Category: issues

The US Congress is being lobbyied to create a National Women’s History Museum. “The founders and a coalition of women’s professional groups said the museum would provide a solid understanding of the roles women have played in the nation’s history and correct an oversight in the lineup of Washington museums.”

The UK government has agreed to reconsider new visa requirements for foreign artists performing in Britain. “Campaigners had been fearful that organisations such as orchestras or touring theatre companies would no longer be able to apply as a group to enter the UK but rather each individual would have to attend in person at a British consulate in their own country. As well as the significant extra cost and bureaucracy this would create, it was also feared that if one person was refused a visa an entire tour might be scrapped.”

The Edinburgh Festival has a new director. “Just how Edinburgh, the city of Hume and Mill, the home along one main street of three latterday Walter Scotts – Rowling, Rankin, McCall Smith – the Venice of the North, the greatest arts festival between Aix-en-Provence and Santa Fe, just how Edinburgh got itself into such a selection muddle that it had to hire a minnow from the other side of the world is almost beyond comprehension.”

Twenty years ago, it would have been thought laughable that the theory of evolution might once again come under attack in U.S. society. But Darwin is a hot-button issue in 21st-century America, and the creationists (or whatever they’re calling themselves now) seem to be winning over a large chunk of the country. So it probably shouldn’t be a surprise that New York’s Museum of Natural History thought that now might not be a bad time for a refresher course on the man, the theory, and the difference between research and guessing.

“A task force that spent a year hammering out proposals that could dramatically change how San Francisco funds the arts has again polarized the local arts world. The report calls for creating a centralized department of culture and compelling politicians to stop diverting hotel tax funds away from the arts.”

Mardi Gras, such as it is, is in full swing in the small section of New Orleans that still looks like it did last year at this time. Civic leaders are hoping the weeklong party will demonstrate the city’s resilience to the nation, but the truth is that no one ever really doubted that the bead-throwing floats and drunken revelers would return. “After Katrina, the lingering question is whether the New Orleans cultural traditions that had sprung up spontaneously in African-American neighborhoods would survive.”

Australian composer Jonathan Mills has been named the next head of the Edinburgh Festival, beginning with the summer event’s 2007 season. Mills replaces Sir Brian McMaster, who has been criticised in recent years for his refusal to add a visual arts component to the event, and for what some perceived as the festival’s focus on classical music to the exclusion of other performing arts. It is hoped that Mills will also be able to reverse the festival’s slide into fiscal deficits, which have run as high as £1m on a £7.5m budget.

Some big media companies want to start prioritizing the way information is handled on the internet, charging more for some kinds of data. Consumer advocates are howling. “Whether they tier their service, telecommunications companies need to expand capacity. To do so costs money, and the telecoms argue that internet users will have to pay, one way or another. They say it’s preferable that the money come from those who need and are willing to pay for better service, rather than spreading the cost out over all users.”

As embattled Getty president Barry Munitz leaves the Trust, the Getty needs to reinvent. “In weighing what to do, the trustees must acknowledge that although the Getty Trust is a multiheaded beast — museum, grant-making foundation, research institute and conservation institute — art is what holds its programs together. Equally important, they must work to restore public confidence in the Getty, not just because it’s the United States’ largest art foundation, but because it’s the nation’s third-largest private foundation overall.”

“In the late 1960s, [J. Paul Getty] hired architects, classicists and Hollywood set designers to re-create the Villa dei Papiri, at Herculaneum, which was smothered under a hundred feet of lava when Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79. Now, after nine years and $275 million, after lawsuits and delays and amid ongoing scandals and the prosecution of its former curator (currently defending herself against charges in Italy of trafficking in stolen antiquities), Getty’s over-the-top vision is restored, reopened and wow. Hail, Caesar by the seashore — this place is a trip.”