Arts reporting and criticism prepublication checklist

What to take away

• Confirm the article form and the writer's level of firsthand access.
• Check cultural-object details against records that show uncertainty and changes.
• Separate observation, reported fact, source claim, interpretation, and judgment.
• Resolve conflicts, complimentary access, rights, and disclosure before publication.
• Preserve notes and issue visible corrections when material facts change.

Use this checklist for reviews, exhibition reports, profiles, interviews, previews, and critical essays. Delete inapplicable items and add discipline-specific checks. Getty describes its structured art vocabularies as resources for work types, roles, materials, styles, cultures, techniques, people, places, and subjects. They help normalize terms, but the reviewed institution and current scholarship still require verification.

A. Assignment and access

• The piece is labeled as review, report, profile, preview, interview, essay, or another defined form.
• The central reader question and publication deadline are clear.
• The writer identifies the exact performance, screening, edition, installation, recording, or visit.
• Limits such as partial attendance, obstructed view, unfinished installation, or unavailable work are recorded.
• Embargo, recording, photography, and access conditions are understood.
• No condition grants a subject approval over independent conclusions.

B. Observation

• Notes capture specific scenes, works, sequences, sounds, spaces, or passages.
• Description precedes interpretation in the evidence file.
• Time-based notes include timestamps, movement, transitions, and duration experienced.
• Exhibition notes include route, placement, lighting, labels, access, and sound bleed.
• Audience response is not generalized from one visible person or moment.
• Memory has been checked against notes, recordings, programs, or lawful reference images.

C. Identity and object records

• Creator names, pronouns, roles, and collaborations are verified.
• Titles, dates, materials, dimensions, duration, edition, and collection are checked.
• "Attributed to," "possibly by," "after," "workshop of," and former attributions remain qualified.
• Repository titles are not mistaken for creator-given titles.
• Translations and transliterations follow a stated source or method.
• Changed labels, disputed dates, and missing records are described as uncertain.

D. Reporting and context

• The press release is treated as a source, not independent confirmation.
• Historic, financial, attendance, and "first" claims reach primary or authoritative records.
• Interviews include date, mode, speaker identity, and recording or note status.
• Serious allegations receive fair response efforts and an appropriate deadline.
• The piece distinguishes no response, declined comment, and unavailable by deadline.
• Relevant labor, funding, ownership, access, or community context is included without forcing every work into one frame.

E. Provenance and cultural care

The National Museum of African Art's museum practice and provenance guidance explains that researchers draw on museum files, archives, auction records, correspondence, oral histories, and other sources, and that gaps and uncertain transfers should be stated as gaps or qualified possibilities. Follow the evidence instead of turning absence into certainty.

• Ownership history is not confused with authenticity or copyright.
• Gaps, disputed transfers, or restitution claims are attributed precisely.
• Communities, claimants, lenders, and institutions are named according to verified records and preferences where appropriate.
• Sacred, funerary, private, or sensitive material receives an editorial-harm review.
• Legal review is obtained for high-risk claims without replacing editorial judgment.

F. Critical argument

• The thesis makes a specific, supportable judgment.
• Criteria are visible rather than implied as universal taste.
• Representative details support each major claim.
• Counterexamples and contradictions are handled fairly.
• The review distinguishes the work, curation, venue, and visitor experience.
• Recommendation language matches the evidence and access conditions.

G. Independence and disclosure

• Complimentary admission follows policy.
• Travel, lodging, meals, gifts, sponsorship, partnerships, collecting, employment, and close relationships are reviewed.
• A material connection is disclosed clearly or the writer is reassigned.
• The subject did not select all outside sources.
• Commercial links and ticket information do not alter the verdict.

H. Rights, copy, and release

• Quotations are accurate, contextual, and within the intended permission or legal basis.
• Images have creator, source, license or permission, caption, and alteration records.
• Reproduced art is cleared or reviewed under applicable law and policy.
• Names, dates, titles, quotations, figures, credits, links, and practical information receive a final check.
• Headline, deck, image, and social text do not overstate the article.
• Notes, recordings, source list, disclosure, and checked copy are retained.

I. After publication

• Factual challenges go to a named editor.
• Corrections state what was wrong and what is now correct.
• Updated practical details do not silently rewrite the reviewed conditions.
• Threats to access or advertising do not determine correction decisions.

Common questions

Must every review contain an interview?

No. Use interviews when they supply needed process, fact, response, or context. Direct experience and independent research remain central.

Can a critic accept a free ticket?

Follow publication policy and disclose when the access would matter to readers. Travel, hospitality, or special treatment create additional concerns.

Should uncertain attribution be simplified for readability?

No. Explain the qualifier in plain language and preserve the uncertainty.

Who decides whether a complaint needs a correction?

An editor should compare the published claim with the evidence. Disagreement with a judgment differs from a factual error.