Category: issues

Wednesday October 31

ALL-KNOWING: Australia’s opposition Labour Party wants to get elected on a “knowledge nation” platform. The party promises to transform the country, injecting $176 million for 600 new specialist teachers, focusing on literacy and numeracy, $493 million for a fund to improve the quality of teaching and learning at universities, doubling the number of research fellowships and creating a new category of elite fellowships at a cost of $38 million, a new University of Australia Online, with 100,000 new online undergraduate places by 2010, costing $320 million, and 35,000 new high skill apprenticeships, costing $105 million. Sydney Morning Herald 10/31/01

NEED FOR MORE ART IN SCHOOLS: Prince Charles officially opens Tate Britain’s expanded building. “Opening the gallery, the prince said that art history and art practice should be part of education.” BBC 10/30/01

Tuesday October 30

ART IN THE NEW CENTURY: The new head of the Australia Council says digital art is a revolution. It is “new in the same way film and television were the defining cultural drivers of the 20th century, I cannot believe that digital arts and digital technology won’t be the comparable driving force in this century. It’s not just about how we produce art, it’s how it will change the nature of audiences, how it will change the access and distribution to culture that will change.” Sydney Morning Herald 10/30/01

ADELAIDE FUNDING RESTORED: Australia’s Telstra has decided to reinstate its $500,000 support for the Adelaide Festival. The company had pulled its sponsorship after the festival ran ads featuring images of Hitler. The Age (Melbourne) 10/30/01

• Previously: HITLER ADS PROVOKE ADELAIDE SPONSOR: The Adelaide Arts Festival has lost a major $500,000 sponsorship after the festival aired ads featuring Adolf Hitler. “A black-and-white television commercial shows the German World War Two dictator behind a camera apparently taking a photograph, then with his head superimposed on to the body of the painter Pablo Picasso, and again sitting in a film director’s chair.” CNN.com 10/28/01

Monday October 29

HITLER ADS PROVOKE ADELAIDE SPONSOR: The Adelaide Arts Festival has lost a major $500,000 sponsorship after the festival aired ads featuring Adolf Hitler. “A black-and-white television commercial shows the German World War Two dictator behind a camera apparently taking a photograph, then with his head superimposed on to the body of the painter Pablo Picasso, and again sitting in a film director’s chair.” CNN.com 10/28/01

• SELLARS MIA: The embattled Adelaide Festival will announce its lineup next week. But festival director Peter Sellars won’t be there. “The absence of Sellars has caused comment and private outrage in arts circles and South Australia’s opposition arts spokeswoman, Carolyn Pickles, said yesterday it was highly unusual for him not to be present. The program launch, usually a closely orchestrated affair attended by national media, has typically been the moment at which the director unveils and explains his or her vision.” Sydney Morning Herald 10/29/01

THE ART OF SHOCK: There have been “two longstanding fetishes in the history of art since the Enlightenment: that an artist is a kind of sacred warrior and art an ‘attack’ on societies that need to be refashioned. Artists, of course, are not terrorists, but Stockhausen was right to notice the affinity between their hard work, their discipline, their commitment to a message, even their sometimes macabre imagination. What he missed, besides the obvious fact that artists create and terrorists destroy – and this is as fundamental as good and evil – is that terrorists insist you get the message. Great artists have more grace.” Washington Post 10/28/01

Sunday October 28

GIVING TO ARTS/CULTURE DRYING UP: Contributions to non-profits are down about 20-25 percent this year due to the bad economy. “The nonprofits in the most jeopardy are arts and cultural institutions, smaller organizations, those relying on only one or two large sources of funding and, especially, any group that hasn’t worked diligently over the last several years to nurture its donor base and demonstrate its value.” BusinessWeek 10/25/01

PERFORMING AS AN ART: When is performance art an art and not just embarrassing everyday life? “Performance became accepted as a medium in its own right in the 1970s, when conceptual art was in its heyday. Conceptual art demanded an art of ideas over product, and an art that couldn’t be bought and sold. Performance became the demonstration and execution of those ideas.” The Guardian (UK) 10/27/01

Friday October 26

SOUTH AFRICA’S RAW EDGE: South Africa’s post-apartheid arts and artists are struggling. “The institutional framework for the arts, culture and heritage has changed significantly and for the better since 1994. The list of new policies, structures and legislation generated by the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology is impressive, but adequate funding and efficient implementation are lacking in all areas, and some are in crisis.” Daily Mail & Guardian (South Africa) 10/24/01

THE LANGUAGE THAT REFUSES TO DIE: “Dead” languages are those which no one uses any more. So, is Latin a dead language? That’s the general attitude, but there’s evidence to suggest it’s reviving; perhaps it never died. “If Latin could survive being a required subject, it can survive anything. Epitaphs – even lapidary ones in capital letters – are premature.” The Guardian (UK) 10/25/01

Thursday October 25

ALWAYS THE FIRST TO GO: The city of Phoenix is feeling a bit of a financial pinch, and members of the city council are turning against funding for local arts groups. The city’s ballet and opera companies have been specifically targeted for cuts by two powerful councilmen. Arizona Republic 10/24/01

Wednesday October 24

A LESSON FROM HISTORY AND LITERATURE: For most of us, biological terror seems a distant reality, or it did until a couple weeks ago. Yet it is a constant element in literature and in history. The Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse, Pestilence, has always been nearby. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 10/24/01

Tuesday October 23

LINCOLN CENTER RESIGNATION: Lincoln Center loses another top exec. “Marshall Rose, who has served as the unpaid chairman of the center’s redevelopment corporation, said he was stepping down because he had completed his work on a master plan. But it was widely known within Lincoln Center that he was intensely frustrated with the internecine battles that were hindering the project’s advancement.” The New York Times 10/23/01 (one-time registration required for access)

TESTING THE STANDARDS: Is the American SAT test endangered? “Today’s critics have opened an assault on the use of what is essentially an IQ test to measure students’ ability to learn. The outcome of the debate will affect how colleges with competitive admissions pick students, how racially diverse those students will be, and how high-school students prepare for college.” Chronicle of Higher Education 10/22/01

Monday October 22

HOW EUROPE RULED THE WORLD: Why did Europe come to dominate world civilization? “Why did a relatively small and backward periphery on the western fringes of the Eurasian continent burst onto the world scene in the sixteenth century and by the nineteenth century become a dominant force in almost all corners of the earth? Until recently, two responses have dominated…” Lingua Franca 11/01

WHERE’S THE DEBATE? Since September 11, many college campuses have seen “attacks on professors who have been censured by administrators, deluged with hate mail, or otherwise intimidated for claiming that the United States is to blame for the terrorist assaults. In large measure, responsibility for the tattered condition of our campus culture of free speech must be assigned to the very professoriate that now seeks the shelter of that tradition’s tolerance. Students, and the public at large, no longer believe that the academy is capable of providing the country with a balanced assessment of our national dilemma.” Chronicle of Higher Education 10/22/01

Sunday October 21

RAISING MONEY FOR THE ARTS IS HARD TIMES: As the economy sours, what is the impact on arts organizations? Ticket sales are back up, but the effects on fundraising still aren’t certain. “Generosity thrives on health and wealth. When the economy sours, and when disaster relief understandably attracts a sizable amount of available dollars, arts managers naturally worry.” Chicago Tribune 10/21/01

SORTING OUT THE “A” IN A&E: In a world of entertainment, where did art go? If entertainment is now considered art because it reaches more people and therefore has greater impact, and art is entertainment because it tries to reach more people, then what do the distinctions of art in culture mean? The Globe & Mail (Canada) 10/20/01

Friday October 19

CORK AS CULTURE CAPITAL: The Irish city of Cork has been named as Europe’s Culture Capital for 2005. Previous cities named as culture capitals have been Barcelona, Lisbon and Helsinki, “while Glasgow’s reign in 1990 had a positive and long-lasting impact on the city’s economic and cultural fortunes.” Gramophone 10/16/01

SURREALISM AS WAY OF LIFE: “Surrealism’s most obvious legacy is a linguistic one. We call on the word ‘surreal’ in response to any situation where the fabulous or the bizarre impinges on our lives, where the boundaries between waking consciousness and the world of dreams seem temporarily blurred. Such occurrences have always been with us, the only difference being that now we have a handy, catch-all phrase with which to indicate and categorise them.” New Statesman 10/15/01

Thursday October 18

ARTS IN IRELAND – THE BAD AND THE GOOD: On the one hand, “it seems the Arts Council has a reputation for being paternalistic, furtive and secretive in the way it has conducted its business.” On the other, “the Republic is perceived, by observers in Britain at least, as particularly enlightened in the way it has passed legislation to support artists financially.” The Irish Times 10/18/01

HAMBURG’S CULTURAL BATTLE: “As a center of the arts, Hamburg has always had a unique aura, extending far beyond Germany’s borders.” But the city has elected a new right-center government less receptive to Hamburg’s adventurous cultural reputation. But new culture minister Nike Wagner, Richard Wagner’s great-granddaughter and long a candidate to take over directorship of the famous annual Bayreuth Festival, is likely to champion the city’s arts progressiveness.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 10/18/01

CREATIVITY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN A CELL PHONE: A French court agreed with composer Gabriel Yared that a cell phone relay tower “impaired his creative concentration,” and ordered France Télécom to remove it. Fearing a rash of similar suits, France Télécom has left the tower standing, and is paying a fine while it appeals to a higher court. London Evening Standard 10/17/01

Wednesday October 17

IS THE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER DEAD? “What Lincoln Center and South Bank have in common is their desperate need for a facelift. Both are showing their age. Both clung to the Sixties conceit that people who like classical music, for example, can be ‘led’ into other arts simply by having them in close proximity. Human nature, however, has changed since then. Citizens in open societies are not inclined to be led: they prefer to discover. The arts centre is a thing of the past, filled with superfluities.” The Telegraph (UK) 10/17/01

SAFETY TRUMPS RIGHT TO LAMPOON: A prominent U.K. comedian has publicly condemned the nation’s proposed antiterrorism legislation pending in the House of Commons. Rowan Atkinson (best known in the U.S. for his turn in Four Weddings and a Funeral) claims that a measure in the bill designed to prevent religious hate speech would have the effect of making the satirizing of religion a crime. He is backed by seveal of Britain’s top satirists. BBC 10/17/01

Tuesday October 16

TRADING ON CULTURE: Canada’s cultural minister wants to remove cultural issues from the purview of the World Trade Organization. She “wants either a new agency – or an existing one like UNESCO – to take over the responsibility for disputes on culture matters.” She says it’s essential “to be the work we are doing to get international support for an instrument on cultural diversity so culture is not traded off at the table of the WTO.” CBC 10/16/01

Sunday October 14

HIGH ART OFTEN SPEECHLESS IN A CRISIS: “Although the artistic fruits of the recent national crisis and the current war have only begun to appear, the fine arts have not been particularly responsive to the major crises of American history.” The enduring images of such times tend to be produced by non-artists whose work takes on artistic meaning after the fact. The New York Times 10/14/01 (one-time registration required for access)

NICE CHUNK OF CHANGE FOR AUSSIE TOURING: “The [Australian] government yesterday handed out more than $2.8 million in the latest round of the performing arts touring program.” The Age (Melbourne) 10/14/01

SILENCING MUSIC’S POTENTIAL: Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have banned many things since coming to power five years ago. Some of the bans, like education for women and shaving for men, had an immediately visible impact. But when the hard-liners banned music, they may have taken away one of the most powerful forces for national unity. Music unites, as patriotic anthems the world over show. But can lack of music actually divide a people? The Guardian 10/13/01

Friday October 12

PARIS MUSEUMS CLOSED BY STRIKE: Several museums and tourist attractions in Paris have been shut down by striking workers, who are protesting a cut in their workweek. The Orsay Museum and the Arc de Triomphe were closed all day, while “the Louvre opened its doors only in mid-afternoon [Thursday], a day after workers let all visitors in for free as part of the protest.” New Jersey Online(AP) 10/11/01

Thursday October 11

LINCOLN CENTER SQUABBLE: A dangerous game of politics is being played at New York’s famous performing arts complex, and the future of a massive $1 billion redevelopment project is at stake. Sorting out exactly who among the center’s many resident organizations wants what is difficult, but it is safe to say that no one is backing down without a fight. The New York Times 10/11/01 (one-time registration required for access)

SETTING PRECEDENT, OR JUST MUDDYING THE WATERS? “Finding the intersection between decades-old copyright law and where it applies in the digital world remains far off the map in the wake of a critical Supreme Court decision on Tuesday.” Wired 10/10/01

ARTS AS AN ECONOMIC PLUS: The conventional wisdom in the U.S. has always been that the arts, while important, are fated to be a fiscal drag on society. But in Massachusetts, a mayor is on a crusade to show the world that public investment in the arts can be “an economic engine” for the community, and he’s got the numbers to prove it. Boston Globe 10/11/01

LEGACY OF A DYING TONGUE: A culture has no more basic manifestation than its language. More than simply a method of communication, language tells us an astonishing amount about the priorities, the relative prosperity, and the values of the people who speak it. So what is lost when a language dies out? It’s happening right now to a native American tongue called Dakota. City Pages (Minneapolis/St. Paul) 10/10/01

Wednesday October 10

SUPREMES SAY YOU GOTTA PAY: “In the second computer-age victory this year for free-lance journalists who contend they were cheated by big media companies, the Supreme Court turned down an appeal Tuesday from National Geographic over reprinted photos. The court, without comment, refused to take up a lower court ruling that the magazine should have paid free-lance photographers for pictures compiled on a compact disc.” Wired 10/09/01

ON THE QUESTION OF REBUILDING: What, ultimately, should go where the World Trade Center once stood? Consider the decision at the other major US terrorism site. “In Oklahoma City, the former Murrah Building site became a memorial and the new building went up on an adjoining site. Clients and tenants all said they didn’t want to work in a bunker. They did not want the building to be a memorial. They said the new building was about the future.” Chicago Tribune 10/09/01

EXPORTING CULTURE: Germany’s Goethe Institute, founded half a century ago to promote German art and culture around the world, is finding that the parameters of its mission are changing. “[W]e now live in the age of globalization, and those who continue to export culture as the extended arm of foreign policy, as a kind of minesweeping project for intercultural gaffes, make themselves redundant in the long run.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 10/09/01

Tuesday October 9

IRONY ALIVE AND KICKING: It took approximately 6.2 hours after the September 11 attacks for the first TV talking head to declare irony, satire, and humor to be dead forevermore. That the U.S. pundit corps would make such an outrageous assertion is not surprising – that so many people believed it is. But in the weeks since the attack, America’s purveyors of laughter have shown themselves to be more valuable than ever. The New York Times 10/09/01 (one-time registration required for access)

TESTING FREE SPEECH ON CAMPUS: In the wake of September 11, the most commonly heard refrain is that “everything has changed.” Even in America’s most insulated environment, the college campus, the rules of decorum and discussion appear to be getting a makeover, as professors critical of U.S. government policy find themselves the targets of newly patriotic students. Chronicle of Higher Education 10/05/01

Monday October 8

CAPITAL CULTURE SWEEPSTAKES: British cities are scrambling for a chance to be named Europe’s “Capital of Culture” in 2008. Why? “The initiative helped transform Glasgow from a declining manufacturing city to a centre for tourism and conferences. Glasgow is now the third most visited city in Britain behind London and Edinburgh.” Still, since Glasgow held the honour in 1990, “the scheme has descended into confusion.” The Guardian (UK) 10/05/01

UK ARTS FUNDING CRUNCH: “With the economic tide turning, the arguments for maintaining current levels of public spending on the arts – £37.5m a year – will be harder to make. The Arts Council has prepared for this eventuality, amassing vast quantities of data intended to show how greater efficiencies are being achieved, and how spending is being targeted more precisely. The problem is that while the council’s flow charts may confirm greater efficiencies, the basic assumptions on which its spending is predicated are flawed.” Sunday Times (UK) 10/07/01

DIFFICULT SPONSORSHIP: Corporate sponsorship of the arts may be tougher to come by due to the war. “Leaner times ahead had been signalled well before September 11 and sponsorship, especially from corporate donors, was already harder to find. The terrorists attacks have hastened that decline. So far the signs are mixed.” Sunday Times (UK) 10/07/01

Friday Ocober 5

WHY DID LINCOLN CENTER PREZ QUIT? When Gordon Davis was named president of Lincoln Center last year, he described the post as his “dream job.” But “what actually happened was a study in the treacherous—some would say dysfunctional—politics of the city’s largest and most fractious arts organization. Hamstrung by rivalries among the center’s warring constituent members; undercut by [Lincoln Center chairwoman] Beverly Sills, who seemed unwilling to cede power to her new president; and derided by staff members, who claimed he was unwilling—or unable—to make swift decisions, a disillusioned Mr. Davis finally called it quits on Sept. 27.” New York Observer 10/03/01

Thursday October 4

HELP FOR THE ADELAIDE FESTIVAL: All the signs indicate that next year’s Adelaide Festival is in for trouble. The economy is down, corporate sponsors are pulling out, and the budget has grown. So the South Australian government has added $2 million of support, raising the budget for the Peter Sellars-led festival to $5.5 million. The Age (Melbourne) 10/04/01

Wednesday October 3

BOOK WARNS OF COPYRIGHT CHILL: The US Congress moved quickly to protect copyright in the digital age. But too quickly? “As more and more ‘speech’ goes digital and as those digits get locked down with increasingly stronger clickwrap – copyright and copy protection measures – speech faces the very impediments the Constitution’s framers took pains to avoid. ‘It’s very clear that reckless copyright enforcement can chill speech. We’ve gone too far. There are ways in which the copyright system becomes an engine for democratic culture. But once you increase the protection to an absurd level, you end up having a negative effect on this process.” Wired 10/03/01

Tuesday October 2

STRINGS ATTACHED: No one gives more to the arts in America than Edythe and Eli Broad. Their largesse to Los Angeles arts causes is much appreciated. But does the generosity come at too high a price? Los Angeles Times 10/01/01

Sunday September 30

LINCOLN CENTER EXEC RESIGNS: Gordon Davis has resigned as president of Lincoln Center, amidst rumors of infighting between Davis and chairwoman Beverly Sills. “Arts executives, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that department heads at Lincoln Center complained to Ms. Sills that Mr. Davis had dealt harshly with staff members and driven some to tears. Ms. Sills, they said, initially defended Mr. Davis but eventually saw merit in the complaints.” The resignation throws into doubt the center’s $1.5 billion refurbishment plans. The New York Times 09/29/01 (one-time registration required for access)

THE WORLD HAS CHANGED: How has September 11th affected British arts and artists? Cancellations, reduced business, and some redefinition of what is possible in art. The Guardian’s critics take a survey. The Guardian (UK) 09/29/01

SOOTHING SAVAGE BEASTS? The programs are controversial. Some call them an utter waste of public money, and a perk undeserved by those who partake of it. But to the people in charge of bringing art to inmates of penitentiaries in three U.S. states, and to the inmates who see the programs as a crucial part of their efforts to rejoin society, the concept is revolutionary. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 09/30/01

MORONS ON THE RISE: Are those awful people who ruin your night out with their cell phones and candy wrappers really more present than ever before? Or does the new array of technology just make it seem that way? “That people are moronic boobs is not news… But has it gotten worse? Has the onslaught of cell phones, pagers and other electronic devices made the already rude the unbearably boorish?” The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 09/30/01

Friday September 28

TOUGH TIMES FOR CULTURAL JOURNALISTS: As the world’s attention focused on the disaster in New York, arts journalists have had to think hard about their roles. “Interviewers and interviewees would agree they felt distracted, that today’s topic seemed unimportant in comparison, and then trot through the usual questions and answers about the forthcoming book or the venerable dance troupe. Editors and producers were left scratching their heads as they tried to decide whether they would seem more insensitive by running unrelated stories (“Orchestra looking for new conductor”) or by running related ones (“Whither the disaster movie?”)” Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/27/01

RUMORS OF OUR DEATH… So irony is dead now, at least according to numerous U.S. pundits. So are beauty, truth, innocence, and trust. “The concept of a deadly terrorist attack fuelling an international debate on what was once just a literary term seems a bit odd. However, the temptation for commentators to sound the death knell is nothing new.” National Post 09/28/01

• FIGHTING BACK TEARS WITH BELLY LAUGHS: Ever since the attacks of September 11, comedians of all stripes have been walking on eggshells. Some offer deadly serious messages of condolence, some skirt the subject entirely, but no one has tried to make comedic hay from the tragedy. Then, this week, the latest issue of the satirical newspaper The Onion hit newsstands, with content devoted entirely to the fallout from the attacks. Daring? Yes. In poor taste? Perhaps. But very, very funny. Wired 09/27/01

HOW WE READ/WATCH: A new book suggests “that recent developments in cultural and critical theory have obscured, or more accurately ignored, the experience of working-class audiences of books, plays and paintings. Theorists have been so keen to speculate on the way in which Great Expectations, Billy Bunter or the Tarzan films reproduced the dominant class and race relations of their time that they have not bothered to wonder how individual men and women received and interpreted these built-in biases.” The Economist 09/28/01

WHY ART: Robert Brustein ponders the role of art in dark times. “It is necessary to look past the waved flags, and the silent moments of prayer, and the choruses of God Bless America, and try to keep the arts in focus. By lighting up the dark corridors of human nature, literature, drama, music, and painting can help temper our righteous demand for vengeance with a humanizing restraint. The American theater presently stands, like Estragon and Vladimir, under that leafless tree in Beckett’s blasted plain. The show can’t go on. It must go on. There can be no time when it’s no time for comedy.” The New Republic 09/27/01

IN GOOD COMPANY: The American Library Association has issued its latest list of books that have been yanked from shelves or challenged for their “suitability.” J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series tops the list with numerous claims that the books promote satanism, presumably in the same way the Mark Twain promoted racism and John Steinbeck promoted the beating of people from Oklahoma. BBC 09/28/01

Thursday September 27

PROTECTING INTERNATIONAL CULTURE: “Artists from 33 countries are calling for a treaty on international culture. Eighty-five members of the International Network for Cultural Diversity wound up a two-day meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland. The artists say it’s time governments took their concerns for protecting culture seriously.” CBC 09/26/01

EUROPEAN DESIGN: Dallas is going to build a $250 million performing arts center that includes a 2,400-seat opera house and an 800-seat theatre. This week seven architects were chosen as finalists to design the complex. “Five are from Europe; the other two are Americans residing there.” Dallas Morning News 09/27/01

