Category: issues

The Bush administration is trying to downsize the federal park service with a plan to outsource many of its services. “Two years ago, the Park Service became a prime target for privatizing some civil- service jobs after the president’s former OMB director, Mitch Daniels, referred to it as ‘the world’s largest lawn-care service.’ In addition to riling agency defenders, Daniels’ characterization has rankled historians, archaeologists, maintenance workers, and rangers who could be supplanted.”

“After weathering Hurricane Isabel, arts groups and entertainment promoters are wearily assessing the damage and warily looking to the future. Many had to cancel or reschedule performances when concert halls were damaged and electricity and phones went out. The downed phone lines also temporarily halted subscription and single ticket sales that are crucial to arts groups’ financial health at this time of year.” In addition to physical damage, arts groups in the affected area are having to cope with an audience base made up of storm survivors for whom an evening out is the last thing currently on their minds.

There’s a growing movement of artists who break copyright laws on purpose. “According to a growing number of ‘illegal artists’, copyright infringement has become the moral affront of choice – and the cause of “cease and desist” letters and profitable copyright suits. Artists are now appearing in court to defend their entitlement to borrow or ‘footnote’ the work of other artists.”

“A proposed arts complex for Vancouver’s waterfront has been pushed aside in favour of expanding a trade and convention center. The city announced Friday it will shelve plans for the arts complex.”

Where is the new spiritual center of Britain? A shopping complex. “Shopping — in the sense of the ceaseless search for the next object that will thrill for a moment and satisfy for a minute — is the main interest of people without purpose. The problem with the British is that they are not even very good at shopping, just as they are not very good at their other passion, football, to judge by the results. For to be good at shopping requires discrimination, which itself requires some mental cultivation. And it is precisely the lack of this that makes British shops (on the whole — of course, there are exceptions) so deeply dispiriting.”

Civic leaders in Las Vegas are trying to diversify the city. They want to build a new performing arts center. “With the billions of dollars in revenue the industry takes in every year, you would think it would be easy for gaming to foot the bill for the $125 million project. But that isn’t happening. The Performing Arts Center Foundation got the city of Las Vegas to donate five acres of prime downtown real estate to the project. But rather than assuming responsibility for bankrolling the project, the casino industry has found a way to pass it off to the car rental agencies which, unlike gaming, already are heavily taxed and naturally opposed to the hike.”

There is a proposal in the Canadian parliament to extend copyrights for previously unpublished works for 14 to 34 years for authors who died between Jan. 1, 1930 and Jan. 1, 1949. Why? “It’s called the ‘Lucy Maud Montgomery provision’ because the creator of the popular (and lucrative) Anne of Green Gables novels died in 1942, and it is her heirs who wish to retain control over her unpublished writings.”

A scheme to license performers in London’s Underground is a success, and will be extended. “A trial period in which only officially approved buskers were allowed to perform in designated areas will continue until the end of the year. Organisers said there had been an 82% decrease in ‘busking-related’ police call-outs during the trial. There was less need for police to eject or arrest performers who blocked safety zones or abused staff, they said.”

This month, a politician from Canada’s Liberal Party sent out a mailing to artsy types, urging them to vote Liberal, because the party truly cares about the arts. This was news to Martin Knelman. “Prior to that moment, few people in or out of the cultural world had any notion at all just what Dalton McGuinty’s view of arts and culture might be… If the arts are so important, why have the Liberals had so little to say that hardly anyone of my acquaintance knows anything at all about their policies?” Of course, none of the major parties have had much to say about the arts lately, but at least no one else is parading around like some sort of cultural savior.

This summer, the California Arts Council’s budget was slashed from $16 million to $1 million, a near-zeroing out of the state’s commitment to cultural spending. But at least one San Francisco legislator isn’t accepting the cuts: Mark Leno is attempting to restore about half of the council’s original budget through what he calls a “‘minimal’ entertainment-related fee — not a tax, he’s quick to point out — to directly fund the council.”