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(CNN)There are many different types of artist, but if you were going to distill them all into just two groups you could say that there is the interior artist -- the one guided by nothing but their own dreams and visions -- and the exterior artist, who looks at the culture around them and finds inspiration within it. Television presenter, transvestite, tapestry-weaver and ceramicist Grayson Perry is very much one of the latter.

It may have taken him 20 years to break into the public consciousness (his household name status confirmed by attending his 2003 Turner Prize win in a crinoline party frock), but ever since he's been the closest thing Britain has to a truly public artist in the mold of Dali or Warhol.

"Oh god yeah, I'm definitely a populist artist", he proudly declared. "I make art for as wide an audience as possible. I'm interested in increasing the amount of people that come through the doors here."

"The title of the show came about because it made me laugh really," he says. "The art world struggles with popularity and populism, which has been brewing over the last few years as a current political force."

Photos: 'Grayson Perry: The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever!'

"Matching Pair" (2017) by Grayson Perry

Photos: 'Grayson Perry: The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever!'

"Death of a Working Hero" (2016) by Grayson Perry

Photos: 'Grayson Perry: The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever!'

"Animal Spirit" (2016) by Grayson Perry

Photos: 'Grayson Perry: The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever!'

"The Digmoor Tapestry" (2016) Grayson Perry

Photos: 'Grayson Perry: The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever!'

"King of Nowhere" (2015) by Grayson Perry

What do these terms mean to him? Surely he -- a fine artist in a dress -- has little in common with the likes of Farage and Trump?

"Populism is the version of popular that other people don't like," he says. "It's used as an insult. It's like, 'When loads of people like me, it's popular. But when loads of people like you, it's populism.'"

Time will tell how just how popular the show turns out to be, but it's already generating considerable interest. Sitting next to Serpentine director and cultural sultan Hans Ulrich Obrist in front of a throng of press, Perry seems very much the celebrity.

Yet his work itself is deeply rooted in the everyday, depicting themes and subjects that wouldn't usually make it into a major art show in a big city, such as the Brexit voters whose photos form the basis of the show's centerpiece: two ceramic vases named "Matching Pair."

"I call this part of the exhibition the mantelshelf of Britain," Perry says, surveying his creations. "One vase reflects the likes, the emotions, the interests of the Leave voter, and the other the Remain voters. I asked them over social media to send me their photographs of things they liked about Britain and portraits, their favorite brands, figures from history and our popular imagination who stand for what they believe in."

However for Perry, it's the connections between the two vases, rather than the differences, that ring true.

"Interestingly, they've come out quite similar because they both chose blue as the dominant color, as well as many similar images as well ... I haven't labeled them, but you can work out which one's which on closer examination. I think that reflects the layered identity we have as British people," he says. "Brexit isn't necessarily in the foreground. We've got many more identity issues when it comes to Brexit."

When it comes to the bitter rifts of generation, location, race and gender that Brexit did it's best to deepen, Perry is optimistic that they can be patched up -- in the long-term at least.

Grayson Perry at the press preview of "The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever!" at the Serpentine Gallery

"I think in the heat around the referendum we saw this sort of new version of culture wars that happened in Britain. But I think it is not necessarily the headline of our identity -- and it will subside. It is just around the Brexit debate and the fallout from that and then into the election," he says.

"Brexit is still a hugely important issue, but I think as long as we address the underlying ... grievances that motivated people around the debate, then hopefully the poison will be lanced."

The show opens on the eve of the general election, a schedule clash that seems to suit his mirror-holding sense of chaos. How does he feel, hosting a major exhibition about British culture, on the eve of the most polarized election since the '80s?

"I love opening my show on the eve of a general election. It's perfect timing," he cackles, before getting serious again. "Some of the issues involved in the election are in my show, and it creates a febrile atmosphere where people are interested in the state of the nation, and that's something I've been interested in for a very long time."