Wednesday September 26

ART IN A TIME OF FEAR: “Art can appear so insignificant when the world gets crazy. But the world has always been crazy, even if it hasn’t been as horrifying. Art’s been around a long time. It knows how to handle good times and bad. And it’s never really been insignificant. Most art is superficial. However, the aesthetic experience (the term always rings tinny), the enigmatic interior place we go when we make or look at art, is still what it’s always been: complex, rich, rewarding, meaningful, and moving. It is a place we will always return to. A place, presumably, we all come from. A place, moreover, that tells us things we didn’t know we needed to know until we knew them.” Village Voice 09/25/01

BESSIE AWARDS: The 17th annual awards for dance and performance art are awarded in New York. The New York Times 09/26/01 (one-time registration required for access)

WHO GETS TO REMEMBER: Historians debating their role in society suggest that they have been pushed into a role of merely collecting facts for the future. Telling the narrative of history has been taken over by the media. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 09/26/01

FOR THE MOST PART, ART KEEPS ON COMING TO NEW YORK: “As the days since Sept. 11 creep by, the number of cancellations by arts groups and performers traveling to New York is beginning to dwindle [although] some groups are still backing out of the fall season lineup, either because of lingering worries about safety, changes in airline schedules or a sense that now is not the best time to engage a skittish audience.” The New York Times 09/26/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Tuesday September 25

BIGTIME DONATING: Friday night’s Hollywood telethon broadcast on some 40 channels to raise money for disaster relief raised $150 million, organizers say. “The money will be distributed through the United Way with no administrative costs deducted, organizers said on Monday.” Nando Times (AP) 09/25/01

HOW THE ARTS MAY CHANGE: “If the consensus is correct, the arts may change dramatically. No one can know what those changes will look like. In Western society, the response of art to a change in social conditions is never uniform and rarely obvious. And there is no guarantee whatsoever that art will rise to the occasion. Frivolous, decadent periods can produce brilliant art; serious times can produce pious bunk. If there is to be a profound change in art, however, its early harbinger will be impatience – even disgust – with the broad worldview that has sustained art during the past 40 years.” New York Magazine 09/24/01

CONTEXT CHANGES ART: Art is changed by the context it is in. And that can change with events. “With the destruction of the World Trade Center this dynamic went into play. American culture was on instant high alert, scrambling both to accommodate what was happening and to avoid giving offense. Television shows were rescripted; films were pulled from release; Broadway plays discreetly dropped bits that might seem insensitive. By contrast, gallery shows opened pretty much as planned. Most art isn’t amenable to last-minute editing. And the art world resists self-censorship, for good reason.” The New York Times 09/25/01 (one-time registration required for access)

CHICAGO ARTS DOWN: Broadway isn’t the only arts sector hit with sagging box office. Arts ticket sales are down in cities like Chicago too. “Although the Lyric Opera is mostly pre-sold, the symphony is having problems and the theaters are way down. So is movie attendance. And although subscriptions have been up at the Joffrey, the company depends heavily on box-office sales during the weeks and days before a season.” Chicago Sun-Times 09/25/01

LONGER-TERM SLOWDOWN? Are America’s regional performing arts centers feeling the economic slowdown? St. Paul’s Ordway Center, which operated on a budget of $22 million last year, made due on $14.7 million this year. And it still racked up a half-million-dollar deficit. “Theater leaders blamed the deficit and the overall budget fluctuation on the vagaries of programming.” Minneapolis Star-Tribune 09/25/01

• BUILT-IN LOSS: Lack of touring productions and shifting dates account for loss. St. Paul Pioneer-Press 09/25/01

GOVERNOR GENERAL’S AWARDS: Six performing artists, including dancer Evelyn Hart and actor Christopher Plummer, are awarded Canada’s highest arts honors. “The 63 Canadian performing artists who have received this lifetime achievement award over the past 10 years represent a formidable creative force that has played a major international role in the evolution of every discipline of the performing arts.” National Post (CP) 09/25/01

PROMOTING BRITISH TOURING: UK arts councils ease red tape on arts groups touring. The new policy goes into effect immediately and is “intended to give audiences across the UK more access to high quality performing arts – and give artists a greater choice of venues when touring the UK.” BBC 09/25/01

Monday September 24

THE PROBLEM WITH AUSSIE ARTS: Australia’s arts are in their greatest crisis in 30 years. A panel, made up of arts professionals, has been studying the problems, including “a shrinking middle-class market – traditionally a core audience base – and rising production costs.” Solutions include “greater focus on Australian stories and voices, more risk taking and a culture of United States-style private patronage.” Sydney Morning Herald 09/24/01

RETHINKING AFTER TERRORISM: What’s a play, movie, book or recording to do after September 11’s terrorism? “The self-scrutiny is unprecedented in scale, sweeping aside hundreds of millions of dollars in projects that may no longer seem appropriate. Like the calls to curb violence in popular entertainment after the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado, the reaction may be helpful in the short term. But creators and producers are just beginning to grapple with more difficult, long-range questions of what the public will want once the initial shock from the terrorist attacks wears off.” The New York Times 09/24/01 (one-time registration required for access)

WILLING TO HELP: American celebrities are volunteering to help. “Not since World War II has the entertainment industry responded so swiftly, so vocally and so unanimously to a crisis, volunteering to raise money for families of the thousands who died on Sept. 11 or being willing to entertain troops to lift morale.” The New York Times 09/24/01 (one-time registration required for access)

ARTIST BENEFIT: Artists, auction houses, show promoters, galleries, dealers and museums throughout the country are being asked to become part of Art for America, a national day of fund-raising this fall. Art for America will culminate in a joint live auction in November. Proceeds of the event will benefit the Twin Towers Fund, the charity set up by Mayor Giuliani for the families of uniformed heroes missing in the blast. The fund already has received pledges of $72 million.” New York Post 09/23/01

Sunday September 23

TELETHON BIGGER THAN SPERBOWL: “An estimated 89 million viewers tuned in at some point to Friday night’s America: A Tribute to Heroes. That is 7 million more than tuned in to Bush’s address the night before and nearly 5 million more than watched the 2001 Super Bowl.” Preliminary estimates of the money raised indicate $110 million was raised for disaster relief. Organizers got 300,000 calls in the show’s first 15 minutes. Los Angeles Times 09/23/01

AN ARTISTIC RESPONSE: The New York Times asks nine creative artists to “share their thoughts on the future of their different fields” after September 11. “Artists, especially, whom we presume to be particularly sensitive to our dilemmas and our dreams, are peering apprehensively into the abyss of the future. What do they, and we who love the arts and believe they are important, see there? What is the role of the arts in the present crisis, and how will the arts change in response to the new circumstances in which we live? To judge from the nine creative artists we have asked in this issue to share their thoughts on the future of their different fields, a common feeling is one of helplessness, in that what we love and what they do seems so marginal to the crisis.” The New York Times 09/23/01 (one-time reegistration required for access)

ART IN A TIME OF TROUBLE: A critic goes out to consume art and ask how others are using art as a way of dealing with terrorism. “It has been interesting, in this and other surveys, how many artists mention the role of classical music, ranging from Bach to Mahler, in helping them absorb these events. Very few cite either pop or modern classical music.” Boston Globe 09/23/01

FOR THE LONG HAUL: What are the longer-term themes and impacts on the arts and entertainment world after September 11? “It’s about the long haul: taste rather than appetite, reflection not reflex, ‘before’ and ‘later’ as well as ‘now.’ Even popular culture – that buzzing, blooming confusion that so beguilingly piles ephemera atop ephemera – has an inevitably cumulative existence.” Boston Globe 09/23/01

TELLING THE TERROR STORY: “The story that has emerged is modelled, almost scene by scene, on a disaster movie. There’s the clearly witnessed long shot of the attack, the confusion below, people fleeing toward the camera. Archetypal heroes (Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, the firemen) emerged, as well as a foreign villain (Osama bin Laden). The scene was set for the next act, the battle between good and evil, an apocalyptic yet redemptive process. How this cultural narrative has been chosen is worth examining.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/22/01

WHEN REALITY OVERTAKES FANTASY: “Overnight, the substance of threat and heroism is as altered as the New York skyline. Our willful confusion of fantasy with reality for purposes of our own entertainment abruptly shattered when American Airlines Flight 11 powered into the north tower of the World Trade Center. Our formula happy ending didn’t come, and the ramifications in terms of our popular culture are complete.” Hartford Courant 09/23/01

Friday September 21

CALIFORNIA WINEMAKERS GIVES $35 MILLION TO UC DAVIS: The gift is the biggest in the university’s history and “includes $25 million for a Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science and $10 million for the campus’ new performing arts center. ‘Davis did a lot for me, and I realize that their facilities were antiquated and needed to be brought up to a new standard. I knew we could learn a lot more in the years to come.” Los Angeles Times 09/20/01

Thursday September 20

BUSH NOMINATES HAMMOND TO HEAD NEA: Michael Hammond, the dean of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, has been nominated as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. The 69-year-old Hammond is a composer, conductor, and former Rhodes scholar “whose interests include medieval, Renaissance and Southeast Asian music.” He has been Dean of the Rice school since 1986. Washington Post 09/20/01

HOW TO PERFORM? “On stages across New York and in concert halls around the world over the last week it came down again and again to the same delicate question: under what circumstance was it appropriate for actors to act, dancers to dance and singers to sing? ‘We tried to get through a rehearsal, which was next to impossible. You’d finish an entrance and run back to the television to watch what was happening’.” The New York Times 09/20/01 (one-time registration required for access)

COMFORT IN POP CULTURE: “It used to be the Bible that got quoted in moments of enormity—and to some extent it still is, as all the prayer vigils held last week attest. But these days even the Almighty bows before pop culture’s clout. In an unfathomable event, we turn to entertainment, and from the inventory of its words and images, we assemble meaning. So it’s understandable that the first response to what happened last week was to seek the shelter of a show. Many people who went through this trauma felt like they were in a movie, and those who saw it from a safe distance could imagine they were having the ultimate IMAX experience.” Village Voice 09/19/01

TURNING ASIA-WARD: “Since the time of European settlement, Australia’s cultural focus has been firmly on Europe and the United States, with a number of our most brilliant artists having arrived as refugees from Germany and Eastern Europe following World War II. But a host of new Asian-inspired drama and dance productions and exhibitions highlight the increasing influence the nearby region is having on the local arts scene.” The Age (Melbourne) 09/20/01

Wednesday September 19

RESPONDING TO TERRORISM: Why haven’t artists responded with more eloquence after last week’s terrorism? “What we sorely needed was to hear from a composer, a poet, an artist who could, in an instant, release pent-up sentiments and illuminate the stricken landscape. Art, however, has lost the facility for rapid reaction or even considered response. What Picasso achieved in Guernica and Brecht in Mother Courage is no longer acceptable, or perhaps available, to painters and playwrights of the postmodern age.” The Telegraph (UK) 09/19/01

Tuesday September 18

HOW ART SHOULD RESPOND: America’s arts directors spent last week figuring out how to respond to the World Trade Center tragedy. “Many said in interviews that they had resumed normal schedules after closing their doors for just one night. They said theater, dance and music performances have suddenly taken on new importance, not just because of their content but also because they draw people to common experiences at a time when the nation’s sense of community seems to have been savagely attacked.” The New York Times 09/18/01 (one-time registration required for access)

• CANCEL OR NOT? “Indeed, while many cancellations were made out of respect for victims and the rescue effort, more mundane concerns were also snagging plans, including the difficulty some performers faced obtaining visas because of closed consulates in foreign countries. Discussions of safety and sensitivity to depictions of violence have been going on in administrative offices of arts groups all over the city.” The New York Times 09/18/01 (one-time registration required for access)
• DEATH OF THE SKYSCRAPER? “George W. Bush told the world last week that terrorism will not stand. Neither will the kind of architectural arrogance applauded in the 1970s when the World Trade Center was constructed.” Architects will likely spend the next several years fleshing out the next generation of urban American office space. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 09/18/01
• CUES FROM AMERICAN CULTURE: “Those who carried out the attacks on New York and the Pentagon were right up to date, not only in technical terms. Inspired by the pictorial logic of Western symbolism, they staged the massacre as a media spectacle, adhering in minute detail to scenarios from disaster movies. Such an intimate understanding of American civilization hardly testifies to an anachronistic mentality.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 09/18/01

IVEY’S OUTGOING ASSESSMENT: The NEA is certainly stronger than it was when Bill Ivey arrived as chairman of the agency, but the prospect of war always raises fears that the arts will be seen as an unnecessary luxury in the face of military reality. Nonetheless, Ivey is upbeat about the endownment’s future, and claims wide bipartisan support in Congress. San Francisco Chronicle 09/18/01

Monday September 17

ART LOSSES AT THE WTC: “From the displacement of experimental theater and film companies to the likely obliteration of more than $10 million worth of art in and around the World Trade Center — including works by Alexander Calder, Nevelson, Miró and Lichtenstein — arts groups are surveying the wreckage, trying to measure the extent of their losses and to determine how to begin to recoup.” The New York Times 09/17/01 (one-time registration required for access)

• RETURNING TO ART: New York’s museums were crowded late last week while the US was caught up in the WTC aftermath. “People are drifting back to museums, first because other people are there. We might still feel guilty about distracting ourselves, but we need to catch our breath sometimes and do what feels good, at least briefly, for the sake of sanity. Being in a museum together can feel safe and normal.” The New York Times 09/17/01 (one-time registration required for access)

IS ART A GENETIC IMPULSE? “Since all human societies, past and present, so far as we know, make and respond to art, it must contribute something essential to human life. But what?” Lingua Franca 10/07/01

IMMIGRATION SERVICE AS CULTURAL ARBITER: When artists visit the US to work they have to apply for a work visa. Yet who at the INS is deciding which artists are culturally significant and which aren’t? Such decisions aren’t always made thoughtfully. Studio 360  09/11/01

Sunday September 16

IN TIMES OF CRISIS: First we look to political leaders. Then to spiritual leaders. Eventually though, we turn to artists to “tell the stories of our collective experience”. “We don’t know how to save lives like a doctor would, or rescue people like a fireman would, but we do know how to reinvigorate the human spirit. That’s our job.” Hartford Courant 09/16/01

• ARTISTS TALK ABOUT ART AND TERRORISM: Robert Brustein: “This is a time when art is most important because it complicates our thinking and prevents us from falling into melodramatic actions such as those we’re about to take. But this is the time when art is made tongue-tied by authority and when it’s a very small voice among hawkish screams. … The greatest thing that art can do in a time of crisis is to make us aware, not to turn us into our enemies.” Boston Globe 09/15/01

IVEY LEAVES NEA: National Endowment for the Arts chairman Bill Ivey is talking about his term running America’s federal arts agency. Though he wanted to stay on in the Bush administration “Ivey resigned, he said, to publicly fight for the extra $10 million budget above the level funding (currently $105 million) that Bush’s budget called for. So far – barring a radical restructuring of federal spending priorities in the wake of the horrific events of last week – it looks like Ivey, who is moving on to a position at Vanderbilt University, will get it.” Boston Herald 09/16/01

AH YES, THE VISION THING: London’s South bank arts center is squalid and unworkable and needs to be rethought. Everyone agrees on that. But numerous failed attempts to figure out what to do have resulted in nothing. “What is at issue is not just which architect the centre wants, but what it wants them to design, and exactly where it wants them to build it.” The Observer (UK) 09/16/01

Friday September 14

POWER OF ART: The arts aren’t just events to be gone ahead with or cancelled after a tragedy. One of the powers of great art is to try to make sense of difficult things. Globe & Mail critics look at the power of artforms – Dance, Music, Visual art, Literature, Theatre – to help people cope with tragedy. Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/14/01

SHOWS GO ON: “At the urging of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Schuyler G. Chapin, the commissioner of cultural affairs, many of the city’s premier museums opened their doors yesterday, after closing in the wake of the attacks. Meanwhile, producers vowed that all 23 Broadway productions would be performed last night after a moment of silence and a dimming of the marquee lights in recognition of the victims.” The New York Times 09/14/01 (one-time registration required for access)

• POLITICS OF POST-TERRORISM: Deciding whether or not to cancel performances after terrorism involves a number of factors – is the performance appropriate? Are performers stranded in other cities with the airport shutdowns? “Along with performance cancellations, some have found themselves axing glittery opening galas, directing ticket proceeds to relief efforts or adding special onstage tributes for victims.” Los Angeles Times 09/13/01

AND YOU THINK YOU KNOW CULTURE? A Toronto design firm is looking for employees. But first you have to pass the Bruce Mau Culture Challenge. From the Beatles to Joseph Beuys, theosophy and the origins of the “end of history,” here’s a test that will put hair on your chest. National Post (Canada) 09/14/01

Thursday September 13

THE POWER OF ART TO COPE WITH GRIEF: “From Homer’s tales of Troy to Picasso’s Guernica, from Tchaikovksy’s Pathétique to Bill T. Jones’s Still/Here, from the bloody dramas of Sophocles and Shakespeare to Maya Lin’s Vietnam Memorial, artists have always combated grave tragedy with grave beauty. Critics of The New York Times reflect on how art in all its forms has girded us to go on grieving and living.” The New York Times 09/13/01 (one-time registration required for access)

INTERPRETING INTELLECTUAL: In our new information-on-steroids world, what is the role of the writer, the public intellectual? Edward Said ponders roles and responsibilities. The Nation 09/17/01

KENNEDY GRANT FOR DISABLED ARTISTS: The Kennedy family announced a $1 million donation to the Kennedy Center to support performance and internship programs for persons with disabilities. The Kennedy Center was to host a private gala with several family members to mark the occasion, but plans were canceled after terrorist attacks. Washington Times 09/12/01

Tuesday September 11

THE ARTS IN SCHOOL: After years of back-to-basics programs that decimated arts education in California schools, the arts are making a comeback in the classroom. But even appreciating the value of arts education, schools are having difficulty reintroducing arts; finding qualified teachers is just one of the problems. Los Angeles Times 09/10/01

COMBATING BLANDNESS: “While admitting it was bland and passive during the past decade, [Canada’s] National Arts Centre has unveiled a new plan to restore its glory days.” National Post (Canada) 09/11/01

Sunday September 9

EXITING, STAGE LEFT: As Bill Ivey leaves as director of the National Endowment for the Arts, he reflects on his term and the role of America’s arts agency. “The NEA is the only agency that wakes up every day and thinks about how the arts are doing and how the nation’s cultural heritage is faring.” Hartford Courant 09/09/01

WHEN SCIENTISTS POKE ABOUT IN PHILOSOPHY: A poll of 1000 philosophers ranks Darwin’s The Origin of Species as the third most important tract on the human condition. One critic brands “the choice ‘mad’ and blamed Darwin’s inclusion on the plague of ‘retired Nobel prize winning scientists now poking about in philosophy’.” The Guardian (UK) 09/07/01

FUNDRAISING DOWNTURN: The downturn in the economy is having an impact on fundraising for the arts. In formerly-booming North Carolina “arts groups are feeling the pinch, in small halls, museums and theaters. United Arts of Raleigh and Wake County – the region’s largest private support group for the arts – failed to meet its fund-raising goal and had to cut grants for 16 of the 34 organizations it funds. At the North Carolina Museum of Art, an adventurous and expensive video show had to be scrapped because sponsors couldn’t be found.” The News-Observer (Raleigh-Durham) 09/09/01

Friday September 7

LEARNING TO LOVE CONCRETE: London’s concrete Barbican Centre has been described as “off-putting on the outside, labyrinthine on the inside and underperforming all round.” It’s the public building Londoners love to hate. Yet in a retro kind of way, it is becoming fashionably admired, and now the Britain’s minister of arts has “slapped a preservation order on the brutalist complex once described as ‘not so much a concrete jungle as a concrete bungle’.” The Guardian (UK) 09/06/01

Thursday September 6

KENNEDY CENTER AWARDS: This year’s Kennedy Center awards will go to Jack Nicholson, Julie Andrews, Quincy Jones, Luciano Pavarotti, and Van Cliburn. Washington Post 09/06/01

Tuesday September 4

SIZING UP (MORTIER’S) SALZBURG: Gerard Mortier’s reign as head of the Salzburg Festival was hardly revolutionary. Yet as he leaves, “one thing is clear: Thanks to Mortier, art is at last being discussed and taken seriously again in Salzburg.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 09/04/01

Sunday September 2

ELITIST AND PROUD OF IT: What, exactly, is wrong with being elitist? “The ‘E’ word is the great bugbear of American art museums today. Elitism is a source of cold-sweat dread among administrative bureaucrats and their bean-counting boards of trustees, who now dimly equate gate receipts with success. It even intimidates much of the curatorial cohort, who should know better. Elitism is the cockroach in the art museum pantry that scurries into hiding when the lights go on. Their horror is a cause for despair among those for whom art is more than diversion (‘more’ meaning that the diversion is fervent, not idle).” Los Angeles Times 09/02/01

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SPEAKING AND WRITING: Why are good writers sometimes terrible speakers and great speakers awful writers? “The great leading distinction between writing and speaking is, that more time is allowed for the one than the other; and hence different faculties are required for, and different objects attained by, each. He is properly the best speaker who can collect together the greatest number of apposite ideas at a moment’s warning: he is properly the best writer who can give utterance to the greatest quantity of valuable knowledge in the course of his whole life. The chief requisite for the one, then, appears to be quickness and facility of perception – for the other, patience of soul, and a power increasing with the difficulties it has to master.” The Guardian (UK) 09/01/01

THE EVILS OF GOVERNMENT ARTS FUNDING: Here’s one critic who thinks retiring US Senator Jesse Helms was right to try to kill the National Endowment for the Arts. “Given that government funding for the arts must be subject to the political process, it’s the existence, not the elimination, of the NEA that squelches free expression in the arts. You should support the NEA only if you’re happy with the idea of an official art, an art that represents the interests of the state and the tastes of the average taxpayer. The tastes of the NEA will, in the long run, come to reflect the tastes and interests of philistines like Helms.” Los Angeles Times 09/01/01

A FAMILIAR STORY: Higher rents and lack of space are forcing Boston artists to leave. “The lack of affordable space in this city for artists, small businesses – heck, for anyone who wants to make a life here – is forcing people out, creating a cultural diaspora as once tight-knit communities are compelled to scatter elsewhere in the state and beyond. Boston’s loss will be many other cities’ gain.” Boston Globe 09/02/01

