Wednesday July 31
KENNEDY
CENTER HONORS: This year's Kennedy Center Honors have been
announced. Chosen are Paul McCartney and Elizabeth Taylor, conductor
James Levine, actor James Earl Jones and dancer and actress Chita
Rivera. "Now in their 25th year, the Honors are presented
by the nation's performing arts center as a tribute to those who
have distinguished themselves in the fields of music, dance, theater,
film and television. The honors will be bestowed at a State Department
dinner Dec. 7, followed the next night by a Kennedy Center gala."
Washington Post 07/31/02
TAKING
ARTS ED FOR GRANTED? Arts education has become an issue treated
with the reverence usually reserved for motherhood. Just try getting
an arts grant these days without an educational component. But
"in some respects, there's surely too much of the arts in
the curriculum today, not too little. Out of anxiety that the
next generation doesn't become totally Disneyfied or football-crazy,
we risk over-selling 'high culture' to our children. Premature
school outings to Tate Modern or Bankside Globe puts more 10-year-olds
off Matisse or Shakespeare than turns them on. Far better to let
them wander in later, out of their own curiosity - and far better
to concentrate resources on low ticket prices and long opening
hours." The Telegraph (UK) 07/31/02
BEWARE
OF LABELING: Should plays be rated like movies to warn of
content that might be offensive to some viewers? Some are suggesting
a return of the theatre censor Britain used to have. Bennedict
Nightengale thinks not: "Theatregoers are usually pretty
well informed, read reviews, ask questions and, if theyre
frightened by the prospect of Nicole Kidman elegantly divesting
in The Blue Room, they give the play a miss. Actually, the job
of a theatre vigilante would be virtually impossible, for plays
change unpredictably in performance." The
Times 07/31/02
Tuesday July 30
MASSIVE
CUTS IN MASSACHUSETTS: "The Massachusetts Cultural Council,
a state agency that has been fighting proposed cuts for months,
learned yesterday that it is likely to lose $12 million of its
current $19 million budget. The 62 percent cut proposed by Acting
Governor Jane Swift will mean cuts across the board in state money
to artists, nonprofit institutions, and 335 local cultural councils...
The cultural council is the largest source of state funds to the
arts." Boston Globe 07/30/02
ARGENTINA'S
GREAT DEPRESSION: "As Argentina struggles to survive
a four-year economic calamity that in statistical terms is now
the equivalent of the Great Depression in the United States, the
impact on the nation's cultural life is felt in every way and
at every level. Cultural producers are not only scrambling to
try to do more with less, they are being forced to rethink the
role, function and nature of culture in Argentine society."
The New York Times 07/30/02
SUMMER
FEST: This summer there are a record number of arts festivals
across America. There are "3,000, drawing an audience estimated
at up to 130 million and accounting, by industry estimates, for
close to $2 billion in spending. With the number of arts festivals
nearly doubling, by some accounts, since the mid-90's, the festivals
have changed the ways Americans consume culture." The
New York Times 07/30/02
THE
VISA PROBLEM: Getting visas for foreign artists to come into
the US to perform has become tougher. Visas are delayed, or in
some cases denied, "sometimes for reasons that are understandable
and sometimes for reasons that seem arbitrary. Among the artists
denied entry were 10 of the 28 members of an Iranian troupe that
performed at Lincoln Center Festival 2002 this month, and most
recently a Yugoslav pianist with a recording on EMI Classics to
his credit and a recommendation from the conductor Christoph Eschenbach
in his file." The New York Times
07/30/02
Monday July 29
HACK
ATTACK: A proposed new bill in the US Congress that would
allow copyright holders to hack into the computers of file-traders,
is a scary turn of events. Many "fear that approval of the
bill could result in a multitude of clumsy and ill-conceived 'hack'
attacks that could have widespread, system-damaging effects on
both file traders and those who have never downloaded a single
song from a file-trading server." Wired
07/29/02
THE
PRICE OF ART: America's National Endowment for the Arts got
a budget boost when Congress recently voted a $10 million raise.
