Category: issues

Denver has a new opera house and a new museum. Now the city is trying to raise $100 million to overhaul its concert hall. “The Boettcher overhaul would include an addition of a wrap-around, multistory glass lobby on its Speer Boulevard side and a reconfiguration of the 2,634-seat facility, reducing its seating to about 2,100 and enhancing its acoustics.”

“Our founding fathers understood the value of the arts. In the Massachusetts Constitution, John Adams called upon legislators to ‘cherish the interests of literature . . . to encourage private societies and public institutions . . . for the promotion of . . . arts, sciences, commerce, trades.’ … Art and business. Art and government. These pairings are not as awkward as they’re made out to be.”

“Special effects explosions, idling vehicles, teams of workers building monumental sets — all of it contributes to Hollywood’s newly discovered role as an air polluter, a university study has found. … Although Hollywood seems environmentally conscious thanks to celebrities who lend their names to various causes, the industry created more pollution than individually produced by aerospace manufacturing, apparel, hotels and semiconductor manufacturing, the study found.”

Partnerships between cultural institutions and corporate entities have gone creative. Take the Brooklyn Academy of Music. “To capitalize on Brooklyn’s building boom, BAM reached out to real estate developers, encouraging them to use BAM as a selling point with potential buyers. Through the developers, BAM is tapping into a new pool of potential patrons. … For example, memberships to the BAM Cinema Club are given as gifts to apartment buyers. This gives developers a perk to welcome prospective buyers, while BAM gets a direct connection to future audiences.”

A proposed tax in the UK would be based on the aesthetic quality of buildings. “They will be attempting to put a tax value on improvements you might have made to your home, on the quality of its design and even on its views. If your home is well designed and beautifully located, you will be liable to pay more tax than if you live in a grungy house with rotten views and have made no attempt whatsoever to improve it.”

“A government-funded study examining the role of technology in the lives of three- and four-year-old children and their families found that the hi-tech devices – one of the fastest growing sectors of the toy market, aimed at infants as young as nine months – are no more effective than traditional ways of introducing basic literacy and number skills.”

Scottish cultural policy is undergoing a major change in direction. The Scottish executive plans to abolish the national arts council and direct arts policy itself.

“California has 108 Indian tribes, of which 56 operate casinos that rake in hundreds of millions of dollars annually. With eight tribal casinos, San Diego County is regarded as the gaming casino capital of California. Among county arts groups, San Diego Opera and San Diego Symphony currently receive the most Indian gaming casino support.”

The UK has proposed that “money made by criminals who sell the stories of their crimes to newspapers or have them turned into books or films will be confiscated through the courts.”

Italy has approved a $5.9 billion project to build dikes to protect the city from flooding. “The project, slated for completion in 2011, includes the construction of 78 floodgates that can be raised by 110 centimeters (43 inches) to keep water from entering Venice’s lagoon. High tides now flood the city several times a year, damaging historic buildings and disrupting transport.”