Friday November 30

BUILDING A BETTER CRITIC: "Most of the available writing on the arts today consists of consumer guides that provide brief synopses or trivial background information. These guides are not about providing substantial and thought-provoking criticism. The shortage of critical approaches has spurred a team of researchers to spend the past three years investigating the issues and considering solutions. The project is sponsored by the Thailand Research Fund and is titled 'Criticism as an Intellectual Force in Contemporary Society.'" Bangkok Post (courtesy Andante) 11/29/01

OTHER CITIES SHOULD HAVE IT SO GOOD: Frankfurt's arts groups are looking for money. The government has promised more - the performing arts will get DM5.5 million ($2.5 million) more in 2002 than originally planned, bringing the total budget for theater, opera, ballet and the Theater am Turm to DM132.4 million." But arts groups had wanted DM143 million. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 11/30/01

Thursday November 29

ANTICIPATING HARD TIMES: Just as large corporations often lay off workers in an attempt to be ahead of sharp economic downturns, arts groups are beginning to look for ways to save money in anticipation of a period of reduced cash flow. The unique combination of the events of September 11 and the national recession has created a jittery atmosphere which has arts administrators questioning everything, from programming decisions to expansion plans. San Francisco Chronicle 11/29/01

• CALIFORNIA CUTS: The California Arts Council, citing hard economic times, says it will probably have to cut the amount of money it gives arts groups by 15 percent next year. Among the cuts will be arts education grants. "Starting next September, hundreds of schools won't get arts funds." San Francisco Chronicle 11/28/01

CUTTING THROUGH THE ANIMOSITY: "Who knows what makes visual art so hard for people to cope with? For whatever reason, it seems to be pilloried more in the public domain than other art forms. As an art critic, you are mindful of this. If people don't understand a work of art, they will often not simply move on; they will dig in and actively hate." The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 11/29/01

Wednesday November 28

Tuesday November 27

DEFENDING THE ATTACKERS: Critic Jonathan Yardley defends the American Council of Trustees and Alumni report attacking some academics' response to the American war. "There is one place in American life where conservatism still means what it is meant to, and it is the unlikeliest place imaginable. In response to the tidal wave of leftist insanity that has washed over the professoriat for the past three decades, a movement is taking shape to defend the campuses against the many dreadful developments that wave has brought: the politicization of the arts and humanities, the abandonment of the core curriculum, the suppression of dissent against leftist orthodoxy, political correctness in all its insidious and destructive forms." Washington Post 11/15/01

ATTACK ON COPYRIGHT HOARDERS: Lawrence Lessig wants to change US copyright law. Why? "American copyright laws have gotten so out of hand that they are causing the death of culture and the loss of the world's intellectual history. Copyright has bloated from providing 14 years of protection a century ago to 70 years beyond the creator's death now, and has become a tool of large corporations eager to indefinitely prolong their control of a market. Irving Berlin's songs, for example, will not go off copyright for 140 years." Wired 11/27/01

WHO WILL CHAMPION L.A. ARTS? Los Angeles is home to 150,000 artists and boasts 1000 active arts organizations. Yet where is the support of the city? "Support for the arts is shamefully small, and the intersections between community life, political power and artistic expression are unfortunately rare." Los Angeles Times 11/25/01

Monday November 26

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES: As arts organizations feel squeezed financially and try to anticipate the sensitivities of their audiences, some of the edgier or more controversial art that would have been expected before 9-11 is being postponed, canceled or melted away. Some worry that "in times of financial crises, arts organizations all too often cut back on 'artistic initiatives' - including commissioning new works - but that those seemingly painless cuts lead to further financial woes." Atlanta Journal-Constitution 11/25/01

SCOTTISH ARTS CHIEF TO RESIGN: After weeks of speculation, the director of the Scottish Arts Council says she'll resign the post. "Tessa Jackson, who had three years left to run on her contract, said she would remain involved in the development of the arts in Scotland. She had been in post for just under two years." The Times (UK) 11/24/01