The NEA has become a non-issue for funding. "Now the endowments
play it safe, mostly channeling money into museums, schools and
other mainstream institutions that are more interested in fostering
knowledge and appreciation of art and literature than in subsidizing
individual artists and writers. This is progress, as it brings
us considerably closer to a proper governmental relationship to
art and literature in a representative democracy that stands for
freedom of expression rather than state-sanctioned (and state-controlled)
expression. But the question of subsidy just won't go away."
Washington Post 07/29/02
Friday July 26
INVEST
HERE: How curious that in tough economic times that governments
propose cutting arts spending. Such spending isn't a handout,
it's investment in a multi-billion-dollar industry. A study commissioned
by Americans for the Arts quantifies the economic return - an
investment of one dollar in the arts returns $8. "When governments
consider reducing their support for the arts, as is the case with
the proposed cut to the California Arts Council, they are not
cutting frills. They are undercutting a nonprofit industry that
is a cornerstone of tourism, economic development and the revitalization
of many downtowns." San Diego
Union-Tribune 07/26/02
IDEA
ECONOMY: The battle over intellectual property rights is heating
up as one of the most important issues of the day. On one side
are established industries seeking to protect their power bases.
On the other side are those looking to build on existing ideas,
processes and products. "One wonders - when we have copyright
laws that provide protection for the life of the author or creator
plus an additional 70 years - how much incentivizing (of other
creative talent in the same field) is going on when that person
has been dead and buried ... for several decades." Nando
Times (AP) 07/26/02
Thursday July 25
OHIO
CUTS ARTS FUNDING: Ohio joined the list of American state
arts agencies taking big cuts in their budgets. "Broad state
cutbacks forced the council to lower its projected 2003 budget
from $15.7 million to $13.3 million. The council already had had
its budget reduced by 6 percent last October." The
Plain Dealer 07/25/02
FILLING
UP THE MIDDLE: Boston has some major performing arts halls.
But there's a gap for those performers who can't draw enough to
fill Symphony Hall but are two big for smaller venues. So a private
developer is building a new four-hall complex for mid-size groups.
The largest theatre in the $65-70 million project will have 800-1000
seats. It's to open in 2005. Boston
Globe 07/25/02
Wednesday July 24
GETTING
A BOOST: The British government has come through with an unexpected
£5.2 million of funding for 49 of the country's top "non-national
museums and galleries." The funding comes from the UK's Designated
Museum Challenge Fund, "created in 1999 to promote collections
of national and international importance." BBC
07/24/02
ART
AS RESEARCH: A new British government reports says the arts
and humanities should be funded in the same way that science and
medical research is. "The arts and humanities field is of
increasing economic significance, with growth in the creative
industries being three times faster than the economy as a whole.
'The move to the office of science and technology will also further
the contribution we are already making to the intellectual, cultural,
creative and economic life of the nation, and provide a coherent
and much-needed route from the arts and humanities community to
government policy making'." The
Guardian (UK) 07/23/02
WHATEVER
HAPPENED TO CRITICS? Set aside The New York Times and
a few other national outlets which still have some dedication
to traditional arts criticism, and there is a startling lack of
intelligent media discussion on the arts these days. Full-time
critics are increasingly rare at America's daily newspapers, and
even cities known for their strong support of the arts find themselves
stuck with capsule reviews, thumbs-up-thumbs-down assessments
of complex performances, uninformed reviewers, and general media
laziness. But does the blame for the dumbing down lie with reviewers,
media conglomerates, or thin-skinned artists themselves?
Word of Mouth (Minnesota Public Radio) 06/02
[RealAudio plug-in required]
- YOU
MEAN CRITICS DON'T KNOW EVERYTHING? 18 U.S. journalists
are going back to school next fall, courtesy of a McKnight Foundation
grant. What's the point? Well, for one Midwest music writer,
the value of academic study is obvious - it might just make
him a better critic. "I need to get better as a writer... I
need to figure out a way to do it differently--in terms of describing
music, or referencing music." The grants allow the journalists
to spend a year studying whatever they want, regardless of whether
their chosen course of study directly impacts their area of
expertise, and forbids them from writing for publication during
that time. City Pages (Minneapolis/Saint
Paul) 07/24/02
THE
POETS KNOW: Composer John Cage once dedicated a book to "us
and those who hate us, that the USA may become just another part
of the world, no more, no less." Since 9/11, America has
at times come close to fulfilling Cage's wish, but has mainly
devolved into its usual bullying tactics in Afghanistan and beyond.
