fund visual art programs, sponsor art awards, include art exhibits and galleries in their places of business, and their executives are also board members of various art institutions. Wu explains the benefits and losses to the art world as a result of this increasing corporate involvement. She also discusses the benefits that corporations receive because of their involvement in the arts. A Publishers Weekly contributor concluded, "Wu convincingly tells an ugly story of seduction and betrayal … one that anyone who cares about the future of art needs to hear." Library Journal contributor Carol J. Binkowski called Privatising Culture "A superbly researched and invigorating study," and later stated, "Wu offers a well-documented and intelligent analysis of these complex partnerships and their mutual impact." Journal of Cultural Economics editor J. Mark Schuster noted that this study "goes well beyond prior studies of corporate cultural influence."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Afterimage, September-October, 2002, Jennifer Pearson Yamashiro, "Privatizing Culture," p. 17.

Art in America, October, 2002, Robert Atkins, "Co-opting the Arts," pp. 53-54.

Art Review, July 1, 2001, John Henshall, "In bed with big business," p. 70.

Journal of Cultural Economics, May, 2003, J. Mark Schuster, review of Privatising Culture: Corporate Art Intervention since the 1980s, pp. 143-146.

Library Journal, October 15, 2001, Carol J. Binkowski, Privatising Culture, p. 74.

New Left Review, November-December, 2002, Sarah James, review of Privatising Culture, pp. 154-160.

Publishers Weekly, July 2, 2001, review of Privatising Culture, p. 64.

Socialist Review, June, 2002, Chris Nineham, "An artful business," pp. 31-32.

Sociological Review, February, 2003, Victoria D. Alexander, review of Privatising Culture, pp. 161-163.

Times Higher Education Supplement, June 28, 2002, Rudi Bogni, "Art, money, and modern Medici," p. 30.

Times Literary Supplement, November 23, 2001, David Hawkes, "Avant-Garde plc," p. 26.

Washington Post, June 4, 2002, Chris Lehmann, "Culture's Corporate Lords," p. C3.