Liam Neeson has joined those fighting to save one of Belfast’s oldest theaters, the Group Theatre, where many of Northern Ireland’s leading actors got their start.
Blog
Anxious Times Breed Uncertainty For Presenters
For presenters of international performing artists, the task has never been easy. “And the challenge has become ever more daunting in an age of finicky audiences, straitened budgets and international uncertainty.”
Copyright, Or A Father’s Ire, Forces A Painting’s Removal
A Damian Loeb painting that borrows an image from a 1990 Tina Barney photo was pulled from a University of Hartford exhibition, but why? “Was it merely a question, as the University of Hartford insists, of a painting removed from an important show because of suddenly discovered ‘copyright issues’? Or did an angry, powerful university parent, incensed that images of his children were included in a work titled ‘Blow Job (Three Little Boys),’ demand that the painting be taken down?”
For Blatantly Political Art, A Renaissance
“From the art capital of New York City to the nation’s midsection, visual artists are participating in partisan politics with a vigor not seen since the 1960s.” While large institutions are generally staying above the fray, some gallery owners have risked offending wealthy clients by making their political stance (usually liberal) known.
What Does Denmark Know That Canada Doesn’t?
While much smaller countries like Denmark put serious money into exporting culture, there isn’t nearly enough funding to promote Canadian artists and writers abroad. “Our top performing arts companies have to focus instead on surviving, because government cutbacks have left them without enough money to operate at home, let alone travel.” But culture may be the most important export Canada has to offer the world.
No Donations? Not So Fast
In the midst of a legal battle over artwork with the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation has said it will suspend donations to Canadian nonprofits. But under Canadian law, doing so may imperil its tax status as a charity.
A Bookstore Where The Paranormal Is The Norm
Even in a market that may be tougher than ever for independent bookstores, there are niches — like, say, the paranormal — that the big chains just can’t fill as well as a single passionate shop owner. At Germ, in Philadelphia, the “new and used books all fit under the umbrella of what might be called Apocalypse Culture: UFOs, Bigfoot, Kennedy assassination, ghosts, time travel, conspiracy, ESP, the unexplained, unknown and just plain peculiar.”
When The Kids’ Pictures Stay In The Camera
Digital cameras promised to make photography easier, and maybe they have. But with only 13 percent of digital photos being printed, the images aren’t as permanently accessible as the old-fashioned kind that made their way into albums and picture frames. Without that tangible record of their past, are families losing an important part of their history?
Because If We Edit Them, Then The Terrorists Have Already Won?
A little-known corner of U.S. trade law is being challenged in court on First Amendment grounds by a group of editors and publishers. “The regulations, meant to keep Americans from trading with enemies, require anyone who publishes material from a country under trade sanctions [Cuba, for instance] to obtain a license before substantively altering the manuscript. The publishers say that keeps them from performing typical editing functions like reordering sentences and paragraphs, correcting grammar and adding illustrations or photographs.”
Owning Martha Graham
The fight between the Martha Graham Dance Company and the choreographer’s heir over the ownership of her dances has been going on for three years now, and shows no signs of abating anytime soon. No matter which side of the issue you come down on, the question of ownership is a complicated one, and it has driven home to the dance world that explicitly defined contracts between choreographers and their companies are simply a necessity in the modern world.