The recent California state budget cut the California Arts Council budget to $1 million. But legislators aren’t done yet – they’re now looking at axing all state general funding for the arts. “In recent days, the Democrats’ budget plan was altered to cut off all state general funds to the Arts Council, leaving a small staff to handle $1.5 million in federal funds and fees from the sale of special Arts Council license plates.”
Month: August 2003
Readers Ask: What Is Art?
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel asked readers to ask questions about the arts – among the queries – do orchestra musicians count? Do dancers get tired of performing “Nutcracker” over and over again? And that classic: What, exactly is art?
Culture By Refugee
“With every new crisis in Cuba, Miami gains another layer of contributors to the cultural scene. ‘We were victims of a macabre totalitarian experiment in Cuba, but we have arrived with a lot of energy, with the will to create and to contribute here.’ The vision of the new exiles, colored by the freshness of their experience in Cuba, their rigorous cultural training on the island, and their travels to perform abroad, adds more layers to the Cuban arts community, which has been diversifying since the Mariel boatlift brought in 1980 an impressive cast of writers and painters.”
CBS’ Diversity Plan
US broadcast TV networks have been repeatedly dirticized for their lack of diversity. Now CBS says it has a plan. “The CBS Diversity Institute, announced Wednesday, combines mentoring programs for new writers and directors with existing talent showcases for minority performers.”
Could NY Phil’s Lincoln Center Obligations Derail Carnegie Merger?
The Carnegie Hall/New York Philharmonic merger deal is encountering some expensive resistance from Lincoln Center. “The Philharmonic’s lease at Avery Fisher Hall runs through 2011 and provides Lincoln Center with $2.5 million to $3 million a year. To cover potential losses from the orchestra’s planned departure in 2006, Lincoln Center is seeking damages on several fronts. Most controversially perhaps, said the official involved in the discussions, Lincoln Center now maintains that the Philharmonic must help cover the expense of creating a new orchestra, which could cost more than $100 million. Lincoln Center executives deny this, however.”
The Fantasy Musician Circuit
There are fantasy baseball camps, fantasy auto-racing camps, even fantasy Broadway camps. Now there’s fantasy rock star camp. “Through Weekend Warriors, retailers around the country seek out and connect wannabe rock musicians in their area, provide them with gear and rehearsal space, and eventually help them put on a live performance at a local venue. The five-week program costs $95 per person and attracts as many as a hundred musicians a year. ‘What we give them is the equivalent of a catered experience of being in a band’.”
A Turn To The Traditional?
Is a new aesthetic of traditional realist art gaining traction? Some “recent surveys show evidence of a very interesting mind shift among a number of young American painters living here or abroad. In general, a broad spectrum of older artists seem almost inevitably to include shock, angst, or politics in their works—an impulse to disturb articulated in The Shock of the New by Robert Hughes. On the other hand, a growing majority of American artists who today are under 40 years old seem more intent on creating paintings that are visually beautiful, rather than emotionally disturbing.”
Life After The Almeida
It’s been a year since Jonathan Kent left the Almeida Theatre, after a 12 year run leading the place. “The Almeida has become his international calling card. “It’s astonishing, he says – Kent’s favourite word is ‘astonishing’, closely followed by “extraordinary”, both adding to the animated panache of his conversation – ‘I’ve only discovered, on leaving it, that the Almeida is as well known abroad as the RSC or the National. ‘I don’t miss it. I can’t imagine a more golden period and it was absolutely the making of me, but you have to move on. I felt I’d done everything I wanted to do there.”
Booker: A Short List Getting Longer
What’s the big deal about a longlist for the Booker Prize? Isn’t it the shortlist that really matters? “Once upon a time, it was the announcement of the short list that could be relied upon to encourage literary commentators to break cover. Not any more. Faced with stiff competition, and some serious headline-hogging, from Orange and Whitbread, Britain’s premier literary prize now resorts to the black arts of spin, announcing its long list a full two months before the ultimate showdown in the Guildhall. Betting on such a list is as much of a mug’s game as taking a punt on a National Hunt steeplechase.”
Album Sales Hit Record Level In UK
Deflating the recording industry’s claims that downloading is killing their business, recording sales in the UK have scored a record high. “After a dip in the first quarter of the year, sales hit a new peak of 228.3m at the end of June, almost 3% up on last year. The figure published yesterday by the British Phonographic Industry marks the fifth consecutive year that album sales have topped 200m.”