Artists and poets have been among the small number willing to
criticise the U.S. actions, and they have largely been shouted
down or decried as unpatriotic. Has the post-9/11 world begun
to stifle creativity, or is the current wave of ultra-nationalism
just one more bump on the road of American artistic freedom? The
Globe & Mail (Toronto) 07/24/02
A
SENSE OF PROGRESS: Why are so many people resistant to new
experimental art? "In a world where experience is increasingly
fragmented and isolated, art points to the unbreakable chain of
human creativity, and refuses to make islands of separation out
of past, present and future. New work is new energy, and we need
new energy, not least to understand what we have already achieved."
The Times (UK) 07/24/02
Tuesday July 23
THE
IRRELEVANT NEWSPAPERS: For three weeks the newspapers in Vancouver
Canada have been on strike. Last time there was a strike - in
1978 - it was a disaster for the local arts community. "Ticket
sales plummeted, seasons curtailed, staff reduced to handing out
flyers on Granville Street, huddled in doorways like Jehovah's
Witnesses. This time, arts groups hardly notice the papers are
gone. Certianly part of the reason is that there are so many other
sources of news. But it also "comes down to the fact that
both Vancouver dailies have been cutting back on arts coverage
for years (along with city hall and other time-consuming local
beats), judging it more cost-efficient to publish press releases
of Hollywood films, wire-service photos of female breasts, and
hotel interviews in which Jamie Portman sucks up to the star du
jour. Having of necessity turned to other media with their message,
local artists no longer live or die at the whim of some underpaid
'critic' who would rather be covering sports or restaurants or,
well, anything really." The Globe
& Mail (Canada) 07/23/02
Monday July 22
THE
LATEST IN SUPERPAC: Dallas has unveiled plans for a new $250
million performing arts center. "The complex, adjacent to
the Meyerson Symphony Center in the downtown Dallas Arts District,
is scheduled to open in November 2007. One building will house
the Dallas Theater Center in an adaptable 700- to 800-seat facility
to be built directly east of the Meyerson. Across the street,
a second building will contain a 2,400-seat opera house that will
provide a new home for the Dallas Opera and the Dallas season
of the Fort Worth Dallas Ballet." Fort
Worth Star-Telegrapm 07/21/02
WHAT'S
THE PROGRAM? With the demise of Stagebill, Playbill has a
virtual monopoly on the concert/theatre program business in many
American cities. "Insiders say that some arts organizations
are already reporting that Playbill is suggesting new or different
terms and that the idea of forming an arts consortium to look
at other publishing options was floated. It's an exciting possibility
- a program company run and operated by arts organizations --
but the time constraint of being ready for the upcoming season
will most likely put it on the back burner temporarily."
Washington Post 07/21/02
CULTURE
SERVED UP COLD? Cultural diversity is an orthodoxy commonly
preached these days. But is it a policy that deadens art? "The
essence of cultural diversity, as preached by government and these
organisations is 'respect' for other voices, different points
of view and self-expression. We are exhorted to listen to other
voices in every discussion on diversity but never to judge them.
The rhetoric of diversity deems every cultural form of worth,
not because of a quality intrinsic to it, but for the sake of
it. This phoney respect is not earned, but derived from an external
formula distinct from culture. All too often, the praise and endorsement
of other cultures expresses itself alongside a total ignorance
of them. This is why, despite much talk of diversity, champions
of it tend to sound the same and the exhibits or productions seem
to merge. We are being fed a formula for indifference."
The Art Newspaper 07/20/02
CURSE
OF THE ADJUNCT PROFESSOR: "There once was an unwritten
deal. If you were smart and willing to devote up to 10 of your
most productive years studying for a doctorate, certain things
would likely happen. A college or university somewhere would hire
you. And if you did well there, there was a full-time tenured
job in your future. The money wouldn't be great, but you'd be
part of an academic community. You'd do research in your field.
