“This phenomenon is known as overtourism, and like breakfast margaritas on an all-inclusive cruise, it is suddenly everywhere. A confluence of macroeconomic factors and changing business trends have led more tourists crowding to popular destinations. That has led to environmental degradation, dangerous conditions, and the immiseration and pricing-out of locals in many places. And it has cities around the world asking one question: Is there anything to be done about being too popular?” – The Atlantic
Category: issues
Doug Ford Government In Ontario Slashes Arts Funding
“Culture programs are budgeted at $235 million this year, down from nearly $295 million last year, including cutting ‘arts sector support’ from $18.5 million to $6.5 million. Additionally, the Ontario Arts Council, which awards grants, is receiving $10 million less from the government this year. And a $5 million Indigenous Culture Fund that the council administers, and was only established last year, has been discontinued.” – Yahoo! (Canadian Press)
Staff At Belgian Theatre Balks At Being Merged With Country’s Most Famous Dance Company
The dramaturg at the Kaaitheater, a Flemish company in Brussels, has written an open letter arguing hard against a merger between the Kaai and Rosas, the company of choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker. The directors of both companies have called the letter, and the worries expressed in it, “premature.” – The Brussels Times
US Will Now Require Visa Applicants To Reveal Their Social Media Accounts
Previously, only applicants who needed additional vetting – such as people who had been to parts of the world controlled by terrorist groups – would need to hand over this data. But now applicants will have to give up their account names on a list of social media platforms, and also volunteer the details of their accounts on any sites not listed. – BBC
Dear Kids, In The Late 20th Century, We Were Into This Thing Called ‘Human Rights’
The entire concept – and certainly the promise of human rights as a way out of suffering for millions, if not billions – appears to be disappearing. “The human rights idealism of the late 20th century has itself become historical. It is time to review and count our losses, to admit that, in light of the outsized expectations, human rights will always fall short.” – Los Angeles Review of Books
Chinese Artists Who Address Tiananmen Square Live In The Shadows
Or they’re put there by Chinese authorities: “It has been three months since Chinese rock musician Li Zhi disappeared from public view. First, an upcoming tour was canceled and his social media accounts were taken down. Then his music was removed from all of China’s major streaming sites — as if his career had never existed at all. Li is an outspoken artist who performs folk rock. … ‘Now this square is my grave,’ Li sang [about Tiananmen]. ‘Everything is just a dream.'” – The Washington Post (AP)
Hurray, A Popular Art Festival, And Boo, The Popular Art Festival’s Thousands Of Visitors
In the planning for New York’s Figment Arts Festival, moving from Governors Island to Roosevelt Island this year, “‘Everything was fine,’ Judith Berdy, a longtime resident said. ‘And then came the catastrophe of the cherry blossoms.'” – The New York Times
Have The Arts Gotten So Focused On The Mechanics Of Survival That We Forget To Talk About The Art?
Steve Slater: “This is nothing new, and it is not confined to the arts. We see the same pattern repeated again and again in fields like education, health and the police, all of which suffer from diminishing hands-on contact with those they profess to serve.” – Arts Professional
Has Arts Criticism Become Too Political?
Andrew Doyle makes the argument: “The best critics are able to appreciate a piece of work on its own terms, whereas the worst seem to believe that success should be measured on the basis of how closely the artist reflects their own ideological perspective.” – spiked
Do Arts Philanthropists Make The Gentrification Problem Worse?
“Remaining residents, particularly those in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods like San Francisco’s Mission District, don’t see a huge distinction between a well-intentioned arts funder and a slick developer with blueprints for luxury condos. … But does arts-based development really push out long-term residents? The research is inconclusive at best.” – Inside Philanthropy