Category: issues

When Marine Reservist Matthew Bogdanos led an improvised mission to recover the thousands of artifacts looted from the Baghdad Museum of Art after the American invasion, he quickly acheived not only success, but fame in the art world, fame which he has savvily leveraged into a lucrative career as a public speaker, even as he continues to pursue stolen art. “With this high profile has come criticism — from some museum officials, archeologists, and soldiers in other branches of the military who served in Iraq.”

“The Society of American Historians, a group that promotes excellence in historical writing, has suspended Smithsonian Books from its ranks in protest over the Smithsonian Institution’s ‘increasingly commercial approach to its mission.’ The suspension itself will have little impact, but it is the latest symptom of friction between the Smithsonian’s top managers and many of the nation’s scholars.”

For a quarter of a century, the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts has toiled quietly away in Miami, encouraging and supporting young performers, writers, and artists to the tune of more than $500,000 per year in grants alone. Now, the NFAA is making a stab at true national recognition, mounting a star-studded gala in New York and a continuing push for attention, all designed to secure the organization’s long-term future and make it a household name among arts types.

As release date approaches for the film version of The DaVinci Code, Christian activists worldwide are launching websites, issuing pronouncements, and generally doing whatever they can to denounce the story, which speculates that Jesus may have married and had children, and delves into the mysteries surrounding a certain secret sect.

In Scotland, where public arts funding has been awfully hard to come by in recent years, there are fears that the arts are increasingly being seen as an unnecessary frill, even as Glasgow and Edinburgh make strides in the effort to expand and develop their respective cultural scenes.

Iraq still teeters on the brink of civil war, and life in Baghdad appears years away from anything approaching normalcy. Somehow, though, the Baghdad Music & Ballet School has stayed open, even with a diverse student body consisting of Shiites, Sunnis, and Christians. “But violence has taken its toll, said principal Najiha Naif. Students have dropped out because many are afraid of getting killed on the way to class. Blasts have shattered the school’s windows and mirrors. Gunmen have stormed the school ground to take cover during gun battles… Before war, the school had problems accommodating all the students who applied, Naif said. The centre now has 200 students and it survives in part thanks to foreign donations.”

New Jersey officials suggest that the state is tapped out for arts money. The solution? Corporate money, they say. Only one problem – though the number of arts organizations has increased, corporate donations have flatlined and then tailed off…

Why are corporate donations to the arts dropping in New Jersey? Part of the reason is corporate mergers. “Arts leaders point to the merger activity as a prime reason why corporate donations are on the decline. When two corporations merge, a plus b never equals c. C somehow turns out to be less,” “In the past, you were getting money from two, three, or four companies and now you’re getting one. That’s especially true in the banking community.”

Cultural business is booming in Orange County, California (a suburban enclave near Los Angeles,) but all the big plans may be too much even for the residents of America’s wealthiest county. Non-profit organizations in the area are fundraising up a storm, and are hoing to raise more than $1 billion between them. The goals may be worthy, but donors are quickly getting tired of being solicited.

Alfred G. Rava and Steven Surrey are becoming the hottest behind-the-scenes names in Southern California’s arts world, but not in a good way. “Rava and Surrey’s connection with the arts stems mainly from lawsuits, or the threat of lawsuits, they have filed against performing arts organizations and for-profit businesses here over the past few years.” Most of the lawsuits stem from what the litigious pair claim is gender or age discrimination on the part of arts organizations which offer ticket discounts to women or young people.