You'd live a life of the mind. Then the deal changed. Critics
call it the corporatization of higher ed. Colleges prefer to call
it a shift toward greater efficiency." Washington
Post 07/21/02
Sunday July 21
WHY
NOT CLEVELAND? Cities from San Francisco to Seattle to Boston
have proven that the arts are an investment that comes back to
reward the larger economic climate of a region handsomely. So
why are some cities so hopelessly unable to master the concept?
In Cleveland, arts advocates are struggling with old attitudes
and embarrasingly transparent ploys. "Many of the city's
students and young workers can't develop careers here because
Cleveland's dull image doesn't attract enough activity in their
chosen fields. Isolated neighborhoods and marooned campuses discourage
their efforts to form collaborations and a sense of community.
Worse, perhaps, some of Cleveland's attempts to make itself enticing
are so outmoded that hip, in-demand workers are writing the city
off as clueless." The Plain Dealer
(Cleveland) 07/21/02
RESISTANCE
IS FUTILE: A furious collection of Toronto artists, musicians,
and community activists gathered in protest this week in an effort
to shut down Presto, a "new, all-ages punk-rock and hip-hop
club and gallery." What's the problem? It seems that the
club is not a club at all, but an elaborate PR campaign by those
kings of the Swoosh at Nike. The club, which opened this
summer, was apparently intended to drum up attention for the company's
newest line of sportswear, become one of the hottest night spots
in Toronto, and then vanish mysteriously this August. Nike says
it wasn't trying to fool anyone, but the folks who were fooled
anyway aren't taking it lying down. The
Globe & Mail (Toronto) 07/20/02
DIVERSITY
COMES TO THE UK: Most Americans probably imagine Great Britain
to be about as racially diverse as, say, North Dakota. But the
truth is that the UK has never lacked diversity, only the desire
to celebrate it. Recently, however, there has been an explosion
of high-profile films and exhibits from minority artists in the
country. "Why this interracial outpouring in the arts? Perhaps
because the whole meaning of Britishness is being reconstructed
by younger, less tradition-bound thinkers, artists, writers and
politicians. Their perspective is more cosmopolitan, more global,
and they're eager to show it." The
New York Times 07/21/02
Friday July 19
SNOB
APPEAL: Joseph Epstein traces the roots of snobbery in America
in his new book. "The phenomenon, he argues, was more or
less nonexistent before the early 19th century, despite the proliferation
of kings and dukes all over the map. Snobbery feeds on social
uncertainty, and in a rigidly organized society with clear and
mostly hereditary class distinctions, no one could hope for upward
mobility or fear the loss of status failure." Salon
07/18/02
BUZZING
THE BUZZWORDS: "Two keywords - innovation and challenge
- dominate the discussion of contemporary art the world over.
But both shy away from the real issue. The big question is this:
what makes a work of art really good - really profound, beautiful,
moving, serious? Instead of directly addressing this great issue,
there is a tendency to concentrate on secondary matters. Like
whether what the artist is doing has been done before or whether
it stands in opposition to what is taken to be popular belief.
It's not that innovation and challenge are in themselves bad.
It's just that they don't make much headway in helping us to understand
how art can matter to us." The
Age (Melbourne) 07/19/02
HOW
TO RAISE YOUR PROPERTY VALUES: Lowell is one of those small,
secondary New England cities struggling in the shadow of Boston,
and, as such, it sometimes finds itself with a hard sell in convincing
artists to migrate to its downtown. "It's an old story: Artists
move into run-down but affordable neighborhoods, set up studios
in old warehouses, and inject new life into the streets. They
plant the seeds of gentrification, then get priced out."
But Lowell is making a concerted push to get and keep artists,
and buck the trend of the revolving art door. Boston
Globe 07/19/02
BUYING
REJECTION: Some very big publishers and recording companies
are selling writers and composers the "opportunity"
to be considered for publication by professional editors and producers.
Wait - isn't that the job of editors and producers to look
at new material? "I guess this is an improvement over the
Famous Writer's School and Famous Artist's School of my childhood,"
writes Kurt Andersen, but surely it's just a setup for rejection.
Public Arts 07/18/02
Thursday July 18
HOUSE
VOTES NEA INCREASE: The US House of Representatives voted
an increase in the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts
Wednesday. "In a 234-192 vote, the House agreed to increase
the NEA budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 by $10 million,
to $126 million. The same amendment to a spending bill for public
lands programs and cultural agencies boosted funds for the National
Endowment for the Humanities by $5 million to $131 million."
