Category: issues

A new “music manifesto” being promoted by the British government in conjunction with a collection of industry groups proposes a major expansion of cultural education in the UK, including a program which would provide free or cut-price musical instruments to schoolchildren. The plan is being seen as “an admission that while the focus on numeracy and literacy in primary schools has been necessary to raise standards, it is too narrow.”

The British Academy has issued a report that charges that “government enthusiasm for scientific research has left the arts and humanities underfunded and neglected.”

Laurie Anderson is NASA’s artist-in-residence. Didn’t know NASA had an artist? Yup – the program was started in 1963. But previous a-i-r haven’t been performance artists. “The idea of an avant-garde electronic fiddler hanging out with rocket geeks at NASA’s research centers may seem like an odd collaboration. The researchers’ reaction to their visitor was mixed, according to a NASA newsletter. One confessed to being a huge fan; another doubted the partnership of art and science. ‘What’s she going to do, write a poem?”

The Australian government is undertaking a review of arts funding, and the country’s major arts groups are weighing in with opinions on the current system’s shortcomings (shortfundings?).

“According to a new study by Americans for the Arts titled ‘The Creative Industries,’ the Seattle-Tacoma area has more arts-related businesses, institutions and organizations per capita than any area of the country… The study is the first to measure not just non-profit arts groups, but also for-profit arts businesses… Eleven metropolitan areas have more than 10,000 arts-related businesses. The New York area leads the list with 54,894. Next is Los Angeles, with 48,862, followed by San Francisco (21,232) and Washington, D.C. (16,360.)”

It’s only a staff recommendation, but a report suggesting that funding for many San Antonio arts groups be zeroed out to help balance the city’s budget is drawing early fire. The Cultural Arts Board has recommended killing all funding for the long-embattled San Antonio Symphony, the ballet, and the Josephine Theater, and proposed heavy cuts for several other groups. “The issue of entitlement has been the largely unspoken bone of contention at the core of this funding cycle, with much of the anger from applicants focused on the peer panelists who have been called unqualified at worst and unprepared at best.”

Consider the various political acts which have recently burst onto the American popular culture radar – Bill Clinton’s book tour; Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11; Howard Stern’s self-martyring rants against the FCC crackdown; Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ – and it becomes clear that today’s most successful ideologues are those who have managed to cross the line between serious political debate and pop culture mass marketing. While many Americans are still wary of anything that smacks of intellectualism, no one seems to be hesitant to voice an opinion on any intellectual issue that can be marketed on Oprah or Larry King. Is it a new era of national debate, or just the latest cynical marketing device proving its worth?

When Bradford Councilman, the owner of a web site hawking rare and unique books, offered his customers a free e-mail service, he didn’t tell them that he had “installed code that intercepted and copied any e-mail that came to them from his competitor, Amazon.com. Although Councilman did not prevent the mail from reaching recipients, he read thousands of copied messages in order to know what books customers were seeking and gain a commercial advantage over Amazon.” However, in a surprise ruling, a Massachusetts court has found that Councilman did not violate any laws, effectively legalizing such tactics, and setting up a howl from privacy advocates.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is targeting ten patents it believes have been issued in error and whose technology -in wide use – is not patentable. “These patent owners have been threatening people that just can’t defend themselves. They’re trying to claim ownership over some fundamental part of software of the Internet that people use every day, and they’re threatening small companies or individuals that can’t afford lawyers.” The list includes Clear Channel’s claim of patent on a process for making concert recordings available after concerts.

Earlier this year, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed cutting the city’s culture budget. But this week the mayor and city coucil actually increased the budget by almost 4 percent, from last year’s $118.8 million to $123.3 million. The new budget takes effect July 1.