Category: issues

California – known as a center of creativity – could soon become the first American state to eliminate its arts funding. “Cultural groups and artists say the death of the 28-year-old agency would have a ripple effect throughout the state. They predict as many as 14 regional arts councils receiving Arts Council funding could be eliminated, and the National Endowment of the Arts would divert $1 million earmarked for Arts Council distribution to other states. The state ranks 40th in the nation in per capita arts funding.”

Rupert Christiansen observes that audiences seem less enthusiastic with their applause these days. “Why should this be? As a culture, we are much less repressed than we used to be. Nobody any longer fights back the tears manfully – in fact, you can hardly switch the radio on without hearing some disaster victim collapsing into gut-churning sobs. We are repeatedly exposed to the sounds and images of extreme drama, both actual and fictional. This may mean that the excitement that live music stimulates is less intense and surprising – we hear it, after all, every day, reproduced with a fidelity that wasn’t possible in the pre-FM, pre-digital era. The passivity of television and a certain fed-on-a-plate laziness about our consumption of art also contribute to the fall in the clapometer.”

“The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies has reported that total funding for state arts councils will be $354.9 million in 2003, down more than 13% from the $408.6 million recorded for 2002. And with budgets in California and a few other states in limbo, that figure could still take a tumble.” So are there alternative public arts funding plans that could work?

“The notion that Latin America will give birth to the next great wave of art and ideas isn’t exactly new. For several years the topic has been the source of lively discussions when arts folk gather. But how does an industry whose machinery is programmed to face New York and Paris turn to face Mexico City and Buenos Aires? Step by step … and step one just happened.”

Florida legislators recently turned art-unfriendly. “Increasingly, this state’s leaders seem to regard arts and cultural endeavors as expensive luxuries, in cities, towns and schools alike. Even worse, they regard government funding for cultural programs with an air of disdain and suspicion. In the recent legislative session, legislators diverted most of the state’s cultural funding to cover gaping holes left in other parts of the budget…”

Is German culture stolid, dull and humorless? “To counter their stereotyping as humorless, rude, know-it-all, perfectionist workaholics with a historic tendency toward murderous chauvinism, Germans will soon be portrayed in advertisements across Europe as hedonistic, with-it, athletic sexpots. Think Claudia Schiffer, not Helmut Kohl.”

“In recent weeks, New Yorkers have been using forwarded e-mails to coordinate ‘flash mobs,’ or not-so-random crowds that appear and dissipate within a matter of minutes. Is it performance art? The cutting edge of a new social movement? Or just an easy way to flummox carpet salesmen?”

A new study charts spending on arts projects in New York in the booming 90s. “The combined spending in public and private money for capital construction for these groups hit $2.4 billion during the 10-year period in question, $1.8 billion alone being spent from 1997 to 2002. The spending generated $2.3 billion in economic activity, including $512 million in wages, 2,255 full-time jobs, and $36 million in personal income, sales, and corporate revenues flowing back into the city coffers.”

In a speech to the National Press Club, national Endowment for the Arts chief Dana Gioia takes a stab at artciulating an “overarching philosophy and vision for the once-embattled agency.” After “assailing the European subsidy system, Gioia defended the NEA’s budget even as he declared his intention to have the agency ‘fully funded’ within the next few fiscal years. Still, Gioia’s singling out of Italy (“some of these lavishly supported houses [have] not staged a single production in the previous year because of organizational problems, labor issues, or reconstruction”) could be seen as a reflection of Republican party orthodoxy: ‘Government support does not solve all artistic and organizational problems, or guarantee that an institution serves its local community’.”

What is it with the sound at pop concerts, movies and theatre performances? It’s so uncomfortably, unrealistically, ammoyingly LOUD! “Virtually the entire entertainment spectrum — pop music, movies, Broadway musicals and even opera — has become increasingly enslaved to manipulative and sometimes apocalyptic sound engineering, and we’ve all learned to cope.”