Category: issues

The cultural divisions that separate Americans – factions of race, region, and economic status – have never been more evident than in the various benefit events being mounted around the U.S. in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Musicians from classical, country, pop, and hip-hop scenes are all doing their part for the relief effort – but all on separate stages. Some experts say that “the competition that has emerged among fund-raising efforts reflects cultural lines that were already drawn,” but others insist that the factionalized effort is merely a by-product of an already compartmentalized entertainment industry.

Keeping track of the current state of New Orleans’s cultural institutions has been a chaotic enterprise at best, but a picture is beginning to emerge of just how widespread the damage is. The New Orleans Museum of Art lost one of its more valuable works to the storm, and a new, unfinished museum in Biloxi was crushed by a casino barge that was pushed a full quarter-mile inland. Some institutions escaped damage altogether, but not many…

David Anderson, the principal bass player of the now-homeless Louisiana Philharmonic has a temporary gig with the Minnesota Orchestra, but all the temp hirings in the world can’t answer all the questions the LPO has about its future, nor can they replace a wholly unique orchestra in a city with a musical life unlike any other in the world. “Anderson loves the way whole families permeate the music scene [in New Orleans] — the Marsalis and Neville clans are only the most familiar. He loves that he’s in a classical orchestra but also plays a mean electric bass in New Orleans’ more raucous venues, grinding out original jazz, funk and bop with friends in his Symphony Boy Funk Ensemble.”

The Seattle Symphony raised $45,000 for hurricane relief with a benefit concert Friday night…

“The Scottish Executive is likely to turn its back on ‘Culture Scotland’, the arts super-quango proposed in its £600,000 policy review, according to those who recommended its creation… A leading member of the Cultural Commission, believes there is little appetite for the sweeping changes it recommended earlier this year. It proposed abolishing the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen in favour of two new agencies, Culture Scotland to handle policy and the Culture Fund to manage the cash.”

Richmond, Virginia’s proposed new performing arts center has been controversial from the beginning, with critics complaining that the project is far too ambitious and expensive for a small city. The mayor has demanded that organizers scale back by 2/3 their plans for “a $112 million cluster of theatres, music venues and a jazz club on an entire city block,” and while there are currently no plans to comply with that request, the PAC proponents this week agreed to tackle the project in stages, and not to begin construction on any individual part of the project until that component is fully funded.

“Virginia Performing Arts Foundation President Brad Armstrong has taken a $100,000-a-year pay cut in hopes of eliminating a ‘distraction’ for the planned downtown arts center.” The city’s mayor and other critics of the project have frequently made reference to the salaries being earned by the project’s top executives. “Armstrong’s decision to reduce his pay from $275,000 to $175,000 was” completely voluntary, according to sources on the PAC’s board, and the same sources say that the president’s job was never in danger.

What are the “Seven Wonders” of Chicago? The Chicago Tribune asks readers and got “some 4,000-plus nominations for the 14 finalists, and more than 38,000 ballots cast for the final seven. Knock that total down by a few hundred for some ballot stuffing (obvious when the wording is exactly the same time after time). Stuffers included many voting for Steppenwolf Theatre, the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) temple in Bartlett and Fame, the city’s oldest sailboat, but that’s so Chicago.”

makes of a leading desktop publishing program – “Quark” – proudly unveiled their new logo, a stylized “Q” last weekend. But almost immediately critics pointed out that “the desktop publishing company’s new-look green ‘Q’ logo is visually almost identical with the Scottish Arts Council’s (SAC) long-used blue ‘A’ logo. Such similarities were quickly noted by users in multiple design-focused message boards, but it’s an honest mistake, claimed Quark.”

Rebuild New Orleans, sure. But how? “Among the questions facing architects are whether the city’s footprint should be irrelevant, given that so many residents may not return; whether surviving industries should be pivotal to what is built; whether preservation should trump other priorities; and whether bold new architecture can or should rise from the muck and devastation. Many experts also warned against moving too quickly, arguing that being away from the city could help residents clarify what was most valued and should be reclaimed.”