Category: issues

Britons do not enjoy a terribly high level of popularity among their European counterparts, but a new Italian survey reveals that the UK may actually be the continent’s most cultured country. Even more alarming to continentals is the relatively low cultural scores assigned to such traditional arts centers as Italy.

As viewed from Canada, the current American brouhaha over “decency” on the public airwaves is a bit confusing, coming as it does from the country that places such a high value on free speech. But there’s no doubt that U.S. conservatives have made significant gains in political clout over the last year, and whether or not their position is entirely consistent with traditional American (or traditional conservative) values, the opposition to their crusade is comparatively disorganized and ineffective. Of course, the First Amendment has not been removed from the U.S. constitution, meaning that the last word on the debate over decency will likely come from the courts.

Toronto is becoming more like New York and Tokyo every day, and not in a good way. Canada’s largest city has lately been showing an alarming affection for the big urban design idea of plastering every available surface with advertising and calling it architecture. “In Toronto, which has spent the last decade hovering on the verge of bankruptcy, public space has come to be viewed as a way to make money. The price of selling the city is a growing sense of civic irritation, not to mention alienation. It boils down to one question: whose city is this anyway?”

Americans for the Arts and the Arts and Business Council have decided to merge operations. “Both realized that the advancement of support for the arts, public and private sector would be better served if we joined forces and pooled our resources,”

“For a fairly long time, the weakness of empirical research on our claimed benefits of the arts has been a bit of a family secret — something we don’t discuss out loud. The arts build strong cities. The arts build strong schools. The arts build strong communities. Give us cash. In my head, here’s the larger point: The arts are essential to vibrant cities, dynamic and balanced schools, connected communities, and engaged citizenry. If we believe it, we should make every effort to understand the complexity and depth of those connections.”

Scottish governments have agreed to give the Edinburgh Festival an extra £600,000 after the festival said it might have to cut programming this year. The festival said that “while ticket prices had increased in line with inflation, the price of staging productions had risen much faster in recent years.”

The Australia Council is undergoing a makeover. So what do the reforms amount to? It calls for turning artform “managers” into artform “directors” who will “work towards increasing efficiencies in grant management through more effective systems and grant management processes and through centralising administrative task” (sic). And on it goes, bullet-point by bullet-point. No wonder that a separate idiot sheet, providing council members with prepared answers, rightly predicted they might face the curly question: “So what’s the plan actually for?”

“After wading through stacks of economic and educational studies used to drum up arts funding, Rand Corp. researchers say the numbers don’t make a persuasive case and that arts advocates should emphasize intrinsic benefits that make people cherish the arts.” Education and economic return have been proven selling points with politicians who are otherwise reluctant to fund the arts at all, but the Rand study says that “trumpeting the most quantifiable and utilitarian benefits doesn’t address the biggest long-term challenge facing arts organizations: cultivating an arts-savvy public that wants what museums and performing groups offer.”

Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center has announced that it will spend a whopping $125 million on performing arts education programs over the next five years. The new initiative includes plans for a new theater specifically designed to accomodate young audiences, a collaboration with Disney Theatricals to encourage the production of school musicals, and an extensive arts management training program. The money for the project will be raised entirely through private donations.

As more and more bloggers enter the realm of investigative journalism, some have begun to face similar quandaries to those faced by “real” journalists, and the issue of First Amendment protection for the self-styled reporter crowd has started to be seriously debated. “A useful first step would be to learn whether bloggers are covered by existing state statutes that protect journalists from having to cough up sources. The vast majority of states mark a clear line between professional journalists and everybody else. How do reporters qualify? They must be employed by news organizations — or as bloggers refer to it, the dreaded MSM (mainstream media).”