Sunday November 25

ATTACKING ACADEMIA: An advocacy group whose founders include Lynn Cheney, wife of American Vice President Dick Cheney has been collecting what it claims is evidence of "unpatriotic behavior" by US academics. "Calling professors 'the weak link in America's response to the attack,' the report excoriates faculty members for invoking 'tolerance and diversity as antidotes to evil' and pointing 'accusatory fingers, not at the terrorists, but at America itself'." The New York Times 11/24/01 (one-time registration required for access)

FEEDING FRENZY: Ontario arts groups are after $300 million the government says it will pour into cultural facilities. Not surprisingly, something of a feeding frenzy has erupted, and "given that the SuperBuild pool for culture and recreation totals $300-million and the requests of the 400-plus organizations total an estimated $1.2-billion, the province is trying to find ways to cleave the elect from the damned." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/24/01

TELLING THE FUTURE: "In a funny turn, trends are a hot, new trend. Trend-spotting – the art and science of identifying new trends and predicting future trends – is a booming industry filled by a swelling rank of new professionals who go by a grab bag of titles. Trend-spotter, cool-hunter, pop futurist – all these new-fangled terms to describe what amounts to one of the world's oldest professions: fortune-telling." Dallas Morning News 11/24/01

Friday November 23

LAYOFFS ARE JUST A START: A new study quantifies the losses of New York arts groups since September 11. The challenges are many: Attendance is down, "city and state budgets have been slashed, individual giving is being re-directed to September 11–related causes, annual fundraisers are being dropped or pulling in a lot less money than anticipated, public schools are canceling field trips and cultural program contracts in all five boroughs, and capital campaigns have all but ground to a halt." Center for an Urban Future 11/01

FUNDING SHORTFALL: Sixty leaders of Ontario arts organizations gather to discuss the financial crises facing the province's arts groups. One estimate says Toronto arts groups are $40 million short of balancing their books this season, and the Toronto Symphony is in imminent danger of going out of business. Toronto Star 11/22/01

DOES MULTICULTURALISM EXIST? A professor at Pennsylvania Stae University argues that multiculturalism doesn't exist. His "criticisms of the multiculturalist project are novel precisely because he does not find fault with the tenets of the movement, but doubts the very existence of multiculturalism in American life. True multiculturalism, he argues, would demand an understanding of and immersion in cultures so radically different that deference to all of them would cause major rifts in society." Partisan Review 11/01

Thursday November 22

TRY NEW ZEALAND: Hoping to cash in on the troubled Adelaide Festival's woes, the New Zealand Festival (scheduled for the same time as Adelaide) is launching a campaign to try to lure Australians to their festival instead. "The New Zealand Festival had traditionally worked with the Adelaide Festival to share the cost of bringing out international performers. But this year, the New Zealand Festival had to shoulder a greater financial burden because its Adelaide counterpart had rejected international shows in favour of local content." The Age (Melbourne) 11/22/01

Wednesday November 21

HELP FOR NEW YORK ARTS: The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has set up a $50 million fund for New York cultural institutions hurt in the wake of Sepetmber 11. Arts organizations are being hurt by sharply reduced audiences and a pullback in donations. "A survey of 150 New York arts organizations released this week by the Center for an Urban Future, a nonpartisan policy institute that focuses on economic issues, found that nonprofit arts organizations are entering their rockiest period in over 30 years." The New York Times 11/21/01 (one-time registration required for access)

GONE BUT NOT DISMISSED: One of the featured pieces planned for next year's Adelaide Festival was Peter Sellars multimedia opera El Nino. But when Sellars lost his job as director of the festival, most observers expected the opera would be stricken from the schedule (after all, it would be awkward to have Sellars in town as the festival went on). But new artistic director Sue Nattrass says she's negotiating to keep it included. The Age (Melbourne) 11/21/01

CREATIVITY IN ITS MANY FORMS: Art and science are both expressions of mankind's creativity. "Any work of art or science necessarily draws on many different, apparently unconnected areas. Such highly creative thinking may be likened to a mosaic of many tiles. In Picasso's and Einstein's cases, we have identified, among others: cinematography, geometry, technology, aesthetics, X-rays etc. Both men were concerned with the same problem – simultaneity and spatial representation." The Independent (UK) 11/21/01

