Category: issues

“New York’s wide-ranging civic conversation about the World Trade Center site degenerated into rhetoric that ricocheted off on all sorts of tangents at the start of the second round of public hearings on the fate of Ground Zero.” Officials in charge of the process seem to be trapped by the dual expectations of the public that a) public opinion will not be ignored, and b) something will eventualy rise on the WTC site, even though whatever it is will not come close to satisfying all constituencies.

“The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is giving special one-time grants totaling $21.5 million to 41 Chicago arts and cultural groups ranging from the city’s largest museums to small community-based arts education groups.” The grants come as the foundation celebrates its 25th anniversary, and includes a $14 million gift to National Public Radio, and $1 million each for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Lyric Opera, among others.

“In Chicago, far too many ‘everyday masterpieces’ are being discarded like so much gristle. The city has a national reputation for being a vigilant protector of marquee landmarks designed by such renowned architects as Frank Lloyd Wright and Daniel Burnham. But Chicago is much less careful about safeguarding the lesser-known architectural gems, that give its neighborhoods their character. Hundreds are gone… even though the city, in a 12-year study it conducted that cost more than $1.2 million, identified them as architecturally or historically important. The demolished structures–more than 200–ranged from Spanish Baroque theaters to Georgian mansions to Queen Anne taverns.”

Is progress being made in the battle over making copyright as “public-friendly” as possible? Perhaps. “Technologically speaking, at any rate – tomorrow is not on the side of the copyright control freaks. Information doesn’t want to be free, but customers definitely want it to.” And “at long last, tech companies are speaking up against the threat not just to their customers’ rights but to their own ability to innovate and sell products. The entertainment people are hardly discouraged. They have far more clout than any other parties in this war, and they’ve used it.”

“Teachers nationwide are using rap – the street-savvy, pop-locking, rhyming creations of Shakur, Geto Boys, Run-DMC and others – to teach history and English. Some colleges are even training future educators to weave rap into high school lessons. To some parents and teachers, the idea of mentioning Grandmaster Flash in the same breath as T.S. Eliot is wack. They reject the notion that rap, with its raw language and vivid depictions of violence, has anything in common with literature. But those who use it to teach say rap can be intellectually provocative, shedding light on the grand themes of love, war and oppression in much the same way as classic fiction.”

California state budget cuts will mean a 50% drop in grants to arts groups statewide, from $16.4 million to about $8 million. Although the state arts agency budget is a “relatively modest item among the $20.7 billion in cuts proposed by Davis for 2003-04, the effects, would be dramatic among nonprofits that have already seen donations falter from foundations, corporations and individuals. ‘People will have to close their doors. Artists will lose their jobs’.”

The British government is undertaking a review of the country’s censorship laws. “It’s very hard to escape the concern that violent videos, violent films, violent music, violent games do influence some of the more impressionable minds. I think there’s a case for reviewing whether we should regulate more rigorously. There’s certainly a coarsening of attitudes.”

So – more people attend theatre in Los Angeles than buy tickets for professional sports. It’s the kind of statistic that gets tossed around by those wanting to prove the relevance of an artform in the larger culture. But is it true? A LA Times reporter tracks down the truth. The real statistic isn’t really about theatre. And it’s an old one. Still, it originated from an actual study…

Disney initially expects the 310-acre park – the company’s fifth – to draw at least 5.6 million visitors a year, one-third of them from the Chinese mainland. Attendance is expected to eventually reach 10 million annually. Disney head Michael Eisner: “This historic day brings with it the dawn of a new era in tourism for Hong Kong, and also marks a symbolic milestone in the partnership between Disney and China.”

While seemingly nobody was looking, Los Angeles has become fertile ground for cutting edge art. “Today, seemingly all of a sudden, theater, dance, music and strange hybrids thereof are cropping up all over the Los Angeles basin. Many of the attractions are well known at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and around the country, although their proliferation represents a decided plus for Southern California. What is really exciting, though, is the steady evolution of an arts sensibility distinctive to this part of the country.”