"Also there is that difficult lull between going to vote and the results coming in, a perfect time to come to the opening," he adds, surely only half-joking.

Continued here:
State of the nation: Grayson Perry on Brexit, Britishness and culture wars - CNN

New York Times

Bared Breast Enthralls a Future Czar, and Stokes a Russian Culture War New York Times Aleksei Y. Uchitel is the director of Matilda, a movie that has ignited a firestorm in Russia's culture wars. Credit Max Avdeev for The New York Times. MOSCOW It is an eye-catching wardrobe malfunction that beguiles a future czar. A young, nubile ...

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Bared Breast Enthralls a Future Czar, and Stokes a Russian Culture War - New York Times

Once a neighborhood activist in Brooklyn, Linda Sarsour has become an internationally-recognized progressive. (Arun Venugopal )

The nation's culture warriors are battling in the streets of New York this graduation season.

Muslimactivist Linda Sarsour delivered the commencement address at CUNY Thursday. In the speech, she urged Americans to fight against hate.

"What does it mean when we say were social justice activists and organizers committed to justice and equality for all people? It means we made a decision that we would never be bystanders," she said.

The speech triggered protests from the same conservatives who have faced calls to cancel their own speeches.

Anti-Islam provocateur MiloYiannopoulos, who was been banned from Twitter and hada planned speech at the University of California at Berkeley descend into violence, spoke at an anti-Sarsour protest last week. In his remarks, he said she, in fact, should be allowed to speak at CUNY.

"Dont ban her, but hold her to account," Yiannopoulos said after making a bigoted joke about paying Sarsour in goats. "Make her debate. Make her defend her hateful and odious positions."

WNYC's Arun Venugopal and Matt Katz examine the robust debate over free speech on college campuses.

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A Brooklyn Woman at the Center of the Nation's Culture Wars - WNYC

For as long as there has been baseball played on these shores, there has been one subset of players, generally veteran ones, that has taken it upon itself to teach another subset of players, generally younger ones, how to say it with me now play the game the right way. If that seems like a tired phrase, its becoming an even more tired concept.

On Monday at AT&T Park in San Francisco, Giants reliever Hunter Strickland felt he needed to teach Nationals superstar Bryce Harper that exact lesson, which he undertook by drilling Harper in the hip with a 98-mph fastball, touching off a brawl that included an exchange of punches and that will likely result in both players being suspended.

[Svrluga: Even the Giants thought Strickland crossed the line against Harper]

Inside the mind of Strickland must be a scary and confusing place to be, what with all those three-year-old grudges and revenge fantasies, and we wont be staying there for long. But it isnt difficult to discern his motivation, and it was all representative of a larger divide in baseballs evolving culture, one that seems to create more contentiousness as the divide grows.

Were only guessing here because Strickland, of course, claimed the pitch was meant to be inside and simply got away from him but the reason he decided to drill Harper was not because the latter homered twice off him in the 2014 National League Division Series, as many have suggested. Homers happen, and even a less-evolved player such as Strickland knows he has to wear them.

No, what almost certainly burrowed its way into a recess of Stricklands brain, back in October 2014, and festered there for almost three years, until the next time he was fortunate enough to face Harper, was Harpers reaction to those homers. Rather than lay his bat down and take a sober sprint around the bases the right way to play the game, according to folks of Stricklands ilk Harper stood and watched them for a few moments before making his way around the bases. In the first instance, in Game 1, Strickland appeared to glare at Harper. In the second, in Game 4, Harper appeared to glare back.

That, son, is not playing the game the right way.

[Fight between Harper, Strickland colors Nationals win over Giants]

But it is worth pointing out two things here: First, both home runs were pulled down the line in right field, so Harpers delayed trots may have had less to do with posing and preening than with seeing if the balls would remain inside the foul pole.

