Category: issues

A new report says that digital technologies are dramatically boosting the entertainment industry. “Worldwide, new ways of buying all forms of entertainment – such as broadband internet – will increase revenues from $11.4bn in 2004 to $73bn by 2009, the report predicted. Wayne Jackson, global leader of PricewaterhouseCoopers Entertainment and Media Practice said the entertainment and media industry could reinvent itself. He described the industry’s “ability to create new revenue streams through innovative offerings that hardly existed as recently as 2000”.

Interactivity is the new buzzword of the young, hip, and terminally self-absorbed, and the results are decidedly mixed. The Los Angeles Times recently abandoned traditional editorials in favor of an interactive “wiki-torial” page, which was almost immediately flooded with abuse, spam, and porn come-ons. Other supposedly serious “wiki” pages remain densely clogged with stupidity, and even the original Wikipedia (an encyclopedia written by its readers) is notoriously unreliable. The lesson, says Alex Beam, is that there is still room in the online world for people who are actually skilled at what they do, and sucking up to the masses doesn’t actually make them any smarter.

Why has Kansas City’s performing arts center stalled at the planning stage? Paul Horsley thinks he knows: the culprit is “the musical illiteracy of Kansas City’s political, economic and even intellectual elite… The malaise embraces more than boardrooms and government offices. It infects the city’s media outlets. A recent radio program devoted to discussing the PAC’s future had not one arts person present. To this panel of bureaucrats and business heads, the center was a structure, a shell designed to generate revenue and make Kansas City look snazzy.” Nonetheless, the city appears poised to embrace a watered-down renovation plan…

Canada’s government is introducing new copyright legislation that could significantly change online habits. “Dubbed Bill C-60, the proposed legislation is a package of amendments to the Copyright Act. It covers file-sharing, downloading and burning copies of CDs and movies. Under the changes, making a CD for personal use would remain legal. However, a so-called “make available” clause would criminalize putting songs into shared online directories such as Kazaa or BitTorrent.”

Scotland is setting up a new academy to honor artists. “An ‘Academy of Scotland’ is to be established to honour the most distinguished artists in Scottish culture. Under early plans, a select group of the best and brightest across the artistic spectrum will receive the new award, designed to reward excellence. The recipients are likely to receive their titles as ‘Member of the Academy of Scotland’ in a yearly ceremony held on St Andrew’s Day.”

For the past 35 years, Ireland has exempted artists from paying taxes. “But Celtic Tiger Ireland is now being accused of reverting to its old philistine ways as the government consults in secret on whether to scrap the scheme. Detractors claim that tax-avoiding British writers are taking advantage, and that an elite of millionaire popstars is using it to get rich. The Arts Council is outraged, arguing that Ireland faces losing ‘one of the most enlightened pieces of legislation ever introduced for the arts in any country’.”

The Scottish Arts Council warns that Scotland’s culture will be harmed if the Scottish executive extends control over the arts. “In a strongly-worded letter to the commission, the SAC insists the arts will only continue to flourish if control remains separate from government. The letter – signed by more than 30 arts organisations across Scotland – makes it clear that any move to extend the Executive’s power within the arts will harm cultural expression.”

“Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco’s oldest alternative art space, is turning 40 this year. Its name is now synonymous with the Mission District, and as hipsters flow out onto the street after an evening of experimental theater, art, or jazz, it’s hard to imagine the organization existing anywhere other than on that scruffy block of Valencia between 15th and 16th streets.”

Members of American for the Arts gather in Austin for the group’s annual meeting. “Robert Lynch, AFA’s president and chief executive officer, presented findings from the organization’s latest research effort: an analysis of municipal, state, and regional arts agencies in 2003, the first year that saw a decline in arts funding after six years of increases. As the national economy has crept back from its post-Sept. 11 slump, however, arts funding has either increased or plateaued.”

“Serious arts criticism is looking beleaguered these days in the face of forces ranging from a celebrity-besotted media to the rise of critic-bloggers on the Internet to falling newspaper circulation to suspicion of anything that might be considered “elitist.” The age of great critics – popular, influential writers such as Virgil Thomson on classical music, Clement Greenberg on visual art, Edwin Denby on dance or Pauline Kael on movies – is long gone. Today, critics are more likely to be glorified touts giving thumbs up or down than probing thinkers and literary stylists.”