Category: issues

“The Council on Foundations, the main industry group for the nation’s nonprofits, said Tuesday that it has placed the J. Paul Getty Trust on probation for 60 days after the trust failed to turn over all the information requested for an investigation into its financial practices.”

“In the digital age, everyone’s a tour guide. Professionals and amateurs alike want to show you around neighborhoods, museums and historic sites around the world. Whether you download them to your Nano, connect via cell phone or load a CD into your Discman, the experience is the same: Hit Play or the Call button at a designated spot, go where you’re told and allow a local expert to turn your walk into a narrated tour.”

Music critic Mark Swed knows all the caveats about which performances to avoid: “Opening night is a glorified dress rehearsal, so avoid it. Everything comes together about the middle of the run. By the end, the performers are starting to get a bit bored, and it’s best, once more, to stay away. Oh, and matinees are never as inspired as evening events.” But he’s got a new theory: “A performance that begins with proper commitment will likely just keep getting better. One that starts out cynically or inherently weak will tend, like a small crack in a windshield, to get only worse.”

It was a rough year for the arts in Scotland, and Duncan MacMillan says it didn’t have to be that way. “Since devolution public funding of the arts has increased, but by considerably less than it has in the same period in England. So words and deeds don’t match and there is ground to be made up before any new dispensation can even begin.” More disturbing is the seeming indifference of the Scottish executive to the problem, and the unwillingness of politicians to confront the atrophy of treasured Scottish institutions.

A proposed entertainment tax in Toronto has bar, restaurant, and theatre owners spitting nails over what they say is yet another assault by the Ontario government on industries that are only marginally profitable to begin with. Canadian businesses already pay hefty (by American standards) taxes on items such as tickets and hotel charges, in addition to sales taxes imposed by both provincial and city governments. Toronto’s city council says the purpose of the new tax would be to encourage cultural development, and it plans to set up special “tax-incentive zones” that would offer property tax breaks to cultural institutions.

“Ever since the Dec. 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami that left at least 216,000 people dead or missing, artists from around the world have tried to capture the epic scale of the horrific event… The Thai Culture Ministry organized an exhibit in October in the popular tourist resort of Phuket, where many people lost their lives in the waves, to help make tsunami art more accessible to the public. About 30 artists showed their sculptures, installations and paintings.”

It’s been an eventful year for the arts in Southern California, from the turmoil at the Getty to LACMA’s difficult search for a new leader to fiscal uncertainty at L.A. Opera and the Center Theater Group. In fact, L.A. culture in 2005 could serve as a fairly handy set of life rules for arts administrators.

The arts economy may still be uncertain nationally, but in Minnesota, non-profit groups including major arts organizations are thriving, according to year-end numbers. “A slew of completed, or nearly completed, building projects from organizations in nearly every category underscores the sector’s health and vitality… Overall revenue rose 11.8 percent to $29.4 billion in 2004 from $26.3 billion in 2003.”

Major bucks are flowing in Dallas, where the foundation set up to raise $275 million over nine years for the construction of a new performing arts center has passed the $200 million mark well ahead of schedule. The foundation also announced that less than 5% of the funds raised have been used to support the fundraising operation, an unusually small percentage. The foundation’s next goal is to raise $30 million in the next year by offering naming opportunities within the center.

The unthinkable is occurring. New York City, the center of the cultural universe (and if you don’t believe it, just ask a New Yorker), is losing its ability to attract and retain what has come to be called ‘the creative class.’ “Skyrocketing prices on housing and professional space have driven many artists out of the very neighborhoods they helped to pioneer, and other cities, including Philadelphia and Minneapolis, have been very aggressive at luring artists their way with marketing campaigns and housing incentives.”