Category: issues

“For the first time, the American Academy of Pediatrics is taking a stand on toys, drawing a line between those that lead to healthy development and learning, and those that don’t. The Academy of Pediatrics is not going so far as to tell parents what toys to buy young children, but it would approve. ‘We like simple toys that encourage imagination’.”

“If you like eight out of 10 shows that you review, you should be in a different business,” he said. If you like six to eight, you might be aware enough to write “puff pieces” about shows. If you like five out of 10, “then you don’t exist. You’re too perfect.” If you like two to four of those 10 shows, you might be able to be a reviewer, and if you like zero to two, “you may be a critic, but there’s no guarantee.”

Like many places, the American midwest has taken on a shorthand persona. “Inhabitants of the Midwest are widely thought of as hard-working, thrifty, devoted to family values, strong in character, comfortable with normalcy, rather sedate, and cautious about change.”

“Musicians and comics have been using MySpace as a promotional tool for some time now, but museums, galleries, and dance and theater companies are starting to see the site’s possibilities. For a group trying to reach a larger audience and a younger one, MySpace offers attractive statistics: more than 55 million users, with 28.4 percent under 34, according to a report issued in October.”

In America, music education in school is becoming so scarce as to be considered an unimaginable luxury. In Scotland, they throw a two-week festival to celebrate it. “Over the years the emphasis has moved from competition to participation – every entrant is judged by a professional and receives a certificate evaluating their performance.” Not only that, but a new national curriculum proposes to increase the amount of art and music education in the daily routine of Scottish classrooms.

Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell unveiled her latest budget, many arts groups in the state assumed that they would be in for an increase in funding, based on the formation of a new Cultural Treasures program created by the governor and endorsed by various cultural leaders. Instead, Rell’s budget zeroed out traditional funding for nearly all arts programs in the state, catching everyone off guard.

Southern California’s “creative economy accounted for about 1 million in direct and indirect jobs, generating $140 billion in sales in Los Angeles and Orange counties,” says a new study, commissioned “in an effort to highlight the importance of arts education in schools, and to spur government officials to provide business incentives for arts industry employers.” Nonetheless, the arts “represented just 5.8% of creative activity in the region.”

Labour’s recent interest in cultural diplomacy has Tiffany Jenkins sounding a warning to artists. “Who elected the director of the British Museum as the saviour of the Middle East or the Royal Shakespeare Company as the solution to global warming? … Culture is not for mopping the minister’s brow, flattering Blair, Brown, or Cameron. Cultural foreign policy is one piece of political theatre where the cultural sector should bow out.”

“A Washington watchdog group yesterday asked the attorney general to investigate whether Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence M. Small violated the law by using federal money to pay for travel and other expenses. The group also asked the Justice Department to determine whether the Smithsonian Board of Regents, which is chaired by John G. Roberts Jr., chief justice of the Supreme Court, broke the law by approving Small’s expenses.”

The Olympics are a hugely costly event to host, as London is finding out as it prepares for the 2012 Games. “With the bill for the Olympics predicted to rise by as much as four times to an astonishing £9bn, the arts world is worried. It is worried that in salvaging a single magnificent sporting event, the government could squander 10 years of cultural investment.”