Category: issues

New Jersey Governor James McGreevey says he’s reconsidering zeroing out the state’s arts budget, but for now the budget line still reads empty. “Arts organizations in New Jersey feel they now have a better chance of persuading state officials to restore funding because business groups have added their backing. Some chambers of commerce have made an effort to rally businesses that have a direct interest in arts activities.”

Patrick Goldstein wonders: “Why have most artists, be they poets, playwrights, painters, writers, musicians, actors or filmmakers, historically been far more involved with causes on the left than the right? The simplest explanation for this tradition of left-wing politics is that artists identify with the underdog. They tend to be disaffected outsiders and mavericks, skeptical of institutions, often uncomfortable with mainstream values. They find inspiration in change; their affection is with the dispossessed, not the ruling order.”

“While research has found that arts education can improve overall academic performance, the studies are preliminary on whether the arts can contribute to peace among youth. But encouraging evidence can be gleaned from personal observations. In cities around the country, corrections staff, nonprofit organizations, and individuals are putting together arts education programs for at-risk youth, with city and state arts commissions. In Boston, a nonprofit group called Artists for Humanity has apprenticeships for economically disadvantaged urban teenagers.”

Can the blacklist live again? Absolutely, writes Linda Winer. “Lest anyone think I overstate the danger to artists who use their media access to penetrate the drumbeats of war, consider what already exists on the Internet – ironically, a phenomenon that thrives on the gift of free speech.”

“Art-world activism is everywhere, however, albeit at rather low volume.” But where it does penetrate the public conciousness, it seems not many people care. Reasons?

Calgary may be having trouble holding on to its symphony orchestra, but there is no question that the arts are coming of age in the metropolis known to most Canadians as Cowboy City. “After decades of oil-fuelled prosperity, there is a growing feeling that Calgary’s continued success will depend on its ability to become a different kind of city, one that fosters the development of arts [and] culture.”

Washington DC has a budget deficit of $127 million. But some are advocating the city invest $100 million in the arts. “One of the cardinal rules of business is that it takes money to make money, and experts say investing in arts and theater projects is the way to spur economic development. City councilwoman Sharon Ambrose, the mayor and a number of cultural leaders argue an improved arts community would prompt a better quality of life for the city.”

“Between the 8th century, when it was constructed, and the 13th, when it was destroyed, Baghdad was the wealthiest, most learned and most opulent, city in Islam. Baghdad in the 10th century had a million inhabitants. In Europe at the time, where most people lived in huts, there was nothing to compare with it. Baghdad had 100 bookstores. And the grandest library assembled since the sack of Alexandria’s. The city represents, and not only for Iraqis but for Arabs across the board, a time when the Arab world knew itself to be the center of civilization, of science and art and mystery. The symbol of Baghdad is richer, and deeper, than whoever is messing it up right now.”

While some universities seem to be moving away from the arts, Lee Bollinger, the new president of Columbia University, believes the arts are “integral to the university experience.” Now that “he finds himself running a major Ivy League research university in the most highly cultured city in the United States. He gives every sign of relishing the prospect of forging more ambitious, more glamorous bonds between the arts and the university.”

Some international artists have begun cancelling performances and appearances in the US because of the war, though not many yet…