Exit the arts critics?

Jay Handelman, arts editor at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, sometimes feels like one of the last survivors of a critically endangered species. And he’s not wrong. Over the last couple of decades, the number of full-time, health-insurance-enrolled, 401(k)-contributing newspaper arts critics has declined more precipitously than the Siberian tiger population.

“I do feel like part of a dying breed, for sure,” he said.

There was a time when two full-timers buttressed by a raft of decently paid freelancers covered the Sarasota area’s burgeoning arts scene. Today it’s down to Handelman, who makes ends meet with a much-diminished freelance budget.

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