Category: issues

Pittsburgh is losing population. And one of the city’s major arts funders has changed its priorities (and they don’t apparently include arts). “We’re at a crossroads, and it seems to lead out of town. The third piece of bad news might be that our artists will be taking the next bus to somewhere else.”

“Once again, offensive language — and who has the right to use it — has become a high-stakes turf war with constantly changing rules of engagement. It’s not just about the seven dirty words anymore. Today’s media spectrum, which includes cable, uncensored and often anonymously authored Internet postings and audacious satires like the film ‘Borat,’ has greatly complicated the issue of what constitutes acceptable free speech.”

If you were going to “supersize” Scotland’s arts efforts and reinvent how culture was supported, how would yu do it? The country’s politicians get together to talk about what’s needed.

“The word ‘ho’ or ‘whore,’ moreover, has become a routine bit of slang. It’s tossed about on television and in mainstream publications as if it is now officially unmoored from its literal meaning. Some people blame the rap music industry and the tendency of hip-hop to employ the word with impunity. But you don’t have to plug in an iPod to be reminded of the word’s ubiquity.”

Kevin Ryan “went into his home studio and engineered a sort of retro mash-up of two of his favorite artists, Bob Dylan and Dr. Seuss. … He registered a domain name, dylanhearsawho.com, and in February posted his seven tracks online.” Then came the cease-and-desist letter. “As it happens, if Ryan was going to get into a fight over the legal limits of parody, he couldn’t have run into a better-prepared opponent than Dr. Seuss Enterprises.”

“There is very little good news coming out of Arts Council England at the moment, particularly with the recent implementation of a 35% cut in grants for the arts – down from £83m to £54m for the year 2007-08. Now, after the catastrophic communication breakdown surrounding the announcement, comes a sign that the Arts Council is trying very hard to listen to the artistic community” — as well it should, Lyn Gardner writes. “Instead of the current relationship, which often seems like that of weary parent and fractious toddler, there must be a relationship of equals.”

“With its enduring relics of a glorious imperial past, spectacular glittering mosques and breathtaking landscapes, Iran lays claim to some of the finest cultural jewels in the Middle East. But a potentially catastrophic collapse in the country’s tourist trade is threatening to leave this dazzling array of attractions largely unseen by foreign eyes, as international tensions with the west deter a growing number of overseas visitors.”

“Members of a Senate oversight committee yesterday recommended a shake-up of the Smithsonian Institution, starting with its governing board, whose members were depicted as out of touch with the management of the 160-year-old museum complex.”

“The Smithsonian Institution last year renewed a contract giving the Chubb Group more than a half-million dollars of insurance business annually while Lawrence M. Small, then the Smithsonian secretary, and Sheila P. Burke, the deputy secretary, held highly paid seats on Chubb’s board of directors.” AJ Blogger Tyler Green first wrote about the connection several weeks ago.

Scottish composer Peter Maxwell Davies has leveled a blistering (and lengthy) attack on the UK government for ignoring the importance of serious art, literature, and music, days after the director of the National Gallery did the same. “Keeping people in a state of ignorance is good for the government in power – it precludes the possibility of articulate criticism, induces political apathy, and its by-product is a frustration which bursts forth into seemingly mindless, unmotivated violence.”