Category: issues

The “constant reiteration that Liverpool has reinvented itself protests too much and ends up reinforcing the metropolitan prejudices it seeks to dispel. Yet if culture is subsumed into a regeneration agenda that aims to create the elusive buzz needed to attract tourists and investors, it runs the risk of avoiding those areas that are too ambiguous for this feel-good message.”

The city of Annapolis, Maryland is planning an extensive arts district as part of a downtown revitalization effort. “If the state approves the district, Annapolis would have a green light to exempt arts venues from local admissions and amusement taxes and reduce city and county property taxes for developers who build affordable spaces for artists to live and work.”

“Core to the issue of sustainability is the creation of vibrant art. Without this understanding as a starting point, and as the goal for all artists, organisations and funding agencies, there is no future. Organisations can plan effectively only when they know what they are trying to achieve. Too often they fall into the trap of creating a vision in response to funding policies.”

“We need the Arts Council. We believe in a funding body independent of government, and we recognise its need to make tough decisions. But we have no confidence in the way these decisions have been made. We need officers and advisers we can respect; who want to serve the arts, not just manage them.”

“For too long, funding has been given regardless of quality and has been about which boxes – diversity and community in particular – applicants tick. This has led to an appallingly cynical attitude where some organisations appoint a staff or board member simply because they come from a minority, or, worse, inflict their rubbish on unsuspecting schools or care homes in the name of outreach.”

The suit “contends brokers buy up to 80 percent of tickets available online to some Ticketmaster events, unfairly driving up the price to individual consumers who are all but forced to buy them from brokers.”

Gov. Matt Blunt has proposed nearly doubling funding for the arts and cultural organizations in Missouri. Blunt recommends $14.6 million to fund the Missouri Arts Council, an increase of almost $7 million.

The attempted suicide of Greece’s former secretary general of the Greek Culture Ministry and chairman of the Central Archaeological Council has touched off investigations and a scandal over the country’s oversight of its archaeological past.

“Long thought to be a subset of rhetoric’s devices, eloquence has declared its independence: It has no designs on readers or audiences. Its aim is pleasure; it thrives on freedom among the words. Unlike rhetoric, it has not sent any soldier to be killed in foreign countries.”

“Russian officials claimed that the British Council failed to pay its taxes and didn’t have legal permission to operate outside of Moscow, charges the council and the British government say are false. What is clear is that the Kremlin has no tolerance for any organization outside of its control. Its recent intimidation of the British Council fits neatly into its harassment of Russian nongovernmental organizations and the press.”