Category: issues

Los Angeles County will more than double its budget for arts grants in fiscal 2007, from $2.2 million to $4.5 million. The county board also awarded 5% of a $400 million surplus in fiscal 2006 to cultural institutions. “On the state level, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed a $5.1-million budget for the California Arts Council — a $1.8-million boost that relies on projected income from arts lovers’ voluntary purchases of special arts license plates.” California ranks last in the nation in per capita arts spending.

The huge Public arts center in West Bromwich, England was supposed to be a wondrous thing to revitalize a town in need. “The Public was meant to open last year, create or safeguard 400 jobs, and attract almost 500,000 visitors. It should have cost £38m. It’s already cost £52m, the largest slice of it from the Arts Council. But the real problem is not so much what the building costs. It’s working out what the Public is for.”

A new study concludes that “half a century of research ‘has not shown any dramatic or consistent advantages for single-sex education’ for boys or girls. ‘The reason people think single-sex schools are better is because they do well in league tables. But they are generally independent, grammar or former grammar schools and they do well because of the ability and social background of the pupils’.”

A major donor to the Fort Wayne (Indiana) Philharmonic wanted to join the board. The orchestra is having attendance and money problems. But the orchestra’s board refused to have him join them. Why? “I’m very controversial to some people, because I want to make things better. Board members think it’s their orchestra.”

Great Britain’s arts scene should truly be the envy of the world, and increasingly, the UK’s successes are making their way to other nations as well. “We export £6 billion of cultural products each year, mostly thanks to music and theatre. That’s more than the United States manages, for all of Hollywood’s huffing and puffing. Why, then, is there disquiet in the arts world? Is global success masking an intractable problem at home? Or is there a perception of black clouds massing on the horizon? The answer is both.”

“The future of iTunes in France looks more secure after MPs watered down a draft of its new copyright law. The bill had aimed to ensure digital music could be played on any player, regardless of its format or source. But the MPs have amended the draft, to allow copyright holders to set compatibility restrictions.”

Lately, a few prominent pop musicians have begun speaking out, both musically and verbally, against the war in Iraq and the Bush Administration’s policies in general, but with the notable exception of the Dixie Chicks (who paid dearly for their opinions a few years back,) nearly all the dissenting voices belong to older rockers from the Vietnam generation. So why aren’t today’s musicians speaking up?

The Chicago Community Trust is investing $1 million in a program to try to diversify management of the city’s cultural institutions. “The trust cited data showing that non-Hispanic whites fill 88 percent of the management positions of arts and cultural institutions nationwide. Among the six participant institutions, whites compose 82 percent of management posts, African-Americans 9 percent, Latinos 5 percent and Asians 4 percent.”

“When you talk to people about raunch culture in terms of a specific company or corporation they just say: ‘Oh, well, sex sells.’ That’s our justification for everything. And Barbie-doll images of women – long legs, fake breasts, blonde hair – are a glossy advertising shorthand that simultaneously appeals to everyone and no one, shifting units in a way that more complex, varied and substantive sexual images never could. ‘My book is not an attack on the sex industry,’ says Ariel Levy. ‘It’s about how the sex industry has become every industry.”

UK Chancellor Gordon Brown says the arts sector is “not a sideshow but right at the centre” of the economy.”