Category: issues

Israel’s ambassador to Sweden vandalized an art work at Stockholm’s Museum of National Antiquities Friday. Over the weekend, the Israeli cabinet supported its ambassador. The ambassador was “thrown out of for vandalising an art work showing the photo of the suicide bomber who killed 21 Israelis at a restaurant in northern Israel in October. Israel has demanded that Sweden dismantle the installation, but its request has been refused.”

Baseball is trying to decide if Pete Rose Ought to be in the Hall of Fame. For guidnace, baseball ought to look to the museum world. “Museums make no moral judgment about their artists. Just imagine the personal lives of the artists who are represented at museums. We know Jackson Pollock was a drunk. We know Picasso had no regard for women artists, and he said women were either “goddesses or doormats.” Heck, if you believe Patricia Cornwell’s recent book, museum-worthy artist Walter Sickert was Jack the Ripper. But museums know they shouldn’t be presenting the artists as good people, only their work as beautiful or important.”

The American Arts Alliance is asking presidential candidates to state their positions on the arts. “We have an agenda for the American Arts Alliance: federal funding for the arts, tackling issues around artists from foreign countries wishing to perform here, and tracking all legislation that affects arts groups, such as nonprofit accountability reform. For 2004, we feel it’s important to engage candidates in the presidential race — in all parties — a little bit more than they have, say, in the past on the subject of the arts. So we sent each of their campaigns a letter asking them to make a pledge — a commitment to encourage the creative development and appreciation for the arts.”

A new national study reports that “despite a flagging economy and a stubborn reputation for elitism, Austin Texas’s performing arts outdraw sports events and live music, while their audiences are more diverse than is commonly assumed. Those are among the findings of a national study on attendance and attitudes toward theater, dance, symphony, opera and related arts in five cities.”

“Newly appointed [Canadian] Heritage Minister Hélène Chalifour Scherrer made her first official appearance in the cultural community Tuesday, sweeping into Toronto on short notice to meet with leaders of major arts organizations.” Arts officials were impressed with Scherrer’s seeming willingness to work closely with them to preserve Canada’s cultural diversity at a time when the government has said that there will be no new money available for the arts. Scherrer’s appointment had originally been met with uncertainty from arts organizations, as her background is primarily in sports, but her Toronto sweep is likely to enhance her popularity, particularly when compared with that of her predecessor, who was frequently criticized for a lack of direct engagement.

The number of workers employed in cultural jobs in Canada peaked in 2001, says Statistics Canada. “The agency says there were 578,000 people employed in the cultural sector in 2001. That number dipped the next year to just over 577,000, which represents 3.7 per cent of the country’s total labour force.”

“Missouri appropriated about $3.9 million last fiscal year for arts agencies in the state. This year, the general revenue appropriation was zero. The government dipped into a cultural trust fund to pick up much of the slack. Still, many arts organizations are cutting back and wondering what the future holds.”

During the “fat” years, Tennessee’s arts funding didn’t grow much. But then when the eceonomy slowed, arts funding didn’t get cut back much, either. Heck – Tennessee spends more on the arts than California now. Could Memphis be the new San Francisco of the South?

“As Iraq considers its future after Saddam Hussein, Mutanabi Street in Baghdad is resuming its role as one of the capital’s main marketplaces of ideas. If the daily violence in much of Baghdad, Fallujah, Tikrit and other areas illustrates ways in which the U.S. occupation is failing to improve Iraqis’ lives, Mutanabi Street’s Friday morning book market is an exhibit of the political and intellectual revival under American rule.”

Are drama and film more inclusive and more liberating art forms for the non-western writer than straight-up literature? Helon Habila and Courttia Newland chew over the idea.