Category: issues

“Austrian author Peter Handke was informed last week that he would receive the Heinrich Heine Prize of the City of Düsseldorf. After an outburst of public indignation and counter-indignation, the decision was blocked this week by the Düsseldorf City Council.”

“The days of the rock concert ticket are numbered. Guns N’ Roses’ show at the Hammersmith Apollo on June 7 is being touted as the world’s first ticketless gig. Unless they specifically ask for a small piece of card, fans will be expected to arrive bearing barcodes sent to their mobile phones as text messages.”

A week ago Polly Toynbee lauded the British Labour Party’s record on the arts. MP Hugo Swire begs to differ: “She cites Labour’s brief increase in central arts funding, but fails to mention the massive cut in lottery funding for the arts – a fifth of funding destined for the arts has been used to fund the government’s pet projects. The result was an unprecedented cut in arts funding, far outweighing any rise in the Arts Council’s grant-in-aid budget.

Philanthropist Arthur Zankel gave Carnegie Hall $10 million to build a theatre. Now, in his death he has given Carnegie an even bigger gift. “According to the terms of the bequest, Carnegie Hall will end up receiving at least $22 million, the second-largest gift in its history, for its endowment. Proceeds estimated at about $1 million a year will go toward paying for performances and educational projects at Zankel Hall.”

The Getty will make public much of its finances. “We have some reputation rebuilding to do, and one way to do it is to be open and transparent. This grew out of the reforms that were passed by the board of trustees at the April meeting.”

Making art accessible to poor and minority audiences is like the weather: everyone in the arts talks about it, but almost no one really does much about it. Part of the problem is the lack of proven methods of engaging low-income communities. The answer, as demonstrated by a successful project in theatre-rich Minneapolis, may be that arts groups will only become palatable to underserved communities when they make a concerted effort to embed themselves in those communities, rather than condescendingly offering an “escape” from the outside.

Britain’s Labour Party has one unequivocal success – its support of the arts. “Labour has a good enough story to tell on the arts – up 64% in cash and more in impact. Chris Smith is one of the few politicians to retire knowing he has done something brilliant – restoring free entry to museums and galleries, swelling attendances by 50%. But politics and art rub along like a fingernail on a blackboard: ministers too rarely sing its praises.”

Inspired by the success of Chicago’s massive Millenium Park in drawing people to the downtown loop, a Chicago real estate investor who owns the badly damaged Hyatt Regency New Orleans is proposing to build “a 20-acre performance arts park anchored by a National Jazz Center” as the anchor of the rebuilt Crescent City. The project would cost $716 million, and “the 20,000-square-foot National Jazz Center, designed by [Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom] Mayne, would house the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra.”

“It must be tough, being a contemporary French artist. All that hinterland to cope with. All those mould-breaking forebears who had only to cock a snook at the Académie Française…”

Have festivals organized to rally for political purpose lost their point? “Today’s anti-racism festivals are an entirely different affair because, essentially, they preach to the converted. The people who come to Finsbury Park in north London for Rise are logical human beings who already know that hating someone because of their colour and creed does not make any sense. It’s more likely that they’re in the park simply to enjoy a day in the sun, listen to music and eat some of the best jerk chicken this side of Jamaica.”