Category: issues

The Korean government has announced it will make a major investment in culture over the next few years. “The Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced on Tuesday that the government plans to invest over 1.7 trillion won into a new arts development policy in the next five years.”

Why should the government’s culture minister be a bureaucrat? How about an artist? “Britain has many suitable candidates. At random, I could suggest Simon Rattle, Elton John, Trevor Nunn or Richard Attenborough, all of whom have spent their lives working in the arts. Surely any one of these would be a better choice of arts minister than a professional politician who perhaps sees the job as a stepping stone and who may have some difficulty telling their Arne from their Elgar?”

“The field of arts organizations vying for space has also been narrowed to six from a group of 15 named in February, a source familiar with the decision told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity. They are the New York City Opera, the Joyce Theater, the Signature Theatre Company, the New York Hall of Science, the Freedom Center and the Drawing Center, the source said.”

What cultural buildings should be built at the site of the World Trade Center? And what cultural groups ought to be invited to take up residence there? Eight New York Times Critics weigh in with their dos and don’ts.

“Tuesday through Sunday, Pittsburgh will host what is arguably the largest gathering of non-profit arts executives ever, anywhere. In an unprecedented show of unity, OPERA America, Dance/USA, Chorus America and The American Symphony Orchestra League will hold their annual conventions simultaneously in Pittsburgh. Nine other arts organizations will hold off-year gatherings at Downtown hotels, including the National Alliance for Musical Theatre and American Composers Forum.”

“Public culture long ago became synonymous with public acrimony. The direct negotiation over meaning and value that occurs between patron and artist, or buyer and seller, never happens when art is displayed by a patron state as an act of general cultural “uplift.” Instead, the cultural becomes political, and the less meaning a work has — “art that does not offend anyone” — the better for the state.”

The overdue, over-budget Miami-Dade Performing Arts Center is at a flashpoint this week, as county officials are demanding a final cost estimate from the PAC’s designers and builders. “The builder’s contract with the county calls for the center to cost $254.6 million, but the builder has asked for $47 million more and estimates that its final extra costs could run as high as $61 million, the county said. The architect’s contract is for $25.35 million; it wants more, but won’t say how much. County Manager George Burgess vows to hold the line. The county has offered the builder an additional $8.9 million, rejected $26 million and is negotiating over the rest.”

“Last June, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation invited arts groups worldwide to submit proposals for a museum and a performing arts center planned for ground zero. Since September, the corporation — together with the city and state — has been evaluating the 113 responses. It was expected to announce its selections in April, but the decision has been delayed, in part by the difficulty of finding a chairman of the foundation charged with raising $600 million for the cultural buildings and a memorial.” Critics are unhappy with the lack of transparency in the process. “Unfortunately, residents, arts sector leaders, artists and local elected officials have had little or no direct say in any of these decisions so far, and that does not bode well for a successful memorial/cultural fundraising campaign.”

“The institutes will be designed for journalists who cover the arts for print and broadcast outlets located outside the country’s largest media markets, where professional development opportunities are limited. Institutes for dance critics will be hosted by the American Dance Festival at Duke University; for classical music and opera critics at Columbia University; and theater critics at the University of Southern California.”

UK culture minister Tessa Jowell has made a case of art for art’s sake, for supporting the arts because it’s a good thing to do. “Too often politicians have been forced to debate culture in terms only of its instrumental benefits to other agendas – education, the reduction of crime, improvements in wellbeing…”