Friday August 31

DMCA HERE TO STAY, SO FAR: Despite acknowledging concerns from libraries, politicians, and consumers, the U.S. Copyright Office has decided to let 1998’s Digital Millenium Copyright Act stand as is. DMCA was the legislation that paved the way for the recording industry’s assault on services like Napster, and led to new forms of digital and online copyright protection. Wired 08/30/01

Thursday August 30

ABOUT A CULTURAL FOUNDATION: Earlier this summer the German government proposed creating a new national foundation of culture. Maybe it’s a good idea, but getting it to happen is about more than good ideas. It’s about power, states’ rights and matters of what art means. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 08/30/01

Wednesday August 29

LAUGHINGSTOCK OF EUROPE: London’s South Bank Centre “has put itself almost beyond redemption. Formed by the Arts Council when Margaret Thatcher abolished its rightful owner, the Greater London Council, it has stumbled along for 15 years trying to convert a begrimed concrete caterpillar into an artistically attractive and financially efficient butterfly. The site is now on the verge of dereliction, a laughing-stock among European arts centres. Its functioning has become so slipshod that agents find it necessary to visit artists’ dressing rooms before rehearsal to ensure there is a towel in the shower and that the towel has not been used by a previous occupant.” The Telegraph (UK) 08/29/01

Tuesday August 28

THE DEFINITIVE CRITIC: Should a critic go back and “correct” judgments that were “wrong?” “It’s not always easy for the reviewer to remember that he is (or should be) hired because he supposedly knows enough about his field to exercise informed and independent judgment. When everyone else is up there in the rooting section – ‘Rah, rah for Toni Morrison!’ – it can feel more than a little weird to be on the other side of the field giving the Bronx cheer. The pressures to get with the program – to sacrifice independent judgment and march with the herd – are exceedingly strong and difficult to resist.” Washington Post 08/27/01

THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING FESTIVAL: The Adelaide Festival is Australia’s premiere arts festival. But the Adelaide has had some tough times in the past year, including an unforeseen deficit from the last festival. American Peter Sellars is artistic director for next year’s edition, and says he’s refocusing the event. But the festival was recently cut by a third, with Sellars justifying it by saying “the shorter period suited his integrated program.” Others wonder about the impact of Australia’s premiere arts event shrinking… The Age (Melbourne) 08/28/01

RECORD EDINBURGH: The Edinburgh Festival, Europe’s largest, has just ended, posting record attendance this year. “A record 256,694 tickets were bought from the Fringe box office, an increase of 31 per cent on last year. Sales amounted to £1,967,863, up just under £500,00 on 2000.” The Scotsman 08/27/01

• VINTAGE EDINBURGH: Critics love to pick on Edinburgh, with its myriad quirks and blemishes. But this year is definitely a vintage edition, writes one critic. The Times (UK) 08/28/01

FANNING THE FLAMES OF BURNING MAN: Burning Man, the annual festival in the Utah desert that many thought symbolized the energy of the New Economy is underway again. But after a couple years of prodicgious growth, attendance is expected to be down this year, as the dotcom downturn cuts a swath through that economy. San Francisco Chronicle 08/28/01

SO ISLAMIC LAW FORBIDS THE INTERNET? The Taliban have banned use of the internet in Afghanistan. “The ministry is duty-bound to chase the violators of this decree and punish the violator in accordance to Sharia law. The ministry of communication is duty-bound to make the use of the Internet impossible.” Nando Times 08/28/01

Monday August 27

DECIDING THE NEA: The US Congress is on its August recess, and the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts has not been passed. But “Congress’ attitude toward the NEA appears to be the friendliest it’s been in years, with both houses already approving budgets for the arts endowment.” Backstage 08/24/01

BRITISH DROP: Fears of foot-and-mouth disease have kept tourists away from Britain in droves this summer. “The British Tourist Authority estimates that the drop in foreign holidaymakers will cost the industry up to £2.5 billion this year. Perhaps surprisingly, cities are among the worst hit. In London, a destination for almost half of all visitors from abroad, numbers are down by nearly 14 per cent,” including a 10 per cent drop in theatre audiences in London’s West End. New Statesman 08/27/01

WHAT KIDS THINK: A year ago the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette began running reviews of movies and music by kids on the newspaper’s website. “I was not shocked to find that teen critics see things from a different perspective. What surprised me was the innate ability of some young writers to articulate complex ideas, their independence and willingness be honest in print and their maturity and dedication to the project.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 08/26/01

NOT SO POPULAR: What’s happened to popular culture this summer? Movies aren’t making a mark with audiences. Music and concert ticket sales are way down. Nothing has grabbed the popular imagination, and niches rule. Public Arts 08/24/01

Sunday August 26

MAKING SENSE OF CHANGE: “The 20th century placed a high premium on Making Things New – on innovations and shocks and determinedly eccentric perspectives – and much of that ‘newness’ has grown mighty old.” This is not to long for a safe conservative past, but aren’t we bored yet by change for the sake of change? Washington Post 08/26/01

THE ART OF HAITI: Haiti has endured decades of political instability and poverty. But the island bursts with art. “All of this triggered something. There’s art everywhere — the tap-taps, the signs. You go to a voodoo ceremony, you see it there, you see it everywhere.” MSNBC (Reuters) 08/25/01

Friday August 24

BUSH NAMES INTERIM NEA CHAIRMAN: Robert Sydney Martin will take on the job after William Ivey leaves at the end of September. “A veteran of the Bush tenure in Texas, Martin was the director and the librarian of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission from 1995 to 1999. After that, he was a professor and interim director of the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman’s University in Denton.” Bush’s search for a successor to Ivey continues. Washington Post 08/23/01

POWER-TRIPPING: What’s the most loathsome job in the world? How about being a personal assistant to a Hollywood bigwig? “Add to these ugly and illegal activities a steady diet of screaming (a widely practiced, perfectly acceptable management technique), credit-theft and blame-delegation, and you’ll understand why I’m less than surprised whenever I hear the war cries of suddenly insurgent pipsqueaks.” The Guardian (UK) 08/24/01

SUPPORTING THE ARTS: New York mayor Rudy Giuliani’s “decency commission” has recommended that “museums funded by the city, such as the Brooklyn Museum and the New York Public Library, should receive less money and that they should remove signs asking entering visitors for donations.” Here’s what the individual commissioners said… The Art Newspaper 08/24/01

Thursday August 23

BUSH NAMES INTERIM NEA CHAIRMAN: Robert Sydney Martin will take on the job after William Ivey leaves at the end of September. “A veteran of the Bush tenure in Texas, Martin was the director and the librarian of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission from 1995 to 1999. After that, he was a professor and interim director of the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman’s University in Denton.” Bush’s search for a successor to Ivey continues. Washington Post 08/23/01

ARTISTS QUITTING ISRAEL: International performers worried about the months of violence in Israel, are canceling out of concert dates. “Along with the tourists driven away by the months of violence here, a significant list of top foreign performing artists are also canceling visits, affecting the Israeli cultural scene.” The New York Times 08/23/01 (one-time registration required for access)

QUESTIONS OF BEAUTY: There is reported to be a new movement in art which demands “music with a melody, poetry that rhymes, paintings and sculpture that look like something, architecture with grace.” What could be wrong with that? “Most obviously, there is the rather smug consensus among these new traditionalists that beauty is definable, and that their definition is the right one.” Washington Post 08/23/01

ARTS CZAR STEPS DOWN: Evan Williams, Sydney’s de facto arts Czar, is retiring. “Williams was the boss of the bosses of the Art Gallery of NSW, the Australian Museum, the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (the Powerhouse), the NSW State Library, the Historic Houses Trust, the Sydney Opera House, the State Records of NSW, and the NSW Film and Television Office.” Sydney Morning Herald 08/23/01

Wednesday August 22

THE ROAD TO DIVERSITY: A major London arts funder suggests that cultural diversity will play a role in its future funding plans. “The consequences can be plainly foretold. Theatre directors will be pressured in auditions to favour minority actors. A ballet troupe conducting its end-of-season cull will have to watch ethnic numbers or risk losing subsidy. Every string quartet will require a black viola player to conform with population norms, every art gallery a black madonna.” The Telegraph (UK) 08/22/01

WORLD HERITAGE IDEAS: The United Nations lists some 700 cultural treasures around the world as heritage sites. “But why limit UNESCO’s validating embrace to the realm of the physical? What about manifestations of human genius that may be ubiquitous but also happen to be intangible?” Like pizza, perhaps? The Atlantic 09/01

Tuesday August 21

READING THE CRITIC: So what is the critic supposed to add to an artistic experience? Martin Bernheimer thinks that “critic-haters, critic-bashers and critic-baiters have always whimpered about the eternal quest for objectivity. It’s a silly quest, a futile ideal, an impossible dream.” Andante 08/20/01

ANYONE WITH A WEBSITE… “In 2001, everyone’s a critic, with his own cute handle or year-end 10 Best list. The web is where traditional criticism is democratized, where the élite meet defeat at the hands of the cyber-rabble. You don’t need experience, insight or a spell- check function (Note to all websters: ‘its’ is a possessive, ‘it’s’ is a contraction), just passion and a lot of spare time.” Time 08/27/01

Monday August 20

ARTS COMPARE TO FOOTBALL? In the UK “about 12.3 million people went to cultural events ranging from small community events to carnivals and music festivals last year. The figure is just short of the 12.5 million who went to Premiership football matches last season.” BBC 08/20/01

REDEFINING EUROPEAN ARTS FUNDING: All across Europe – even in those places renowned as cultural hotbeds such as Austria, Germany, Italy and Russia – state funding of the arts has been declining. Arts companies have had to go hunting for other sources of funds. The Economist 08/16/01

LEAVING LONDON ALIVE: A few years ago London handed over the top jobs of three of its most important cultural icons – the Royal Opera House, South Bank and the Tate Modern – to foreigners. “Surely these high-profile international appointments were exactly the kind of acknowledgment London needed as the new centre of the arts world – the capital of Tony Blair’s creative Britain? But now, within two and a half years, all three appointees have unexpectedly rejected their London roles. What went wrong?” The Observer (UK) 08/19/01

CULTURAL COST OF DEMOCRACY: “In the 10 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union and its ruling Communist Party, Russian culture has been limping along, surviving such indignities as shrunken budgets, distressed buildings and the onslaught of Western mass culture. In the scramble to survive, many cultural institutions have had to find commercial partners and, as Mr. Rozhdestvensky argued, dumb down their offerings in order to get audiences. Concert halls are booked with over-hyped, over-priced rock performers; imitation Broadway musicals, starring pop stars, play to sellout crowds. Film studios that once turned out prize-winning movies now churn out video clips and television cop shows.” But is it all bad news? The New York Times 08/20/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Sunday August 19

HOW TO END: “While great endings have always been the exception, not the rule, they seem on the verge of extinction in today’s pop-culture marketplace. That’s because great endings require a lot of things that aren’t fashionable in this age of flash and spectacle. They’re the culmination of ideas and emotions, of things that take time and energy, skill and inspiration to create. In other words, there are no shortcuts.” Dallas Morning News 08/19/01

Thursday August 16

I WANNA SEE MICKEY. IN COURT: The owners of the commercial rights to Winnie the Pooh (acquired in 1926) are suing Walt Disney for $35 million. That’s how much they say Disney has short-changed them on sales of computer software, VCRs, and DVDs. Disney says the original agreement did not cover those materials. International Herald Tribune 08/16/01

Tuesday August 14

ALL-ME ON DEMAND: Is technology making us narrow? “As a result of the Internet and other technological developments, many people are increasingly engaged in a process of ‘personalization’ that limits their exposure to topics and points of view of their own choosing. They filter in, and they also filter out, with unprecedented powers of precision.” Boston Review 08/01

EMBRACING THE UGLY: “Ugliness is in the air, on the air, on the screen, trudging down the street, the runway, corroding advertising, art, design, music. It’s the anti-aesthetic aesthetic. What is causing this ethos of awful? Those old bugaboos: boredom, a jaded consumer culture, and an overwhelming paucity of fresh ideas.” Philadelphia Inquirer 08/14/01

Monday August 13

RICH GET RICHER: “Of nearly 950 arts and cultural groups in the Bay Area, just eight accounted for half the private contributions and government grants reported on tax returns filed in 1999, according to a Chronicle analysis of tax data compiled by the National Center for Charitable Statistics.” San Francisco Chronicle 08/12/01

WHAT IS BEAUTIFUL? Everywhere there is a return to beauty – good-looking architecture, nice-sounding music, paintings that don’t seek to assault you. So what exactly is beauty? A learned appreciation, or something more scientifically based? Prospect 08/01

Sunday August 12

THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY: The “Year of the Artist” just came to an end in the UK. Never heard of it? Hmnnn. A project of numerous arts boards and the Arts Council, it cost millions of pounds and “its premise was to increase support for individual artists, which meant sending out a lot of expensive blue-and-green press releases, flinging some cash around and encouraging companies to employ jugglers to keep the staff amused.” Sunday Times (UK) 08/12/01

OF GLOBAL HOMOGENEITY: “Of all cities today, Vienna may offer the best vantage point for observing the impact of cultural tourism on the older urban centers. The city is now barely a husk of the world capital it was a century ago, when its artists and intellectuals and its polyglot population made Vienna the supreme embodiment of cosmopolitanism in modern times. But that historic backdrop makes a perfect contrast to the tourist culture of today.” The New York Times 08/12/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Friday August 10

DAMAGE CONTROL: As the Adelaide Festival’s board scrambles on damage control after a deficit was revealed and the festival’s executive director and nine senior staff departed, artistic director Peter Sellars depicts a different next edition of the festival than the board is. Sydney Morning Herald 08/10/01

Thursday August 9

THE COST OF FREEBIES: It’s opening night – a scene of the hip, the famous, and the free. Arts organizations give away thousands of dollars worth of free tickets to encourage high-profile people to come. After-performance parties can be lavish. Just what do the arts groups get out of such freebies? The Age (Melbourne) 08/09/01

ANGRY INVESTORS: Two hundred Australian investors in theatre, film and entertainment pojects are taking the promoters of those projects to court after the gobernment ruled that investing in the projects was a tax ruse designed to avoid taxes. Sydney Morning Herald 08/09/01

KENNEDY CENTER UNDER THE KNIFE: Washington’s Kennedy Center will be a construction zone for the next few years, as the 30-year-old facility gets a long overdue major overhaul. The first stage, which gets under way this coming Monday, will be a complete re-routing of traffic in and around the center, and creation of additional parking space. Washington Post 09/09/01

GETTING BACK ON ARTS EDUCATION: “Since the 1970s, the arts have dwindled nationwide because of lack of resources. Some art teachers, unable to find employment, pursued other careers. But in the last decade, study after study has linked arts education to improved problem-solving skills and increased self-confidence. Administrators around the country started to retool their curricula accordingly.” Los Angeles Times 08/09/01

Tuesday August 7

NEW SUPPORT FOR ARTISTS: The Australian government proposes new taxes on entertainment products to benefit less commercially viable artists. The government also proposes enacting a resale royalty for artists and extending copyright on artwork from 50 to 70 years after the creator’s death. Sydney Morning Herald 08/07/01

ADELAIDE TURMOIL: The Adelaide Festival is in disarray after its chief executive and several senior managers resigned. Last month it was revealed that the festival’s managers had considered dumping artistic director Peter Sellars’ programming after the most recent festival lost $1.2 million. Sydney Morning Herald 08/07/01

BRIDGING THE GAP: Art and science would appear to require totally different mindsets, the one being fairly abstract and subjective, and the other being concrete and fairly absolute. “But now, more than 500 years after da Vinci combined artistic and scientific thought in a creative relationship, a group of Canadian academics, artists and scientists are saying it’s time to follow his example. They want to encourage Canadian da Vincis to spread their wings by tearing down the artificial boundaries that separate science and art.” The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 08/07/01

THE VIRTUE OF GOOD: If you have no outstanding talent, is it worth trying to be very good at something? “Philosophers, over the past couple of thousand years, have offered two reasons for aiming at the heights of moral goodness: to improve the world and to perfect one’s self. These reasons do not sit together very well.” The New Yorker 08/13/01

Sunday August 5

MEET ME AT THE DEUTSCHE-TELEKOM GATE: “Can you imagine London allowing Big Ben to serve as an advertising billboard? Or Paris renting out promotional space on the Eiffel Tower? Well, that is more or less what cash-strapped Berlin has been forced to do with the legendary Brandenburg Gate. In what many regard as a blow to civic pride, the majestic archway is now draped with a shroud bearing the pink “T” logo of Deutsche Telekom, which is paying for restoration work the German capital cannot afford.” National Post (Canada) 08/04/01

NEW FRONTIERS, OR JUST BAD ART? As cities around the world kick off their respective “fringe festivals,” the continued rise of the “Do-It-Yourself” art movement bears some closer inspection. “Is this the golden age for creativity, or just a time when you can’t tell good art from bad?” St. Paul Pioneer Press 08/05/01

TRYING TO END-RUN THOSE BLOODY AMERICANS: “The British Museum has launched a fundraising drive to keep an ancient marble sculpture of a dog in the UK. The 2nd century Roman statue, The Dog of Alcibiades, has been put up for sale by its British owner and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas, has shown an interest in buying it. . . Now the British Museum is attempting to raise the £662,000 asking price by the sale deadline.” BBC 08/03/01

Friday August 3

WHAT ARE WE SPENDING? How is public money being spent on the arts in the UK? A new report claims that “there has been a consistent failure to establish dependable data on subsidies, accompanied by a serious lack of analysis, which impairs both decision making and policy outcomes. ‘How can we know if we’re getting value for money if the official bodies don’t even know where all the money is going, where it comes from, or how it is spent’?” The Art Newspaper 07/28/01

ON THE FRINGES: The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is getting underway – 666 groups from 49 different countries are performing 1,462 shows. Ticket sales are up £200,000 over last year (as people avoid the countryside and hoof-and-mouth disease). But some involved in the festival are angry that while the Fringe is “such a powerful public event, it really gets next to no public support either in the city or from places like the Arts Council.” BBC 08/03/01

Thursday August 2

NUMBING DOWN: “Doesn’t anyone ever get scandalized by art any more? We live in tolerant times, but we also live in numb ones. It takes a lot more than simulated sex or a bit of nudity to bring out the pickets. Publicists are always trying to tell the world their upcoming project is ‘controversial,’ but mainly it’s wishful thinking.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/02/01

UPPING THE CORPORATE FACTOR: Australian businesses sponsor sports to the tune of $282 million a year; but arts sponsorships amount to only $29.2 million. One organization is trying to help the arts catch up. Sydney Morning Herald 08/02/01

Wednesday August 1

GETTING ON THE FRONT PAGE: The recent record-setting auction of a sketch by Leonardo made front-page headlines all over the world. But the stories didn’t seem to be much about anything to do with art. “Good art is difficult, slippery stuff, hard to get a handle on for even the most expert. That’s why we love an occasion when we can substitute talk about something we’re all at home with — like buying and selling, or an artist’s life and times, for that matter — for real art talk. We believe that important art is the kind of thing we ought to read about in our high-class morning papers. But it can only make the news when it gets pulled out of the bog of aesthetics, into the good, crisp world of business, politics, sex or scandal.” The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 08/01/01

PROTESTING NEW COPYRIGHT RULES: Artists have joined computer programmers in protesting the arrest of a computer programmer who wrote a program cracking e-copy protections in Adobe software. Protesters say fair use provisions should allow copying of digital material without payment to copyright holders. CNet (Reuters) 07/31/01

PRICE-FIXING AND THE THREE TENORS: “Warner Communications Inc., a leading music distributor, will halt a promotion policy that the Federal Trade Commission alleged involved fixing prices for recordings of the opera stars, The Three Tenors.” Nando Times (AP) 08/01/01

Tuesday July 31

WE REAP WHAT WE SOW: Artists in China can have a hard time pushing the envelope, what with the political repression, the torture, and all. So many have turned to a completely apolitical form of “shock art” based on visually disturbing images. “They reflect the bizarre direction in which Chinese art has moved under a government that tolerates what some would argue are meaningless ‘shock’ creations but not social criticism.” Washington Post 07/31/01

PAYING TO PLAY: A mysterious amateur philosopher hires prominent philosophers to review a paper. The pay’s good, the paper’s not bad, but the exercise says something about the state of academic inquiry… Lingua Franca 07/01

$300 FOR “THE LION KING” SUDDENLY SEEMS A BIT HIGH: As the U.S. economy continues to tank, the effects are being felt in all corners of the entertainment industry. For most folks, the arts are considered a luxury, and when money gets tight, no one much feels like ponying up for overpriced concert tickets, inexplicably skyrocketing movie passes, or even expensive hardcover books. The New York Times 07/31/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Monday July 30

ARTS FUNDING IS ELECTION ISSUE: Australia’s Labour Party has promised to make increased arts funding part of its electionj pitch. The party promises to “repair the damage” done to the arts community by the current Howard Government’s funding priorities. The Age (Melbourne) 07/30/01

WORLD LEADERS: Are the world leaders of the 21st century creative artists, not politicians? Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre has created a festival on that premise and invited 14 artists from around the world to come together. The “project is designed to explore the nature of the creative process, the nature of the creative spirit, the idea of innovation and the idea of risk-taking, and also the fact that one creative mind can actually change aspects of the world.” McLean’s 07/30/01

POSTAL BUTTS: The Brooklyn Academy of Music wanted to promote a low-budget film it is showing, with a postcard that shows a photo of a line of men from the movie with their naked butts showing (an admittedly not pretty sight). But the US postal service has refused to let the cards go through the mail. “With bulk mail we try to think about the few people who will have objections.” BBC 07/30/01

HELP FOR IRISH ARTISTS: With Ireland’s recent prosperity have come rising rents. “An exodus of artistic types in recent years has led to concern that the country’s main cities will become the preserve of go-getting Celtic Tiger sorts.” Now a request to city officials for cheap housing for artists.” Sunday Times (UK) 07/29/01

BENEFACTOR OVERBOARD: London’s Royal Opera House is ditching its greatest benefactor. Vivien Duffield “has raised more than £100 million for it and personally donated millions more – perhaps as much as £25 million.” Sunday Times (UK) 07/29/01