Tuesday November 20

TEACHING HUMANITIES IN A TIME OF WAR: "When colleagues and graduate students who are teaching this term gather, the conversation often turns to how to bridge the chasm between the syllabus - whatever it contains - and the students who are looking for help in figuring out how to sustain a humane connection to a world that's overwhelming them. I listen to these conversations, then I look at recent issues of scholarly journals in my field, and I feel as if I'm in two different worlds. For years, literary scholarship has been refining the art of stepping away from humane connection." Chronicle of Higher Education 11/19/01

FIRE SALE PRICES: Ticket sales to St. Paul Minnesota arts events have been so slow after September 11, that a consortium of arts groups have banded together to slash ticket prices by 50 percent through the end of the year. Minneapolis Star-Tribune 11/20/01

Monday November 19

HARTFORD'S NEW STAGE: Hartford's Bushnell Center opens a new $45 million performance venue, including a 900-seat theatre meant to serve the city's diverse performing arts companies. As a multi-purpose facility, it's a calculated risk. Hartford Courant 11/18/01

Sunday November 18

NYC ARTS FEELING THE PINCH: "Already reeling from plummeting ticket sales after Sept. 11, museums and theatres across New York City are beginning to lay off staff and cancel exhibitions and programs after city and state governments slashed funding in anticipation of lower tax revenue." The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 11/18/01

• A MATTER OF TIMING: "If there is agreement among museums and galleries about a need to preserve artifacts and photographs from Sept. 11, there seems to be little consensus about when to display them." The New York Times 11/18/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Friday November 16

SELLARS EXIT BAD SIGN: The Australia Council (which helps fund the Adelaide Festival) expresses its concern over the exit of director Peter Sellars from the festival. "Council members and I are concerned that groundbreaking and contemporary Australian programming in festivals is not seen in the future as too highrisk as a result of the Adelaide Festival experience.'' The Age (Melbourne) 11/16/01

OHIO ARTS TO BE SLASHED: "The Ohio Arts Council, its budget slashed by another 6 percent, has issued letters saying its grant recipients can expect to receive approximately that much less money over the final three quarters of the current fiscal year. The arts council's annual budget was reduced virtually overnight by nearly $1 million, from $15.6 million to $14.6 million in round figures. It's the second cut since July." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 11/16/01

Thursday Novermber 15

RESIGNATION PROTESTING SELLARS DEPARTURE: The only artist on the board of the Adelaide Festival has quit because the board failed to back Peter Sellars as artistic director. "Sellars resigned on Monday after a series of controversies including the perceived thinness of the 2002 program and its focus on community events. The festival also has seen the departure of several key staff and the near loss of a major sponsor because of an advertisement that featured Adolf Hitler." Sydney Morning Herald 11/15/01

Wednesday November 14

WEST SIDE STORY: Why is Lincoln Center having such a tough time getting its renovation plans in order? "It isn't a prosaic matter of upkeep or real estate. The troubles in our idealistic (if hardly idyllic) paradise involve internal unrest among the constituents: nasty rivalries, power contests, unreasonable ambitions, turf wars, ego conflicts and, ultimately, the worst-laid schemes of mice and managers. It's all so operatic." Andante 11/14/01

ARTISTIC RESPONSE TO DISASTER: How do artists respond after a major event in the life of a culture? "In the mix of responses there appear to be marked similarities of theme and emotion that transcend time, cultures and particular disasters. These past works of art and literature point toward the likely shape of cultural offerings inspired by the terrorism of Sept. 11, say several experts who have studied what one of them calls 'the art of aftermath'." The New York Times 11/14/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Tuesday November 13

SELLARS GETS THE BOOT: After months of controversy and a festival program announcement that didn't exactly wow critics, Peter Sellars has been forced out of directing next year's Adelaide Festival. "Mr Sellars, a charismatic Californian who persuaded many of his radical community vision, resigned after the festival board lost faith in his limited program and asked him to broaden its appeal. He refused and yesterday issued a statement from Paris." The Age (Melbourne) 11/13/01

