Category: issues

“An illegal Parisian artists’ squat is to be transformed into an official and permanent cultural centre, designed as a counterpoint to more traditional galleries like the Louvre, at a cost of up to €7 million.”

“The Olympics is not, you might think, a cultural event. No one worries about the influence of Euro 2004 on the Portuguese art scene. But the return of the ancient games to Athens is a moment so rich in historical, artistic, architectural and even mythological associations that it becomes by definition a cultural as well as an athletic festival. Athens is staging a “cultural olympiad”, a collection of exhibitions and concerts under the aegis of the Organising Committee of the Olympic Games. Meanwhile, even the new stadium and its surrounding complex aspires to be a work of art.”

“Many artworks have sparked ideas, shaped sensibilities. The list of mind-changers in our history is a long, familiar one, from Machiavelli’s The Prince and Monet’s Impression: Sunrise to Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. But to have a direct, political effect – provoke a war, shape a law, inspire a cause – is much rarer.” Here are six works of art that had immediate impact on their times…

Four years ago scientists thought they had found evidence that could “solve the age-old question of whether the Black Sea’s flooding was the event recounted in the Biblical story of Noah.” But “the scientists who visited the underwater site last summer off the northern Turkish coastal town of Sinop couldn’t arrive at any conclusions. The settlement, about 330 feet underwater, was ‘contaminated’ by wood that had drifted in, foiling any attempt to accurately date the ruin and thus date the flood.”

“Brendan Neiland, an esteemed Royal Academy academic and articulate public champion of painting as an art form, has resigned after financial irregularities were discovered in his work. The academy said Professor Neiland, 62, had left his post as keeper [head] of its art school following an internal investigation. The inquiry uncovered an unauthorised bank account, as well as unauthorised deposits and disbursements.”

A new investigation has revealed that some British universities have made a practice of trading diplomas for cash with students who would not have achieved passing grades on their own. “The ‘degrees-for-sale’ scandal stretches from the most prestigious institutions to the former polytechnics and includes undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, foreign and home students.”

Ever since the NEA released a report bemoaning the decline of literature’s place in American life, defenders of the canon have leaped to reestablish reading as an essential part of life. And who could argue with that? Well, Mark Edmundson isn’t arguing, exactly, but he does have a few quibbles with the approach: “Reading, you hear, is necessary to maintain democracy. It can produce informed citizens. Right, but couldn’t public radio do the same thing? We hear that reading conveys knowledge; it delivers the bounty of the past to the present. Again, good, but in terms of pure rote knowledge, couldn’t film and verbal delivery work nearly as well?”

If you haven’t seen the Kerry/Bush “This Land is Your Land” parody yet, go ask a co-worker to show it to you. The online animated creation features the two presidential candidates in S&M gear and dunce caps, singing alternate lyrics to Woody Guthrie’s famous tune. The trouble is, someone owns that tune, and apparently, that someone doesn’t have Guthrie’s devotion to free expression. “About a week ago, the [creators of the parody] were served with a cease-and-desist order on behalf of Ludlow Music, demanding they remove This Land from their website.”

“New Jersey, whose Legislature approved the creation of a hotel-motel occupancy tax last year to provide a dedicated stream of arts funding for the cash-strapped state, will have over $22 million available to give to not-for-profit arts groups during the next fiscal year, a $6 million jump over the current fiscal year.”

Syracuse University launches America’s first arts journalism degree program. “Graduates of the one-year, 36-credit program will receive a master’s degree in arts journalism from SU’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in one of five concentrations: architecture, film, fine arts, music and theater.”