Nando Times (AP) 07/17/02
BILBAO-ON-HIDSON
CHOOSES DIRECTOR: Jonathan Levi has been chosen as director
of the new $62 million Bard Performing Arts Center. The center,
designed by Frank Gehry, "is to be completed in January and
open in April as a home for music, theater and dance. The building's
two theaters will be used both for academic purposes and as a
public space for international cultural events. Like the Guggenheim
Museum that Mr. Gehry designed in Bilbao, Spain, the Bard center
is highly distinctive with a series of low-lying steel canopies
that look like large, overlapping ribbons." The
New York Times 07/18/02
Tuesday July 16
BUMPING
UP CULTURE: The British government propses to give arts and
culture a funding increase of £75 million next year. Along
with the funding came a pledge to "maintain free access to
Britain's national museums, saying attendance at museums had risen
by 75% since the government abolished entry fees last year."
Under the proposal, "funding to culture, media, sport and
tourism would rise from £1.3bn in 2002 to £1.6bn by
2006." BBC 07/15/02
CULTURE?
IT'S JUST CULTURE... The battle between "high" and
"low" culture has been raging for some time. But is
anyone paying attention anymore? ?The curious thing about this
conflict - a savage, no-holds-barred struggle to anyone professionally
caught up in it - is that nine-tenths of the population barely
know that it exists. Pavarotti and Puccini, the Beatles and So
Solid Crew - it is all simply 'music' to the specimen radio browser
or megastore CD rack sifter. The vast cultural chasm that supposedly
exists between a Tchaikovsky symphony and Andrew Lloyd Webber
is a matter only for the arts police." New
Statesman 07/15/02
CLICK
TO LEARN: It's called Net thinking. "a form of reasoning
that characterizes many students who are growing up with the Internet
as their primary, and in some cases, sole source of research.
Ask teachers and they'll tell you: Among all the influences that
shape young thinking skills, computer technology is the biggest
one. Students' first recourse for any kind of information is the
Web. It's absolutely automatic. Good? Bad? Who knows?" Washington
Post 07/16/02
OUT
IN THE COLD: As the state of Connecticut declares a budget
crisis, some small arts groups are getting the bad news that their
state funding has been zeroed out. Some of those left out are
award-winning and have been funded for years. "There's a
chilling effect when a national or state arts agency deems your
group is not worthy of financial support. More than just the dollars,
the awarding of a grant - however modest - says the group deserves
help from the community and others should follow suit. When the
state dismisses an organization's grant request, it gives others
permission to do so." Hartford
Courant 07/14/02
Sunday July 14
RECONCILING
ELITISM AND EQUALITY: "High culture is seen by some as
the product of a hidebound establishment bent on excluding outsiders...
Can people of left-liberal political sympathies believe that high
culture has special and superior value which justifies state support
for theatre and grand opera, but not for pop concerts or darts
competitions? On the face of it the answer is surely 'Yes'; even
if, after the characteristic British manner, left-leaning votaries
of high culture... occasionally mask their interest under an appearance
of irony, given the risk that such interests run of being branded
affected or pretentious. The Guardian
(UK) 07/13/02
A
ONCE-DIVIDED ARTS SCENE GELS NICELY: Berlin is like no other
city on Earth, in that it spent 50 years divided squarely in two,
then attempted to readapt to existing as a single entity. That
kind of dichotomy can make or break any attempt at a coherant
arts scene. "This is today's Berlin: a mix of old Disneyfication,
new construction and eager renovation. And, tucked into any corners
still waiting to find a place within that mix, a burgeoning world
of contemporary creativity that makes the city one of the most
dynamic art centers on the planet and a magnet for outsiders."
