Category: issues

“In state after state, promoters say that burgeoning Mexican populations in towns little and big have hunkered down, out of sight and out of public events, to avoid confrontations withstepped-up immigration law enforcement. Their fear has, by all accounts, made a significant dent in the lucrative regional Mexican market, with audiences often leery of attending the weekend shows that are the bread and butter of this music genre.”

“Until recently, most of downtown L.A. at night looked like the set for a zombie movie. It was either empty or scary. There are lifelong Angelenos who have never been downtown after sunset. Aside from a Lakers game or a night at the opera, large stretches were no-go zones. Downtown L.A. was where you went on trial, not on a date. But now? Downtown is one of the hottest residential real estate markets on the West Coast, with a first wave of pioneering artistic types being smothered by a second, larger wave of 20- and 30-something trendsetters.”

As leadership of three of Minnesota’s major arts organizations changes hands, the principals get together to talk about what they’ve gotten themselves in for. Anyone for a Prince gala?

The controversy over Elton John’s seized Nan Goldin photograph “resurrects a familiar debate about censorship: does the context of an image determine whether or not it breaks the law? In other words, does it matter that a photograph of a naked child is in a respectable art gallery – rather than in a seedy magazine or on an illegal website? Or is explicit child nudity – which is how many would categorise Goldin’s picture – unacceptable and illegal, per se?”

“Not many investments return $5 for every $1 put up – at least, not many legal investments. That eye-popping $5-to-$1 calculation comes from a new study of the impact of arts and cultural groups on the economy in Philadelphia and its Pennsylvania suburbs. Given the chance to reap such handsome returns while boosting a key asset to the region, state and local government officials should be more bullish than they are on the funding of arts and culture.”

“I think maybe it’s time to take a hard look at the conventions by which newspapers and online news outlets cover visual art stories. In fact, if you look at how visual art appears in the news over any length of time you will find essentially the same stories appear repeatedly. … Bad reporting along these generic lines distorts understanding and can destroy our pleasure in great art.”

“Real creativity … and real criticism share something that cuts to the heart of why art and literature matter to us: they are dynamic dialogues with what we’ve done before and what we will make in – and of – the future. As Oscar Wilde puts it: ‘Surely, criticism is itself an art … Criticism is, in fact both creative and independent … The antithesis between them is entirely arbitrary. Without the critical faculty, there is no artistic creation at all, worthy of the name.'”

A new film purporting to shine light on the horrific underworld of international sex slavery is getting a decidedly mixed reaction from those who work to undermine such human trafficking operations. On the one hand, making the public aware of the problem is a noble cause. But the film is based on a much-disputed newspaper article, and law enforcement officials worry that the movie’s dramatic license will cause parents to focus on phantom threats to their children.

Arts groups across the US are looking to the ever-expanding suburbs surrounding America’s cities for fresh audience, and new ways to bring performances to them, rather than expecting them to regularly trek into the urban core. The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra has even used a series of suburban concerts to revive its flagging season ticket base.

“Leaders of [Miami’s] Carnival Center for the Performing Arts approved a pay increase for the chief executive and adopted a new business plan Tuesday to raise more private funds, add parking and improve programming.” The center wrapped up its first season $2.5m in the red, “primarily due to flagging ticket sales for Carnival Center-sponsored performances and touring Broadway shows.”