Category: issues

Arts critics used to wield tremendous power as American tastemakers, their words forming the crux of the cultural sphere and their opinions read as seriously as those of political commentators. These days, cultural tastes are controlled mainly by savvy marketers, and critics have become ever more marginalized, frequently reduced to bleating from the sidelines and begging for a return to serious cultural discourse. “While many lament the situation, some think the decentralization of authority means the arts — and the conversation around them — will flourish without these stern, doctrinaire figures.”

Sam Sifton has been named culture editor of the New York Times. “He has demonstrated a strong sense of the intersecting worlds of the arts, a powerful devotion to strengthening the reporting tradition in Culture, and a coherent vision of how the disparate pieces of that complex department fit together. Sam has an impresario’s gift for matching writers with ideas.”

“Americans for the Arts and the MetLife Foundation have announced a series of 20 national arts forums to take place from coast to coast during the remainder of 2005. The goal of the MetLife Foundation National Arts Forum series is to identify as many major shared issues as possible and, more important, the strategies being developed to tackle them.”

“At the start of what should be a booming summer season, with the entire country virtually on sale because of the falling value of the dollar, an international pall has settled over the US travel industry. More foreign tourists are coming to the US but not in the numbers expected. The problem is not economic, but political, travel and international-relations experts agree. A poor US image abroad, coupled with overblown concerns about visa and security hassles, is keeping international visitors away.”

Archives are an underappreciated art, a tangible example of institutional memory lovingly maintained, frequently by individuals who don’t want their personal passion forgotten. But therein lies one of the greatest challenges of the professional archivist: what happens when an amateur in charge of some vast and important archive dies without stipulating what is to become of her/his life’s work? It happens far too often, and frequently, the result is that the archive is scattered to the winds.

When it comes to new media, (downloadable audio and such,) Hollywood and the American recording industry are likely to talk about “threats to commerce” and the all-important god of Copyright Law. Meanwhile, across the pond, the BBC is doing just the opposite. “America’s entertainment industry is committing slow, spectacular suicide, while one of Europe’s biggest broadcasters is rushing headlong to the future, embracing innovation rather than fighting it. Unlike Hollywood, the BBC is eager and willing to work with a burgeoning group of content providers whose interests are aligned with its own: its audience.”

The $35 million Mountain Laurel Performing Arts Center in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains was a grand plan that quickly became an unmitigated disaster, going out of business less than a year after opening amid accusations of incompetence and misuse of public funds. But “the complex, which was built with the help of a $15 million state grant, is reopening with a fresh infusion of public money, including $500,000 from the state and $750,000 in projected annual revenue from a new hotel tax in Pike County.” Gone, however, are most of Mountain Laurel’s original grand plans, such as playing summer host to the Pittsburgh Symphony. This summer’s lineup includes mostly “blues, pop, rock, country, jazz and Latin music, genres that typically attract healthy audiences, in hopes of meeting ambitious attendance goals and buying more time to stabilize the center’s finances.”

Facing a possible zeroing out of the state funds that keep it afloat, the South Jersey Performing Arts Center located on Camden’s waterfront has announced plans to shut down by June 30. The SJPAC was to be the crown jewel in Camden’s civic rebirth, but the plan has fallen far short of expectations, with the city continuing to struggle, and the arts center never attracting the audiences organizers had hoped for. The center, on the Delaware River just across from Philadelphia, has been open for nine years.

The US Congress may vote this week on a budget for the National Endowment for the Arts. The proposed budget calls for no increase. “The bipartisan Congressional Arts Caucus, composed of House members who support the arts, is prepared to introduce an amendment from the floor calling for a minimum increase of $9 million for the NEA. The House Appropriations Committee reallocated about $6.5 million to the new American Masterpieces initiative from the Challenge America arts program, and the caucus’s amendment would restore the Challenge America funding.”

On the longest day of the year (June 21), artists are taking over the London Eye – the giant ferris wheel. “On that date, each of the 32 capsules will host a performance by a different artist, musician, dance troupe or acting company in an effort to highlight the campaign for fair trade with the third world.”