Category: issues

The rest of us could learn a lot about selling ourselves from the way ideas for new shows are pitched in Hollywood. “People believe if they have a good idea it will sell itself. It won’t. The person on the receiving end tends to gauge the pitcher’s creativity as well as the proposal itself.”

Criticism in the popular media “is very different from academic criticism, since the latter takes as given that the work in question is of value, proceeding from there into a study of where its value resides. Papers, conversely, return to first principles – is this any good? If not, why not? Artists of all stamps, naturally, would prefer to be judged by academics, and make the mistake of thinking that this is because academia is de facto more sophisticated than the media. This isn’t true, they just serve different functions.”

“Accumulating news reports underscore how visa problems are depriving U.S. audiences of an array of foreign performers.” As visas make it more difficult for foreign artists to get into the US, the cancellations mount.

Laguna Beach California’s 70-year-old Pageant of the Masters Festival attracts 250,000 people each summer. “But the festival is barely breaking even. From revenue approaching $6.5 million annually, its latest financial statements show it earned a small surplus of $275,000 in 2001 — not even enough to make up for the combined $325,000 it lost the previous two years.” A plan to license the festival internationally, though, has traditionalists opposed.

“Out of the ashes of war and dictatorship, a new spirit of creativity and intellectual exchange is tentatively coming to life in scattered corners of the Iraqi capital, from the newly revived academy to the downtown alley that hosts a weekly book fair and informal literary gathering every Friday morning. The venues may be shabby and damaged, but the buzz of ideas is infectious and freewheeling, so much so that it’s easy to forget how recently any form of artistic or literary dissent in this country was grounds for instant imprisonment or worse.”

The recent California state budget cut the California Arts Council budget to $1 million. But legislators aren’t done yet – they’re now looking at axing all state general funding for the arts. “In recent days, the Democrats’ budget plan was altered to cut off all state general funds to the Arts Council, leaving a small staff to handle $1.5 million in federal funds and fees from the sale of special Arts Council license plates.”

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel asked readers to ask questions about the arts – among the queries – do orchestra musicians count? Do dancers get tired of performing “Nutcracker” over and over again? And that classic: What, exactly is art?

“With every new crisis in Cuba, Miami gains another layer of contributors to the cultural scene. ‘We were victims of a macabre totalitarian experiment in Cuba, but we have arrived with a lot of energy, with the will to create and to contribute here.’ The vision of the new exiles, colored by the freshness of their experience in Cuba, their rigorous cultural training on the island, and their travels to perform abroad, adds more layers to the Cuban arts community, which has been diversifying since the Mariel boatlift brought in 1980 an impressive cast of writers and painters.”

Faced with a downturn in government funding for the arts, arts organizations are getting more creative in their fundraising. “On a national level, nonprofit entrepreneurship can be a big business. But wave of the future or not, entrepreneurship is hardly foolproof. Where it is possible to make money, it is almost always possible to lose it.”

A new Canadian study reports that “children involved in even low levels of physical activity – including such things as Boy Scouts, music classes or art lessons – have a reduced chance of becoming overweight or obese” – as much as a 43 percent reduction.