Washington Post 07/14/02
TWIN
ARTS PHILOSOPHIES: How to support the arts in a time of fiscal
downswing is a challenge faced by elected officials across the
country. In the Twin Cities, two rookie mayors are taking decidedly
different routes towards maintaining the area's well-known commitment
to arts funding. In Minneapolis, Democrat R.T. Rybak is offering
mostly lip service, and a promise that money will flow when the
city's coffers are replenished. Over
in Saint Paul, Republican Randy Kelly swears he can pay for
the arts and still balance the budget, but some of his promises
have gotten him in trouble when the cash wasn't forthcoming. The
Star Tribune (Minneapolis) 07/14/02
BE
A BOARD MEMBER FOR FUN AND PROFIT: Time was when a seat on
the board of a major cultural institution was really nothing but
a prestige position awarded to those rich and well-connected enough
to get offered that sort of thing. "But times are changing.
Brash newcomers, who owe their seats to a growing public demand
for representativeness and transparency, are beginning to take
their places beside the old money around the oak tables at the
RSC, the British Museum or the National Gallery." The
Observer (UK) 07/14/02
GONE
NATIVE: The arts world and the larger capitalistic society
understandably view one another with skepticism, and sometimes
outright hostlity, and the best way to make an artist nervous
is to put a businessman in charge of his fiscal affairs. Such
was the case when Gerry Robinson was persuaded to take on the
leadership of the Arts Council of England, with the hope being
that he could use his business savvy to streamline the council's
operations. Four years in, Robinson has done just that, but the
council appears to have had as much impact on him as he has had
on it: "Like many arts ministers and Arts Council chairmen
before him, Robinson has gone native, and is quite prepared to
admit the fact. He now talks the arts talk with total conviction,
effortlessly embracing both the social importance of the arts...
and the pursuit of excellence." Financial
Times 07/12/02
Thursday July 11
ILL
AT EASE WITH THE ARTS: It's time for Britain's Labour government
to announce its support for the arts. But "New Labour has
never been publicly at ease with the arts. Tony Blair may be an
occasional theatre-goer, but the philosophy and practice of Blairism
have little real place for the arts as such. Predisposed as they
are (or were, until the 2002 budget) to American rather than European
models of the role of government, senior Labour ministers have
an intellectual aversion to arts spending. But their suspicion
of the arts is also more visceral. The New Labour coalition was
built on tabloid tastes. Marginalising the arts, like marginalising
civil liberty, is a price New Labour remains instinctively willing
to pay to court public approval from the tabloid editors."
The Guardian (UK) 07/12/02
WHAT
AILS US: Britain's arts seem caught in mismanagement and lack
of creative direction. "The despondency that developed throughout
the arts world after 20 years of starvation funding means that
we have become too timid and defensive to subject ourselves to
muscular public self-criticism. We are afraid to speak frankly
and openly about the inadequacies of our major cultural institutions.
We fear that if we burn down the opera houses, we will be left
with nothing but a smouldering pile of ash. Yet what need is there
for artists to demolish the major cultural institutions when we
have the media to do it for us?" The
Guardian (UK) 07/12/02
HOBBLED
BY HISTORY: New York's famous literary landmark Algonquin
Hotel has got its third set of owners in 15 years. "The Algonquin,
of course, is the dowager queen of West 44th Street, more storied
than any other theater-district hotel. But if the new owners are
to succeed where its other eager buyers have failed in making
the Algonquin a player in the luxury-hotel market, theyve
got to resolve the same dilemma that has proved insoluble to its
previous modern-day owners: how to give the old hotel a new profile
without alienating the old guard of returning guests entranced
by the Algonquins place in the intellectual history of the
city?" New York Observer 07/11/02
Wednesday July 10
CULTURAL
DISCONNECT: San Jose, whose symphony orchestra recently went
out of business, is not served well by cultural institutions,
though there is broad support for the arts, says a new survey.
The study reported that "95 percent of Silicon Valley residents
believe artistic creativity is so vital that art should be taught
in school at least an hour a week, and yet 38 percent of local
parents say their children get no arts instruction at all. And
while 80 percent of residents have attended a live performance
in the past year and 60 percent have visited a museum, 53 percent
rated the area `poor' or `fair' as a place to attend concerts
or museums." San Jose Mercury
News 07/09/02
ANOTHER
9/11 CASUALTY: At a time when appreciating other world views
might be important in America, arts presenters are finding that
getting visas for international artists to enter the US is getting
more difficult. Village Voice 07/09/02
TIME
TO WONDER: Are today's overprogrammed kids losing their creativity?
