Category: issues

California, which perenially ranks last in the nation in per capita arts funding, is proposing to add $2 million per year to the state arts budget by promoting the sale of a new arts-themed license plate. Several other states offer such plates, which can be purchased for an additional fee by any driver, with all profits going to the state arts board. The influx of funds would raise California’s arts budget by more than 50%, but in a sign of just how meager that budget is, it would remain firmly in last place in per capita funding among the fifty states.

Backers of Kansas City’s proposed $346 million performing arts center have managed to raise only $11 million of the $45 million they’d hoped to raise by February 1 in order to keep the controversial project on track. Without a successful campaign, it is unlikely that construction could begin on the center this year. As an incentive to potential donors, PAC backers are offering to sell the naming rights for one of the venues within the center for $5 million.

A group of Danish artists last month attempted to “culturally hijack” the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which has been the subject of much controversy as a holding site for suspected terrorists who, under Bush administration policy, are frequently denied the right to a court hearing or access to legal representation. “The artists hoped a blast of Beethoven’s Eroica [Symphony] from a boat moored offshore would send the American forces fleeing in terror and that they and their crew could occupy the military base and ‘have a great party’.” Shockingly enough, soldiers armed with automatic weapons operating a prison camp behind fortified walls and rows of razor wire turn out not to be frightened of classical music.

Where do Canada’s leaders stand on culture? The country’s artists want to know: “With less than two weeks left in the election campaign, we know very little about the parties’ plans on cultural issues. Canadians deserve to see the parties’ cultural planks before we let them lead us down a path of no return. We’re asking Canadians to vote for the candidates most committed to taking action to give our country a strong, vibrant and independent culture.”

Canadian actors are lobbying for a more aggressive support of culture from federal politicians who are about to face the electorate. “We are facing cultural integration with the U.S. and our next government needs to take immediate action. Our own broadcasters are more interested in simulcasting U.S. programming than they are showing Canadian programs.”

Where is the private donor who will step up and save an institution such as the English National Opera? Norman Lebrecht says that person doesn’t exist: “The crises in British arts are not coincidental nor, as is often alleged, a consequence of underfunding. As predictable as daisies on a lawn, they are seeded in a formula that dates back to 1945 when Maynard Keynes secured public cash for the arts in exchange for a supervisory mechanism administered by the great and the good.”

The city of Elgin, Illinois has hired consultants to take a hard look at whether the city actually needs and can support a new concert hall. “What it boils down to is this: What does a concert hall really mean to the city and at what cost, and can the money be raised? A task force of Elgin officials has explored the possibility of building a performing-arts center with a potential price tag of $60 million.”

Canada is in the final stages of a tough national election campaign, and arts leaders are not pleased with what they’re hearing, or rather, what they’re not hearing. “Extra cultural funding through the Canada Council that was announced in November by Liza Frulla, the heritage minister in the Paul Martin government, could vanish if politicians refuse to provide campaign assurances they’re committed to it.” So far, none of the leaders of the four major political parties have offered such assurances – in fact, as nearly as anyone can tell, they haven’t uttered the word “arts” at all.

“New ideas about the bounds of ‘fair use’ are slowly shifting the blame to antiquated notions of intellectual property, for making copies a crime. Contrary to popular logic, there’s an argument to be made that access to our common culture has never been as restricted as today, when the simple act of circulating a song comes with the threat of a lawsuit.”