Category: issues

In the Australian state of Victoria, legislators have added an extra AUS$52 million to this year’s arts budget. The Melbourne Festival, which has been in precarious fiscal position recently, received a funding commitment for the next four years, allowing it to plan future editions of the fest without wondering whether they’ll actually be presented. The Australian Centre for the Moving Image also received a big bump in funding, to AUS$16 million per year, and several other museums and theaters will see increases as well.

Suddenly, a court ruling concerning the insurance payout to the developer of the World Trade Center site has put the entire project in doubt. “Now, barring a lengthy appeals process, it appears that developer Larry Silverstein is a day late and a dollar short of the time and money he needs to build back all 10.5 million square feet of the office space he lost on Sept. 11 according to the Governor’s aggressive plans. And so everyone downtown is buzzing Larry Silverstein is unlikely to be the developer behind most of the office buildings at Ground Zero. Another developer will have to step in. But who has billions of dollars to spend on a spanking new building with no guarantee it will fill up?”

A Southern California fire Sunday night destroyed Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, founded in 1979 in the foothills of Palomar Mountain. “The fire destroyed valuable antiques once owned by the colony’s late founders Ellen and Robert Dorland, including a Steinway grand piano believed to have been played by renowned Russian pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff.”

New York Artists are getting energized for this summer’s Republican convention in their city. “Dozens of arts organizations are making plans for at least four nights of political theater during the convention at East Village clubs, established theaters like Symphony Space, public libraries and of course the streets. The Internet is throbbing with information and strategies exchanged by people often identifying themselves by first name only or by acronym. They want to make it clear that this is not the same old same old.”

“Creativity, some scientists say, may play an important role in healthy aging – conversely, the ill can shed extraordinary light on just how the brain perceives art. Even though our brains age, it doesn’t diminish our ability to create. The big question, as arts projects become more common in retirement and nursing homes, is whether tapping elders’ creativity truly brings them physical health benefits as well as joy. And if so, what works best?”

“When the wheels fell off a French government program designed to help guarantee the livelihood of a certain number of artists and musicians, it caused a ruckus which is still echoing in the corridors of power.”

Tessa Jowell, the British Secretary of State for Culture, will “pledge tomorrow to roll back decades of Whitehall antipathy by asserting that culture and the arts are fundamental human rights. In a reversal of the post-war obsession with using culture as a tool of social policy – in tackling crime, boosting educational standards and regenerating rundown cities – Ms Jowell will make a surprising plea for art for art’s sake.”

When philanthropists in Silicon Valley give money to charitable organizations, it’s not usually to arts and culture. That’s a problem when you’re trying to build an arts community. “Strong participation by business executives is a prerequisite for generating more money for the arts. But the issue is sensitive, because it’s tied to the notion that the valley’s corporate leaders often have neglected or undervalued an arts community that is vital to a region’s quality of life.”

What was it like to be an artist in Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s regime? “The situation for artists was not good. There was the prohibitive cost of materials and the problem of being blocked off from the outside world, Saddam stopped all government support for art facilities and was interested only in having thousands of portraits of himself made, for which artists were well paid. Although Iraqi art survived underground, State-sanctioned art in Iraq was dying and the galleries were full of works on sale to foreigners at cheap prices.”

With the entire world seemingly caught up in conflicts involving radical Islam, it is becoming ever-more imperative that residents of primarily non-Islamic countries gain some sort of cultural recognition of the broader scope of Islamic culture. In Australia, the city of Melbourne is uniquely positioned to make such an educational push, say Greg Barns and Jane Rankin-Reid, but it will require a concerted effort on the part of the city’s artistic and cultural institutions.