Sunday July 29

MULTICULT FALLOUT: In many ways, multiculturalism defined American arts of the 1990s. “Most important, it reversed old patterns of exclusion and brought voices into the mainstream that had rarely, if ever, been there before. But limitations became apparent. The ideal of diversity — of mixing things up, spreading the wealth, creating a new Us — never quite happened.” And, it came with some unexpected problems. The New York Times 07/29/01 (one-time registration required for access)

CENTER OF SUMMER CULTURE: It may be rural, but Massachusetts’ Berkshires is home to America’s biggest cultural resort: Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home; the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket; the Williamstown Theatre Festival; the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown; Mass. MoCA, the Berkshire Opera Company, and Shakespeare & Company. “The arts generate more than half of Berkshire County’s annual $250 million tourist trade. Tanglewood alone brings between $60 and $70 million to the area.” Boston Globe 07/29/01

CRACKING DOWN ON COPYRIGHT: The US government is taking copyright infringement more seriously. “The Senate has earmarked $10 million for copyright prosecutions, enough money for 155 agents and attorneys in the fiscal year starting in October. That’s up from a current $4 million allocated for 75 positions.” Wired 07/29/01

Friday July 27

SMITHSONIAN NEEDS MAJOR OVERHAUL: “An independent review of the Smithsonian Institution said yesterday that the museum complex is even shabbier and more dilapidated than previously reported. Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence M. Small has been telling Congress for a year and a half that the situation was grim and last month estimated the cost of vital repairs at $1 billion. The independent team of experts put the figure higher: $1.5 billion.” Washington Post 07/27/01

• BAD DAY IN D.C., PART 2: “City health officials have ordered the Kennedy Center to remove asbestos from ceilings near exclusive seating areas in the Opera House, including the presidential box. D.C. Health Department officials said yesterday that there was no risk to any theatergoers who have been in that area. The Eisenhower Theater, next to the Opera House, will be closed for the rest of the summer while workers remove asbestos from ceilings.” Washington Post 07/27/01

AUSSIE ARTS BILL: How much do Australian governments spend on culture? “Funding for radio and television broadcasting, film, music, visual arts, museums, art galleries, multi-media, venues, zoos, civic centres, publishing, archives and other activities” added up to almost $4 billion in 1999-2000. This was equivalent to $209 per person. Sydney Morning Herald 07/27/01

CORPORATE SPONSORS: FEEL ME, TOUCH ME: One side says, “The company is taking an active role with children. I don’t see any harm in that.” The other side says, “The corporation has an obligation to give back to the community. Do it, shut up, and don’t expect anything in return.” At immediate issue is McDonald’s 20-year, $5 million sponsorship of Philadelphia’s Please Touch Museum for children. Philadelphia Inquirer 07/26/01

REALNETWORKS CUTS BACK: RealNetworks, whose Real Player is probably the most widely-used streaming audio software on the Internet, is laying off 15 percent of its work force. For the second quarter of this year, the company reported a loss of just over $19 million. During the Internet boom of a couple years ago, a loss that small would have looked like a profit. Nando Times 07/26/01

Thursday July 26

INVESTMENT UP/ATTENDANCE DOWN: A new study of arts support in the UK says “the percentage of adults attending arts events was either static or falling across plays, opera, ballet, contemporary dance, jazz, classical music and art galleries.” This despite massive public funding of cultural activities. “The report estimated public funding of the cultural sector in 1998-99 at £5.2 billion, a 10% rise on the last study in 1993-94. The Guardian (UK) 07/26/01

PUT A METER ON THAT JUKEBOX: “The US is set to compensate European songwriters and composers for millions of pounds worth of lost revenue. The musicians have won their fight against a US law which let bars and grills avoid paying royalties for playing their music on TV or radio. Music groups have estimated royalty losses at $27m a year. ” BBC 07/26/01

ARTS-PLATED: Several American states are raising money for the arts by selling arts-themed car license plates. California has sold 79,000 arts licenses since 1994, raising $4.2 million. Indiana, Texas and Florida have also been successful. “The Texas arts plate is the best-selling specialty plate in Texas in a field of more than 100.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch 07/25/01

CRASHING THE SENATE: The U.S. Senate was all set for another of their famous hearings on the way that popular music and, specifically, hip-hop are destroying the moral fabric of the nation, staining the minds of our children, and just generally leading the entire country down the road to ruin. (And it’s not even an election year!) But the sanctimony took a distinct dive once an actual, uninvited purveyor of rap music showed up to speak. Nando Times (AP) 07/25/01

Wednesday July 25

ART IN FASHION: “Can fashion — by nature both ephemeral and functional — be on a par with fine art? Can an ad campaign be counted as culture?” London dealer Jay Jopling has recycled photographs seen in ads in magazines and made a show of them in his gallery. The Times (UK) 07/25/01

TAKING THE TEMPERATURE OF AMERICA’S PERFORMING ARTS: What is the state of the performing arts in America at the turn of the century? A new Rand study takes a look. “After decades of expansion, how are performing arts organizations faring? Has demand for live performances been increasing or decreasing? Are more Americans choosing the performing arts as a profession? And what is the likely effect of the Internet on the arts?” [The complete report is online] Rand 07/01

LOW AUDIENCE & LOW ACCOUNTABILITY: “New research suggests that arts audiences are declining, despite record levels of public funding. A report, compiled by a team of 25 experts over two years, looked at film, libraries, heritage buildings, literature, the arts and public broadcasting. . . The 600-page report, by the think-tank The Policy Studies Institute (PSI), also said that publicly funded bodies in the arts are failing to account for how their grants are spent.” BBC 07/25/01

RISK AVERSE: After unexpectedly losing $1.2 million on last year’s Adelaide Festival, organizers seriously considered abandoning director Peter Sellars’ controversial plans for next years festival. But “it was judged to be too damaging to the festival’s image to walk away at this late stage.” Sydney Morning Herald 07/25/01

DO VIRTUAL ACTORS HAVE TO PAY UNION DUES? The furor that has erupted over the computer-generated “Final Fantasy” film has been almost comical in its hysteria. No less venerable a personage than Tom Hanks has voiced his concern that virtual actors might someday replace flesh-and-bone thespians, and the Screen Actors Guild has been shrilling its objections ever since the mediocre film’s release. But the man behind the computer magic laughs at the notion that his creations could ever do what human actors can. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 07/25/01

AOL COULD BUY AMAZON: “AOL Time Warner would be allowed to propose a takeover bid for Amazon.com — as long as it did so quietly — under the terms of a $100 million investment AOL made in Amazon Monday. According to records filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and reported by Dow Jones Newswires, AOL could propose a buyout, but not publicly and not without the approval of Amazon.com.” The New York Times (AP) 07/25/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Tuesday July 24

OF ARTS FUNDING AND MEDICAL RESEARCH: “Dear friends, you made a deal with the devil. You knew they were narrow-minded and stupid when you took their money. You made a deal with the devil. You probably wrote a play about how evil the devil was in Vietnam or Nicaragua or Waco. Now the devil acts like the devil. There is a solution: Don’t take the money. Alas, the government has made cash junkies of too many people and institutions, and there’s nothing more hypocritical than the whining of a junkie.” San Francisco Chronicle 07/24/01

FUNDING VISUAL ARTISTS: Last year Australia’s performing arts got a $43 million boost in funding by the government after a study documented need. Now the country’s visual artists are hoping a newly announced study will give the same bump in funding for the visual arts. Sydney Morning Herald 07/24/01

• WHY DISPARITY? Federal inquiry will try to find out “why visual artists and craftspeople are among the lowest income earners in the country and among the lowest paid of all artists.” The Age (Melbourne) 07/24/01

THE VICTORIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTION: So you think our battles over copyright are something new? Some 160 years ago Charles Dickens was crusading over the value of copyright. In the days before copyright was universal, publishers in America were ripping off Dickens and other authors with impunity. Industry Standard 07/23/01

Monday July 23

CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE: A major new study of 30-year trends among American arts organizations says that while small and large arts organizations are doing well, mid-size groups are in peril. The New York Times 07/23/01 (one-time registration required for access)

HANDICAPPING THE NEA: Speculation in the press about who George Bush might appoint as the next chair of the National Endowment for the Arts has intensified. Does this mean a decision is near? The Idler handicaps the field. The Idler 07/23/01

THE RATINGS GAME: Music producers haven’t done enough to keep violent material out of the hands of children, a US House subcommittee reported Friday. But movie and video game makers have made some progress. “A final FTC report on the effectiveness of the entertainment industry’s restrictions on explicit material is due this fall.” Dallas Morning News 07/22/01

THE MAGIC OF SCIENCE: “Have we entered an era in which mind-sizzling technological leaps – virtual reality, genetically altered rabbits that glow in the dark, digital actors, laboratory animals bred to grow human organs, stock-trading in your back yard, clones – are now so common that even respected members of the scientific world are finding it increasingly difficult to separate miracles, magic, myths and madness?” Washington Post 07/23/01

HOW WE SPEAK: “Language is not living, not growing, and not a thing; it is a vast system of social habits and conventions, inherited from our forebears, and showing every sign of being an artifact rather than an organic growth.” Vocabula.com 07/01

Friday July 20

SECOND SALES: European governments have agreed to give artists a share of subsequent sales of their work. “Authors of works of art will receive a royalty of up to 4% every time their original paintings, sculptures, or other artistic treasures are sold on by agents or at auction in Britain or anywhere else in the EU.” But the provision won’t kick in until 2012. BBC 07/20/01

Thursday July 19

LEGALLY BINDING: “Artists’ rights in the U.S. are still pretty shoddy today. Artists have many more legal recourses and protections now, but mostly America’s laws regarding artists continue to reflect our national attitude toward artists: These are weird, potentially dangerous people who often care less about money than is acceptable. That’s true whether you’re a painter, writer, cartoonist, songwriter, director, dancer, or anyone else who’s trying to create something you want other people to see or hear. Business is our national art form, and business is deeply suspicious of art. So is our court system.” LAWeekly 07/18/01

A REASON TO GIVE: “Many corporations confuse philanthropy with advertising. Until the federal government put a stop to their contributions, the most generous corporate arts patrons in Canada were the tobacco companies – because they could not advertise and regarded sponsorships as the next-best thing. It is because of that corporate confusion that we need government funding of the arts, funding that is awarded to artists on the merits of their past achievements and future proposals by knowledgeable juries set up by arms-length arts councils. No system is perfect, but that formula tends to build the arts – rather than corporate profits or political egos.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/19/01

THE GM SMITHSONIAN? The Smithsonian, criticized recently for giving large donors major influence over projects they have funded, is in negotiations with General Motors for a $10 million contribution to “expedite a major exhibition called America on the Move and allow the museum to redo its sprawling transportation hall, which hasn’t been refurbished since the museum opened in 1964.” Washington Post 07/19/01

Wednesday July 18

GREAT HANDEL’S GHOST! Workers preparing to turn a house where Handel once lived into a museum say they have seen ghosts in the house. So they’ve ordered up an exorcism. “We weren’t sure whether having a ghost would attract or deter customers, but with all the valuable objects we have coming into the house we felt it might be safer to get rid of it.” Sydney Morning Herald 07/18/01

WHY LIBERAL ARTS MATTER: “The liberal arts have been ravaged by managers, government officials, and taxpayers looking for ‘measurable’ results. But all such measures in our era are inextricably linked to corporate bottom lines. And few things could be more inimical to the spirit of liberal arts than to turn education in philosophy, sociology, and history into a seamless fit for corporate career climbing.” Christian Science Monitor 07/17/01

OWNING HISTORY: “As the years lengthen and survivors die off, the memory of the Holocaust is increasingly embodied in written accounts and artifacts. But who owns this physical evidence?” The New York Times 07/18/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Tuesday July 17

MORE CENTRALIZED ARTS: The British government is restructuring the Arts Council of England. “The new body will combine the Arts Council and the ten Regional Arts Boards, saving up to £10 million a year from the £36 million operating costs.” The savings will be distributed directly to artists, but some critics worry that a centralized organization will diminish regional flavor. The Times (UK) 07/17/01

RAVING MAD: A number of cities are moving to shut down all-night rave parties, citing them as “one-night-only parties…often held in warehouses or secret locations where people pay to dance, do drugs, play loud music, and engage in random sex acts.” Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daly: “They are after all our children. Parents should be outraged.” Reason 07/16/01

Monday July 16

PROMOTING GERMAN CULTURE: Germany’s Goethe Institute is 50 years old. “With some 3,000 staff members, 2,350 of whom work abroad, the 126 affiliates scattered throughout 76 different countries not only teach German, but also endeavor to export at least some sense of what intellectual and cultural life in Germany is all about.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 07/16/01

Sunday July 15

DON’T JUST MAKE NICE: About the only public words George Bush has spoken about the arts was last month at Ford’s Theatre, when he quoted Lincoln: “Some think I do wrong to go to the opera and the theater. But it rests me. A hearty laugh relieves me and I seem better after it to bear my cross.” So there it is – fun, amusing, a diversion. Certainly that’s the conservative vision of art, and one that attracts public funding in the US these days. But isn’t it possible that “going to the theater, despite Bush’s quotation of Lincoln, might be something more than a way to get some rest?” Los Angeles Times 07/15/01

HOW TO EXPLAIN? “We talk about art – and write about art – so poorly. If you eliminated all the easy, lazy superlatives – beautiful, wonderful, powerful, amazing, incredible – from use in any context relating to art, the silence would be deafening. People would stare at each other and stammer and gesticulate, and feel utterly at a loss to describe what they just experienced. This is all the more a problem when the art form, such as music or dance, has no verbal element.” Washington Post 07/15/01

Friday July 13

THE NEXT NEA CHIEF? Who will President Bush appoint as the next chair of the National Endowment for the Arts? There is lots of speculation, but some arts advocates are urging Bush to appoint a businessperson with an interest in the arts rather than an artist or arts administrator. Washington Post 07/13/01

• THE NEW YORK LOBBY: New York Republican state senator Roy Goodman is said to be lobbying hard for the job. He has many advocates in the New York cultural world, but conservative Republicans are fighting against his nomination. The New York Times 07/13/01 (one-time registration required for access)

STOLEN LIABILITY? A man sends a note to the Museum Security Network alleging that a California woman has a stockpile of art looted by the Nazis. The MSN, published in the Netherlands, publishes the allegations in its newsletter. The charges were false, and now the target of the allegations is suing. How much responsibility does the small internet site bear? Salon 07/13/01

Thursday July 12

THE SMITHSONIAN TRIES TO BALANCE AUTONOMY AND FUND-RAISING: “At issue is money and influence, and whether the Smithsonian, in securing the largesse of multimillionaires, has ceded intellectual control to donors. Cash-strapped museum directors around the country, striving to meet the demands of a growing public, are closely watching how the institution reconciles its needs and traditions with donors’ desires.” Minneapolis Star-Tribune 07/12/01

Wednesday July 11

WHAT HAPPENED TO “FOR THE GOOD OF MANKIND?” The author who was first responsible for shining the international spotlight on the issue of looted Nazi artworks now in the hands of private collectors is suing the family of a French art dealer whom he assisted in recovering several paintings. Hector Feliciano claims he was “deprived of a finder’s fee.” The New York Times 07/11/01 (one-time registration required for access)

ORGANIZED LEARNING: This is the year of the T.A. (teaching assistant). At universities all over the US, TA’s are forming unions and demanding better conditions. But “while the movement is gaining strength – nearly 40,000 graduate students are now union members – administrations are hardly rolling over.” Chronicle of Higher Education 07/09/01

PHILLY HALL ALMOST PAID FOR: “With a $2 million conditional pledge from the Kresge Foundation, the campaign to build [Philadelphia’s] Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts has reached $254 million – or almost 96 percent of a $265 million goal.” Philadelphia Inquirer 07/11/01

Tuesday July 10

ONE GREENBERG = A THOUSAND TASINIS: A US Court of Appeals has ruled that “the National Geographic Society violated the copyrights of freelance photographer Jerry Greenberg by republishing his photos on a CD-ROM set without his permission.” The Society plans to appeal to the Supreme Court, arguing that their CD is a digital replica, not a republication; therefore, this case is unlike the recent Tasini suit, in which the Supreme Court ruled in favor of free-lance writers. Wired 07/09/01

FINDER’S FEE: Author Hector Feliciano, who wrote a book about art thefts by the Nazis, is suing the estate of dealer Paul Rosenberg for $6.8 million, a “17.5% fee based on ‘the standards of the art industry for the recovery of works of art,’ and is applied to a value of $39 million worth of paintings which Mr Feliciano says he helped recover through extensive work ‘under the promise to be paid’.” The Art Newspaper 07/08/01

Monday July 9

CENSORING STUDENT ART: A Texas art teacher has filed a lawsuit against the administration of the school that fired him last year after he defended the work of some of his pupils. The controversy arose from a mural painted by students which depicted, among many other images, two men kissing. Despite a unanimous vote of support for the mural from the school’s faculty, the school’s administrator had the wall with the mural whitewashed, and fired the art teacher after he publicly stood up for his students. Dallas Morning News 07/09/01

Sunday July 8

WATCH OUT FOR SERGEANT EBERT: It’s known as boot camp for critics. But the O’Neill Critics Institute is much more than a drill session for the folks who review the nation’s performers. “The mission of the OCI is to raise the level of American film and theater reviewing – and cultivate the skills of individual critics – by plunging arts-minded journalists into an intensive summer of viewing, thinking, discussing, and writing, writing, writing.” Nando Times (Christian Science Monitor Service) 07/07/01

CANADIAN CHARISMA: Sotheby’s, it can safely be said, has had a truly bad year. Price-fixing scandals, disappointing auctions, and general chaos have plagued the auction house in recent months. But in Canada, the local Sotheby’s has new leadership in the form of a couple of aging art enthusiasts with limited auction experience, but an undeniable passion for art collection. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 07/07/01

BARENBOIM DEFIES WAGNER TABOO: Richard Wagner was a celebrated composer, a brilliant musician, and a vicious anti-Semite whose writings excoriating Jews were often invoked after his death by the leaders of Germany’s Third Reich. Understandably, the nation of Israel has never been particularly interested in having Wagner’s music performed there, although the unofficial ban has faced intense opposition in recent years. But this weekend, conductor Daniel Barenboim shocked concertgoers by leading the Berlin Staatskapelle in a surprise encore from “Tristan and Isolde.” BBC 07/08/01

• MAYOR THREATENS BARENBOIM BAN: “[Jerusalem] Mayor Ehud Olmert said the city will have to re-examine its relations with world-renowned conductor Daniel Barenboim after he performed the music of Richard Wagner, Adolf Hitler’s favorite composer, at the Israel Festival on Saturday night. ‘What Barenboim did was brazen, arrogant, uncivilized and insensitive,’ Olmert told Israel’s army radio.” Nando Times (AP) 07/08/01

Friday July 6

STATE OF INDIANA V. GAY CHRIST: “A group hoping to block performances of a college play featuring a gay Christ-like character filed a lawsuit in federal court Thursday. The play features a character named Joshua who is growing up gay in modern-day Texas. The story parallels parts of the Gospels, and some of the 12 other male characters bear the names of Christ’s disciples.” Nando Times (AP) 07/05/01

ALL ABOUT THE TOOLS: “Will new media art be limited and shaped by the commercial software usually used to created it? Or by the conventional Web site and interface formats that predominate among artworks online?” MediaChannel 07/01

Thursday July 5

ENGAGING THE INTELLECT: “When was the last time a political party produced an unashamedly intellectual document which dared to use big words and invited debate and critique before decisions on priorities and how to pay for them were made?” Australia’s Barry Jones has put up such a platform. So how come the media are sniggering? Sydney Morning Herald 07/05/01

POINTING OUT THE PROBLEM: For more than two decades, Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood has been home to the largest concentration of artists in New England. But rising rents and real estate costs are forcing artists and galleries out at an alarming rate. Tired of waiting for the city to do something, a handful of artists have put their message where their art is, and taken the cause public. Boston Herald 07/05/01

Wednesday July 4

AMERICA’S BEST ARTISTS: No kidding. These are the best, certified by Time magazine. The best young classical musician, Hilary Hahn; best playwright, August Wilson; best novelist, Philip Roth; best movie director, Ang Lee; best artist, Martin Puryear; best architect, Steven Holl; best actor, Sean Penn; best Broadway director, Susan Stroman. Time also lists the best rapper, best clown, best talk show host, etc. Your milege may vary. Void where prohibited by law. CNN 07/04/01

I’D RATHER BE IN PHILADELPHIA (FINALLY): Even cities with well-established arts activity can be dazzled by the potential a new performing arts center promises. Philadelphia may have prominent home-grown talent and a busy art community, but for many years hasn’t had a place to bring out-of-town performers. The new Kimmel Center promises to change all that. Philadelphia Inquirer 07/03/01

Tuesday July 3

BOUGHT AND PAID FOR: “How much corporate sponsorship is too much? As the Government stages a tactical retreat on the arts funding front, the business dollar has flown in to fill the void, funding everything from the purchase of a rare $650,000 Guadagnini violin for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra to the sponsorship of instruments, chairs, artists, performances, costumes and soloists. Sydney Morning Herald 07/03/01

ENGLAND’S NEW CULTURE MINISTER: “Tessa Jowell moves quickly to dispel any notion that she will be the sort of culture minister who can’t quite remember whether Jackson Pollock is a merchant bank or a heavyweight boxer. ‘I believe passionately in our artistic heritage, in investment in the arts, in opening access to great art for the widest range of people,’ she trills, as if reciting the Creed in St Tony’s Parish Church.” The Times (UK) 07/03/01

Monday July 2

STRUGGLING FOR THE SOUL OF A TOWN: “A proposal for a huge new cement plant, in a town where cement-making roots run deep — but where art galleries and antiques shops drive the new economy — has deeply divided Hudson along lines of class, culture and, to no small degree, aesthetics. Would the plant destroy the town’s charm, and so too its emerging tourist economy, or would the return of big cement be a restoration, a sign that old heavy-industry Hudson is on its way back?” The New York Times 06/30/01 (one-time registration required for access)

THE DEVIL AND THE MILLIONAIRE: Who Wants to be a Millionaire is popular in Egypt, as it is everywhere. But now the Supreme Mufti’s office in Cairo has issued a fatwa, or religious edict, calling the game show sinful and a form of gambling. The fatwa quotes from a verse in the Holy Koran which calls on all Muslims to avoid gambling as an abomination and Satan’s handiwork. BBC 07/02/01

