Category: issues

With deficits plaguing cities, states, and provinces across North America, and a political culture that deplores anything that looks vaguely like a tax increase, the arts are increasingly becoming a victim of a me-first society that doesn’t believe that government ought to be in the business of handing out any money to anyone, ever. Charles Gordon wishes more people would pay attention to the fundamental mistake that is being made by those who would zero out the arts as a budget item. “You feel for the artists, who are only trying to make half a decent living, and for arts organizations that are merely trying to give opportunities to young writers, actors, painters and musicians who struggle to find an audience in a world of couch potatoes.”

With the New York Philharmonic back at Lincoln Center, attention is again turned on the need to rebuild New York’s West Side cultural campus. “While Lincoln Center jump-started gentrification around Columbus Circle, this case study in superblock architecture also provided city planners with a definitive lesson in how not to design cultural institutions. Nor has the center exactly stood the test of time—with 10 million visitors annually, the place is in need of major repair, plagued as it is by pesky plumbing and crumbling floors.”

“In an unprecedented move that angered readers and generated industry criticism, The Washington Post recently killed an entire week of “The Boondocks” comic strip with a story line suggesting the world might be a safer place if national security adviser Condoleezza Rice had a more active love life.” Comics have been being pulled from newspapers since the days of Pogo, of course, but the fact that a paper of national import such as the Post would find the strip, which was not explicit, too hot to handle, is raising old questions about censorship, humor, and the purpose of a newspaper’s comics page.

The National Endowment for the Arts is taking an ambitious but misguided step with its plan to bring Shakespeare to the hinterlands, says Michael Phillips. “Class is a commodity like any other, and with the Shakespeare touring projects the NEA is spending more than $2 million on a classy image makeover. These days the NEA does not concern itself much with tossing seed money to artists or companies who may be controversial or risky or untested. In [NEA chairman Dana]Gioia’s words, the agency intends to focus on bringing ‘art of indisputable excellence to all Americans.’ It sounds right. It sounds inclusive, and unassailably democratic. Yet somehow a Shakespeare initiative sounds like an investment in yesterday’s culture, not tomorrow’s.”

It may seem a bit premature for a country in which large chunks of the population are still without power, private homes, and schools, but a group of U.S. arts leaders have been dispatched to Iraq to survey the damage caused to the country’s cultural scene. Iraq’s global cultural significance cannot be overstated – this is the cradle of civilization, after all – but at a time when the future could not be more uncertain, many arts leaders are concerned that even the country’s most venerable institutions will have a hard time making the transition to a post-Saddam Hussein reality.

A seemingly endless battle between the city government of Washington, D.C. and a small arts center housed in a former junior high school came to a head this week, as the District served the Millenium Arts Center with an eviction notice. Accusations are flying back and forth – the MAC doesn’t pay its rent; the city doesn’t keep its word; etc. – but both sides seem almost eager to force a public confrontation over a dispute which has been simmering quietly for several years.

The idea of starting a National Museum of the American Latino has begun to gain traction in recent years, and this week, supporters got a legislative boost, when a California congressman introduced a bill to authorize a feasibility study for the museum. “The museum would be based in Washington and might be under the umbrella of the Smithsonian Institution.” If it were built, it would join two other new museums dedicated to American minorities: “A museum dedicated to Native American culture is nearing completion at the southeast corner of the Mall. An African American museum is awaiting full congressional approval.”

There’s the romantic notion of what an artist’s life is like. Then there’s the economic reality. A new study of Scotland’s artists shows that “40% of artists under 35 made work that generated no income. Only 17% of the artists earned more than £10,000 a year from artistic practice alone, and many supplemented their income. The figures also contain a fascinating snapshot of contemporary Scottish artists as economic players. In the past two years, they pumped £4.6m into the economy through their expenditure on art materials, transport, and premises, of which £443,000 was spent on assistants.”

It’s been a tough year for arts funding, with cutbacks in public funding across America. “Taken together, it’s clear that last spring’s budget battles, in which most state legislatures agreed to substantial cuts in arts funding, are now being acutely felt by not-for-profits nationwide.”

Two major English arts schools are planning to merge. “Trinity College of Music and Laban, which have international reputations, are to become a fame academy for the classical world from next autumn. The move has been hailed as a breakthrough for the two disciplines, which have always been taught separately in Britain despite their long shared history.”