• "CALAMITOUS AS IT GETS": Sellars's resignation yesterday - four months from opening night - is as calamitous as it gets. The responsibility for Sellars's departure must be borne by the festival's board because there is little doubt Sellars was pushed. Until last month there was the hope he would live up to his vision splendid and present a festival that was truly radical, remarkable and inclusive. But once the meagre program was seen - at a desultory launch in Port Adelaide while Sellars was doing his own thing in Paris - that hope had gone." Sydney Morning Herald 11/13/01

CAN ART HEAL? WHAT'S ART? LA Times art critic Christopher Knight "dismisses the theory that art has the therapeutic force to heal in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks." But "healing is a process, often propelled by the voices of artists. No one is suggesting that art can provide an instantaneous miracle cure, but it can surely enhance the process of healing." Los Angeles Times 11/12/01

• Previously: CAN ART HEAL? - FOOEY: "The idea that art functions as a remedial agent—useful for the treatment of social, spiritual or emotional disorders—is positively Victorian. Still, we cling to the fantasy—even if healing in our post-Freud world is less about physical lesions and more about psychological wounds. Americans' sentimental relationship to art periodically drives us into the suffocating arms of therapeutic culture. The terrorist attacks seem to be doing it again." Los Angeles Times 11/04/01

WHAT WILL THE NEW MAYOR MEAN FOR NEW YORK? Specifically, for the arts in New York? "He will have his hands full and museums may be hoping against hope that the Rubens in his name will bring something special to them. So far as anyone can tell, city budgets will be anything but Rubenesque. No one expects Mr Bloomberg to be an adversary of museums, comparable to the way that Rudolph Giuliani made a cause célèbre of the 'anti-Catholicism' at the Brooklyn Museum of Art last year." The Art Newspaper 11/13/01

Monday November 12

HOW TO RUN CANADA: "Several of the Canada's major cultural institutions, including the Toronto Symphony, are without CEOs and many arts managers are facing high turnover and burnout." So some of Canada's top cultural leaders are meeting to discuss the problems. CBC 11/10/01

NO AGENDA HERE: Last week a Globe & Mail critic attacked the National Post for being negative about Canadian artists. A Post critic replies: "We are always being told that Canadians have a national inferiority complex that makes them resent any of their compatriots who get ahead of the pack. (We hear it, amusingly enough, from both the left and the right, though usually in different contexts.) I don't see it." National Post (Canada) 11/12/01

• Previously: NATTERING NABOBS OF (CANADIAN) NEGATIVISM? Canada's artists and critics have always had something of an inferiority complex when it comes to comparisons with its much-larger neighbor to the South, but Toronto's National Post seems to engage in the self-loathing culture bashing more often than most. What exactly does such smirking negativism accomplish? Only the further weakening of the country's arts infrastructure, according to a rival critic. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 11/07/01

THE HEALING ARTS: "It's become more evident than ever that culture not only nourishes but heals, and that it is a significant stabilizing force for a society under duress. As maintaining the viability of American steel mills is necessary for defense, keeping our cultural base vital is essential for the country's spirit." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 11/11/01

• Previously: CAN ART HEAL? - FOOEY: "The idea that art functions as a remedial agent—useful for the treatment of social, spiritual or emotional disorders—is positively Victorian. Still, we cling to the fantasy—even if healing in our post-Freud world is less about physical lesions and more about psychological wounds. Americans' sentimental relationship to art periodically drives us into the suffocating arms of therapeutic culture. The terrorist attacks seem to be doing it again." Los Angeles Times 11/04/01

CREATIVE COMPUTING: "Could there ever be a day when computers are composers, theoretical physicists, or artists? There are already a number of projects in artificial intelligence that try to recreate creativity in computers." BBC 11/11/01

CAN'T HAVE THAT: Tessa Jackson, head of the Scottish Arts Council, has been critical of the government's arts policy. This week she's likely to get the boot. The Scotsman 11/09/01

