Category: issues

Seattle arts organizations are having trouble with their boards. Twice in the past year, Seattle boards have fired popular artistic directors and incurred the wrath of the community…

“But for a long time, Portland [Oregon] has deferred to its larger Northwest cousin Seattle in the size and repute of the city’s major performing-arts institutions — its professional theaters, opera and ballet companies and venues. Could this be about to change? With recent infusions of arts talent and leadership, funding support and new construction projects, the City of Roses is indeed making a bid for the bigger time.”

Edinburgh’s various summer festivals are finally getting together. “The plan is for the festivals to meet every two months and discuss a wide range of issues from creating a unified box office to a strategy to promote the Festivals overseas and improve the city’s infrastructure. Its development comes after years of public squabbling as competition from events in other British cities has grown.”

Dana Gioia’s biggest accomplishment as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts? “I would say that the major reform I’ve made at the endowment can be summarized pretty easily. Historically, the National Endowment for the Arts thought of itself as a federal agency that served artists. Today, the NEA sees itself as a federal agency which serves the American public by bringing the best of the arts and arts education to all Americans.”

“Good and evil are back on the table again as serious issues requiring serious contemplation by all of us — not just theologians, philosophers, essayists, politicians and talk-show hosts. Not just “experts” such as President Bush or Bono or Elie Wiesel or Dr. Phil, to whom we outsourced some of our thorniest moral dilemmas. These people were only too happy to do a lot of the heavy moral lifting for us. (And God bless ’em for it.) But it’s time to shoulder the load ourselves. This latest surge of terrible events reminds us that, in the end, we’re all on the hot seat to decide: What is evil? What is good? What constitutes justice?”

There’s no need to be intimidated by the arts, no matter how off-putting some of the self-importance that surrounds them might be. But just in case you’re still a bit uncertain about how to act, dress, applaud, or appreciate the art event of your choice, the populist critics of the Chicago Tribune are here to help…

“Several Imax theaters, including some in science museums, are refusing to show movies that mention [evolution] – or the Big Bang or the geology of the earth – fearing protests from people who object to films that contradict biblical descriptions of the origin of Earth and its creatures. The number of theaters rejecting such films is small, people in the industry say – perhaps a dozen or fewer, most in the South. But because only a few dozen Imax theaters routinely show science documentaries, the decisions of a few can have a big impact on a film’s bottom line – or a producer’s decision to make a documentary in the first place. People who follow trends at commercial and institutional Imax theaters say that in recent years, religious controversy has adversely affected the distribution of a number of films.”

One of Scotland’s leading political parties is “calling for the effective abolition of the Scottish Arts Council and the creation of a Scottish Academy instead… They argue that companies such as Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, should be funded directly by the Scottish Executive… The direct funding method, as used for the National Galleries, National Museum and National Library of Scotland, would be contract-based. The bodies would agree on a programme, modes of delivery, and would incur ‘penalties for not delivering’.”

Denver has decided to cancel its 13-year0-old annual summer performing arts festival”The free festival attracted more than 100 performers and thousands of visitors to the Denver Performing Arts Complex over two days each September. But the festival, which costs a minimum of $125,000 to stage, drew fewer than 30,000 last year, said cultural affairs director Denise Montgomery. That figure is down more than 50 percent from the 60,000 who attended in 2002.”

“In its 19th year, SXSW, which started on Wednesday, has broken attendance records. Four days and nights of panel discussions at the Austin Convention Center and showcase gigs at 60 venues around the city have drawn more than 1,300 bands, 8,000 paid registrants and 1,600 journalists from around the world. That isn’t counting the thousands of people who come just for the parties and the unofficial shows…”