Sunday July 1

“THIS WASN’T SUPPOSED TO BE WAR”: When Patti Hartigan began covering the arts for New England’s leading newspaper in 1990, she didn’t expect the firestorm that was about to descend on the heads of artists and their supporters. But ten years after the Congressional dust-ups over Robert Mapplethorpe, Andres Serrano, and federal arts funding in general, the echoes of what became a full-fledged culture war still resound. The American arts world has changed immeasurably in the last decade, and countless artists and organizations have long since given up trying to get public support for their work. The next ten years will tell much about what remains of America’s commitment to art, but they could never be as telling as the last ten. Boston Globe 07/01/01

STRIKE HAS AN IMPACT: “Two exhibitions scheduled for this summer at the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography have been postponed indefinitely because of the continuing strike by workers at that museum and its parent organization, the National Gallery of Canada.” Ottawa Citizen 07/01/01

Friday June 29

INVESTING IN CREATIVITY: A new New England report urges major new investment in the region’s arts. “Among the suggestions: setting up a Creative Economy Council to spur economic development and promote partnerships between arts groups, educational institutions, government, and business.” Boston Globe 06/28/01

LEAVING JAPAN INC: “Thousands of Japan’s most talented and creative individuals are joining the flight into exile. In the past 10 years the number of Japanese who are permanent residents abroad has risen 23 percent to a record level of nearly 900,000. They are out of patience with Japan’s leaden conformity, its stultifying bureaucracy and its moribund economy—and they have the skills, resources and adaptability they need to leave.” Newsweek 07/03/01

Thursday June 28

WHOSE COMMUNITY STANDARDS? Last summer a community radio station in Oregon played the hip-hop song Your Revolution, only to be slapped with a citation and a $7,000 fine from the FCC, which said the song contained “unmistakable patently offensive sexual references.” Wonders the station manager: “Why the move to determine whether artistic content is obscene or indecent? These are things that have a whole host of problems attached to (them).” FreedomForum 06/27/01

THIS JUST IN: MEN AND WOMEN ARE NOT ALIKE: The differences between men and women carry over from real life to the Internet. Studies of e-mail and message boards show “women tend to use the electronic medium as an extension of the way they talk – lavishly and intimately, to connect with people and build rapport. Men incline toward a briefer, more utilitarian style, the researchers say – a style they variously term instrumental, functional or transactional.” Minneapolis Star-Tribune 06/28/01

RIGHT WRITE? What does it say about english education when tests to measure grasp of the language don’t ask a student to write even a single word? Can one really learn to use the language well when the tests are multiple choice? Sydney Morning Herald 06/28/01

Wednesday June 27

THE RED BARONESS: England’s new culture secretary is a true arts expert, having spent 10 years on the board of the hapless Royal Opera House. Tessa Blackstone “is more Old Labour than New, all high culture and no Cool Britannia. Don’t ask her what’s in the charts or on the catwalks.” The Telegraph (UK) 06/27/01

POETS, INTERRUPTED: Describing someone as having “an artistic temperament” used to be one measure of decorum removed from calling them “completely nuts.” After all, quite a lot of famous writers and poets seem to have had, shall we say, personal issues, and a rather large number of these artists spent some down time at one particular hospital in Massachusetts, the same facility that was the setting for Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted. The Atlantic 07/01

Tuesday June 26

RECALIBRATING IN BOSTON: “Boston’s largest cultural institutions are seeking more than $1 billion in philanthropic donations to renovate and expand facilities. But plans were developed during one of the greatest periods of prosperity in U.S. history. Now they’re slated to be carried out amid an economic downturn that leaves many wondering which projects actually will get done.” Boston Herald 06/26/01

GETTING ATTENTION: “Since January, and ending sometime this summer, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) will spend $1 million advertising its existence by displaying outsize “wall labels” on hundreds of billboards around the city. . . The whole snapshot concept raises all sorts of possibilities for pop zeitgeist observation, if only it spread to cities around the nation.” Washington Post 06/26/01

Monday June 25

STATE OF THE ARTS: The state of Connecticut has a budget surplus, and legislators are considering making a big new investment in the arts. The boost would be large enough to make Connecticut the largest per capita state spender on the arts. Hartford Courant 06/24/01

MIDDLE-VALUE: The American midwest is reinventing. “The cultural makeovers currently under-way in towns like Milwaukee, Cleveland, Des Moines, Pittsburgh, and Indianapolis were hardly elective. Crisis and pain spurred their innovation. Today, despite lousy weather half the year, there’s a newfound lightness to these places, a flexibility mirroring that of the new arrivals who work for the new capital-unintensive companies that don’t manufacture anything.” New Art Examiner 06/01

Thursday June 21

INVESTING IN CANADA: The Canadian government is investing a half-billion dollars in a new initiative for the arts. This week the government announced $100 million of that will be spent on new media. CBC 06/21/01

• DELAYING INVESTING IN THE UK: Is the British government delaying its £210 million project to but British arts online? CNet 06/19/01

Wednesday June 20

THE ARTS IN DC: Washington DC-area arts groups spent $1.24 billion last year and employed just under 27,000 workers. The numbers don’t put the District in the same league with New York and Chicago or Los Angeles, but DC’s arts activity outspent that in San Francisco, Boston, Pittsburgh and New Orleans, according to the Americans for the Arts research. Washington Post 06/20/01

CULTURAL DOMINATION WORKS BOTH WAYS: It might seem that American culture is taking over the world, aided by digital technology. Then again… “The lower production costs and smaller shelf-space requirements of CDs have dramatically expanded the diversity of today’s music store… contemporary college students now sample the once-exotic sounds of African pennywhistle, Tuvian throat singing or Scandinavian mandolin as casually as they choose between tacos, pizza and sushi.” Technology Review July/August/01

SPEAK OUT: Among the world’s 6,800 tongues, half to 90 percent could become extinct by the end of the century, linguists predict. One reason is because half of all languages are spoken by fewer than 2,500 people each. Wired (AP) 06/19/01

Tuesday June 19

COLLEGE YES, BUT WHICH? Sure everyone should be able to go to college. But there are so many models of what college can be. “This variety, it is said, gives everybody a chance to find the place that suits his or her talents and tastes. That is pious nonsense. The young have no idea what they are getting into, and they often have no choice. Selection is determined by geography, cost, and the luck of admission or rejection.” Chronicle of Higher Education 06/18/01

• FALLING ATTENDANCE: “Canada is the only industrialized country where enrollment in universities, colleges and technical schools is decreasing despite a growing international demand for post-secondary education, according to a report.” National Post (Canada) 06/19/01

GRAND PLANS: “The Grand Canyon will serve as the panoramic backdrop for a single performance combining music, dance and theater in one of six huge-scale projects announced Monday by the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts.” Nando Times (AP) 06/19/01

ARTS UNDER FIRE IN MPLS: In 1999, the city of Minneapolis created an Office of Cultural Affairs to oversee arts projects that the whole city could participate in. But two years later, the office has yet to produce anything but failed projects and bold initiatives that shrivel for lack of money. Several city officials are demanding some sort of accountability. Minneapolis Star Tribune 06/18/01

PULLING STRINGS: In the age of super-realistic special effects and increasingly flashy stage shows, the world of puppetry has largely fallen into obscurity (Being John Malkovich notwithstanding.) So it may seem a bit, well, quaint for one of America’s largest and most cosmopolitan cities to be sponsoring a two-week festival of puppet shows. But Puppetropolis has more to offer than mere Punch-and-Judy shows. Chicago Tribune 06/19/01

Monday June 18

JAPANESE CHANGE: A London celebration of Japanese culture shows a different side than a previous festival ten years ago. “Few nations suffer more from the contrived and contradictory cliche than Japan. Refined yet cruel, aesthetically controlled but capable of inchoate passion, formal and public, yet bent on preserving private space, the Japanese contrasts – both imposed and self-attributed – beguile and baffle the western observer. This sense of cultural distance is essential to Japan 2001. At a time when our culture elevates the banal, the easily understood and the collusively downgraded, Japan offers something bracing.” New Statesman 06/18/01

Sunday June 17

BREAK THE RULES: The kinds of toys you play with as a kid help determine how creative you become. “Toys as important tools for nurturing and developing a child’s creative impulse: The worst toys are all rules and instructions, while best toys encourage that the rules be broken.” Wired 06/17/01

Friday June 15

GETTING THE PUBLIC INVOLVED IN ARTS: Arts institutions all want public participation in their programs. A new study from the RAND corporation “looks at the process by which individuals become involved in the arts and attempts to identify ways in which arts institutions can most effectively influence this process.” [.pdf document; requires free reader from Adobe Systems] RAND Corporation 06/01

WATERLOGGED: This week’s floods in Houston have severely affected the city’s arts groups. “With Jones Hall and the Alley Theatre closed due to flood damage, the downtown theater district is scrambling to secure new venues.” Houston Chronicle 06/14/01

DID TOM STOPPARD ATTACK ART? Playwright Tom Stoppard recently gave a speech, and it was widely reported in the British press that he had denounced modern art, attacking Tracey Emin. But did he? “I had used my speech to suggest that a fault line in the history of art had been crossed when it had become unnecessary for an artist to make anything, when the thought, the inspiration itself, had come to constitute the achievement, and I would have been pleased to see this phenomenon get an airing in the column inches that were devoted instead to parading the death of shorthand.” The Telegraph (UK) 06/15/01

Thursday June 14

BOLSHOI’S TOP MAN RESIGNS: “The Bolshoi theatre’s artistic director has handed in his resignation – only nine months after being brought in to restore the institution’s flagging fortunes. Gennady Rozhdestvensky announced he was leaving after critics mauled the Bolshoi’s production of Sergei Prokoviev’s opera The Player.” BBC 06/14/01

SMITH OUT AS CULTURE MINISTER: Energetic British culture minister Chris Smith is replaced in a post-election Tony Blair cabinet shakeup. Smith’s transgression? “The main reason that Smith had to go was that he had done his job too fast, and too well. So much so that the rumour mills went into overgrind, predicting that his department was to be abolished.” The Telegraph (UK) 06/14/01

BLAME THE OLD WHITE MALES: The chair of the Australia Council lets the establishment have it on her way out of the job. In a farewell speech at the National Press Club, Margaret Seares warned that “as long as the leaders of Australia were predominantly older white Anglo-Celtic men, vital decisions on the arts would probably never be implemented.” Canberra Times 06/14/01

THE ARTISTS TAKE SIDES: Workers at Canada’s National Gallery have been on strike for more than a month, with no end in sight. With negotiations stalled and the two sides at an apparent impasse, several prominent Canadian artists with connections to the gallery are placing themselves squarely in the workers’ corner, designing and creating picket signs for the strikers. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 06/14/01

IRELAND ARTS AT CROSSROADS: The arts are flourishing in Ireland, and at least some of their high-profile success is due to the Arts Council, currently celebrating its 50th anniversary. “And yet, even as it celebrates its own survival and the phenomenal growth of both its budget and its number of clients, the Arts Council finds itself at a moment of deep uncertainty.” Irish Times 06/12/01

GETTING MORE THAN YOU PAY FOR: Everyone hates high ticket prices, and many performing organizations are trying to hold down the amount they charge for admission. But audiences seem to be holding on to some innate fear that if they attend an exhibit, performance, or concert that doesn’t empty their pocketbook, they will somehow be getting an inferior product. A quick glance around any major city’s arts scene proves that it isn’t so. The New York Times 06/14/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Wednesday June 13

SQUABBLING ARTISTS: “Few private clubs in Manhattan have aired their battles as publicly as has the National Arts Club. The latest uproar turns on allegations of financial impropriety raised by club dissidents and staunchly denied by the club’s president.” The New York Times 06/13/01 (one-time registration required for access)

FOR A MORE DIVERSE UK: The Arts Council of England awards £90 million in arts grants. Concerned about the diversity of arts in the UK, the grants include £29 million for black, Asian and Chinese projects. BBC 06/13/01

FOR A MORE CREATIVE CANADA: “Was I hallucinating, or did I read last week about a proposed commission to study creativity? I hope I was hallucinating. What’s next — a commission to count the grains of sand on Long Beach? To seek the Canadian identity in the entrails of native animals?” The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 06/13/01

Tuesday June 12

HOUSTON ARTS GROUPS HARD-HIT BY FLOODS: The Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Grand Opera, the Alley Theater, the Houston Ballet, and other organizations in the downtown arts district have suffered extensive losses from week-end flooding. Apparently hardest-hit was the Houston Symphony, where “thousands of musical scores and several irreplaceable instruments were among the casualties in Jones Hall. Three Steinway concert grand pianos with an estimated replacement value of $250,000 were ruined.” Dallas Morning News & Houston Chronicle 06/12/01

GERMAN ART INITIATIVE: Germany’s culture minister proposes a new national culture foundation with the aim of promoting contemporary art. “He has repeatedly warned against the threat of ‘a discrepancy between repertoire and innovation’ in Germany, and condemned the increasing ossification of cultural politics, with its emphasis on supporting institutions rather than periodically promoting specific projects in the short-term.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 06/12/01

READING BUSH’S POSITION ON ARTS FUNDING – A BIT OF A STRETCH? American President George Bush went to a performance at Ford’s Theatre in Washington and made a statement some are interpreting as support for government funding for the arts. “This theater also reminds us that history lives on to be enjoyed by the people of each generation,” he said. “When audiences come to Ford’s Theatre, they experience America’s history and culture. And it is right for our government to support such causes.” Nando Times (AP) 06/11/01

Monday June 11

PROTECTING NATIONAL CULTURES: Canada lays out a new plan to protect national cultures. “The centrepiece of the plan is the International Network on Cultural Policy, a working group of culture ministers from 46 countries who will meet in September in Switzerland with the intention of creating an international ‘instrument’ to govern trade in cultural products. It will remove cultural industries, including television and film, from the purview of the World Trade Organization.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/11/01

SAN FRANCISCO DOT-BUST: For much of the past couple of years artists in San Francisco have been getting evicted as rents for their spaces soared or their buildings were torn down in anticipation of big dot-com bucks. But with the dot-com bust, many of those former artist spaces are sitting vacant. Now the city ponders the cost to its decimated arts community. San Francisco Bay Guardian 06/30/01

LOOKING A GIFT HORSE… Two years ago a “textbook-printing magnate announced that he would provide funding – eventually totaling $100 million – for the construction of an arts complex on a mostly city-owned block downtown.” A great and generous deal. But one that has its detractors, suspicious of a private project with no public oversight. Metropolis 06/01

EDINBURGH’S DEVILISH FRINGE: This year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival is set. “A total of 666 companies will make their way to the capital in August, presenting almost 1,500 shows from 50 countries.” The Scotsman 06/10/01

Friday June 8

SANTA FE THEATRE: “Santa Fe’s newest performance space is also one of its oldest. The 70-year-old Lensic Theater – a film and vaudeville palace that became a mainstay for generations of local movie-goers – has been reborn” as a performing arts venue. Backstage 06/07/01

Thursday June 7

THE FUNDING BOOM: Even as the techno-world continues to collapse around the ears of its investors, the scores of Clinton-era nouveau riche dot-commers are turning a philanthropic eye to the arts. “The arts, which had often lagged behind other giving targets, now keeps pace. The latest numbers, released this week by Giving U.S.A., show that $11.5 billion was given to arts, culture and humanities [last year.]” Chicago Tribune (from the Washington Post) 06/07/01

Wednesday June 6

BETTER LIVING THROUGH ART: Its economy in shambles, its system controled by crimminals, some are proclaiming that Russia is finished as a force in the world. Russian art, on the other hand, after a difficult decade, seems to be doing better and better. Can Russia-the-country learn some lessons from Russia-the-art? ArtsJournal.com 06/06/01

Tuesday June 5

AN ARTS HALL OF FAME? The new head of the Scottish Arts Council proposes setting up a new hall that would celebrate Scottish arts stars. It “would set artists of the past, such as Robert Louis Stevenson and Walter Scott, alongside contemporary artists such as J K Rowling, James MacMillan and Jack Vettriano.” Sunday Times (UK) 06/03/01

Monday June 4

A MATTER OF RESPECT? In March, a federal judge in San Antonio ruled that the city had illegally eliminated funding of an arts group because city officials didn’t like the views the group expressed. Was the decision a “victory for freedom of expression” or is it “judicial over-reaching,” interfering with the right of the city to determine who gets support? “This ruling helps educate us all to see just what is the role of art in speaking for those who are different or express unpopular views.” Dallas Morning News 06/04/01

OUTSIDE PERSPECTIVES: The Irish Arts Council and a partnership including the Irish Times and the national airline are bring critics from outside Ireland to observe and comment on Irish culture. Irish Times 06/03/01

A LITTLE CULTURAL DEBATE: As the British election gets closer, the Conservatives and Labour parties are duking it out over arts policy. Labour says the Conservatives’ “under-investment, misplaced priorities, and lack of organisation held back access and excellence” during the Thatcher years. Conservatives say arts policy under Labour has become too bureaucratic and controlling. The Art Newspaper 06/01/01

Sunday June 3

AIDS AND THE ARTS: AIDS has had an enormous impact on artists. “But the epidemic’s toll on the arts can’t be measured only by the sum of lost artists, their unfinished projects and unmet potential. A climate marked by caution, accommodation and a sometimes gutless superficiality is also part of the disease’s legacy.” San Francisco Chronicle 06/03/01

Friday June 1

BUSH REPLACES NEH CHIEF: President George Bush has decided to replace National Endowment for the Humanities chairman William Ferris, and will nominate Bruce Cole, a “professor of fine arts and comparative literature at the Hope School of Fine Arts at Indiana University, to a four-year term.” The New York Times 06/01/01 (one-time registration required for access)

DEFENDING THE GIFTS: Embattled Smithsonian chief Lawrence Small defends his position on accepting large donations with strings attached: “As a nation, our lives are enriched by the generosity of others. It is difficult to imagine a United States of America without the great private gifts that have helped create distinguished universities, museums and libraries. We live in an era, however, in which some regard these donations with a curious mixture of indifference and skepticism…” Washington Post 05/31/01

ENVISIONING THE E-LIBRARY: Representatives from countless U.S. public libraries met in Chicago this week to discuss everything from funding to PR. But the hottest topic was technology, and the expected rise of the e-book. “Few conclusions were reached, but that wasn’t the point. Tuesday’s meeting was much more than an example of how libraries, particularly public libraries, are willing to go to the mat to bring the newest of digital technologies to the widest of audiences.” Chicago Tribune 06/01/01

IT’S ALL ABOUT PRIORITIES: The spotlight-loving director of Canada’s National Gallery was awarded the prestigious Order of Canada recently, and his employees are pretty steamed about it. Why? They’ve all been on strike for three weeks. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 06/01/01

Thursday May 31

THEY JUST DON’T BURY THEM LIKE THEY USED TO: It used to be that Hollywood funerals were as splashy and well-attended as major movie premieres. Not so lately. “There seems to be a feeling among families of celebrities who have died that they don’t want to see pictures of the funeral on television that evening.” Nando Times (AP) 05/30/01

Wednesday May 30

GIVING TO THE ARTS: Americans donated $11.5 billion to the arts last year, an almost 4 percent increase over the previous year. The number of major mega-gifts has increased too. The reason? The economic boom of the 90s, and a slew of dot-com billionaires. “Arts institutions haven’t seen anything like this since the robber barons of the 19th century poured money into museums and libraries.” Washington Post 05/30/01

BERLIN BASHING: Doesn’t matter how you want to describe the state of Berlin these days – it’s bad, and no solutions are in sight. “The capital is impoverished and deindustrialized, completely denuded of the economic basis it once possessed, the motor of all those metropolitan dreams. Since the fall of the Wall, Berlin has forfeited almost 300,000 industrial jobs. It is the seat of a mere five corporations listed in the major stock market indexes.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 05/29/01

• Previously: BERLIN ON THE BRINK: Only a few years ago, Berlin was talking of turning itself into “the capital of Europe.” But these days, the city is mired in a financial crisis of a magnitude unseen since World War II. In the rush to cut costs, Berlin’s cultural treasures have been among the first to feel the pinch. The Guardian (London) 05/28/01

ANCIENT BRITS RIVALED GREEKS? In classic histories, the Greeks and Mediterranean peoples were portrayed as advanced, washing over the uncivilized backward northern Europeans. But one scholar says it isn’t so, and that northerners were as advanced. “The view of Stone Age Britain as backward has been skewed by our historical reliance on Greek and Roman classical texts, which were thick with prejudice and ignorant of almost anything beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar).” The Guardian (UK) 05/30/01

Tuesday May 29

DEFENDING THE TRADITIONAL FESTIVAL: Is the traditional model of the big Australian arts festival outmoded, as some critics charge? Not at all, says one festival veteran. “Unless Australian audiences repeatedly travel across the world, and are in the right place at the right time, they will never have these artistic experiences. That is, unless they are presented with them by their local festival.” Sydney Morning Herald 05/29/01

SAYING IT RIGHT… “I must tell you how to pronounce the name of our most famous painter, the one the English call ‘Van Goff’ or ‘Van Go’. That is not how we say it and it is not how he said it either. The correct Dutch way to say it is…” The Independent (UK) 05/28/01

Monday May 28

BERLIN ON THE BRINK: Only a few years ago, Berlin was talking of turning itself into “the capital of Europe.” But these days, the city is mired in a financial crisis of a magnitude unseen since World War II. In the rush to cut costs, Berlin’s cultural treasures have been among the first to feel the pinch. The Guardian (London) 05/28/01

ISN’T IT IRONIC? In the last few years, somel pundits have declared excessive irony to be one of the elements contributing to the decline of American culture and pride. Playing the role of America’s savior is… (drum roll)… earnestness. The resulting feud is “a cultural war pitting crusaders of Truth and Beauty versus the dark forces of Deconstruction and Moral Relativism.” The New Republic 05/28/01

THE 1950s – AMERICA’S MOST MULTICULTURAL? “In the funhouse mirror of official history, the ’50s are seen as our most xenophobic decade. That is exactly wrong: then, the seemingly alien cultures of Europe and Asia held endless fascination for Americans who were either back from war service abroad, their aesthetic tastes spiced a bit, or simply tired of bland domestic fare.” Movies, books, plays, music – art from abroad was more popular then than now. Time 05/18/01

