Category: issues

“What does social reform and democracy mean, if great art is withheld from the populace? The ancien regime that confined the artistic canon to a prosperous few has no place in our culture. Nothing could be more patronising than to decide for our young people that some art is ‘too highbrow’ for them, perhaps because of their ethnic background or an unpromising urban environment. The idea that the western artistic canon is not ‘relevant’ in today’s multicultural classroom need only be reversed to be exposed as ridiculous. Imagine decreeing that a class of white teenagers cannot relate to West African drumming.”

“Though I have seen some strikingly young audiences for events in London and elsewhere while working with a touring company, you do quickly realise that the backbone of many audiences around the country is on the senior side of 60. There are certain venues where, if the comedy in a show is too raucous, you worry whether all of the audience is going to survive to the end of the show. As hearing aids produce their weird dog-whistle whine, and large sections mutter continuously to themselves, while other sections nod blissfully off, you can feel a little of the exasperation that impels the Arts Council. Yet is this anything new? The prejudice against the aged is always quick to surface, however dumb.”

The city of San Antonio is boosting its cultural budget. Columnist Roddy Stinson thinks that’s a bad idea, particularly after private fundraising failed to make much headway. “The annual March of the Mendicant Arts Mavens will not disappear from the City Hall stage anytime soon. Neither will taxpayers be relieved of an ever-increasing arts-agency financial burden.”

Where’s all this cultural activity that was supposed to be created in Lower Manhattan after 9/11. There’s less, not more, now, and all the fancy plans and pronouncements about what was going to happen have amounted to little. Artists are becoming resigned…

“I see we have a whole generation of Americans growing up with inadequate education in the arts, but yet we want a society which is more creative, innovative and ingenious as we come into the 21st century. The American economy (of the future) is not going to thrive on cheap labor and raw materials. It’s going to thrive on our ability to be inventive and creative, and I can’t see that a generation that’s been deprived of creative problem-solving is going to meet that challenge.”

Denver’s performing arts scene is a study in contrasts these days. On the one hand, the Colorado Symphony has been reinvigorated by the arrival of its new music director, Jeffrey Kahane, and recently reported a $71,000 surplus for the 2004-05 season. “In stark contrast, the Colorado Ballet has suffered one setback after another, culminating with a mid-September revelation that it suffered a deficit of $341,000 in 2004-05 and accumulated debt totaling $700,000… So the unfailing cycle plays out yet again in a story of two vital Denver arts organizations on different paths.”

Liverpool is 2008’s Capital of Culture and the money is pouring in – hundreds of millions of pounds. But some of the locals are getting irked. “It’s as if the people running 2008 have no confidence in what’s already here. There are lots of government agendas being worked out. People are getting grants because they are good at filling in forms. But money isn’t coming into the music scene: it’s going to consultants. The clubs that really fuel the music are unfunded and almost off the radar as far as the official bodies are concerned.”

Italian culture minister Rocco Buttiglione says he’ll resign unless the government cancels plans to cut spending on culture by 35 percent. “This is not only a battle for the opera and the struggling Italian film industry, but also for the theatre, for libraries and archives. We have to defend ourselves on a broad front,”

“A new report suggests that most ordinary donors to charities have long memories about scandals at tax-exempt organizations but little awareness of high-level policy debates on the need for more government regulation of such groups… It claims that such donors wrote off a particular charity once it became tainted in their minds, whether by scandal or poor performance. Yet problems at a particular organization did not necessarily translate into cynicism about all charities.”

“Philadelphia’s Mann Center for the Performing Arts broke ground Wednesday on a $14.2 million upgrade. … The Mann Center, which is in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, was opened in 1976 as the summer home of the Philadelphia Orchestra. … In July 2004, [the center’s CEO] outlined a $30 million plan to modernize the center. Wednesday’s ground breaking signals the first phase of that work. Among the improvements will be an education center to provide dedicated facilities for the 25,000 school children the center receives each year.”