Category: issues

Thirty-five years ago, a midnight break-in at an FBI office revealed “years of systematic wiretapping, infiltration and media manipulation designed to suppress dissent. Underground newspapers were targeted. Students (and their professors) were targeted. Celebrities were targeted. The Communist Party of the U.S.A., the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Student Non-Violent Organizing Committee, the Black Panther Party, the Women’s Strike for Peace — all were targeted.” That was supposed to be the break-in to end all break-ins…

There’s about to be a big shakeup of the UK culture-funding system. “Abolition of the Arts Council is no longer a question of whether, but when – and how soon, this government or the next. The 60th anniversary of its foundation by royal charter will fall in August, by which time every colour of the political spectrum will have accepted that the system by which public money is fed into arts has outlived its usefulness to such an extent that it constricts art and contradicts its founding purpose.”

More than $27 million in federal grants intended to revitalize New York’s downtown district were announced yesterday. Among the organizations benefitting from the new influx of cash will be the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the Flea Theater and the National Museum of the American Indian. “Some downtown arts groups have repeatedly expressed frustration over the time it has taken for the development corporation to make good on its 2002 pledge to help cultural institutions downtown. Yesterday, their leaders just sounded grateful.”

Peter Dobrin says that the settlement between the Kimmel Center and architect Rafael Viñoly is filled with elements of “pure fantasy” that don’t begin to hold up under scrutiny. “It is a stunning fantasy to call the Kimmel Center a wonderful civic space. It could be a wonderful civic space. Nothing in the architecture prevents it from becoming one. But in its current state, there’s nothing wonderfully civic about the center’s gorgeous, oft-deserted rooftop garden and ground-level plaza… The Kimmel won’t be done until it has an appropriate amount of money – that is, an endowment – to make it fully come alive.”

“New Labour has been pouring money into the arts, not just because this is a good thing but because of the belief that the arts will heal communities, reduce crime and raise the aspirations of those not educated enough to know whether they like Bartók or Birtwistle. The arts have long been used as a weapon. In the Cold War they were a beacon of intellectual freedom of expression, in stark contrast to the repression of dissent in the USSR. Now the enemy is what Andrew Brighton calls ‘the limitations of working-class culture’.”

Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center and architect Rafael Vinoly have reached an out-of-court settlement on Kimmel complaints about the building. It must have been some settlement. The joint statement says: “the Kimmel Center recognizes that the Viñoly-designed and delivered Kimmel Center is a stunning, state-of-the-art concert hall that attracts world-class artists. It is one of the most beautiful and unique buildings of its kind in the world, a world-class performing arts center, a wonderful civic space, and an economic engine for the entire area. As one of the best facilities of its kind anywhere, it has achieved its goal of becoming a cultural center for all tastes.”

Computer users conducting a record number of internet searches in January. “Nielsen//NetRatings reports an all-time high search total of 5.7 billion searches in January, up from 4 million in January 2005. Meanwhile, comScore Networks says Americans made 5.48 billion searches in January, up from 4.95 billion a year earlier.”

A municipal cultural center in France “organized a reading of a 265-year-old play by Voltaire, whose writings helped lay the foundations of modern Europe’s commitment to secularism. The play, ‘Fanaticism, or Mahomet the Prophet,’ uses the founder of Islam to lampoon all forms of religious frenzy and intolerance. Islamic activists demanded the performance be cancelled. Instead, the mayor called in police reinforcements to protect the theater. A small riot broke out involving several dozen people and youths who set fire to a car and garbage cans. The dispute rumbles on, playing into a wider debate over faith and free-speech.”

Jonathan Mills defends his appointment as the new director of the Edinburgh festival. “Without going into detail, he suggested expanding the festival into areas in which his predecessor Sir Brian McMaster had not been interested. There was scope, for instance, to do more work in the visual arts, he said, also hinting that he would like to encourage younger people to get involved. ‘There’s not going to be a revolution. I’m not going to do anything drastic, but there will be changes, gentle, gradual and subtle ones. Like every other organisation the festival has to evolve if it is to remain relevant’.”