Sunday November 11

WHY ART? Douglas Coupland wonders: "Where do ideas come from? That's the last thing people understand about themselves, if they ever do. I find that if I am really fascinated by something, or if I'm driven to collect something, that you have to follow your instinct and collect it or explore it. If you do that, then whatever it is inside you churning way down deep, if you're lucky, it will percolate up at the top at a verbal or analytical or critical level." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/10/01

THE DISTANCE BETWEEN IDEAS AND REALITY: Why do deep intellectuals - philosophers - seem so often wrong about political theory? "If by 'intellectuals' we mean those devoted to the life of the mind, we can see why they face more intensely a problem all human beings face: that of negotiating the distance between ideas and social reality. What intellectuals are prone to forget is that this distance poses not only conceptual difficulties but ethical ones as well. It is a moral challenge to determine how to comport oneself simultaneously in relation to abstract ideas and a recalcitrant world. The New York Times 11/10/01 (one-time registration required for access)

WHY IDEAS DIE: Britain ruled the world of invention in the 1800s. But that dominance has long since passed, and the UK files fewer patents with each passing year. Why? "We now live in a commercial culture that in many ways is counterproductive to invention. The first thing I teach new engineering and design recruits is that they will learn more from failure than from success. Failure is exciting. It leads to new ideas. And it teaches the process of discovery by making single, small changes. Unfortunately, that spirit requires long-term investment and does not square with an ethos that wants immediate results." Britain has not made the investment in a long time. The Telegraph (UK) 11/10/01

Friday November 9

LINCOLN CENTER EXPLAINED: Why is Lincoln Center's $1.2 billion plan for a fix-up so fraught with controversy? "It is clear that the spending on Lincoln Center's infrastructure is necessary and that some additional expenses are justified. It remains to be seen how much of the 'wish list' will ultimately be incorporated into the project — and to what extent, and with what enthusiasm, the constituents will support the inevitable fundraising to be done (in addition to their own development efforts) in this restricted charitable climate." Andante 11/09/01

BOSTON ART SCENE, GLUM BUT NOT GRIM: "It was only last spring that Boston-area cultural groups had heady hopes of raising as much as $1 billion to rebuild and burnish Boston's long-neglected museums, theaters, and concert halls. These days, talk of expansion in cultural institution offices and board rooms is reserved. No organization has canceled building and renovation plans outright - yet. But many are delaying or downsizing their dreams and schemes." Boston Globe 11/09/01

Thursday November 8

INSURANCE AGAINST BAD ENTERTAINMENT: Australia's New South Wales government announces a review of the entertainment industry. One idea is to require promoters to post funds to be held against claims for refunds. Refunds for what? Poor sound, performers that don't live up to billing...The Age (Melbourne) 11/08/01

Wednesday November 7

NEW LINCOLN CENTER PLAN: Lincoln Center organizations agree on a $1.2 billion renovation plan to submit to New York's City Hall. But observers say that "even as the parties shook hands on the submission to the city, elements of the package were still in dispute and could change in the coming months and years." The New York Times 11/07/01 (one-time registration required for access)

NATTERING NABOBS OF (CANADIAN) NEGATIVISM? Canada's artists and critics have always had something of an inferiority complex when it comes to comparisons with its much-larger neighbor to the South, but Toronto's National Post seems to engage in the self-loathing culture bashing more often than most. What exactly does such smirking negativism accomplish? Only the further weakening of the country's arts infrastructure, according to a rival critic. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 11/07/01

Tuesday November 6

BEATING UP ON SELLARS: Director Peter Sellars said he wants the next Adelaide Festival to be inclusive and about Australia. Some of his critics Down Under (at least those who weren't included in the programming) aren't impressed with what they've seen: "I just can't cope with that psychobabble Californian bullshit any more." Sydney Morning Herald 11/16/01

