Category: issues

For the first time in ages, Canada’s Liberal Party, which dominates national politics, is in serious danger of losing its grip on power, and arts organizations are getting worried about what a Conservative victory could mean for them. The current Liberal culture minister has been fanning the flames, implying that the Tories would adopt “a scorched-earth policy” towards national arts funding, but some independent observers say that such dangers are being grossly overstated. Still, there’s no doubt that the Conservatives are strongly in favor of lower government spending and open markets, which arts advocates fear could further sink Canada into the ocean of American culture.

Now that we know which of New York’s arts groups will be housed at Ground Zero, it’s time to ask an important question: will these art centers really have any significant cultural impact? John Rockwell isn’t sure: “The winners were picked not because anyone gave first thought to their worthiness as art, but because they represented a canny mix of institutions likely to make downtown a better place to live and do business… [but] arts gentrification tends to work best in this city when applied to underutilized old industrial neighborhoods, rather than already-crowded residential districts.”

The decisions handed down by New York city and state officials concerning which cultural groups will be allowed to make their home at the Ground Zero site in lower Manhattan was apparently strongly influenced by financial issues at Lincoln Center. The city-owned complex is kept running largely by the rent paid by its various resident groups. That fact made it unlikely that the city would approve any move to Ground Zero by New York City Opera, which went to great lengths to keep its proposal alive in the face of mounting opposition from city leaders.

Terry Teachout is perplexed by the selection of a collection of, frankly, second-string arts organization for Ground Zero’s cultural component. The groups selected are “serious and respectable, but they simply don’t add up to anything remotely approaching a world-class center for the arts… What a disappointment. What a wasted opportunity.”

Michigan is hoping to restore the 50% of state arts funding that was cut from last year’s budget with an unprecedented per-ticket tax on sports and entertainment events. Despite the financial difficulties faced by many of Michigan’s arts groups, the state ranks sixth in the nation in arts funding, and the new tax would bump it up to second. But the proposal faces a tough road ahead in the conservative state legislature, and the governor has yet to even take a position.

The upscale Marshall Fields department store chain is being purchased from Minneapolis-based Target Corporation by the decidedly cut-price May Department Stores, and the changeover is causing some nervousness in the Twin Cities’ top arts organizations. Marshall Fields has a history of being extremely generous to Minnesota cultural groups, and while May insists that it has no immediate plans to scale back Fields’ charitable arm, such largesse doesn’t seem to fit May’s overall business plan.

The UK Arts Council has released a study indicating that the arts are more popular than ever in Britain, and yet, the Council is concerned about its own future. “The council is a government arts body to promote, fund and develop the arts. Its current funding deal will see it receive £412m in 2005/6. But it is worried it may lose out when it learns details of its new funding settlement in the next few months.”

George Bush doesn’t seem much interested in the arts. “But under his presidency, corners of the arts have been flourishing—foremost, publishing houses flush with profits from anti-Bush screeds and pro-Bush paeans. Now independent film studios IFC and Lions Gate hope that Michael Moore’s vitriolic Fahrenheit 9/11 will produce similar profits. No doubt such sales will fund the filmmakers, poets, and novelists of tomorrow. (Laura Bush’s stuffy, NEA-sponsored “American Masterpieces” tour of art surely won’t.) Who’d have thought that a Bush presidency would be so good for the arts?”

Over the past week, 4,400 arts professionals representing America’s arts groups, gathered in Pittsburgh to talk about their work. It was the first time members of Dance/USA, the American Symphony Orchestra League, Theatre Communications Guild, Opera America, and other groups met together…

Steven Kurtz is a widowed art professor who uses agricultural products in his work to create protest art aimed at the genetically modified food industry. But to the government of the United States, he is a dangerous potential terrorist hoarding controlled agricultural chemicals in his home with unknown intent. It all started when a paramedic, called to Kurtz’s home when the artist’s wife had a fatal heart attack, spotted some of his chemicals, and called the feds. Now, “several of Mr Kurtz’s colleagues and artistic collaborators have been subpoenaed and a date for a federal grand jury hearing set for Tuesday. Both artist and his art are set to go on trial for their alleged links with terrorism.”