Category: issues

“The chief executive of [Australia’s] Queensland Performing Arts Centre has stepped down after the state Government made major changes to the board of trustees… QPAC has been under increasing pressure from the state Government and Arts Minister Rod Welford to operate with smaller subsidies…”

The Massachusetts attorney general has concluded an investigation of Boston’s Citi Performing Arts Center and “will take no further action against the Center, which has faced criticism in recent months for its decision to pay president and CEO Josiah A. Spaulding Jr. a $1.2 million bonus despite the nonprofit organization’s financial struggles.”

“A U.S. economic recession could hammer those media and entertainment companies that rely heavily on advertising next year, curtailing experimentation when the industry needs it most.”

In Australia, “with the arts-as-business model replacing the arts-as-welfare model, community organisations [have] had to fight aggressively to maintain funding… [Now,] long-running community arts organisations are facing imminent closure after draconian cuts in funding by the Queensland Government announced last month.”

A cigarette tax approved by Cleveland-area voters to support the arts is about to result in a first payout of $15m for 68 cultural organizations. “Dollar amounts are based on budget size, with proportionately more money going to smaller organizations.”

“The era of the newspaper film critic, the era of newspaper criticism, seems to be coming to a rapid and unceremonious end. As recently as a decade ago, no self-respecting mid-sized daily newspaper would have dreamed of publishing without a film critic. These days only major cities have them and those that remain have seen their influence wane.”

“New York’s high real-estate prices may force artists to leave unless the city can adapt rent laws to accommodate creative people, according to a study published today on a Columbia University Web site.”

What happened to “those wealthy philanthropists who used to support arts organizations and other not-for-profit and charitable institutions without requiring that their names be slapped somewhere — anywhere, it sometimes seems — on a building.”

Many arts organizations use some version of the pay-what-you-want admission model. And they seem to work…

“A student at the Ontario College of Art and Design turned himself into police with his lawyer Thursday night after a multimedia bomb hoax at the Royal Ontario Museum on Wednesday night… He has been suspended from OCAD for non-academic mischief. Two faculty members have also been suspended with pay.”