WAITING TO DEATH: Everyone agrees that London's South Bank theatre complex needs a major overhaul. But getting all the players together to agree on a plan is something else. A partial list includes: "the Culture Secretary, the Arts Council, the Mayor of London, the Greater London Authority, Lambeth council, the South Bank board, the British Film Institute, the London Arts Board, four architectural practices on two continents, assorted residents’ associations, several London orchestras and dozens of promoters. Finding a date to suit that lot should take us into the early 22nd century. Meanwhile, the South Bank rots on." The Times (UK) 11/06/01

Monday November 5

THREE REASONS TO END GOVERNMENT ARTS FUNDING: "If we want the arts to thrive, we must largely decommission the Canada Council, and the provincial arts councils, and ask our artists to grow up and learn how the real world works. Then, perhaps we will have a vital arts community, one that lives in the entire community, not at a smug superior distance from that community. And that creates plays, ballets, symphonies, operas, literature that is engaged with the real world, not diddling with the notion of a cockeyed destructive dream of a socialist utopia." National Post (Canada) 11/02/01

BOLDLY FORWARD IN TIMES OF ADVERSITY: Kennedy Center president Michael Kaiser says cutting back on arts funding initiatives and arts employment in the current economic downturn would be shortsighted. "It is these two very activities that encourage income flow to the arts," he said. "Donors and ticket buyers are attracted to exciting artistic adventures and the marketing that explains these new initiatives." Washington Post 11/02/01

AUSTRALIA'S DIFFICULT YEAR: Australia's cultural season is ending as summer begins. It's been a difficult year for most arts groups, with sponsorships and audiences down as the economy slow and after September 11. "Next year will be tough. I think it will get better towards the end of next year. It can't go on forever." Sydney Morning Herald 11/05/01

WHAT FESTIVALS OUGHT TO BE: This year's Melbourne Arts Festival was unlike any other. "When the Melbourne Festival officially opened at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl on October 11 with a poem for peace read by East Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmao, followed by massed choirs singing Berlioz' Te Deum and fireworks, you could sense this was going to be no ordinary arts festival." The Age (Melbourne) 11/05/01

Sunday November 4

CAN ART HEAL? - FOOEY: "The idea that art functions as a remedial agent—useful for the treatment of social, spiritual or emotional disorders—is positively Victorian. Still, we cling to the fantasy—even if healing in our post-Freud world is less about physical lesions and more about psychological wounds. Americans' sentimental relationship to art periodically drives us into the suffocating arms of therapeutic culture. The terrorist attacks seem to be doing it again." Los Angeles Times 11/04/01

CAN ART HELP US UNDERSTAND? - MAYBE: "We had been wondering how we should respond to these crises. And we realized we were sitting on a gold mine of historical documents that deal with every conceivable kind of crisis. What better time and what better way to learn about past crises and how we lived through them than by visiting a museum?" Philadelphia Inquirer 11/04/01

Friday November 2

MORE MONEY FOR MELBOURNE: This year's Melbourne Festival had its budget doubled - to $16 million - to help stage celebrations for the country's centennial. Next year's festival was to revert to its old funding, but the government has added another $1 million. A festival spokesman says "it would have been very difficult to have reverted to normal funding next year and still organise an important event." The Age (Melbourne) 11/02/01

A MISSION FOR ARTISTS AND WRITERS: America's critics abroad are being answered by "tight-lipped or bland remarks offered in rebuttal from American officials, who act as if articulateness or eloquence were some weakness to be avoided." An alternative: "A friendly, decently informed American, thinking on his feet, listening to the members of his audience, taking them seriously, answering questions — not defending every government policy but defending by his performance a certain idea of the free individual — that is what might work." Slate 11/01/01

Thursday November 1

• SELLARS MISSES THE PLANE: Peter Sellars couldn't be in Adelaide for the program announccement so he made a taped message. "Sellars's role from the start has been as a visionary, thinker and facilitator, not a doer." But "in the interests of being as contemporary as possible, Sellars left his message so late it missed the plane. It was the kind of flaw in execution that has marked the lead-up to yesterday's festival launch, which in terms of programming is running three months late." Sydney Morning Herald 11/01/01

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