Category: issues

“Profligate spending may not be the rule for charitable foundations, institutions founded by wealthy individuals to fund good causes – and take advantage of hefty tax breaks. But recent disclosures about the lavish habits of a few foundations have turned up a more common, and perfectly legal, scandal: the small portion of their assets that foundations actually give to charity. Under federal law, private foundations must donate a mere 5% of their assets each year to remain exempt from virtually all federal and state income taxes. But even that modest requirement is undercut by rules that let foundations count administrative expenses, such as rent and salaries, as part of the 5%.”

Americans for the Arts was promised $100 million from the estate of Ruth Lilly. But the bequest was made in Eli Lilly stock and the stock declined precipitously. So the organization is suing the bank managing the money. “The lawsuit alleges that National City Bank of Indiana, instead of selling the stock shortly after the creation of the trusts in January 2002, held on to the stock through most of the year, a period when the share price tumbled from $75 to $47. The result, he says, “was a decline in the overall value of Ruth Lilly’s gift to Americans for the Arts of some $25 million.”

The idea that copyright protection must evolve to encompass the new digital media seems like a reasonable one on the surface. After all, no one ever really denied that Napster users were stealing music, right? But David Weinberger says that, as usual, politicians and corporate America have taken a legitimate issue and wildly overreacted, proposing a scheme with no consumer leeway and no ability to make changes later. “There are times when rules need to be imposed within [the] marketplace, whether they’re international laws against bootleg CDs or the right of someone to sue for libel. But the fact that sometimes we resort to rules shouldn’t lead us to think that they are the norm.”

It’s the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, Russia’s cultural jewel and one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The city is trying to shake off the indignities of its Soviet past, when it was forced to change its name and its culture was pressed into service of the Lenin crowd. “The race to restore its imperial luster and secure its crown as the cultural capital of Russia has been helped significantly by being, in a sense, Putingrad — the hometown of the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin. Anniversary events today included a wreath laying at the Bronze Horseman and the opening of a grand entrance to the Hermitage from the Palace Square.”

Should the Melbourne Theatre Company combine its planned 500-seat theatre with a proposed 1000-seat recital hall planned for across the street? The local state government thinks a marriage may be in order…

Most artists are poor. “Imagine the dissonance your average starving poet feels surrounded by moneyed book-lovers and big-wig sponsors at your local writer’s festival. Or the supreme weirdness of the novelist nominated for a glitzy award like the Giller Prize, with its debauched evening of champagne, tuxes and gowns. I have heard the experience likened to being a street-level prostitute, yanked into a limo by a group of corporate man-gods, and treated to the good life for one queenly booze-and-bonbon-addled night. Before, of course, a bouquet is shoved into your arms as you are simultaneously shoved back into the street to face cold, familiar reality.” Lynn Coady proposes a small “corrective measure” to help.

Scotland’s major cultural groups are warning that “without a substantial cash injection in the autumn, national companies and some of the country’s best-loved theatres will be forced to cut productions and could even face the prospect of closure. ‘Inevitably you come to a point where certain organisations – including the national companies – are forced to cut back on the number of productions’.”

New research suggests that “some types of dementia may release new areas of creativity, which grow and develop as language skills decline.” An artist in her early fifties was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, a rare type of inherited dementia, but though some of her other abilities declined, her work as an artist got markedly better. “Whatever the mechanism, our patient represents a remarkable example of how a truly talented individual can continue to evolve and create in the face of a degenerative brain disease.”

“With public education struggling to stave off steep budget cuts and forced to cope with the extra emphasis on standardized testing, it has become difficult if not impossible for schools to add their own art, music, drama and dance teachers. Partnerships [with arts organizations] are sometimes hailed as an alternative to these arts classes. Adding to the desirability of partnerships is that the arts organizations pick up most of the tab for the program; they, in turn, have diverse sources to go to for funding, which has provided a significant impetus in the growth of such programs. But what do partnerships deliver? Are their promises fulfilled? Who really benefits? Until recently, it was hard to answer these questions.”

“The relationship between artist and critic is an age-old battle between process and product, actor and observer, status quo and innovation. To an artist, a critic can feel like a thorn in the side, an impartial evaluator, a necessary evil to be rationalized accordingly — or one of the malicious, impotent little men and women with nothing better to do than play God with their destinies.”