Category: issues

Welsh culture minister Alan Pugh has further infuriated Welsh artists by appointing his own head of Arts Council Wales after the council itslef had expressed an interest in keeping its fired leader…

A new study measures Canada’s arts workforce. “Toronto artists on average earned $34,100 a year. That’s almost $11,000 more than the national average for artists and almost $15,000 more that what artists in St. John’s get — but 11 per cent less than the average earnings for Toronto’s total labour force. Moreover, dancers in Toronto were found to earn on average less than $20,000 a year. In 2001 — the last year a full, nationwide census was completed — artists represented 0.8 per cent of Canada’s working population. But Vancouver had 7,250 artists in its total labour force of just over 307,000; at 2.4 per cent, that was the highest concentration of arts workers in the country.”

A judge rules that American teachers “do not have a right under the First Amendment to express their opinions with their students during the instructional period. The judge ruled that school officials are free to adopt regulations prohibiting classroom discussion of the war.”

A former accounting employee at the Orange County Performing Arts Center has been sentenced to ten years in prison after admitting she embezzled $1.85 million from the center. She “started working at the center in 1995 and from September 2000 to September 2005 pocketed cash that was supposed to be deposited into bank accounts. She then created false records to show that the money had been deposited, prosecutors said. She was ordered to pay back the money, plus 10 percent interest.”

“Try to think of a contemporary piece of art that made a right-wing point? Or a British film, or TV drama, or play? No bells ringing, yet. Nope, there’s no risk of tinnitus. So why are right-wingers in the arts as rare as Saudi snowballs?”

Perhaps the largest demonstration in LA history gathered to protest federal legislation that would crack down on undocumented immigrants, penalize those who help them and build a security wall along the U.S.’ southern border.”

“Toronto’s entertainment industry has been trapped in a long, downward spiral. How badly did Toronto think it needed “The Lord of the Rings,” the colossal, $28 million musical spectacular that officially opened here Thursday night to high hopes but reviews that fell far short of expectations? Badly enough that the Ontario government agreed to risk $3 million in public money in this for-profit show — not for the building but, incredibly, the actual production — despite charges that deficit-strapped provincial taxpayers were now being asked to subsidize someone’s singing hobbits.”

The outgoing director of the Edinburgh International Festival says the festical is financially sound. “Brian McMaster, who steps down at the end of this year’s Festival, also warned against any reduction in its Scottish talent, saying he would be ‘surprised and bloody angry’ if that happened.”

Ontario arts gets a big boost from the province’s new budget proposal. “Not only announced increased tax incentives for film and new media, $10-million for the Ontario Heritage Trust and $15-million for libraries ($8-million of that for digital libraries and another $1-million for servers in the province’s far north) — there was also a much-hoped-for $49-million over three years to help complete Toronto’s cultural building projects.”

“As long as there has been a talking Hollywood, Hollywood has had a huge impact on the rest of the world. There has been a conflict going on for thousands of years between the haves and the have-nots, and now we are in a position for the first time to show the have-nots what they do not have.”