Category: issues

In St. Louis, “many arts groups barely have survived the recent lean years. Only five years ago, a 100-page report commissioned by the civic group St. Louis 2004 found that St. Louis boasted a healthy and relatively well-funded arts scene. But that was when arts organizations were reaping the benefits of a flush economy. Since then, foundations have seen their portfolios shrink, and corporations that once generously contributed have moved or have been bought, and the government has collected fewer taxes to share.”

“At this moment in history, there are two urgent questions, vividly focused in Rio: can this city, the jewel in Brazil’s battered crown, halt the seemingly inexorable process of social disintegration as factions wage war on factions? Drug gangs versus drug gangs; drug gangs versus police; police versus apparently everyone (shocking but true, read on). And can culture, that last life raft of the idealistic, come to the aid of a community’s identity, perhaps ensure its survival?”

Tighter funding, changed attitudes – it’s tough to run an arts organization these days. Chicago-area arts administrators reflect on the new cultural climate: “There’s a strong current of anti-intellectualism around these days, which becomes antielitism, and arts groups tend to be tarred with that charge unfairly. There should be some recognition of the arts as a socializing force. But at least the historical lack of government support for the arts in America means that we have not become dependent on it.”

The Brooklyn Academy’s Next Wave Festival has “served to celebrate innovative work begun in Europe or in Manhattan lofts and museum spaces.” But its 20th anniversary festival last year was something of a disappointment for an enterprise that traditionally sought out the new and risky. This year’s installment, however, re-establishes Next Wave’s aesthetic direction, writes John Rockwell. And despite some financial hardships, the Brooklyn Academy takes the lead once again.

“If patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels, boosterism is the first refuge of the second-rate.” So says Cleveland arts critic John Kappes, who is getting more than a little sick of his city’s provincial fear of responsible critical writing. Most of the letters he gets sing the same tune: “There isn’t enough criticism. No, we mean there’s too much criticism. And besides, we’re sure they’d like it in New York.” Real cities with a truly distinctive cultural scene do not give a flip what New York likes, says Kappes, unless the city is New York, and furthermore, they understand that critics are playing a role in the artistic process, and that their role should not require the use of pom-poms and human pyramids.

“Britons want to be more cultured and attend more arts events next year, a survey suggests. About 90% of the 1,000 respondents said they would aim to see more theatre, opera and exhibitions in 2004. Only one in 10 went to the ballet or opera in 2003, despite research suggesting nearly 70% of UK citizens think they are ‘cultured’.” The high cost of tickets and the lack of enough spare time seem to be the major obstacles keeping more Britons from experiencing their local arts scene.

Paul Horsley has a few things he’s hoping to do better in 2004 than he did in 2003, and he’s not afraid to share. “I will write less, listen more… I will not whine… I will have agendas. A newspaper critic has two basic functions: to cover the arts news and to comment on it. I’m going to work harder in my commentary to uphold certain things that I deem to be worthy of further support.” Horsley also resolves not to be too nice, and laments having left a particular sentence out of a recent review of a Mahler symphony: “We wept at the usual places, but for different reasons.”

After 21 years, Mark Russell has resigned as executive director of New York’s P.S. 122. “In addition to the widespread kudos for the man who helped launch Whoopi Goldberg, Eric Bogosian, Blue Man Group, John Leguizamo, and the Hip Hop Theater Festival—and brought heating, lighting, and a managerial infrastructure into the once abandoned public-school building—artists and producers of experimental work also sounded the alarm over the possibility that a corporate mentality might replace the aesthetic vision and commitment that have characterized Russell’s tenure.”

Across America, states cut arts funding in 2003. “By July, virtually every state arts council had received an appropriations decrease. Some cuts were draconian: 30% in Minnesota, 62% in Massachusetts, almost 80% in Florida, and a near defunding in Colorado. Compared to this, the cut sustained by the New York State Council on the Arts — 15% — seemed almost benign.”

Excuse me, all you scoffers who snickered when Liverpool was named European Capital of Culture. “A spectacular waterfront, museums without parallel outside London, an elegant Georgian quarter, two imposing 20th-century cathedrals, the neo-classical masterpiece of St George’s Hall – where can those be matched? Past glories make every Scouse heart swell: imperial trade, cup-winning football, the Beatles.”