Category: issues

Is copying a movie or music outright theft (piracy) as the movie and music industries claim? Maybe. But maybe not. There are lots of misconceptions as to what is stealing, what is fair use, and what is infringement of copyright. Here’s a primer on what is allowed and what isn’t.

“Since the 18th century almost every German city has had a subsidised theatre, opera and orchestra. In Berlin the local authority spends up to €200 (£141) on each theatre or concert hall seat every year whether filled or not. But the city can no longer afford it. With debts of nearly €50bn, the city is effectively bankrupt.” So it is slashing its culture budget, laying off arts workers and reigning in expenditures on the city’s arts, to the anguished cries of artists and citizens.

Max Wyman spent 35 years as a critic at the Vancouver Sun before retiring. Now he’s working on a manifesto intended to suggest a new relationship between government and the arts. “Intended as a tool kit of public debate, the manifesto calls for a new cultural contract between government and the governed. Its central thrust is the belief that culture, like health and education, is not only an unassailable human right but essential to the social and ethical well-being of society — and should be fostered and funded appropriately.”

“A campaign launched 133 years ago finally resulted yesterday in a demand by archaeologists to end the trashing of 8,000 years of British history, through successive governments permitting and even encouraging farmers to plough archaeologically sensitive land… The scale of the destruction is awesome, and getting worse. There are government-issued ploughing permits for almost 3,000 scheduled ancient monuments, the archaeological sites that are recognised as nationally important.”

“A recently released report from the National Endowment for the Arts indicates that the percentage of adults attending at least one jazz, classical music, opera, musical, play or ballet performance or visiting an art museum over the course of a year has stayed stubbornly at around 40 percent over the last 20 years. The total number of arts participants has increased, but so has the total U.S. adult population.”

Australia has swung to the right politically in recent years, and some observers believe that the increased hostility to foreigners and aboriginals is having a terrible effect on the nation’s artistic diversity. “The socially-conservative mood, say some arts groups, is also hampering audience willingness to step out of their cultural comfort zones. In turn, this development may be driving commercially safer arts patronage.”

In Austin, civic leaders are banking on the idea that a dramatic new performing arts center slated to open in 2006 will secure the city’s performing arts scene for decades to come. But the PAC has to get built first, and supporters are finding that that’s no easy task in the current economy. The hall is expected to cost $110 million, and the city only has $62 million in hand, forcing organizers to move to a phased building plan which will not alleviate the city’s performing space crunch anytime soon. Still, the PAC will eventually allow the city’s arts groups to perform in a top-notch space at relatively low cost.

Ohio has become the latest state to make severe cuts to the amount spent on the arts in an effort to balance the budget. The Ohio State Arts Board will take a 21% hit in its funding level over the next two years. The cuts don’t take effect until next year, but the board is already moving to reduce the amount of some of this year’s grants.

“Revised legislation introduced at the July 16 Cleveland City Council meeting would require 1.5 percent of the budget for each new municipal construction or improvement project to go for artwork, brightening everything from new firehouses to bridges, parks, utilities and streetscapes.” In addition, an upcoming ballot measure could result in a slight sales tax increase with all proceeds going to local arts initiatives. The moves are part of a concerted effort to bolster Cleveland’s image through the nurturing of a serious arts scene.

This week, the du Maurier Arts Council, a division of the du Maurier tobacco company, handed out its annual arts grants for the last time. A new Canadian federal regulation prohibits tobacco companies from being directly involved in arts funding, as part of a larger bill which restricted tobacco advertising. With money for the arts hard to come by in any case, many arts advocates are furious at the new regulation, with one theater executive saying, “The federal government telling anyone they can’t give money to the arts is a load of s—.”