Category: issues

Lost in the controversy over the latest flare-up in the Middle East is the destruction that is being rained down on Lebanon’s burgeoning cultural scene. “What was supposed to be Beirut’s first break after last year’s traumas — including the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister — has been shattered… Beyond the ruins and the rowdy image, Lebanon’s artistic expression, after years of neglect, was also blooming.”

“Speakers boom out a bass line that reverberates through the heart and throat and tickles the eardrums. Former gang members from New York’s hardest ghettoes rap ‘we wanna rock wit’ you, that’s all we wanna do’. But listen closely and the lyrics are far from a stereotypical rap homage to all things bling. The rappers are missionaries aiming to draw in the gangs of east London’s deprived estates.” The use of public funds to support them has attracted controversy, as have homophobic postings on the website of the group’s leader.

Is Edinburgh too established, perhaps even too successful, a festival city for its own good? “From Cape Town to Adelaide, from Dubai to Montreal, cities are turning to arts festivals to boost tourist numbers and civic prestige. (Indeed, Montreal boasts more ‘festival days’ each year than there are days in the year.) Edinburgh faces increased competition in the UK too. Liverpool will be the 2008 European City of Culture. The Manchester International Festival, under the directorship of innovative programmer Alex Poots, plans to concentrate on new and original work when it makes its debut next year. London, of course, will host the 2012 Olympics. Never mind the next few weeks: it’s the next 12 months that may be among the most decisive in Edinburgh’s cultural history.”

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation provoked a storm of protest this summer when it attempted to boost ratings by bumping its flagship national newscast two nights a week in favor of an American reality program. The reality show flopped, CBC’s ratings remain in the tank, and now a chorus of critics, politicians, and members of the public are calling for the broadcaster to reinvent itself as a true public service entity. “This CBC would stop trying to draw mass audiences to single events such as big-budget dramas, American movies or Saturday-night hockey games, but instead would offer a lineup of specialized Canadian programming that reached millions over the course of a week.”

The city of Portland, Maine, has been experiencing an unusual leadership vacuum in the cultural realm, with executives of seemingly every arts institution in town departing almost simultaneously. But the gaps are starting to fill, and Portland’s arts scene seems no worse for the wear.

“So far, this has turned out to be the long soggy summer, not only in the backyard and the basement, but also around the watercooler, at the pool, beside the surf. The only things buzzing are the bugs… It’s the pictures, television, books and music that got very, very small. There’s little to rave about or worth running to consume… You know something is awry when Al Gore is the summer’s breakout movie star.”

“A complex lawsuit over who should bear unexpectedly high construction costs for Walt Disney Concert Hall has been settled, with builders to receive $13.3 million from the hall’s parent corporation and an additional $4.5 million under architect Frank Gehry’s professional liability insurance policy.”

Edinburgh’s famed summer festivals are having a great year at the box office. “Some venues are reporting ticket sales up by as much as 100 per cent on this time last year, as Festival-goers vie to book shows before they are sold out.” The Edinburgh Fringe, the world’s largest Fringe Festival, reports a huge increase in online sales over last summer.

Toronto’s Hummingbird Centre for the Performing Arts, reeling from the recent departures of its two resident companies, is moving to rebrand itself as “a multipurpose, multicultural facility.” But more than a repurposing will be necessary to keep the center humming: a new business plan recently approved by Toronto’s city council compels Hummingbird to raise $60 million in the next year, or face becoming a tenant of the real estate company that’s spearheading the center’s ongoing expansion project.

Canada’s national archives recently came tantalizingly close to acquiring a $200,000 map of the country dating from the mid-17th century. What stopped the sale? Turns out the archive already had one. How could such an embarrassing slip-up have occurred? Well, it’s complicated, but part of the problem may be that the archive “has shifted cultures, from one based on specialized curators who knew their collections in depth, to a more open, democratized strategy.”