With little free time and more and more planned activities, today's
kids don't have time to let their imaginations wander. "Today's
youths don't play creatively, can't make decisions for themselves,
and, thanks to technology, are lazy, impatient and get frustrated
easily, critics say." The Star-Tribune
(Cox) (Minneapolis/St. Paul) 07/10/02
ART
AS BRANDING EXPERIENCE: Increasingly, corporations are coming
up with ideas for art, then funding them, often through arts organizations.
"This is sponsorship, but not as we know it. Instead of waiting
for an arts organisation to have a good idea and patronising it,
these sponsors are generating ideas of their own - and putting
their names up front in lights. In todays uncompromising
business climate, there is little cash for philanthropy. Arts
sponsorship is being moved from 'charity' to 'marketing'. A warm
fuzzy feeling isnt enough; todays executives need
concrete results." The Scotsman
09/10/02
Tuesday July 9
RETHINKING
LINCOLN CENTER? Bruce Crawford is taking over as president
of Lincoln Center, and one of his first pronouncements is that
the center's redevlopment plan - which carries an estimated budget
of $1.2 billion - may need to be rethought. "The scope of
the campaign needs to be decided, and it needs to be based on
more than hope. What would we like to do, and what can realistically
be done? We need to address that issue, and we will." The
New York Times 07/09/02
Monday July 8
BASICS
VS. CREATIVITY: A new report charges that the British government's
emphasis on basics and testing in schools comes at the expense
of teaching the arts. "Music teaching gets an average of
45 minutes a week - and in some schools just half an hour - religious
education, history and geography just short of an hour, and art
and design and technology just over an hour." The
Guardian (UK) 07/05/02
DEAF
AND THE ARTS: Some 400 deaf artists are participating in an
international arts festival in Washington DC devoted to art by
the hearing-impaired. "The weeklong extravaganza is said
to be the largest event in any country devoted to deaf issues
and the arts. More than 8,500 people from 108 countries have registered,
and organizers are expecting hundreds more." The
New York Times 07/08/02
- WHY
A FESTIVAL: "There is a separatism. Deaf people can
be reluctant to let hearing people into their world. And a lot
of hearing people don't know anything about us. There's a perception
that it's a disability, 'Poor you'." Washington
Post 07/08/02
A
CONFUSING TIME: Connecticut arts groups are feeling schizophrenic.
On one hand, some ambitious big-ticket arts building projects
are underway. On the other hand, funding is down, and the economic
downturn is a threat. "How should they react? With less programming?
Higher ticket prices? Should they hunker down, water down and
pander to what they think is their audience? Will we see more
mediocre, less adventuresome art? Or will we see programming that
braves conservative forces and dares to excite and re-energize
a community? Will they be rising stars or pale moons going around
and around the same old orbit?" Hartford
Courant 07/07/02
Sunday July 7
PRICED
OUT OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD: No one gets into poetry for the money.
In fact, many consider poverty to be an essential part of poetic
inspiration. So when poets and other artists begin moving out
of your city in droves, it's possible that you have a bit of a
cost-of-living problem. Yes, Chicago, we're looking at you. Chicago
Tribune 07/06/02
NEXT,
THEY'LL TRY TO BAN WINE FROM FRANCE: The Italian Futurists
of the early 20th century were easily one of the most amusing
philosophical movements of the last 200 years. Given to sweeping
pronouncements and outlandish predictions about what the coming
epoch would bring, Futurists also had a habit of calling for the
destruction of beloved aspects of Italian society, such as gondolas,
opera, and Venice. But their most daring attack on civil society
may have been the day they tried to abolish pasta. The
Telegraph (UK) 07/06/02
Friday July 5
FREE
TO BE: The idea of "open source," as practiced by
some in the software world, is spilling over into the physical
world, with some new products giving away "proprietary secrets."
"In a world of growing opposition to corporate power, restrictive
intellectual property rights and globalisation, open source is
emerging as a possible alternative, a potentially potent means
of fighting back. And you're helping to test its value right now."