Second, and more importantly, the Giants won both of those 2014 playoff games, as well as the series, then went on to win the World Series. Strickland, in other words, got the ultimate revenge, had he possessed the awareness to see it. Game over. This was Harpers exact point after the game, when he said, They won the World Series that year. I dont even think he should be thinking about what happened in the first round. He should be thinking about wearing that ring home every single night.

Certain players arouse the ire of the play-the-game-the-right-way crowd more than others. They are usually younger and/or foreign-born, meaning they have grown up in an era and/or culture where personal expression on the field is more accepted. They play the game with more flair than their predecessors. They are also usually great, or else their exploits would not matter.

Harper is one of these players. Strickland, in using the old pitch-got-away-from-me defense, wasnt willing to articulate what it was about Harper, or one of Harpers specific actions, that made him go to such great lengths to exact his small measure of revenge. But luckily, Cole Hamels articulated it for him. In 2012, when Harper was a 19-year-old rookie making his way around the league for the first time, Hamels, then pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies, drilled him in the back the first time he faced him. The reason? Basically: Just because he didnt like the way Harper played the game.

Thats something I grew up watching, Hamels said after that game. Im just trying to continue the old baseball, because I think some people are kind of getting away from it.

These are difficult times for the play-the-game-the-right-way crowd. Every year, another crop of rookies arrives who came of age in the era of bat-flips and pumped fists, and every year the ranks of the old-school, self-appointed baseball-decorum police grow thinner. (Where is Jonathan Papelbon these days, anyway?) This, in turn, makes that group even more desperate to rescue the old values. Its not dissimilar from the way American society itself has grown more tolerant and more multicultural, to the chagrin of others, and we can all see where that has left our national politics.

There is only one direction where this is heading, and it would be better for all involved if we simply acknowledged the cultural shift going on within baseball, one that is not going away. It is quite telling that in the two most significant on-field incidents this season the Strickland/Harper confrontation, and the one last month in which Boston Red Sox reliever Matt Barnes threw behind the head of Baltimore Orioles third baseman Manny Machado the most prominent position player on both of the offending teams made no effort to hide their disgust at their own teammates actions.

[Machado handled Orioles-Red Sox incidents with maturity. Not everyone could say the same.]

In Boston, Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia essentially disavowed Barness purpose pitch, calling it a mishandled situation. And in San Francisco on Monday, Giants catcher Buster Posey stood behind home plate for a good five seconds as Harper charged the mound, rather than rush in between Harper and Strickland, as is expected of a catcher in that situation.

Pedroia and Posey apparently have grasped what Machado and Harper already innately know, and that the old-school holdouts will eventually need to acknowledge: its no longer necessary to define for younger players the right way to play the game. Their way, anymore, is the right way.

More:
Bryce Harper is the latest victim in baseball's evolving culture wars - Washington Post

Sen. Larry Taylor announces plans from the Senate Committee on Education during a press conference with Lt. Governor Dan Patrick on March 3, 2015.

Sen. Larry Taylor announces plans from the Senate Committee on...

AUSTIN - The fate of millions of dollars in education funding and school bathroom policies for transgender children hung in limbo Monday as lawmakers braced for the last full week of a legislative session marked by power grabs over contentious cultural battles in the Republican-controlled Legislature.

State lawmakers are set to adjourn May 29, but they have yet to resolve issues that have driven a wedge between the two chambers. The continued infighting, which often involves social issues like religion and class conflicts, could affect millions of public school students or spark a special session that could keep lawmakers in Austin into the summer.

Among the issues hanging in the balance is a short-term fix to the state's beleaguered school finance system that funds the education of 5.3 million children. Just after midnight Monday, the Texas Senate scrapped much of a House plan to revise how the state funds education, replacing it with a controversial school voucher program for children with disabilities.