Sunday May 27

MOVING FORWARD IN PHILLY: Philadelphia’s ambitious Regional Performing Arts Center is the most-anticipated new concert hall of the last two decades, but the project has been plagued by management turnover, financial questions, and conflict between RPAC’s planners and its primary tenant, the Philadelphia Orchestra. Now, with everyone concerned facing the deadline of this fall’s planned opening, things are finally starting to run smoother, but many issues remain unresolved. Philadelphia Inquirer 05/27/01

Friday May 25

QUESTIONING THE FESTIVAL MODEL: Contrary to a previous announcement that the 2000 Adelaide Festival met its box office goals and covered its expenses, it’s now revealed that the festival lost $1 million. “The old model isn’t working,” says Peter Sellars, the festival’s current director. “The losses are endemic and it’s nobody’s fault. It’s the cultural model that needs to change.” The Age (Melbourne) 05/25/01

Thursday May 24

THE POWER OF ART: Politically, Zimbabwe is a mess. But a recent arts celebration brought out the country to participate. “Poor children from the townships came to learn photography with disposable cameras. Opera fans came for a night of arias, theatre-lovers came for Shakespeare and fringe works, and just about everyone came to hear Zimbabwe’s most popular singer Oliver Mtukudzi perform on the closing night.” Daily Mail & Guardian (South Africa) 05/23/01

REFORMS FOR ITALIAN MINISTRY OF CULTURE: “Italy’s new Prime Minister, will appoint a Culture Minister… who will preside over a ministry that has just emerged from a four-year process of reform…. The shake-up goes right to the top with the creation of a new position of secretary general.” The Art Newspaper 05/24/01

Wednesday May 23

REDRAWING THE ARTS MAP: Margaret Seares is leaving as the chairperson of the Australia Arts Council. She leaves four years in which the arts funding map has been redrawn and the council and its clients have begun to think more strategically about their operations. Sydney Morning Herald 05/23/01

Tuesday May 22

IDEAS IN PICTURES: Philosophers have traditionally dwelled in the universe of words. But a new book proposes that “philosophical themes can also be represented as artistic images, not just in texts, as has traditionally been the case. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 05/22/01

Monday May 21

PHONE RAGE: Readers of the Cleveland Plain Dealer are fed up with cell phones and pagers chirping in their concert halls and theatres. Readers wrote to the paper after a story on the subject to suggest solutions: “One reader pointed out that most states – but not Ohio – have laws prohibiting concealed weapons, so why not pass laws banning concealed cell phones? ‘If someone is caught with one and it goes off during a concert, ban ’em for the rest of the season’.” The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 05/21/01

Sunday May 20

LEARNING TO BE CREATIVE: What’s wrong with today’s artists? No discipline. We’ve come to believe that the discipline of rote learning and structure is anathema to creativity. But creativity without background and knowledge and skill flops around incoherently. How about a return to traditional rigors? Mozart wouldn’t have been Mozart without it. Sunday Times (UK) 05/20/01

CONTEMPO LEAD: Vienna is about to open a new £100 million contemporary arts center – the world’s largest. It’s “the biggest investment in culture that Austria has made in more than a century. When the Museums Quartier centre for contemporary arts opens next month it will cover 60,000 square yards and turn Vienna, whose best-known cultural offspring include Gustav Klimt and Mozart, into a world centre for modern art.” The Telegraph (UK) 05/20/01

REDEMPTION THROUGH THE ARTS: Pawtucket, Rhode Island, has long been a collection of abandoned industrial buildings. But two years ago the city started an arts district to encourage the arts and revitalization of the city’s downtown. “The district comprises more than 60 blocks. Artists can waive the sales tax on art they sell there. Those who live and work in the district are also eligible for a state income-tax exclusion on any money their art generates. The city has lured two longstanding cultural institutions from Providence.” Boston Globe 05/20/01

Friday May 18

BROKE BERLIN: Berlin has major cultural ambitions, expensive cultural ambitions. But paying for them is quite another thing. Fact is Berlin doesn’t have the cash. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 05/18/01

GREEK LOVE: What is it about our ongoing fascination with things Greek? “How has the ancient Greek legacy gone through such dizzying changes since anSiquarians began digging up classical trophies for their collections half a millennium ago? The thing we call ‘classical Greece’ has been as fiercely fought over as the battlefield of Marathon. Look at all the ways it’s been used to reflect what we need to see of ourselves.” Financial Times 05/18/01

THOSE UNRULY CHESS CROWDS: Playing chess had become popular at the Minneapolis Public Library. But last week the library banned the game after spectators became unruly. Nando Times (AP) 05/16/01

Thursday May 17

WHEN ART MATTERED: “The volcano-like eruption of modernism seems distant, now that the Revolution has become a TV show, as the Renaissance. Its doctrines are exhausted, its once nerve-wracking fragments ensconced in museums, and the whole thing made sleepily irrelevant by the rise of mass media. But it was the Biggest Bang in the last 500 years of our cultural history, and if you lean over its crater you can still hear and feel it, the molten craziness and hurtling euphoria of that uncanny moment when for the last time High Art still mattered enough to hate.” Salon 05/16/01

THE NEXT ADELAIDE: Only a couple of days before the program for the next Adelaide Arts Festival is to be announced, the festival chooses its artistic director for the 2004 festival (one of the plum jobs in Australian arts). It’s 35-year-old Stephen Page: “My sacred religion is being indigenous and my responsibility now is to be a visionary and bring this smorgasbord of art around to this sacred ground here.” The Age (Melbourne) 05/17/01

Wednesday May 16

NO TAKEBACKS ALLOWED: In 1997 the mayor and city council of San Antonio decided to take back a grant to a controversial arts group. Now a federal judge has ruled against the city and says the grant cannot be revoked. “Once a governing body chooses to fund art, the Constitution requires that it be funded in a viewpoint-neutral manner, that is, without discriminating among recipients on the basis of their ideology.” The New York Times 05/16/01 (one-time registration required for access)

FOLK ARTS FOR PROFIT: “Efforts are being made to revive the crafts of Kyrgyzstan and the other countries along the ancient Silk Road that spans Central Asia. The impetus is part reverence for tradition and part recognition that a thriving folk art industry will bring economic benefits, no small matter in former Soviet republics where half the people live below the poverty line.” The New York Times 05/16/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Tuesday May 15

“THE ERA OF HIGH-PRICED EGO AWARDS IS OVER,” said Joan Chalmers, in announcing a major change in the prestigious Chalmers Awards. For 29 years the awards – $25,000 each to thirteen winners – kept Canadian singers, playwrights, painters, poets, and other artists afloat. From now on, newly-minted Chalmers Grants will go in smaller amounts to a larger number of individuals. Toronto Star 05/15/01

Monday May 14

A LID FOR LINCOLN CENTER? New York’s Lincoln Center is planning a ten-year $1.5 million makeover. So what’s in the works? Rumors are flying that a dome to cover the central plaza is being considered, among other ideas. The New York Times 05/14/01 (one-time registration required for access)

ALL IN THE PLANNING: “Today, everybody needs to establish a business plan: universities, schools, theatres, orchestras, opera and dance companies. Since businesses run everything, it was felt that it would generally make for smoother sailing if everything were run like a business.” So what happens to the art? Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/14/01

Thursday May 10

BEIJING CRACKDOWN: China has issued new regulations governing what is and is not permissible for the republic’s artists. Any work deemed “bloody, violent, or erotic” by Chinese censors could result in a lengthy jail term for the artist who creates it. BBC 05/10/01

IN-COUNTRY – THE BATTLE FOR NATIONAL CULTURES: Canadian support for their own culture may seem impressive from the outside, but take away the loaded deck and what’s left? Are cultural subsidies the only way to preserve national cultures? ArtsJournal.com 05/09/01

GOING CORPORATE: Art school graduates are finding themselves increasingly in demand, and not just in the waitering trade. “In a field once stigmatized as impractical, graduates in fine arts, communication design, photography, animation and interior design no longer have to worry about life as a ‘starving artist.'” Detroit Free Press 05/09/01

Wednesday May 9

POLITICAL PUZZLE: Hollywood loved Bill Clinton and Al Gore and gave Gore much money for his campaign. In return Gore attacked Hollywood for its portrayal of violence. By contrast, though Hollywood doesn’t like Bush and doesn’t support him, Bush has refrained from taking up a moralistic tone against the entertainment industry, even when his staunchest supporters would like him to. Los Angeles Times 05/06/01

FRANCHISING FOR FUN AND PROFIT: From the Guggenheim to the Bolshoi, arts groups are cloning or “franchising” their brands to grow their influence (and get cash). The Age (Melbourne) 04/09/01

Tuesday May 8

SMITHSONIAN FUROR ABATES, SOMEWHAT: The new head of the Smithsonian provoked a flurry of complaints when he announced plans to shut down some parts of the vast institution. Those complaints – from his staff, from independent scientists, and from the public – worked. The shut-down plans have been scrapped, at least for now. Washington Post 05/07/01

Sunday May 6

PROTECTING NATIONAL CULTURES: France has asked Canada to join in “the battle against the homogenizing of national cultures. The idea is that Canada, along with other G7 nations and the countries of the European Union, will move closer to the strict rules which France has already adopted to protect its film, television and book industries against U.S. pop culture. Proud France has realized that it can’t win the fight alone.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/05/01

A TALE OF TWO TOWNS: The strength of a city’s arts community has long been an important measure of quality of life. But small towns often have to scrabble for artistic leftovers, and struggle to develop a real arts scene. Two towns in New England are bucking the trend, however, and the results have been pleasantly surprising. Hartford Courant 05/06/01

Friday May 4

MET REJOINS LINCOLN CENTER: In January the Metropolitan Opera shocked its sister organizations at Lincoln Center when it declared it would pull out of a massive rebuilding effort for the multi-theatre complex. Now the Met has joined back up on the project. The New York Times 05/04/01 (one-time registration required for access)

ALL IS FORGIVEN? The Canadian government’s largesse of $560 million support for the arts doesn’t hide the fact that in the past decade Canadian artists have become “a community of beggars. Even as arts leaders and politicians paid lip service to the importance of the arts, governments mercilessly slashed subsidies.” Toronto Star 05/03/01

IN THE MONEY: The Readers Digest Fund agrees to turn over $1.7 billion in assets to 13 arts institutions so they can invest the money themselves. The Met Museum alone gets $424 million. The New York Times 05/04/01 (one-time registration required for access)

DOESN’T COMPUTE: Every school in the world seems to be on the technology hunt, trying to get as many students as possible in front of computers. But one expert wonders why. “They’ve been around for so long that we should be seeing the benefit but the results just don’t seem to be there.” Sydney Morning Herald 05/04/01

FREE FRENCH MUSEUMS: Strikes by workers protesting working hours blocked Parisian museums from selling tickets Thursday, so museums let visitors in free. “A spokeswoman for the Louvre, said the strikes had already forced the museum to lose $822,000 in ticket sales. Last week alone, 250 pre-reserved group tours had to be canceled.” NJ Online (AP) 05/03/01

THE NEW CENSORSHIP: Australian censors are having a difficult time rating new entertainment forms because the amount of embedded multimedia material has ballooned. A DVD movie release, for example, can have 900 minutes worth of linked materials. How do you rate it? The Age (Melbourne) 05/04/01

THE COST OF THE FUTURE: The head of the Smithsonian has defended his controversial proposals to reorganize the institution. He says cutting programs and shifting priorities are necessary to “bring its programs into the modern day.” Washington Post 05/04/01

Thursday May 3

MORE MONEY FOR CANADIAN ARTS: “Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, carrying out a campaign pledge, announced on Wednesday an infusion of more than half a billion Canadian dollars to boost the country’s cash-strapped arts and cultural sectors…. Chretien said it was the biggest new investment in the arts in Canada in 40 years.” Not everyone is happy with the idea, however. Some arts groups think the funding is badly distributed, and some tax experts complain that it’s “welfare for cultural industries, and they question where the money is coming from in the absence of a federal budget.” iwon.com (Reuters) and National Post (Candada) 05/03/01

• RESTORING PREVIOUS CUTS: The increase in support is welcome, of course, but it must be pointed out that the extra money is something of a giveback to the arts. “Between 1990-1991 and 1997-1998, budgetary cutbacks in government spending reduced culture-related spending at the federal and provincial levels by nearly 7.8 per cent and 2.9 per cent, respectively.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/03/01

TIRED OF GIVING: A new poll in Scotland says people are fed up with bailing out the country’s cash-hungry arts groups. The poll shows “74 per cent of people are opposed to subsidising opera and ballet using taxpayers’ money, including 70 per cent of the middle class. Four out of five Scots also want the BBC television license fee abolished completely.” The Scotsman 05/03/01

THOSE DELICATE NEW YORKERS: So in sensitive New York, the mayor needs to protect residents from the big bad influence of controversial art. In London, we’d look, smile, and walk on to the next shocking thing. The Times (London) 05/03/01

• INDECENT PROPOSAL: A member of New York mayor Rudy Giuliani’s Cultural Commission says he won’t join the mayor’s new “decency panel” because he “doesn’t believe in censorship.” New York Post 05/02/01

ART AT THE LOCAL LEVEL: Last month the British government did away with regional arts boards. A blow against the arts? Maybe not. “The regional arts boards were created in the dog days of the Thatcher cultural revolution to make it as difficult as possible for undeserving arty types to get their hands on taxpayers’ money.” The Guardian (UK) 05/02/01

THE NEXT BILBAO? Officials of Philadelphia’s Regional Performing Arts Center planned a New York “coming out” for their project last night, inviting critics from around the country to see a presentation on the center. “The New York event, which was months in the making, had been designed to position the city as the new Bilbao and the concert hall as its Guggenheim Museum,” and despite the resignation of the project’s director a couple days before, the Philadelphians stayed on message. Philadelphia Inquirer 05/03/01

• DIFFICULT LABOR: The new arts center is plagued with problems. Money, of course, is problematic. And none of the major arts groups – the Philadelphia Orchestra included – has signed leases to perform in the hall. “Fees, of course, have been a major issue – although most groups have now accepted the fact that the arts center has reneged on its promise that rents in the two new halls would be no higher than rents paid by the groups in their current facilities.” Philadelphia Inquirer 05/03/01

Wednesday May 2

ARTS CZAR QUITS: The president of Philadelphia’s $265 million Regional Performing Arts Center currently under construction, has abruptly resigned 7 1/2 months before Philly’s answer to Lincoln Center is scheduled to open. Stephanie Naidoff is praised for bringing a lot of money into the project, but has been criticized by arts leaders for her inexperience in non-profic management. Philadelphia Inquirer 05/02/01

EASY TARGETS: Threats by US senators and the Federal Trade Commission to regulate distribution of music it deems unsuitable for young listeners has free speech advocates steaming. Why is this regulatory issue so popular when there’s no hard evidence supporting a clampdown? Village Voice 05/02/01

• A HISTORY OF MUSIC CONTROVERSY: From Peter Paul and Mary to Stairway to Heaven to Louie Louie, politicians and parents have found something to get uptight about. Today’s “threat to society” is tomorrow’s classic – a chronology. Village Voice 05/02/01

THE FUTURE OF COPYRIGHT: Does the US Digital Millennium Copyright Law violate the First Amendment by excessively curbing the ‘fair uses’ people can make of copyrighted works? Critics say yes, and federal judges in New York seem interested in hearing arguments. The outcome of the case will have enormous implications in the trade of intellectual property. Inside.com 05/02/01

FUNDRAISING DOWNTURN? How will the current economic downturn affect arts institutions? “What happens to all the ambitious capital campaigns under way? The planned exhibitions? The expansions? Fortunately, museums say, they got while the getting was good, starting their major capital campaigns while plenty of money was floating around so that now they are nearing those goals rather than just beginning to set them.” The New York Times 05/02/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Tuesday May 1

THE IDEA OF PROTECTION: “The world is caught up in an explosion of ideas and inventions. As a testament to the extent to which they are revered, and their status in the global village, they now warrant their annual celebration. Last Thursday marked the first World Intellectual Property Day.” Sydney Morning Herald 05/01/01

Monday April 30

CHANGING FACE OF NONPROFITS: “Nonprofit arts centers across America are facing a multitude of increasingly challenging tasks: audience development; community relations; financial stability; and getting quality ‘product’ to put on stage. Once the genteel home that readily opened its doors to serve local arts groups and the occasional touring show, arts presenting now has simply become big business.” Hartford Courant 04/29/01

Sunday April 29

SELLING SOUTH AFRICA: Much of the tourism in South Africa these days is around Aprtheid-era landmarks. It’s a little disconcerting – and misleading. Daily Mail & Guardian (South Africa) 04/29/01

NEA GIVES FOR EDUCATION: The National Endowment for the Arts has given a $500,000 for arts education. “The grant went to Young Audiences Inc., a 49-year-old arts education organization, to create Internet sites for a national program called Arts for Learning.” Washington Post 04/28/01

• THE NEA AFTER IVEY: What does Bill Ivey’s resignation as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts mean to the NEA? Probably not much… Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 04/29/01

Friday April 27

BILL IVEY’S NEA STYLE: Not many post mortems yet on departing National Endowment for the Arts chairman Bill Ivey’s term. Here’s an earlier assessment. “To be sure, his willingness to avoid language that strikes some as elitist has helped the NEA’s standing both on and off Capitol Hill. But does it really help the agency fulfill its mission to improve the arts in America?” The New Republic 04/26/01

WHY SPORT AND NOT ART? When international athletes come to Australia to compete, their every move is disected in the press. But when a large gathering of artists comes, there’s nary a mention. Why is that? Sydney Morning Herald 04/27/01

Thursday April 26

AFRAID TO BE CREATIVE: Is the reason we’re creative, the reason we create culture because we’re afraid? After “a survey of existing literature from social scientists,” a Hungarian sociologist concludes that they have undervalued the role of fear as a motivating force in the creation of culture.” Central European Review 04/25/01

BLAME THE CULTURE? The problems in aboriginal communities are often blamed on colonization. But an Australian anthropologist says “immense social problems being experienced in Aboriginal communities do not stem only from a history of colonial conquest, prejudice and racism but may also be maintained by certain indigenous traditions and beliefs.” Sydney Morning Herald 04/26/01

Wednesday April 25

NEA CHIEF TO LEAVE JOB: Bill Ivey has resigned as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Ivey, appointed by Bill Clinton had said he’d like to stay on in the job in the Bush administration, but evidently the administration had other plans. “Ivey’s quiet manner was credited as setting a harmonious tone with Congress.” Washington Post 04/25/01

SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY: Ten years ago newly-elected Michigan governor John Engler announced plans to “eliminate the state arts council and drastically cut public funding to the state’s cultural institutions,” earning the wrath of the state’s arts organizations. In a bizarre turnaround, this week Michigan arts advocacy group ArtServe is awarding Engler a special award for his service to the arts. Detroit Free Press 04/24/01

Tuesday April 24

HEADS ARE ROLLING: Venezuela’s president Hugo Chávez has launched a campaign to free Venezuela from what he calls a “rancid oligarchy.” And the first victim of this “cultural revolution is Sofía Imber. “Imber, 76, an art critic, founded the Caracas Museum of Contemporary Art in 1971 in a garage and made it into one Latin America’s most admired arts institutions.” The New York Times 04/23/01 (one-time registration required for access)

SOME HELP FOR THE STATES: “The Wallace-Reader’s Digest Funds, a leading supporter of arts and cultural programs, is giving state arts agencies $9.6 million tobroaden interest in the arts. The initiative, which the New York-based foundation plans to announce today, will help the agencies rethink the way they operate.” Washington Post 04/24/01

NO, AUSTRALIA LOVES THE ARTS: Last week a report was released that said audiences for the arts in Australia are declining. But a survey of major arts organizations contradicts the report’s finding. Indeed, audiences are growing… Sydney Morning Herald 04/23/01

Monday April 23

STILL NO SPACE: San Francisco arts groups have been losing their spaces in the past year as rents – fueled by the dotcom boom – went through the roof. So now that the dotcoms have crashed, has the space crunch eased? Not at all. “Buildings are vacating, true, but the offices they offer are of little use to arts groups and bands needing space outfitted for performance and rehearsal purposes.” And even if they were – who could afford the rents? San Francisco Chronicle 04/22/01

THE 3 STOOGES AS ART. NO, REALLY: A California artist makes drawings of The Three Stooges, and sells them on T-shirts and lithographs. Heirs to the Stooges’ estates have charged – so far successfully – that they should control the image because it’s merchandise. The artist is asking the state’s Supreme Court to rule that it’s art. Los Angeles Times 04/23/01

Sunday April 22

BOSTON T1 PARTY: Perhaps it’s still a sign of its immaturity as an artform that art created in a digital medium is all lumped together as “digital art.” After all, digital includes music, computer and video art. The biggest digital art festival opens in Boston, home to one of the largest communities of digital artists. Boston Globe 04/21/01

• TECHNO-ART NOTHING NEW: The uneasy embrace between art and technology is hardly a recent phenomenon. Almost since the industrial revolution first made machinery a part of everyday life, artists have struggled to incorporate the latest innovations into their work, with varying degrees of success. The New York Times 04/22/01 (one-time registration required for access)

A TRANSFORMATIVE PROJECT? Dallas, never a city known for its ground-breaking architecture, is in the early planning stages for a massive new Center for the Performing Arts. The project would have as its centerpiece a 2,400-seat opera house, and is expected to cost some $250 million. Many obstacles have yet to be overcome, but expectations are high that the center would transform Dallas’s Arts District into a cultural strip rivalling those of cities like Philadelphia and Chicago. Dallas Morning News 04/22/01

NEW ARTS MUSEUM: Britain’s Tate Museum plans to open a library for all the arts. The new facility will showcase previously unseen papers and sketches from leading figures from the past century.” The Guardian (UK) 04/21/01

BACKPEDALING FURIOUSLY: “School children in South Africa’s Gauteng Province – which encompasses Johannesburg – will continue to read [the works of] Shakespeare despite criticism that they are racist or sexist.” BBC 04/22/01

Friday April 20

ARTS DECLINE: A new report says Aussies are deserting the arts. “Live theatre was the biggest loser, with only 41 per cent attending compared to 49 per cent previously. Musicals, ballet and contemporary dance, which all recorded increases in 1999, fell in 2000. Only 37 per cent attended musicals, 18 per cent classical music recitals, 11 per cent saw the ballet and 9 per cent a contemporary dance. Even arthouse cinema attendance fell 5 per cent to 27 per cent.” The Age (Melbourne) 04/20/01