Alternet.org 07/01/02
Thursday July 4
A
REMARKABLE IMMIGRATION: A new book pays tribute to the cultural
accomplishments by the wave of Jews immigrating to Britain in
the 1930s. "When 55,000 of them came to the United Kingdom
in the 1930s, driven from their homes and universities, their
art galleries and concert halls, they immeasurably enriched the
cultural life of this country and, in music, opera, dance, literature,
mathematics, science, architecture and the history and connoisseurship
of the visual arts we owe them a largely unacknowledged debt."
But, asks Brian Sewell, where is the sense of passion that such
a book ought to convey? London Evening
Standard 07/01/02
Wednesday July 3
WHY
ARTISTS? Why do we hold artists to be special? "The vast
majority of artists will never be famous. Many will achieve limited,
parochial renown to be all but forgotten by posterity, except
maybe for family members, art society types, dedicated collectors,
traditionalist dealers, local or national art history chroniclers:
all strictly small-time. The condition for most artists will remain
relative anonymity and obscurity, but I stress the word 'relative'
here: being known and respected in a local community carries its
own weight, however insignificant against the wider international
benchmark. But then, why dwell on artists anyway? What makes them
so special compared to 'ordinary' humans?" *spark-online
07/02
Tuesday July 2
WHO
GIVES TO THE ARTS: New studies show that Americans' contributions
to non-profits was flat last year. "On the upside, arts and
culture giving by American foundations climbed to nearly $3.7
billion in 2000, more than double the $1.8 billion recorded for
1996. Adjusted for inflation, this is an 83% overall increase
- an average of 16.3% annually. Arts giving by U.S. foundations
slightly outpaced the giving in all fields during this period."
Backstage 07/01/02
WE
INTERRUPT THIS PROGRAM... Performing Arts, the program
magazine handed out at 40-50 major California performance venues
statewide, including the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Mark Taper
Forum and Ahmanson theaters, the Hollywood Bowl, Pasadena Playhouse,
and Orange County Center for the Performing Arts has folded. It
was a victim of the takeover of Stagebill by Playbill last month.
Theaters in New York, Chicago and other cities that used Stagebill
are scambling to decide on new program book services. "In
light of the changes, representatives of performing arts venues
from around the country are organizing a July 8 meeting in New
York to discuss their options, including self-publishing or negotiating
new contracts with other publishers." Los
Angeles Times 07/02/02
WE
DECLARE A THUMB WAR: What happened to the culture wars? There's
as much offensive culture out there as there has been. "Whatever
happened to the age-old culture spaz-out that's been a staple
of pop since Elvis learned to undulate in the '50s? The tango
between stars and their exasperated detractors has followed a
clear pattern: The artists allegedly push the boundaries of taste
and the critics splutter, usually to the benefit of the artists,
who get tagged as controversial, which invariably stirs sales."
But nothing - despite some high-level provocations... Washington
Post 07/02/02
CULTURE
- AN ESSENTIAL INDUSTRY: In Korea "it has been strongly
argued that the culture industry should be made a key industry
of state. With regard to this, the government has considered culture
technology a core technology for state development and, subsequently,
published a comprehensive plan for developing skillful workers
related to the culture industry. As a result, the share of the
culture industry budget of the total budget of the Ministry of
Culture and Tourism increased rapidly from about 3 percent in
1998 to 16 percent in 2002." Korea
Herald 07/02/02
COMP
THIS: What do Korea's culture consumers look like? A survey
says most Koreans are not in the habit of buying tickets to events.
"Among the respondents, 61.2 percent said they asked their
friends to buy the tickets for them or went to the performance
because they had free invitations. Only 13.6 percent of respondents
said they purchased the tickets at the ticket box office whereas
10.6 percent bought the tickets at designated reservation centers."
Korea Herald 07/02/02
Monday July 1
THE
GREAT AMERICAN... "What is the Great American novel/play/
song/idea/movie/TV series?" Chicago Tribune critics take
a whack at naming the best of the best. "Take your pick -
and take cover. We like the notion of choosing a single work,
from the multiplicity of created works that surround us, and anointing
it as the best reflection of who and what we really are."
Chicago Tribune 06/30/02
A
MATTER OF DEDICATION: Sacramento has a growing arts scene.
And yet, the city never seems to quite be able to pay for the
arts it has. So some are suggesting a new city arts-dedicated
tax that would provide significant stable funding for the arts.
Any takers? Sacramento Bee 07/01/02
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