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Art History Lecture Series - Art, Media and the Digital Dumpster Fire

The ÃÛÌÒÊÓƵ University Department of Art will present “Art, Media and the Digital Dumpster Fire” on Feb. 28 in the Dishman Art Museum Lecture Hall at 6 p.m. Rainey Knudson, founder of the Texas online art magazine "Glasstire," will be the featured speaker. A reception will be held prior to the event at 5:30 p.m.

In her lecture, Knudson will tell the story of "Glasstire" from its origin as a scrappy startup in 2000, to Rainey Knudsonbecoming a leading art journal nationally. She will include the juicy details - brushes with libel law, scrapes with dealers and artists and at least one death threat. Knudson explores how online journalism and the role of the critic have changed through the years, as well as the lessons she’s learned from following the magazine's tagline, “Go See Some Art.”

During her 18 years at the helm of "Glasstire," Knudson has shaped the media outlet into an important resource and connective tissue for the disparate cities that make up the statewide Texas art scene. She bought the glasstire.com domain for $35 in the summer of 2000, naming the magazine as an homage to an artwork by Robert Rauschenberg and intending from the beginning that it would be online only. She built the original site, which officially launched in January of 2001. Knudson will step down from "Glasstire" at the end of 2019.

“I feel lucky to have been there at the beginning of internet journalism. It has been a joy to travel throughout Texas through the years, working with gifted writers who tell the stories of the people in our statewide art scene. Our tagline is ‘Go See Some Art.’ It sounds simple, but it’s a simple idea that I believe in,” stated Knudson.

Throughout its history "Glasstire" has published articles by more than 400 writers, many of whom are artists themselves. The publication has built up a worldwide readership, with hundreds of thousands of visitors and millions of social media impressions annually. In addition to being the largest employer of arts writers in Texas, Glasstire is a pioneer of creating video-based arts journalism, including its popular weekly Top Five videos and its podcasts.