“In his budget address, Gov. McGreevey proposed eliminating $43 million earmarked for various cultural programs. Among the funds eliminated were $18 million in grant money for the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, $10 million for the New Jersey Cultural Trust, $4 million in grants for the Historical Commission and $3 million in Cultural Enrichment Grants. Individual institutions also got cut, including $2.7 million for the Newark Museum.”
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The BBC – Power To The People
Is the BBC “arrogant, unfairly subsidised, dumbed-down, imperialistic and creatively barren.” Those are certainly the charges critics fling at Britain’s national broadcaster. And now there’s to be a major review of the corporation leading to its charter renewal in 2006. “So the past few months have seen the BBC launch a charm counter-offensive. If, as a columnist and media pundit, you turn around in the pub you find yourself facing a free drink wielded with intent by a top executive who will tell you of the wonderful highbrow things being made by his or her department…”
Going Bust On Blockbusters
Appreciating art at blockbuster art shows has gotten near impossible. “As with any blockbuster you can’t linger too long and you have to expect big crowds. But does there come a point when the crowds are too big, the jostling too irritating and the noise too distracting for any real enjoyment, let alone serious appreciation? To judge from the letters column of this paper this week, that point has been reached.”
This Year’s Maastricht – A Harder Sell
War fears loom over this year’s Maastricht Art Fair. “Traditionally this small Dutch city has been an annual mecca for serious collectors from all over the world. But officials here report that attendance at this, the world’s largest art fair, will be down about 10 percent from last year. There are far fewer blockbusters than in recent years. Not only are great works of art getting harder to find, but often when dealers do have something extraordinary, they tend to hide it away during bad economic times, afraid that if it doesn’t sell, it will become overexposed and therefore less desirable. Dealers definitely seemed to be holding back this year.”
Anti-War Words
“The Iraq crisis, following on from 11 September, has set off an unprecedented explosion of anti-war poetry. A bad time for the world has turned into a boom time for people with an itch to express themselves in lines which don’t quite reach the edge of the page. The internet is much to blame, of course.”
Another Blow For Troubled English National Opera
Tony Legge, the company’s head of music, resigned after plans for shrinking the company’s staff and repertoire were announced. Legge’s decision was a shock to company members. “People looked to him as having artistic integrity. We only have to assume he didn’t want to be part of what the future holds.”
Musicians Looking To Reverse Decline Of Industry Fortunes
As musicians gathered last week in Austin Texas for the South By Southwest Festival, there was a common theme running through the proceedings. “In panels and seminars, in casual conversation and passionate addresses, many insiders at SXSW seemed to be looking to the past for the values and integrity – in both making music and doing business – that will lead to a brighter future for an industry in decline.”
Will Soft Bestseller Market Affect Literary Market?
“Book sales, particularly fiction, have been suffering since 11 September, and the impending war is prolonging the depression. You wouldn’t know it from a glance at the New York Times bestseller list – John Grisham, James Patterson, Michael Crichton, Jeffrey Archer – but the thriller market especially seems to be suffering. One publisher estimates that submissions of thrillers from agents are down by 30 per cent on previous years. Some agents fear that if publishers are not making the expected returns on their guaranteed big-hitters, the first casualty will be the debut novels and literary fiction that represent more of a gamble. Not everyone agrees, however.”
Caroline Michel Rises To The Top
Caroline Michel has just been made managing director and publisher of HarperPress, the literary division of the publishing giant HarperCollins” where she’ll be one of the most powerful women in publishing. “She has long since proved her doubters comprehensively wrong. But her new job will nevertheless demand all her promotional skills and should also test the depths of her seemingly bottomless supplies of optimism. To put it bluntly, the glaring problem with HarperCollins, as far as the bien pensants of British literary life are concerned, is that it’s owned by Rupert Murdoch.”
War Stories That Can’t Be Sold?
Elite British fighters in Afghanistan have some action-packed stories. “Publishers and agents calculated that an action-packed book by one of these heroes would be worth £1 million, more if Hollywood bought the rights. But none of them wanted to write a book. Since 1996, members of the Regiment, as the SAS is known to special forces’ cognoscenti, and the SBS had been ordered to sign confidentiality agreements, prohibiting them from discussing their time as elite soldiers without official sanction. If they refused to sign, they were thrown out. New recruits had to sign as a condition of service.”