Category: issues

The movement towards corporate support of the arts in the face of dwindling public funding is nothing new in the US, but the overt nature of the partnerships has been ratcheting up considerably in recent times. From new concert halls named for corporations like Disney and Verizon, to publicly touted partnerships between theatres and clothiers, the arts seem to be increasingly going the way of the sporting world in terms of corporate culture and product placement. Not everyone likes the idea, but in an era when most cultural organizations are gasping for breath, few have the temerity to argue against any system which will provide them with new revenue streams.

The Sydney Opera House Theatre will have to close for a big renovation – probably in 2005. Opera Australia, the Australian Ballet and the Sydney Dance Company will all be affected. So “what will happen in the Sydney performing arts scene when the Opera Theatre of the Sydney Opera House closes for renovation?”

After a seven percent cut in its budget the Texas arts council cut some programs. State agencies have been asked to trim 12.5 percent. And there’s at least one recommendation to do away with a freestanding arts commission and its employees altogether. With a state deficit of $10 billion, arts supporters are bracing for trouble.

Several US states propose eliminating arts funding. Others – like Virginia – are considering major cuts of 50 percent of their arts budgets. “As a result of these cuts, many arts councils and nonprofit cultural groups will lose matching funds from private donors and the federal government. The $3.9 million cut in Missouri, for example, will mean the loss of about $1 million in federal matching funds.”

Minnesota is facing a staggering $4.5 billion budget deficit, and the state’s new Republican governor has promised to get rid of the imbalance without raising taxes. So it came as no surprise to anyone in the state’s arts community when Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s budget proposal included a sizable slash in arts funding. While the proposed 22% cut is far from the “zeroing out” being suggested in some states, Minnesota has always prided itself on its commitment to the arts, and artists are preparing a massive lobbying effort to defeat the plan in the state legislature.

“Among Boston’s arts groups, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Now there’s a new effort to balance the scales. Local arts leaders hope a 40-member task force set to be announced today by the Boston Foundation will generate fresh momentum on a problem the city has failed for decades to address. The task force will work from a study to be released today by the foundation that shows that while big bucks continue to flow into a handful of the city’s largest cultural institutions, donations have been declining for more than 500 Boston-area arts organizations.”

A government agency is warning that Great Britain “faces a cultural crisis if the government does not set up tax breaks to prevent important art going overseas.” The government has been scrambling recently to prevent several important works of art from winding up in the hands of US museums and collectors. So far, the only thing preventing the art export is a set of temporary bans, but officials say that the only permanent solution is to provide financial inducements for the art to stay in the UK. The US already has such a system.

The New Mexico House of Representatives has voted unanimously to restore arts education in public schools. “Arts education has been shown to enhance many aspects of a child’s intellect, including critical thinking and creative problem solving,” said the bill’s sponsor. “The bill was supported by members of both parties.”

One of the most frequent complaints artists make about critics is that they always get the last word, and rarely have to face the people they tear down in print. Critic Russell Smith recently had a chance to buck that trend, facing off against nearly a hundred angry Toronto artists whom he has offended in some way or other. In Smith’s view, the problem is that too many artists simply believe they ought to be immune to all outside assessment. “It was interesting that none of my interlocutors wanted to attack any other newspapers for their art coverage – because most newspapers don’t cover visual art at all. I honestly think that some of my critics prefer that.”

“Product placement has long been a tradition in movies, but as performing arts organizations scramble for funding in a tight economy, will Hamlet be next to hold a Coke can onstage?” That’s just one idea being looked at by arts groups facing severe cuts from the budget knives of cash-strapped states. It seems to be a fact that public arts funding is going away, at least temporarily, for many smaller organizations, and administrators are looking at everything from product placement to individual sponsorship of productions to make up the difference.