Category: issues

The number of medical students taking “literature, art interpretation and other humanities courses has surged over the past decade. They are trying to awaken their feelings and intuition as a way to connect with patients who often feel as though they’ve been reduced to a collection of symptoms. Educators say the distilled emotions and insight in the arts offer students a crash course in the old-fashioned skill of the bedside manner. Art, they say, is a textbook on the human condition.”

The severe cuts to state arts funding being pushed by California governor Gray Davis are hitting Silicon Valley particularly hard, and arts organizers in the San Jose area are bracing for yet another hit in what has already been a dismal year. Some area organizations may lose nearly all of their funding next year, and survival seems to be dependant on the generosity of private donors.

Was Rome named after a woman? “A fragment of writing by Stesichorus, a Graeco-Sicilian poet who wrote not long after Rome’s founding, suggests Rome was named after a Trojan woman called Roma.”

Americans for the Arts president Robert Lynch wonders why governments are cutting arts funding just when it’s been shown that investment in the arts helps the economy. “When governments reduce their support for the arts, they are not cutting frills. They are undercutting a nonprofit industry that is a cornerstone of tourism, economic development and the revitalization of many downtowns. When governments increase their support for the arts, they are generating tax revenues, jobs and the creative energies that underlie much of what makes America so extraordinary. Every time our governments, at any level, talk about reducing support for the arts, Americans should demand to know: Who will make up for the lost economic activity? Who will provide the 8-to-1 return on investment that the arts provide in the form of federal, state and local tax revenues? Who will replace the jobs that the arts support?”

“After grilling Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence M. Small yesterday about the changes to a photography exhibit on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a Senate panel asked the Smithsonian to clarify its policy on exhibition captions. The controversy… started last month when the National Museum of Natural History acknowledged that it had moved a show of photographs by Subhankar Banerjee and also had changed the captions because they contained language that advocated no oil drilling in the refuge.”

The biggest complaint of artists about the society around them is usually that the people holding the pursestrings just don’t “get it.” Arts administrators, for their part, are continually frustrated by what they see as an unwillingness on the part of creative types to accept basic fiscal realities. But at a small liberal arts school in New England, Katy Davy is trying to change the paradigm, with an approach to education that stresses critical thinking across multiple disciplines, and promotes fiscal responsibility as the friend of the arts and academia, rather than as an unpleasant complicating factor to be stepped around.

Being an artist in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was to live under creative oppression, worrying about what was required to work or even survive. Many artists wonder if they will ever be able to develop their own voices after years of tyranny. “My professional life was lived during the years of Saddam Hussein. I developed my style of writing during these years and now it’s become my style, set in concrete. Maybe only the new generation can reclaim the Arabic language.”

After having its budget chpped 50 percent this year, it looks like the California Arts Council is in for another huge cut. “Looking to close an overall deficit now estimated at $38.2 billion, Davis is calling for cuts that would slash the CAC’s funding from $22.4 million this year to $8.4 million in the 2003-04 fiscal year.” In 2001 the CAC’s budget was $32 million.

“The National Arts Journalism Program (NAJP) at Columbia University has selected this year’s fellows. In a departure from previous years, all seven of the critics and arts writers chosen for the program will participate in a research project – Reporting the Arts II – which will follow up on a 1999 study which measured arts coverage in 10 cities across America. This year’s fellows include: Caryn Brooks, arts and culture editor, Willamette Week; Willa Conrad, classical music critic, Star-Ledger (Newark); Paul de Barros, jazz and world music critic, The Seattle Times; Bill Goldstein, books editor, The New York Times on the Web, and contributing editor, WNBC-TV; Laurie Muchnick, book editor, Newsday; Valerie Takahama, staff writer, Orange County Register; Lily Tung, segment producer and writer, KRON TV (San Francisco).”

The US Congress is considering a bill that would force charitable foundations to give away five percent of their assets each year. This would result in a big increase in money going to charities (and arts non-profits). “The bill has created a furor in the philanthropic world, with foundations warning that they could be forced to squander their assets and spend themselves out of existence. Its supporters, however, say it will actually rein in wasteful spending ? on salaries and overhead ? as it gives charities needed help in a time of withering government budgets and growing economic pain.”