REBOUNDING RUDY: Every year New York mayor Rudy Giuliani proposes big cuts in funding culture in the city. Every year the city council proposes restoring those cuts. But this year “the council’s preliminary budget response also included a novel addition: a proposal to create ‘cultural zones’ for promoting economic development in each of the city’s five boroughs. Backstage 04/19/01

INSTANT MESSAGE/INSTANT ART: “Artists often function as new media’s shock troops. They adopt new technology early, and then find uses for it that the technologists never dreamt of. Now, SMS messaging – one of the crudest and most popular forms of new media – is finding its way into the artists’ canon. And that’s not all: ring tones and even the vibrating alerts are all being picked apart by artists keen to comment on society’s latest craze.” The Guardian (UK) 04/19/01

Thursday April 19

AFRICAN ART STRUGGLES: For all its triumphs since the end of apartheid, South Africa is still a country in transition, and no aspect of society can be completely independent of the national political vibe. Artists are particularly affected: since most governmental energy is expended trying to keep the country from boiling over, art is a secondary concern, leading to a tightly-knit community of artists determined to create significant works. Boston Globe 04/19/01

Wednesday April 18

OF ART AND POLITICS: In Australia, “once there was a bedrock, bipartisan tradition of support for free expression in the arts – cultural incubation at arm’s length. But that notion has been undermined in the culture wars that have swirled around politics for the past decade.” Now, those who make decisions about the direction of arts are increasingly beholden to political interests. Sydney Morning Herald 04/18/01

POLITICAL INSULT AS AN ART FORM: To judge from the new edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations, political discourse in the past decade has been just one insult after another. Not surprisingly, perhaps, the British do it with more panache than the Americans, as in a reference to one of Tony Blair’s aides: “Peter isn’t the Prince of Darkness – though he may be Lady Macbeth.” The Guardian 04/16/01

Tuesday April 17

THE PULITZERS: The Pulitzer Prizes were awarded yesterday in journalism and the arts. Winners included John Corigliano (Music, for his Symphony #2), Michael Chabon (Fiction, for his novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay), and David Auburn (Drama, for his play Proof.) Click here for the complete winner’s list. Washington Post 04/17/01

SANTA FE STYLE: Santa Fe New Mexico is a small town out in the middle of the desert. But it’s always attracted an artistic crowd. The opening of several new arts facilities in recent years has contributed to a thriving cultural life. The New York Times 04/17/01 (one-time registrationrequired for access)

ARTISTS PLEA: Hundreds of Canadian artists, writers, actors and filmmakers have signed a personal appeal to Prime Minister Jean Chretien asking him to defend the rights of political activists at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City next week. CBC 04/17/01

TWO WORDS – DUCT TAPE: It is a problem as old as the hills: what to do about those rude, clueless audience members who decide to ruin the day of everyone around them by talking through a performance? A critic whose blistering reaction to one such miscreant once wound up as a New Yorker story has some suggestions. National Post (from the Philadelphia Inquirer) 04/17/01

Monday April 16

POP GOES THE WEASEL: The US Congress has been pressuring the National Endowment for the Humanities to pursue more study of popular culture. “In the process, it is neglecting its core goal of the past 35 years: to support fundamental research, preserve scholarly materials and the sources that document the American past, and support educators who teach the humanities.” Christian Science Monitor 04/16/01

FALLING BEHIND: Arguably, Toronto is Canada’s cultural capital. But the city has stagnated in recent years. “Almost every U.S. city of any consequence has been making dramatic and expensive improvements to its cultural amenities even while Toronto has opted for retrenchment and inertness – counting too heavily on a reputation for comparative cultural sophistication that now seems shaky and outdated.” Toronto Star 04/15/01

• CULTURE ENVY: You can’t tell the players without a scorecard. Here’s what American cities have been investing in culture compared to Toronto. Toronto Star 04/15/01
• ROADMAP: What Toronto ought to do to pull out of its cultural dive. Toronto Star 04/15/01

BYE BYE DECENCY: Come next winter New York will have a new mayor. Candidates say one of the first things they will drop is current mayor Rudy Giuliani’s art “decency panel.” “Giuliani has made the city the laughingstock in art capitals around the world,” says one candidate. New York Post 04/16/01

Sunday April 15

CAPITAL OF WHAT… Ten years ago Glasgow was named the EU’s European Capital of Culture. It worked, and Glasgow was transformed. Now every city vies for the designation. But it’s a dotty idea, writes one critic. God help us. The Observer (London) 04/15/01

Tuesday April 10

SMITHSONIAN CUTS DEEP: The head of the Smithsonian Institution has announced that five major divisions of the Washington, D.C.-based institution will be eliminated in the next budget cycle, along with 200 jobs. The cuts are seen as an effort to modernize the Smithsonian, and to work within the cuts Congress has been making in its budget over the last few years. Washington Post 04/10/01

THE MAN WHO MEASURES ARTS: David Throsby has authored several pioneering arts economics studies in Australia since the 1970s. He believes that “to concentrate only on those few artists who work full time at their art misrepresents the arts economy. It’s bigger and more complex than that. Almost all artists are part-timers, a situation as true in Europe and America as it is in Australia. On this theoretical basis he set out to map and measure the arts in Australia over the past two or three decades.” Sydney Morning Herald 04/10/01

LOSING ARTISTIC CAPITAL: Ottawa is losing its artists at an alarming rate. Canada’s capitol city spends far less on the arts than the country’s other major cities, and its sparse facilities are often in disrepair. A new report sounds the alarm. Ottawa Citizen 04/10/01

Monday April 9

CONDUCTOR MARISS JANSONS is pessimistic. “I feel that the world is going in the wrong direction. Although the material side of life may be getting better, we are neglecting the spiritual side, including art and music. Political leaders should regard it as an obligation to introduce young people to the arts. Instead, they talk about the subject as a luxury or entertainment – take it or leave it.” Financial Times 04/09/01

Sunday April 8

PERFORMANCE PAY: Germany is attempting to improve the quality of teaching in its universities and plans to peg teachers’ pay to performance. “This means that in future, professors will receive a bonus in addition to their basic salary only if their research, scholarship and teaching are judged to warrant it.” But will the plan have the intended effect? Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 04/07/01

Friday April 6

WIN THE BATTLE LOSE THE WAR? Things have been rather quiet on the culture wars front. Does that mean, after a decade or more of turmoil the culture wars are over? “While the current calm may be real, it’s only a temporary phenomenon. If anything, the cultural battle lines will only grow starker in years to come.” The New Republic 04/05/01 

Thursday April 5

INSTITUTIONAL INDECENCY: New York mayor Rudy Giuliani names a 20-member “decency commission to evaluate art the city funds. Giuliani says: “It is certainly appropriate for this advisory group to take a look at what standards, if any, should be applied, (given that) the city of New York currently provides $115 million in annual operating funding to cultural institutions.” The New York Times 04/05/01 (one-times registration required)

• PAGING MAYOR GIULIANI: A painting of the Virgin Mary clad in a floral bikini is sparking outrage in New Mexico. Catholic activists are furious at the work, which is part of an exhibit at Santa Fe’s Museum of International Folk Art. BBC 04/05/01
• DON’T LOOK FOR THEM IN BROOKLYN: America’s First and Second Ladies made a much-ballyhooed trip to an art museum last week, and the site appeared to have been carefully chosen to minimize any potential controversy, particularly in light of Mrs. Cheney’s lifelong crusade against what she calls “indecent art.” Chicago Tribune 04/05/01

ENDOWMENTS ON THE HOT SEAT: It is a peculiarity of the U.S. system of subsidizing the arts that, every so often, the heads of the two major federal endowment funds are called to Capitol Hill to justify their existence. This year, the process is even more delicate than usual: the NEA and NEH have made forward progress since their budgets were slashed to near-nonexistent levels in the early 1990s, but with a Republican in the White House, everyone is treading softly. Washington Post 04/05/01

Wednesday April 4

CANADA’S INFERIORITY COMPLEX: The debate continues over the state of Canadian arts, and whether a huge population is necessary to be a major player on a global scale: “Pick any art form. Opera, for example. There are filthy rich U.S. opera companies producing a new work every year, while Canada summons its national wealth for a decade to do the same thing in one city. And of course there are superb works of art created by Americans. But have you noticed how few they are compared with the storm sewer of costly ca-ca gushing therefrom?” The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 04/04/01

Tuesday April 3

ADELAIDE MAKEOVER: Peter Sellars says he’s going to “reinvent” 2002’s Adelaide Festival. “I’ve explained to the board that this will be the smallest festival that they have ever produced, but the most expensive two years that they will have ever lived through.” Sydney Morning Herald 04/03/01

• BEHIND ANOTHER SELLARBRATION: He’s America’s oldest enfant terrible. Peter Sellars is directing the next edition of Australia’s Adelaide Festival, and has already changed its focus from being the traditional international potpourri to one concentrating on Aussie artists. But before getting too excited about Sellars’ plans it might be instructive for Adelaidians to take a look at his track record… The Idler 07/17/00 

Monday April 2

BETWEEN TASTE AND MONEY: Are art and commerce incompatible? Despite claims to the contrary, Hollywood seems to think so. But the art/commerce connection was not always thus… Reason 04/02/01

Sunday April 1

ARTS AND THE US CONGRESS: New chairmen of American Congressional committees responsible for funding the arts may not have much track record on arts issues, but lobbying groups are hopeful. Backstage 03/28/01

Friday March 30

THANKLESS JOBS: Who wants to head up an arts organization these day? Really. Do it poorly and the world dissects your mistakes. Do it well and it can be even worse. ArtsJournal.com 03/30/01

ONLINE CULTURE: The British government wants to get the country’s cultural institutions online and is expected to spend £150 million to fund Culture Online, a project to bring art to the people. The government conceded that with the downturn in the commercial dot.coms sector, that “venture capitalists are unlikely to fund major new internet start-ups aimed at culture and learning in the near future, and that it is up to government to take the initiative.” The Art Newspaper 03/30/01

Wednesday March 28

GOVERNMENT AND THE ARTS: The British government’s massive new arts funding program inserts the government into the business of culture to an unprecedented degree. “In four years, Tony Blair has gone from hosting Cool Britannia parties to investing an extra £100 million in the traditional arts.” But shouldn’t artists be protesting? The Telegraph (London) 03/28/01

MORE SCOTTISH OPERA: The Edinburgh Festival announces its new season – and it contains more opera productions – 10-12 – than in recent memory. Why? Festival surveys show that opera audiences make special trips for opera, and not so much for the popular music that has marked recent festivals. Glasgow Herald 03/18/01

Tuesday March 27

VILAR STRIKES AGAIN: Alberto Vilar has “pledged $20 million to New York University for an arts scholarship program that will draw students from around the world to New York City. The initiative, which is to be formally announced later this week, is to be modeled on the Rhodes scholarship program.” The New York Times 03/27/01 (one-time registration required for access)

WHAT DOES POP CULTURE OWE THE ARTS? The NYTimes’ Frank Rich delivers this year’s Nancy Hanks address: Entertainment is stealing our best artistic directors and creative artists. “There’s nothing wrong with this per se, but you’d think some of these companies doing the raiding might want to give back—not just in terms of what they may hand out in the way of donations to cultural institutions, but in terms of how they respect, acknowledge and further America’s arts in the many cultural spaces they rule.” ArtsUSA.org (PDF) 03/19/01

GOING GREEK: Nearly everything these days seems to be based on Greek myth. Highbrow culture, lowbrow music videos, and even many of those new-fangled corporate names are nothing more than adaptations of some of the oldest stories on record. Why the interest, and what does it say about our society? Hartford Courant 03/27/01

Monday March 26

AUSTRALIA’S ARTS AWARDS: The Helpmann Awards – the Australian performing arts answer to the Tony Awards in New York and the Oliviers in London – are presented. The Olympic Games’ opening ceremony won the Best Special Event/Performance prize. Sydney Morning Herald 03/26/01

Sunday March 25

RECONCILING THE PAST: Ever since the horrors of the Third Reich led to Germany’s decimation and subsequent isolation nearly 60 years ago, German artists have found themselves in a delicate position. Prior to the rise of National Socialism (Naziism), Germans had claimed a certain cultural superiority, and, in fields like music, it was hard to debate them. But can a country that spent more than a decade destroying, stealing, and desecrating art of all kinds ever again claim to be an artistic paradise? Frankfurter Allgemaine Zeitung 03/23/01

Thursday March 22

BIG BRITISH BUDGET BOOST: The Arts Council of England has announced huge increases in funding for several of the nation’s top arts organizations, including the Royal National Theatre, the English National Ballet, and the Royal Shakespeare Company, which will see a whopping £3 million increase in its budget. “Peter Hewitt, chief executive of the Arts Council of England, told BBC News Online: ‘This is the best budget for the arts for a very long time. We hope the funding will energise and re-invigorate the arts.'” BBC 03/22/01

FOOT-AND-MOUTH AND THE ARTS: Arts organizations are being affected by Britain’s outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. Several rural museums have closed down while the disease is not contained, and the prominent Hay Festival is considering canceling this year’s edition. BBC 03/22/01

Wednesday March 21

FILTERING FREE SPEECH? A controversial new law requires public libraries to use internet filtering software (to screen for porn) or lose federal funding. The ACLU and the American Library Association is suing to overturn the law. “The law is unconstitutional because it’s requiring public libraries to use blocking software that will result in constitutionally protected material being blocked.” Wired 03/21/01

NEW APPROACH TO CULTURE: The British government ambitious new plan for cultural funding means to make over the country’s cultural landscape. “As well as new funds to back exceptional talent, the plan includes giving every primary school pupil the chance to learn to play a musical instrument.” BBC 03/20/01

• MAKING PLANS: Plan guarantees funding for six years to selected arts groups. That way, theatres, opera companies and the like will be able to plan ahead. The Independent (London) 03/21/01
• ALL IN FAVOR… “We’re now looking five to seven years ahead so working with the government on the same timescale could give us enormous freedom – the chance to develop effective partnerships with education, business and other artists.” The Guardian (London) 03/21/01
• Previously: HERO FOR THE ARTS: Britain’s Labour Party has delivered for arts and culture. “General funding for the arts – that 60 per cent increase over five years – is said to be set to increase yet further. The recent £25 million extra for more than 190 regional theatres is worth dwelling on. Not only have these theatres received a life-changing subsidy, but the money has been deployed shrewdly.” The Observer (London) 03/18/01

NO CUT IN NEA FUNDS… YET: The White House budget for 2002 includes $120 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, the same as last year. “Still, no one at the NEA is gloating. Some Washington observers say that while Bush hasn’t proposed immediate cuts to the NEA, it’s likely that such cuts will be made down the road, particularly considering the president’s tax plan.” Washington Post 03/21/01

$12 MILLION FOR ARTS ED: Annenberg Foundation gives $12 million to New York schools for arts education. So far Annenberg money has helped form partnerships between 80 public schools and 135 cultural institutions. Christian Science Monitor 03/20/01

Monday March 19

AXING THE A&E SECTION: The Minnesota Daily, which boasts of being the largest college newspaper in America, recently axed its A&E coverage, which managers said was “little read” and not attracting advertisers. Yet the section had many fans and “has often rivaled the Twin Cities’ newspapers as the voice of the city’s arts scene. It had continued that tradition recently by being, in an increasingly conventional campus paper, a sort of all-arts Village Voice Literary Supplement.” Chronicle of Higher Education 03/19/01

ENGLISH THE CONQUEROR: “If you put to any European the simple proposition that everyone should speak English, you probably would not be surprised to learn that 70 per cent of Britons and 82 per cent of Dutch people concur. You might raise an eyebrow at the 76 per cent of Italians who share this point of view. But you would be gobsmacked – dare I say bouleversé ? – to discover that in France, home of that supremely civilising international force la langue Française, an astounding 66 per cent of those questioned in a Eurobarometer poll, said it would be a good idea if the people of Europe spoke English.” The Observer (London) 03/18/01

HERO FOR THE ARTS: Britain’s Labour Party has delivered for arts and culture. “General funding for the arts – that 60 per cent increase over five years – is said to be set to increase yet further. The recent £25 million extra for more than 190 regional theatres is worth dwelling on. Not only have these theatres received a life-changing subsidy, but the money has been deployed shrewdly.” The Observer (London) 03/18/01

Sunday March 18

AND IT’S MORE APPETIZING THAN BROCCOLI: New research has demonstrated what most of the world has always assumed to be true – exposure to art is good for you. Several recent studies have shown that children for whom art was a regular part of life developed greater cognitive skill and generally became more well-rounded individuals. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 03/18/01

A LEGACY TAKEN FOR GRANTED? Ninette de Valois’s death last week was strangely under-reported, even though she had been a major figure in Britain’s cultural life. Maybe, at the age of 102, she had simply outlived her fame. But “it is de Valois’s misfortune to die at a time when our culture has shifted so profoundly that we are in danger of taking that legacy for granted. Access has replaced excellence as a buzzword; celebrity for its own sake is more important than fame for achievement; ‘popular’ is a value judgement rather than a description.” The Telegraph (London) 03/17/01

BEANTOWN EXPANSION: Boston is the aristocrat of American cities, and the sheer age and history of the place have been enough to guarantee the continued existence of countless venerable arts organizations. But Boston lags far behind most other cities in the amount of space available to artists – no new theatres have been built in nearly 100 years, for instance. Now, an ambitious plan attempts to make up for lost time and space. Boston Herald 03/18/01

Friday March 16

BACK AT TOOTHLESS CRITICS: Why the thumbs up/down review has damaged critics’ power to set agendas. ArtsJournal.com 3/14/01

TAKING THE BBC TO TASK: Writers AS Byatt and Alan Plater have launched a public attack against the BBC for failing to respect artists’ rights and using inequitable contracts which force artists to waive all rights to their work in perpetuity. “They can’t decide whether they’re a public service or market-driven organisation — they’re public service when they’re buying and market-driven when they’re selling.” The Independent (London) 3/16/01

Thursday March 15

SCIENCE OVER ART: Is it true that  “the arts and humanities have always reflected the society they are part of, but over the last one hundred years, they have spoken with less and less confidence?” Author Peter Watson contends that the intellectual history of the 20th Century is that of coming to terms with the ideas of science rather than the arts… Christian Science Monitor 03/15/01

COMMON CENS(OR): “The conventional wisdom has it that American censors have always been right-wing, at least in the days before political correctness. But Conservatives and progressives have made common cause in many of the moral crusades and moral panics of the last century – and in its broad outlines, one can see the not-quite-unusual alliance taking shape even earlier.” Reason 03/01

THE VALUE OF ART? Britain’s creative sector, including music, design and advertising, generates more than £100 billion a year and employs more than one million people, according to an audit published by the secretary of state for culture.” The Guardian (London) 03/14/01

NOT ALL EXPLANATIONS ARE CREATED EQUAL: After the Quebec minister of culture said that “there’s really no such thing as an Ontario culture,” people in Ontario took umbrage. The Premier of Quebec explained that what his culture minister meant was that Ontario, unlike Quebec, does not have a “national” culture, because it is not a nation. CBC 03/14/01

HOW THE MIGHTY… King David is the latest hero to fall victim to historians and archaeologists. “If David existed at all, he was little more than a tribal chieftain…. David was hardly the flawed-but-noble hero depicted in the Scriptures. He was more likely a ruthless, homicidal scoundrel whose legend was later embellished and sanitized to give a demoralized people a much needed folk hero.” US News 03/19/01

AWARDING ATTENTION: Canada inaugurates a set of national arts awards with the hope of getting artists some notoriety. “What’s afoot is an effort to undermine that very provincial thing that happens here – that we don’t accept our own until they’ve been recognized elsewhere. I do think that tendency for validation is one that we should challenge.” National Post (Canada) 03/15/01

Wednesday March 14

CALIFORNIA – LAND OF THE ARTS? At a time when other governments are reducing their financial support for the arts, California is making huge gains. Last year, the California Arts Council got an amazing 60 percent ($12 million) boost to its $20-million budget. In January, the stat’s governmor proposed an additional $27.3 million for the coming year. “If approved, California’s $59.3-million arts budget could emerge as the highest in the country, exceeding New York’s current $56.7 million.” Los Angeles Times 03/14/01

CRITICAL DISCONNECT: Is political correctness ruining the art of criticism? “The conventions of free speech are being narrowed in real life to the point where it is becoming impossible to describe what you see and hear with any degree of verisimilitude. What earthly point is there in attempting to describe or criticise art in any terms except nice and not-nice?” Culturekiosque 03/13/01

PORTRAIT OF POWER: A recent survey of Australian arts organizations’ boards of trustees shows that they are overwhelmingly comprised of bankers, lawyers, and advertising execs. “This web forms the power base of the arts in Australia.” And the artists themselves? “More in the back circle than the front stalls.” Sydney Morning Herald 3/14/01

Tuesday March 13

BALLET LAWSUIT DISMISSED: A Massachusetts judge has thrown out a lawsuit brought against the Boston Ballet by the mother of a former company dancer who died of anorexia. The suit claimed that ballet officials told the young dancer she had to lose weight to join the troupe: Heidi Guenther was 5’3″, and weighed 93 pounds when she died in 1997. Nando Times (AP) 03/13/01

ARTISTS THAT PAY FOR THEMSELVES: The British government’s cultural policy in the past five years expects that artists “play more functional roles in society: assisting in the improvement of public health, race relations, urban living, special education, welfare-to-work programs, and of course, economic development. Above all, the new policies require funded arts activities to show a good return on investment (ROI, as the MBAs put it). Naturally, most artists saw these functions as more appropriate to entrepreneurial social workers. The Establishment toffs, colloquially known as ‘luvvies’ (as in ‘We just love the arts’), lost no time in vilifying Blair’s cultural nepmen as ruthless philistines.” ArtForum 03/12/01

WILL VACATE FOR MONEY… Performances in the Sydney Opera House will be suspended for four days later this month to permit an insurance company to rent out the building. “The move, whereby the insurance company has effectively paid the two theatre organisations not to perform, is believed to be unprecedented at the Opera House.” It’s part of the funding realities for Australian arts groups these days. Sydney Morning Herald 03/13/01

A JEWISH ARTIST IN BERLIN: Conductor Daniel Barenboim has been at the center of a power struggle over who will control Berlin’s major opera houses. From the outside, it seems a distinctly German debate. “It is only natural to find excursions into different cultures valuable, but of course German culture is something extraordinary, and there should be no false modesty about it.” New York Review of Books 03/29/01

