Category: issues

“Every major movie studio is rethinking its reliably humongous display ad buys in those papers because those newsosaur readers are, to quote one mogul, “older and elitist” compared to younger, low-brow filmgoers — so it makes no sense to waste the dough. Wait, it gets worse: I’ve learned that at least two Hollywood movie studios have decided to drastically cut their newspaper display ads as soon as possible. This news couldn’t occur at a worse time for the LAT and NYT, which both receive the lion’s share of those very showy $100,000-plus full-page after full-page movie display ads.”

Will the arts be an factor in New York City elections this year? “Surely, few public officials lack an understanding of culture’s central place in New York City. It is more likely that these officials sense that the arts do not need a high level of government attention in the face of what they see as more pressing concerns. Arts advocates view it differently, some worrying that the city’s cultural prominence is already eroding. They believe City Hall needs a comprehensive arts policy, a concrete strategy to maintain the city’s position as cultural capital and to take it further.”

Will the Scottish government go ahead with a Cultural Commission report’s recommendations to spend another £100 million on the arts? Not without a full parliamentary debate, says the Scottish executive…

“Artistic directors are a rare breed: someone who can stoke the fire of their own art output while being charged with the success and leadership of a company – often when that company is going through a dramatic time of change.”

Charlotte (NC) arts leaders are looking to pass a major package of funding support. “Discussions on a series of new and revamped museums and theaters began four years ago. For much of the past two years, executives at the Arts & Science Council, the umbrella group for most local arts groups, have lobbied city leaders for funding while constantly revising and reshaping their proposal. Under the current incarnation, all but $10 million of the $150.5 million proposal would be paid through various taxpayer revenue sources.”

Greewich Village has lost its artistic edge. “The Village has been remorselessly gentrified since the 1980s. Neighbourhood coffee shops have become Starbucks, local diners have become chic restaurants booked up weeks in advance or have been turned into a McDonald’s. Now the Voice’s strident tone and a documentary called The Ballad of Greenwich Village have shown how the final nails have been driven into the coffin of a neighbourhood whose artistic contribution to American cultural life is unmatched.”

The Getty has had a rough year. Several top execs have left, an LA Times story detailed the high compensation of director Barry Munitz, and the State of California is investigating the institution’s operations. Is it any wonder the Getty has hired expensive PR consultants to work on its image?

What is it with the popular culture’s obsession with terrorist imaginings? “In the four years since 9/11, British culture has seemed rather ghoulishly obsessed by terrorism, and by the possibility—no, likelihood—of some terrible atrocity being visited upon us.”

The City of Richmond has shut down construction on a new performing arts center, saying that the foundation running the project didn’t have the required permits. “The order stunned the foundation, already under intense fire from Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, who has said he won’t release any more city funds for the project because he doesn’t believe the group has the resources to build the project as it had planned, especially now that the estimated cost climbed again this week, by roughly 20 percent to $112 million.”

“Every two weeks or so, the last elderly man or woman with full command of a particular language dies. At that rate, as many as 2,500 native tongues will disappear forever by 2100.”