Category: issues

“The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts crested a fundraising benchmark this week: 100 donors have given at least $1 million or more toward construction of the $275 million facility in the Arts District. When it’s finished, the complex will include the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, Annette Strauss Artist Square and city-funded City Performance Hall, all of which will be unified by a 10-acre Performance Park.”

Connecticut’s state legislature approved a big increase in arts funding. “But not all of the $4 million headed to the commission is going to the arts; instead, it’s for ‘cultural, tourism and arts grants.’ Arts, schmarts, isn’t it all the same? Er … no.”

“This Labor Day weekend, Burning Man is expected to generate $10 million in revenue from 45,000 ticket-buying customers, each of whom will pay $195 to $280 for entrance to a patch of Nevada desert called Black Rock City. In art circles and around the blogosphere, Burners are asking: Is this famously anti-monetary event getting ruined by too much cash?”

“The standard psychological explanation for the differences between male and female shopping attitudes has long been that men are innate, solitary hunters who like to make a quick killing, while women are sociable gatherers who are happy to wander around in groups for hours. This is all nonsense.”

“Although it’s the million-dollar donations that get headlines, cultural institutions in fact draw a significant proportion of their support from large networks of mid-level donors, whom the institutions reward with perks, such as preferential seating and access to artists, and carefully nurture as they, ideally, move up the ladder to higher levels of giving. A look at so-called patron programs around town offers insight into the sophisticated art of fund raising and donor cultivation.”

On Monday night in a Long Island town bordering Queens, “more than 250 people showed up to demand that the name of the annual Christmas Concert not be changed to Winter Concert. … The small school district is one of the few in the New York region that continues to call its December program the Christmas Concert. Almost all the others have switched to the term holiday or winter concert, both to avoid seeming to exclude non-Christian families and to move toward the ideal of a level cultural playing field for pupils of every possible background.”

“The US government is pressing ahead with its complaint to the World Trade Organisation over the widespread piracy of movies, music and books in China. Yesterday the Bush administration requested a formal case at the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body in order to force China to crack down on pirated goods.”

“The Ford Foundation has selected a dark-horse candidate with little experience in institutional philanthropy as its new president. Luis A. Ubiñas, who has worked for McKinsey & Company, the consulting firm, for 18 years, will lead the organization, the nation’s second-largest foundation, with $11 billion in assets. Mr. Ubiñas’s appointment, to be announced today, is expected to stun the nonprofit world….”

Many cultural groups have done quite well under New York City’s new arts-funding rules. “Arts groups that are not on city-owned land competed for $30 million in financing from the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs. And the 34 arts organizations on city-owned land, known as the Cultural Institutions Group, were allotted a total of $115.3 million, with an additional $4.4 million for ‘new needs.’ Last week arts organizations found out what those changes actually meant for them.”

Parents, educators and children’s advocates warn that organized activities, overscheduling and excessive amounts of homework are crowding out free time and constricting children’s imaginations and social skills.”