Category: issues

Why must the British government try to coerce arts organizations who want funding? The arts get attached to education, to multiculturalism, to every social good of the moment. “There is a feeling across the performing arts that subsidised companies have been drained of vital energies during the Blair years – or, at the very least, have been distracted from their core function of creating art. A resentment has crept in. Many performers don’t want to be educators.”

The US’s new visa controls are keeping many international artists from appearing in the country. “The long-term effects of the visa delays already are being felt. In addition to fewer U.S. concerts featuring artists from countries on the State Department’s terrorism watch list (which includes Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Algeria, Morocco and Sudan), fewer albums from those artists will be released in the United States because record companies can’t count on performances to publicize the artists’ new songs. “The impact of this crisis will show up two to three years from now. This crisis will have a long- term impact on the music world and cultural exchange marketplace.”

A study of the arts in New York says activity is expanding rapidly, and not just in traditional arts districts. “With an astonishing 52% growth rate over the past nine years, New York’s cultural industry is responsible for more than 150,000 jobs. While analysts foresee continued slow or flat employment growth for financial services, they predict the creative economy will continue growing, almost across the board.”

In the 1980s, Hawaii, like most American states, saw its school curriculum stripped of arts education. But recently a series of new initiatives has found the teaching of creativity returning to the classroom.

The Australia Council releases a set of guidelines for artists in “dealing with indigenous communities”. The intent of the guidelines is to “encourage greater respect and understanding among the arts industry in working with indigenous communities” But one section “asks artists to consider how their work will affect the indigenous group on which it is based, whether it ’empowers’ indigenous people or whether it reinforces negative stereotypes.” Is this a reasonable (or wise) request? “How do you judge whether a work empowers or not? And one person’s negative stereotype is another’s attempt to tackle a tough subject.”

Is freedom of expression in the arts at more risk now than in the past? A conference organized by the National Arts Journalism Program debated the issue last week in New York. “Copyright is stronger than ever, which experts say will plunge us into the Dark Ages. Copyright is weaker than ever, which experts say will plunge us into the Dark Ages. The confusing thing is that both statements happen to be true.”

Last year, a student in a San Jose high school showed a violent poem he had written to another student, who was so scared she reported him. He ended up being expelled and spending time in juvenile hall, though he hadn’t commited violence himself. Is student speech protected? “While there are no concrete statistics, students increasingly face a range of punishments for threats as school administrators take a closer look at conduct that could presage violence.”

Disney built its name on the imagination and investment of creative “Imagineers” who succeeded in capturing the imaginations of visitors of all ages. But as the Disney stock price sinks and revenues slip, the company is slashing at that all important R&D that made it famous. “Disney is in a bear trap right now. They’re incredibly investment-averse. But the problem is, if you don’t fund the Imagineers to constantly come up with something new, you lose a big piece of what the brand means — which is that you go to the Disney parks to see stuff you can’t see anywhere else.”

Does art matter? “I know there is a sneaking feeling, even among art lovers, that art is a luxury. While pictures, books, music and theatre are not quite handmade luggage or perfume, most people would not admit that art is essential. The endless rows over funding centre on an insecurity about the role of art in society. Nobody doubts that hospitals and schools must be paid for by all of us. Modern art has become a media circus; a money-driven, prize-hungry extravaganza, dependent on marketing and spin, which may leave the public with a few extra names it recognises, but that makes everyone cynical about the product.”

After a month of debate, a BBC poll names Winston Churchill the greatest Briton of all time. “Participants in the survey voted the second World War leader top of the list of the country’s 100 most significant individuals, with 447,423 votes. He beat his nearest rival, engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, by more than 56,000 votes.”