Category: issues

One of the toughest challenges of managing an arts organization is dealing with the high fixed costs of doing business: office rental, computer costs, security, etc. So it’s worth asking just how many of these “essentials” are actually still essential in the digital world. “Of course, arts organizations need control of many assets to do what they do…since often what they do requires lots of physical space. But there are signs in the world that new options are available, if an organization is really serious about rethinking its fixed costs, its overhead, and the ‘stuff’ it thinks it needs to do its work.”

“The intrepid Russian spy, saving the Motherland if not the world, has come in from the cold. Not since his heyday in the 1960s and ’70s, when espionage novels and movies grabbed the imagination of a teenaged Vladimir Putin, has the Russian secret agent enjoyed such a celebrated place in popular culture. Blockbuster movies, TV series, best-selling novels and even theme restaurants are restoring luster to the FSB, the Russian intelligence service, and its predecessor, the KGB, as the country mines the contemporary fight against terrorism and the Soviet past in a search for incorruptible heroes.”

The National Trust for Scotland is one of more than two dozen groups that have united in a campaign aimed at winning politicians to the cause of cutting global climate change. The Trust “is concerned that many of the 120 properties it has responsibility for could be at risk from violent storms, rising sea levels and a dramatic change in temperatures that will devastate wildlife and cause extensive damage to buildings.”

Two national newspapers ran full-page article last week accusing the British Council of depicting Britain as racist, violent and impoverished in a traveling exhibition. “British Council staff were flabbergasted because the exhibition has been mounted successfully since 2003 in Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia. The reaction in there was positive for the UK, and it received lavish praise.”

Are major development projects the key to a better Cleveland? “The U.S. Census Bureau has ranked Cleveland the poorest big city in the country. The city school dis trict, which says it needs a new tax levy desperately, is near a financial meltdown. When the econ omy was stronger a decade ago, Cleve land built the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and new, major- league sports facilities. Now the city seems to have stalled, despite surprisingly strong pockets of new and renovated housing.”

British cultural luminaries are attacking the government for its arts policies. “The Government is facing a backlash from some of the most important figures in British culture, who accuse it of betraying promises to support the arts. In a move that will alarm ministers just weeks before an expected general election, arts leaders have spoken over their concerns about the potentially devastating impact of a spending freeze.”

Arts Council England chairman Christopher Frayling is disappointed in government attitudes towards the arts. “The arts often remain an afterthought in government policy – and the arts are often the first to suffer when money is tight. To make matters worse, governments can also interfere in the arts. Lately, I have sensed the distance between the Arts Council and the Government is narrowing. The Government clearly thought we were being ungrateful after the big uplifts to arts in previous spending rounds. We felt betrayed that the Government had decided not to continue with its investment of new money – despite all the success. A strange decision, since the upward curve of the arts was one of country’s good news stories. It was up to then an uncompromised record – so why start compromising now?”

How much ought you to know about an artwork before seeing it to get the maximum appreciation? “There are compelling arguments for appreciating an artwork on its own terms. Some people refuse to read movie reviews for fear that not only surprise endings but also subtle textural details will be revealed and spoil an otherwise fresh encounter. If they want to dig deeper into a film or an opera or a dance, they wait until they’ve seen it, then double back and do their research. But the sedimentary texture of knowledge, the layerings of appreciation, can provide pleasure on a first encounter, too.”

Scotland’s new Arts Council head says he’ll fight hard for the arts, and that Scottish Opera’s funding crisis is a national disgrace. “Richard Holloway, speaking out in his first week as chairman of the Scottish Arts Council (SAC), said he regretted the national opera company was about to enter a year of enforced silence. The former Bishop of Edinburgh said he would use his position not only to press for extra funding for Scottish Opera but for a “massive infusion” of cash for the arts in general.”

“In the biggest survey of its kind, conducted by the Office of National Statistics for the Arts Council of England, it has emerged that participation and appreciation of the arts are more popular than sport and are widely indulged in across the social spectrum… While the public appetite for books is not so much of a surprise – three quarters of interviewees listed this as a feature of their spare time – the keen edge of our hunger for theatre, both live and on television, is a revelation.”