The 12:50 a.m. vote marks the second time in two months the chamber has approved legislation giving parents education savings accounts, referred to as ESAs, to use public school dollars to subsidize student tuition at a private school. The Senate added the plan to House Bill 21 despite fervent opposition from House members who say the bill takes money away from public schools and constitutes a poison pill on legislation that would otherwise pour more than $1.5 billion into public education. In its current form, the bill would add about $500 million to the system.

Vouchers pin school choice advocates, including U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, against defenders of public schools out of the belief that applying a free-market mentality to public education would allow people to escape low-performing public schools and increase competition. Voucher opponents say the idea is a ploy to privatize education by siphoning funding to private and parochial institutions.

"Some people have built this into some kind of monster," said Sen. Larry Taylor, the Friendswood Republican who sponsored the bill. He added that the House's opposition to vouchers is unwarranted.

"It's like this little ESA mouse running around, and this elephant is like, 'Oh, oh my God,' freaking out about it and it's tiny," said Taylor, who estimates around 5,000 of the state's 5.3 million public school students would use the voucher in his bill.

'We have to want to'

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a strong supporter of vouchers, said Monday he was willing to go along with a House plan to push back the official start date of an A-F school and district grading scale until 2019.

"As I said last week, it is hard for me to believe any Texas lawmaker would vote against a half billion dollars for public schools, as well as voting against children with disabilities, simply to oppose school choice," Patrick said in a statement.

Opposition to a school voucher program is strong in the House, whose members voted overwhelmingly earlier this session to block any public funds from going to ESAs or similar initiatives.

"I don't see a path forward for House Bill 21 at this point," said Rep. Gary VanDeaver, a New Boston Republican who serves on the House Public Education Committee.

To read this article in one of Houston's most-spoken languages, click on the button below.

The panel's chairman, Dan Huberty, R-Humble, said he was "very disappointed" the Senate stripped much of the House's version of the bill originally meant to begin changing a school funding formula the Texas Supreme Court ruled was constitutional, though Byzantine and in need of repair.

"We have to want to be able to do this. Can't is not an option. That word shouldn't be in our vocabulary. It's won't," Huberty said, adding he plans to announce the House's response to the Senate changes Tuesday.

The bill likely to make the most movement on the school funding formula is Senate Bill 2144, which would create a 15-member commission to study how best to change or rewrite the state's school funding formula before the 2019 session. The Senate passed the bill earlier this month and the House tentatively approved it Monday on a voice vote.

New rules possible

Legislators this session may not agree on how to fund schools, but they could be on their way toward creating new statewide rules that would require public schools to provide single-stall bathrooms and locker rooms to students who, for whatever reason, do not want to use facilities designated by "biological sex."

The measure is the product of a national wave of GOP legislation focused on transgender people's bathroom use. On Monday, the House voted 94-51 to approve Senate Bill 2078, legislation regarding emergency disaster plans for schools, with the bathroom amendment attached. Rep. Chris Paddie, the Republican from Marshall who authored the amendment, said it would allow all students access to a single-stall bathroom or empty multi-stall facility, including those who are shy, have a colostomy bag or have other reasons they might want privacy. Democrats said the bill would discriminate against transgender students and make them targets for harassment by forcing them to use separate bathrooms.

The measure is not nearly as broad as Patrick wanted, as he had made legislating a sex-specific bathroom policy in state government buildings, colleges and schools a priority this year worthy of a special session. House Speaker Joe Straus implied Sunday that SB 2078 was as far as the House would go on the matter.

The bill now goes back to the Senate, which could accept the House's so-called compromise or reject it and call for a conference committee. Abbott has said he wants to sign some kind of "bathroom bill" this year.

Patrick said he has "concerns about its ambiguous language, which doesn't appear to do much."

In response, Straus said to put the onus on the Senate to ramp up its work."Now it's really time for the Senate to take care of the many House priorities that they know they've been sitting on. We'll just have to wait and see what happens," Straus said.

Bobby Cervantes contributed to this report.

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Education culture wars stifle GOP Legislature - Houston Chronicle