Category: issues

New York’s cultural marketplace was devastated after the 9/11 attacks, and in London, fears that a similar fate could befall the city’s arts purveyors has been intense since the subway and bus bombings of July 7. It’s too early for much more than anecdotal evidence, but early research indicates that theatres were hit hardest, with most galleries and museums returning quickly to normal patron levels. At the BBC Proms, walk-up sales are down, but overall, concerts are more full than at the same point last summer. Of course, no one yet knows whether the attacks will be an isolated event, or the beginning of a new campaign of terror in England’s capital city, and that, more than anything, will likely determine the long-term implications of the July 7 bombings.

In New Jersey, where political corruption is as ordinary as summer rain, the state arts board last week announced its annual dispensation of funds, and immediately, a question arose. Why exactly would such a large percentage of the overall funding be going to counties with a preference for Democratic legislators, while Republican counties were generally underfunded? Members of the arts board “lacked specifics as to why groups in one county got more than another, beyond that their applications may have been more noteworthy. They stressed politics plays no role and said evaluators are experts.” Some others in the state theorized that the Republican counties are less urban, and their arts groups less sophisticated at writing grant proposals.

Conceptual artist Mark McGowan has been informed by London’s water board that, if he does not dismantle his latest installation, which consists of a tap running continuously and the water swirling down a drain, the board will cut off water service to the entire gallery in which the work is being displayed. McGowan’s intention was to highlight waste, which one could argue he has now done quite effectively, pouring some 800,000 litres of water into the London sewers in the midst of one of the worst droughts southeast England has seen in decades. The tap was originally meant to run for an entire year.

Becoming a successful performer requires a lot more than talent, and unfortunately, they don’t teach you about promotion and marketing in music school. That’s where The Field comes in, an organization dedicated to bringing artists together with the information they need to be a success in an increasingly crowded world of entertainment. The Field’s web site “contains almost 300 interviews with presenters, performers and managers from all 50 states, as well as information about more than 1,000 performance venues and 1,500 other resources, including good coffee houses, schools where artists can teach and housing.”

The city of Charlotte is considering a package of arts proposals totalling over $150 million, which backers say would revitalize the city’s cultural scene. But as with any expensive project involving taxpayer funding, there is controversy brewing. “At a recent City Council meeting, member Nancy Carter contrasted the council’s hesitation on the arts plan with its ‘stampede’ to promise money to a NASCAR Hall of Fame — if NASCAR lets it go up here… The proposed Hall of Fame would cost $137.5 million — not far from the price of the five arts projects combined. The city voted unanimously to give the hall nearly $104 million.”

The U.S.-Canada border is the longest undefended national border in the world, and the two countries have always prided themselves on the friendliest of relationships and the ease of crossing between them. But since 9/11, security measures have resulted in an ever-growing mountain of paperwork for any artist or musician looking to cross the border for a performance. The hassles are now so extensive that many venues near the border will no longer book acts from the other side, for fear that the performers won’t be able to get official permission in time for the show.

Attempts at censorship almost always backfire, as protests against an anti-Bush painting in the California Department of Justice will show. “Throughout human history, great art has been political, or inspired by an artist’s political experience. Unless you want museums and public buildings to be sanitized, boring and free of any real art, you have to tolerate works that are sometimes offensive. The other alternative is to create a government committee to approve all public art. Orwell had a name for this. He called it the Ministry of Truth.”

“Austrian President Heinz Fischer warned against the dangers of European values being ‘bombed away’ on Sunday at the opening ceremonies of the Salzburg Festival, the world-famous musical and drama event dedicated to art as a universal value. Touching on the terror attacks over the last few weeks in London and Egypt, Fischer said that a Europe recovering from an earlier horror — the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler — was ill prepared for the new threat that targets innocents everywhere.”

“Let’s talk intellectual capital. I keep hearing that phrase from Carl Kurlander, the native son screen writer returned from the Wrong Coast to teach at Pitt and evangelize on the depth and potential of Pittsburgh’s entertainment talent. Our generally downbeat view of local abilities to the contrary, Pittsburghers have a huge role in the national entertainment industry. Rather than continuing to export that creative and entrepreneurial talent, why not put it to work right here? … (W)hat’s mainly needed is a heightened sense of our own capabilities, a more developed culture of can-do.”

The Gaza Strip is not a pleasant place to be at the moment, and certainly not the type of locale in which you would expect to find a vibrant cultural scene. “Extreme poverty prevents potential audiences from paying to attend theater performances, which in turn has forced the closure of many small troupes. Existing film and theater groups struggle daily to survive. Despite the many frustrations, however, the Palestinian theater and film scene is remarkably vibrant; this summer even saw successful film and theater festivals held in both Ramallah and the Gaza strip.”