Category: issues

Norman Lebrecht on the Supreme Court ruling holding software companies liable for the illegal file-swapping: “The music industry… can now stop penalising innocent teens in their bedrooms and go for the geeks who make the stealing systems.” On the huge demand for free Beethoven downloads from BBC: “There is clearly a demand for more – so much so that such commercial download sites as I-tunes and Napster have linked up to the BBC’s output and some have launched Beethoven promotions of their own. There is a web buzz about Beethoven that could never have been achieved by plastic and terrestrial means of communication.”

A US federal court ruling this week threatens free speech on college campuses. “Seventh Circuit ruled by a 7-4 majority that administrators at public colleges have total control over subsidized student newspapers. But the scope of the decision is breathtaking, since the reasoning of the case applies to any student organization receiving student fees. Student newspapers, speakers and even campus protests could now be subject to the whim of administrative approval.”

Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center (home to the Philadelphia Orchestra, among others) has a $3 million deficit and is cutting 11 staff. “Part of the financial drain is long-term debt. The Kimmel took out a $30 million loan to help bridge the gap between the time pledges to its construction campaign were made and the time they were fulfilled. But only $3 million of the loan has been repaid, and each year the debt costs the Kimmel about $2 million in principal and interest payments. Now Kimmel leaders are trying to raise $90 million to reduce the debt and build an endowment.”

“Over the last decade, the people of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and its neighbour, Gateshead, have all been joint lottery winners. Derelict wastelands, formerly national emblems of post-industrial decline, have been transformed by a succession of high-profile, and largely highbrow, new landmarks since the sculptor Antony Gormley first placed his rusty Angel of the North on the hills above Gateshead in 1998.” But do these culture projects make for a cultural haven?

Scotland’s Cultural Commission released a 500-page report this week underlining the importance of the arts in everyday life. But do such bureaucratic examinations miss the point? “No committee ever wrote a book, no strategy composed a symphony and no review created a work of art. [The] report fails to make its central case – that only the proposed Culture Scotland, a membership organisation owned and governed by councils for heritage and creative industries, plus representatives of business, education, and the voluntary sector, is the vehicle to deliver cultural rights.”

California’s Napa Valley has seen an artistic renaissance over the past five years, with multiple venues undergoing extensive renovations to bring them up to snuff for high-level performing arts groups. But post-renovation, many of the area’s arts organizations are finding themselves priced out of the venues, which must charge high rents in order to break even.

Kansas City music critic Paul Horsley touched a nerve last week when he penned a column blasting the city’s political elite for being culturally clueless and watering down an ambitious plan to build a massive new performing arts center. Some Kansas Citians were offended at the suggestion that they could use a little more height in their brows, but most of the reader response was vociferously positive. Still, Horsley says that no matter how many arts fans protest the scaled-back PAC plan, his sources indicate that the decision to scrap the original project has already been made behind closed doors.

One day after a New York tabloid published an inflammatory screed against what it called the anti-American art being displayed by two future museum tenants of Ground Zero, New York Governor George Pataki warned that he would not tolerate any art that could offend families of 9/11 victims being displayed on the site. “While saying that he respected artistic expression, Mr. Pataki invoked the solemnity of past battlegrounds in promising to preserve the hallowed ground in Lower Manhattan and ensure that no one will come away feeling offended by the reborn site… Mr. Pataki’s demand, which was denounced by several arts groups and Democrats as a violation of free speech, is the latest episode in a series of public disputes and flash points for the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan.”

Holland Cotter finds all the bluster about controversial art at New York’s Drawing Center to be quite the tempest in a teapot. “In fact, the Drawing Center is noted for its rigorous formal, as opposed to ideological, mission. Since its founding in 1977, it has focused on two things: presenting museum-style shows of traditional drawing, whether in the hands of Rembrandt or Agnes Martin or 19th-century Shakers; and expanding, largely through contemporary art, the definition on what ‘drawing’ as a medium is.”

The Saratoga Performing Arts Center is reopening with hopes for a fresh start. “The performing arts center is pronouncing itself reborn after a grim year touched off by the announcement that the New York City Ballet – a founding constituent – would be banished because of a financial crisis. The news led to a scathing state audit, an attorney general’s investigation and a bombardment of critical articles in the local press. But a new and politically connected executive director was appointed. The old board resigned en masse last month and was replaced.”