Category: issues

“The number of college students spending at least some time learning in other countries continues to grow, doubling over the last decade, and some institutions have taken aggressive steps to increase the proportion of their students (to 100 percent, in at least one case) who study in other countries.” But what is the quality of these overseas experiences?

John Tusa’s stepping down after a successful tenure. “The two main contenders in a low-key shortlist were Graham Sheffield, the Centre’s successful artistic director, and Nicholas Kenyon, who is bowing out after a decade as director of the BBC Proms. Word is that Kenyon, 56 this week, put up the better show and is now waiting to see white smoke, perhaps in a week or two.”

A New York restaurant owner takes out an ad in the New York Times to blast food critic Frank Bruni. “In the interest of fairness, I am introducing my personal blog, which will be a compilation of my food-related experiences and musings and a special section entitled Following Frank and After Adam, in which I will make a follow-up visit to the restaurants they write about for the purpose of reviewing their reviews….My friends in the restaurant business have warned me that there will be further retaliation against me for speaking up. So be it.”

Alberta is frequently referred to as Canada’s answer to Texas – a conservative, cowboy-intensive enclave full of wide open spaces and unimaginable oil money. Now, an annual survey shows that, for the third year in a row, Albertans led the nation in per-capita spending on arts and culture. But there’s a catch: the lion’s share of the $3 billion Albertans spent on culture in 2005 went to pay for products (home entertainment systems, books, etc.) which can be enjoyed without ever leaving the couch.

In most American cities, non-profit groups expend at least a nominal amount of effort asking local government entities for money, which may or may not be forthcoming. But in the fiscally strapped city of Pittsburgh, nonprofits have actually been contributing money to the city government for the past couple of years. Now, the city has tired of the voluntary contribution system, and wants to require larger “contributions” (also known as “taxes”) from non-profits like hospitals that are actually turning large profits.

What does ethnicity have to do with art? It depends entirely on your perspective as an artist and, of course, your ethnicity. “The more people you work with and the more projects you do, your idea of what it means to be Puerto Rican, to be Latin American, to be American, unfolds. You end up not only with an idea of what your culture is but what it could be.”

Local municipality councils used to see culture as one of their missions. “Along with gas and water, high-quality cultural provision was part of the municipal socialist vision. As a result, towards the end of the 19th century, the museums of Birmingham and Glasgow individually welcomed more visitors than the National Gallery. Indeed, London’s cultural provision seemed positively paltry compared to the provinces.”

“Though no one claims that Gioia has single-handedly reversed that course, he has had a profound effect on the NEA, converting the once-beleaguered federal program into the nation’s main engine for integrating arts and education. It’s a remarkable turnaround for an agency whose mere name was once enough to get Newt Gingrich and other social conservatives foaming at the mouth.”

Foundations have done many great things. But Joel Fleishman “acknowledges that the arrogance of the foundation world has led it to miss good ideas developed by others. Its insulation has allowed it to proceed without being challenged by external forces, and without understanding much about the success or failure of its programs. Its invisibility has left it isolated, risk averse, and without much public support.”

“Looking at the way ancient people assembled themselves, archeologists see cults and primitive, celestial religions. But how primitive were these people’s beliefs, and how different from them are we?” Many of the ancient structures seem to be echoed in today’s urban organization…