LANGUAGE-BOUND: The de facto international language of science and ideas has become English. But “the development of entire subjects is in jeopardy because results from scientific research are being excluded from publication in international English-language journals. It would be wrong to ascribe this to incompetence on the part of the scientists who publish their results in other languages.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 03/12/01

Monday March 12

BUSH PROPOSES KEEPING NEA BUDGET SAME: Says National Endowment for the Arts chairman Bill Ivey: “Given the President’s desire to reduce the growth of federal spending, we are pleased with his funding request for the arts endowment.” Backstage 03/12/01

ART TRUMPS LIFE: A year ago a British artist took a grant and invested it in stock – equal shares of ART and LIFE. So now the experiment has ended. Which won? “Judged on purely commercial terms, art won. In January, a holding company called Artist Acquisitions bought her shares in ART for almost double what she paid for them. (She made a small profit on LIFE as well.) “I think it’s the first art project that’s ever been ended by a corporate takeover.” Time 03/12/01

Sunday March 11

DOINGS AT THE NEW NEA: With a new administration in the White House, where’s the National Endowment for the Arts these days. Quietly doing its thing. “Flying under the radar has helped in the evasion of enemy artillery fire. ‘It looks like the White House will work with the Senate-confirmed heads of small agencies for some time,’ says NEA chairman William Ivey.” St. Louis Post 03/11/01

Friday March 9

BIDDING RING BUSTED: Three men were charged Thursday with conspiring to drive up prices in art auctions on eBay, including last summer’s debacle involving a fake Richard Diebenkorn painting for which they made a $135,000 sale. This is the first prosecution of so-called “shill bidding” in the online world. The indictment said the three men also drove up bids on fake works by Giacometti and Clyfford Still. “[They] allegedly came up with fake user names to make it seem as if the painters’ family members were bidding.” San Francisco Chronicle (AP) 3/08/01

AIDING ARTISTS: Artists won at least a partial victory Thursday when the UK government announced it would not scrap entirely its tax code that allows artists to spread their profits over seven years to reduce their tax burden. (Artists often suffer come tax time because of their traditionally erratic earnings patterns – a sold manuscript one year, nothing the next.) “But the Chancellor has now put ‘creative artists’ in the same category as farmers so that they can average profits over two years.” The Times (London) 3/09/01

Thursday March 8

TOTALITARIAN LEARNING: A look at children’s education in the former East Germany reveals similarities with indoctrination efforts in Hitler’s Germany. “In both states, ideological messages penetrated subjects that were specifically geared toward indoctrination, as well as those that were more generically educational.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 03/08/01

TV AND ALZHEIMER’S: Researchers have discovered that those who spend a lot of time in passive activities – like watching TV – in their middle years are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s later in life. Exercising your brain by reading, on the other hand, helps delay onset of the disease. The Age (Melbourne) 03/07/01

Tuesday March 6

SCIENCE VS PHILOSOPHY: The Greek philosphers may have been the first to wonder at the nature of the world and humankind’s place in it. But certainly in recent times philosophers have given way to scientists when it comes to explaining how the world works. Is there a way to tackle such questions from both ends of the intellectual map? Chronicle of Higher Education 03/05/01

LOST IN THE MIX: Britain’s Culture Minister Chris Smith has publicly refuted rampant rumors that the government plans to dismantle the Culture Ministry after the upcoming election: Welcome news to the arts world, yet some critics still warn that the arts will continue to suffer as long as they’re relegated to the department that also oversees tourism, heritage, the lottery, and sport. BBC 3/05/01

Monday March 5

REPLACING PAPER: Paper has been the medium of communication for centuries. But now scientists are trying to improve the readability of computers so they’ll replace paper. “There is more at stake, however, than just the physical substitution of one medium for another; it will require a huge cultural shift as society struggles to give up its addiction to paper and embrace the ethereal nature of electronics. It also has far-reaching implications for books, magazines and newspapers, not to mention libraries and museums. Ours, after all, is a well paper-trained world.” Globe & Mail (Canada) 03/05/01

REBUILDING CAMBODIA: Cambodia’s culture was devastated during the Pol Pot regime. “There was no wholesale burning of manuscripts, and monuments such as Angkor – the extraordinary temple complex built under the Khmer empire between the ninth and 15th centuries – were neglected rather than smashed. But Pol Pot’s destruction of Cambodian culture was as complete as if he had indeed razed Angkor to the ground.” Now the country’s artists try to rebuild. New Statesman 03/05/01

ARCHER TO DIRECT MELBOURNE: Robyn Archer, one of Australia’s most experienced festival directors, has signed on to run the Melbourne Festival. “She emerged as favorite for the Melbourne post in early January, following her acclaim for the internationally renowned Adelaide Festivals she directed in 1998 and 2000.” The Age (Melbourne) 03/05/01

Sunday March 4

THE NEW COPORATE/ARTIST MIX: A new real estate development in Orange County attempts to mix for-profit with non-profit, corporate and individual artists to pay for that which does not pay for itself. Called Seven Degrees, the building complex “comprises four Internet-wired live-work residences for artists, two exhibition galleries, a commercial kitchen, and a reception hall and terrace for corporate gatherings and events.” Orange County Register 03/04/01

Thursday March 1

SOUNDS LIKE HEAVY-DUTY NUDGING: While running for Vice-President, Joseph Lieberman told Hollywood movie-makers: “We will nudge you, but we will never become censors.” He lost that election, but still is a Senator. Now he wants to have the Federal Trade Commission regulate movie marketing. Movie industry spokesman Jack Valenti replies, “Congress doesn’t have the power to give the FTC the authority to attack a First Amendment free speech enterprise.” Inside.com 02/28/01

CREATIVITY IN A TIME OF HARDSHIP: Despite its rocky political history of the past 60 years, Prague still boasts a vibrant intellectual/creative life. “The extraordinary richness of the performing arts in the city depends on skilled artists, appreciative audiences and generous funding from the public purse or from private sponsors. The sophisticated citizens of Prague are the successors of men (and their wives) who built up the city and made it flourish.” Central Europe Review 02/26/01

AUCTIONEER WARY ABOUT COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT: E-Bay, the on-line auctioneer, is removing items from its site to prevent copyright infringement. Software makers and other intellectual property interests had asked for the action; E-Bay initially opposed, and was upheld in a couple of important court tests. Now, perhaps with Napster in mind, the company is policing its listings and removing about a dozen a day. San Francisco Chronicle (AP) 28/02/01

Wednesday February 28

• THE COSTS OF STATE FUNDING: “Arts sponsorship, as a rule, is a model of enlightened laissez-faire. The danger to artistic freedom comes not from business sponsors and private donors but from the subsidising state, which is becoming more strident in its demands for political payback.” The Telegraph (London) 02/28/01
• MAKING HIS OWN STATEMENT: When Gao Xingjian was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature last fall, it was widely viewed by the English-speaking press as a political slap in the face of Beijing’s repressive rulers, who had banned Gao’s work. But this is one author who does not believe in using the power of his pen to effect change in the physical world. Instead, he calls for a “cold literature” to rise above all. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 02/28/01

Tuesday February 27

• ART IN ECONOMIC TERMS: “There’s no doubt that culture is good business. Museums, nonprofit art galleries, and theaters together have been one of the fastest growing job categories in New York. Studies by the N.Y./N.J. Port Authority and others describe some $10 billion in annual revenues that such institutions generate when you include hotels, restaurants, and transportation services.” Businessweek Online 02/26/01
• WHY NOT BUY BRITISH? British taxpayers spend £50 million subsidizing its opera and ballet companies. So why do Brit audiences pay to see second-rate foreign companies that “charge slightly less for tickets than native subsidised companies such as Welsh National Opera or English National Ballet. The informed consensus is that their performances are generally of a very low standard, with wretchedly tatty productions and performers too bored or tired to give of their best.” The Telegraph (London) 02/27/01
• ACTING OUT ON CULTURE: The Austrian under-secretary for art and culture is a former actor. And not much more convincing than he was onstage either. What to make of his cultural policies? Franz Morak is cutting back on spending on cluture “because he has to, but he is doing it where he wants to. As little as those who are affected want to accept it, that, too, is a form of cultural policy.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 02/27/01

Monday February 26

• ON REPEALING THE DEATH TAX: In the US, the Bush administration is serious about repealing estate taxes. But many are concerned repeal will seriously diminish charitable giving as part of estate planning. And now, some of America’s wealthiest are arguing that the tax should not be lifted. The Art Newspaper 02/26/01
• CUTTING BACK THE CULTURAL AMBASSADORS: Fifty years ago Germany started the Goethe Institut, designed to be its cultural ambassador to the world. There were 130 outposts around the world, and they were staffed with German intellectuals and presented the best in German culture. Now, as Germany faces budget hardships, the Goethes are being cut back or closed. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 02/26/01
• AFRICA’S AIDS BLIGHT AND EDUCATION: In Kenya, as many as 20-30 percent of the university population has AIDS. “The deaths caused by AIDS are leaving gaping holes in university faculties. When a senior faculty member dies, the death represents the loss of 30 years’ investment. These people are very hard to replace.” Chronicle of Higher Education 03/02/01
• UNIONIZING AT THE MET: For 8 months, restaurant workers at the Metropolitan Opera have been trying to unionize. The workers – who make $8 an hour – accuse the Met of not supporting their efforts with the contractor who hires them. The Met has maintained in the past that the dispute is between the contractor and its workers. New York Times 02/26/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Friday February 23

• AUSTRIAN OUTRAGE: Austria’s right-wing coalition government has imposed a new tax system on the country’s artists. The complicated set of regulations, which is being decried across Europe as a thinly veiled attempt to stifle artistic freedom, would tax artists at a unique rate of up to 70% of their income, and includes several rules that contradict each other. Frankfurter Allgemaine Zeitung 02/23/01
• SURPLUS LIVING: Just a few years after the dismantling of East German industry, it is now the turn of the mass-produced housing built to accommodate workers. With the collapse of East Germany’s industrial base, an estimated 1 million apartments are unoccupied in eastern Germany. What to do? Tear them down, of course… Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 02/23/01
• WHY THE FIGHT OVER NAPSTER MATTERS: “Suggested revenue models for making money on the Net trickle up from the software industry: you give away the intellectual property, then make your money in services and customization. These models simply don’t make sense when talking about a great riff, an evocative piece of photojournalism or a work of fiction good enough to anthologize in the world of dead trees. Art is not information. Art is precisely that which can last and last — whereas nothing dates faster than a revision to a piece of software.” The New York Times 02/23/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Thursday February 22

• IS IT THE WAR OR THE BATTLE WE WON? (OR LOST): It’s been ten years since the Culture Wars were in full flame. Were the battles won? Lost? And who did the winning and losing? It’s far too complicated to be able to declare a straight-ahead winner. Village Voice 02/21/01

Wednesday February 21

APOLOGY OF THE DAY: Last month the Sydney Morning Herald published a review of pianist Michael Brimer’s performance of five Beethoven sonatas. The review criticized Brimer for “memory lapses” and said that he “took time to recover from occasional errors”. Brimer protested and after sending a tape of the concert to an independent expert, the Herald “withdraws the criticisms” and apologises to the pianist in a note to readers… Sydney Morning Herald 02/21/01

Tuesday February 20

DUELING EDITORIALS

• The New York Times:“The Internet is a revolutionary medium whose long-term benefits we are only beginning to fathom. But that is no reason to allow it to become a duty- free zone where people can plunder the intellectual property of others without paying for it.” 02/18/01 (one-time registration required for access)
• Minneapolis Star-Tribune: “The prevailing view of Napster, reinforced by last week’s court ruling, paints it as a digital burglary tool that scofflaw youngsters can use to grab free music and beat musicians out of royalties. This is a convenient oversimplification by the recording industry, whose archaic business model is as big a reason as any for the success of the Internet music-swapping services it is trying to shut down.” 02/19/01
• Toronto Globe & Mail: “We’ve used Napster to explore, educate ourselves and chase down obscurities — areas either badly served by the companies, or not served at all. Napster gives you access to music at the speed of intellect. I can recall more than once a quick download settling a musical argument.” 02/20/01

Monday February 19

• WHY ARE WE SO FASCINATED WITH NAPSTER? It raises fundamental questions about art and the ownership of creative work. “What is the appropriate relationship between the artist and fan base? Is the capitalist model the right model for creating art? What is copyright for? And what is art for in a consumer society?” The New York Times 02/19/01 (one-time registration required for access)
• ART FROM AFAR: Artists collaborating on a performance from different locales is nothing new. What is new is the internet 2, developed by a consortium of 180 universities. Thousands of times faster than the current internet, it allows almost instantaneous communication. Artists, of course, are experimenting… The New York Times 02/19/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Friday February 16

• RELATIVE VALUES: A Scottish firm this weekend will auction a rare copy of “The Seven Pillars of Wisdom,” the T.E. Lawrence book which inspired “Lawrence of Arabia.” Also on the block, at Christie’s, is the bikini worn by Ursula Andress in “Dr. No.” The bikini is expected to sell for three times as much as the book. CBC 02/16/01

Thursday February 15

• LOBBYING FOR THE NEH: A group of influential US senators has lobbied new president George W. Bush to keep William Ferris as head of the National Endowment for the Humanities. “Keeping a Clinton appointee in the post would be unusual. But Ferris, who was named NEH chairman in November 1997, has won favor with Democrats and Republicans in Congress and has helped the agency get a substantial increase in funding.” Washington Post 02/09/01
• HOW TO RUIN A SYMPHONY:  Nothing can spoil a climactic moment in a performance like a beeping watch or a chirruping cell phone, and increasingly, concertgoers are disregarding warnings to shut them off. But in an industry desperate to attract the public, most managements are loath to take any harsh measures to enforce the ban. Boston Herald 02/15/01
• A NEIGHBORHOOD IN FLUX: Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood is undergoing a rebirth as a community of artists, or at least that’s what King County officials and arts fans hope. But the project is not without controversy, as housing and work space for artists forces out current tenants, many of whom are low-income earners with little chance of finding housing elsewhere. The Stranger (Seattle) 02/15/01

Wednesday February 14

• NOT ALL (COPY)RIGHT: A European initiative on copyright law has roused a chorus of protest. Actors and writers hate its reduction of royalty payments. Others protest the provision that “would also require film-makers to seek permission from architects and designers of public buildings or objects before picturing them. Another clause would give artists a mandatory share of profits in the sales and distribution of broadcast material.” The Guardian (London) 02/13/01
• INSPIRING INTELLECT: Once it was sickness and wasting that “suggested an artistic sensibility and a poetic soul. Now it is exile that evokes the sensitive intellectual, the critical spirit operating alone on the margins of society, a traveler, rootless and yet at home in every metropolis, a tireless wanderer from academic conference to academic conference, a thinker in several languages, an eloquent advocate for ethnic and sexual minorities – in short, a romantic outsider living on the edge of the bourgeois world.” The New Republic 02/12/01

Tuesday February 13

• BOBBING FOR BOBBIES: Nominations for Australia’s first Helpmann Awards are announced. “The awards, named after Sir Robert Helpmann by the organisers the Australian Entertainment Industry Association (AEIA), are the Aussie answer to New York’s Tonys and London’s Oliviers. But our ‘Bobbies’ – as they might become known – not only cover theatre, but also dance, opera and a ‘special events’ category. The Age (Melbourne) 02/13/01
• AUSTRIA DECAMPS FROM PARIS: Austria has announced it is closing the Austrian Cultural Institute in Paris and Parisian intellectuals are protesting. “The decision to shut down the institute, which has been in existence since the early years after World War II, and to sell the elegant mansion near the Invalides in which it is housed, was announced by Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner. But she also promised that Austria’s cultural activities in Paris would continue. She rejected speculations that the plans were meant as a retaliation for France’s leading role in last year’s boycott against Austria.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 02/13/01

Monday February 12

• THE LANGUAGE OF PRESERVATION: People in the province of Quebec have long been concerned with preserving their French language against the dominant Canadian English. But a recent poll says they’re now more concerned about the quality of English education. “As a society with a small population within North America, French was definitely in danger. But now the goal has been met.” Christian Science Monitor 02/12/01

Sunday February 11

• ARTS EDUCATION FOR ALL: The British government announces a £35 million government plan to help provide arts education for students of working class families. “The theme of the plan will be an equal chance for every child through to university and beyond. For the first time it will focus not only on improving disadvantaged children’s exam scores and basic skills, but on their wider lives through the pupil learning credit scheme for cultural extras.” The Observer (London) 02/11/01
• FUNDING CREATIVITY: A new British funding program debuts – National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts. “Instead of targeting whole institutions, Nesta is awarding its money only to individuals or very small teams; and it doesn’t separate arts and sciences. But neither will Nesta simply hand over the money and hope for the best. It pays ‘mentors’ to look after each project, and where the individual is being helped to produce a technical or creative innovation with a prospect of commercial profit, Nesta negotiates a royalty for itself.” The Sunday Times (London) 02/11/01
• CRITICAL PATH: So who needs critics anyway? “The opinion-rich chat rooms and online forums and instant polls of the cyber world would seem to suggest that regular people have had it with the self-declared and self-impressed professionals. Where do they get off, anyway?” And yet… Hartford Courant 02/11/01

Friday February 9

• THE MODERN RENAISSANCE: “There are seven striking similarities between the last Golden Age and the modern world – seven fundamental signs that marked all renaissances, including the one unfolding today. New forms of art, new religions, a booming global economy, a self-help movement, a communications revolution and accelerating change – these six forces shaped the last Renaissance and today these same forces are again shaping our world. But with progress also comes pain… *spark-online 02/01

Thursday February 8

• ART BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN: Files from the East German secret service give an interesting look at how the communist government dealt in arts policy. But a lot of the information contained in the files just doesn’t add up. “This is the kind of nonsense that emerges when Stasi files are used as the sole source of information and hands-on research is neglected.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 02/08/01
• TROUBLE SPEAKING ENGLISH: Columbia University’s English department has an illustrious history. “Yet it has been suffering from a host of maladies, not the least of which are understaffing and high turnover. The result has been a department so unnerved, it has a difficult time holding faculty meetings, let alone making such crucial decisions as who to name as its department chair.” New York Observer 02/07/01
• THE BARD OR THE WEB? The British Government is considering a proposal to end its requirement that all secondary-school students study Shakespeare. In his place would be coursework in media studies, including film, “the moving image,” the Web, and e-mail. Needless to say, dissent is rampant. “It would be monstrous for the next generation not to be encouraged to study what is probably the world’s greatest literature. Any other country that spoke the language of Shakespeare would insist on the study of at least two of his plays.” The Telegraph (London) 2/08/01
• INCITING DIALOGUE: Richard Grayson, the new artistic director of the Sydney Biennale, is the first practicing artist to head the Biennale. His far-flung interests are sure to enliven cultural dialogue – his one stated goal – by getting artists from all over the world involved. “They will all have roles in the projects as speakers, writers, artists…[and] to commence a long after-dinner, slightly boozy conversation electronically which will keep going for the next year and a half.” Sydney Morning Herald 2/08/01
• ARTS DAY? The US President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities is meeting in Dallas this week. On the agenda – consideration of creating a national Arts and Humanities Day. Dallas Morning News 02/08/01

Wednesday February 7

• STIFLING DISSENT: How have the arts in Austria fared since Jorg Haider’s far-right Freedom Party took power a year ago? Artists, journalists, and academics have been slapped with more than 100 official libel suits; state subsidies of the arts have all but dried up; and “many of the victims of the funding cuts — from community radio stations to independent theater groups — had one thing in common: their opposition to the government.” San Francisco Bay Guardian 2/05/01
• HOW WE TRANSMIT THE MEANING OF ART: “So icons, signs, words, and symbols are the 0’s created by a real world full of 1’s.  As we turn these icons into art and transmit them via media, these icons become objects in and of themselves.  An image on my web site is no longer an impression on my mind; it is now an object that can leave an impression on someone else’s mind.” *spark-online 02/01
• PROUD TO BE FAKE: Almost by definition, theme parks are trying to recreate some alternate reality. But for Disney’s major new Anaheim makeover, recently opened, instead of blithe assurances that the theme park somehow imitates the real world, there’s a wink and a nudge. “Disney’s answer is to expose the theme park’s artificiality, like a magician suddenly showing his hand, before whisking you away on the next ride.” Los Angeles Times 02/07/01

Tuesday February 6

• BROUGHT TO YOU BY… In the last decade of economic boom, arts organizations turned more than ever to corporate largesse to help them stay afloat year to year. Now, with the economy slowing and corporate layoffs beginning in earnest, large donations to non-profit arts groups may be one of the early casualties. Detroit News 02/06/01

Monday February 5

• DID MONEY BUY VISA? When Ry Cooder went to Cuba without a visa, he was later fined by the US government. His next trip is legal – and some are questioning whether a recent $10,000 donation to Hillary Clinton’s senate campaign influenced Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Samuel Berger, President Bill Clinton’s national security adviser, to weigh in on the musician’s behalf in the last days of the administration. Baltimore Sun 02/02/01

Sunday February 4

• THE NEW PHILANTHROPY: “Rather than sitting back and writing out cheques, the new philanthropists are far more likely to be personally involved with the causes they support. And they are more interested in using their money to actually change society, which is what concerns their critics. The difference between this wave of wealth and the one earlier in the century is that there is oblige without the noblesse.” National Post (Canada) 02/03/01

Friday February 2

• VENTURE PHILANTHROPY: As the National Endowment for the Arts continues to play a much-diminished role in funding individual artists, many are turning to corporate America for the cash to bring their work to fruition. But successfully pitching Fortune 500-types on a project takes more than an artistic vision. It takes, among other things, a working knowledge of how the corporate world makes decisions. Wired 02/02/01
• APPEARANCE OF IMPROPRIETY: A Kennedy Center board member was apparently rewarded for his financial support of Bill and Hillary Clinton and other Democratic candidates with an extended term. As the president prepared to leave office, Ronald Dozoretz resigned from the board of Washington’s most prestigious arts complex, and was promptly reappointed to a fresh four-year term. Washington Post 02/02/01
• PROFIT FROM IT: Philadelphia’s Avenue of the Arts is the most visible example of the historic city’s rebirth, and the new $255 million Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts is the jewel in the Avenue’s crown, set to become the new home of the Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as several theater groups. Furthermore, the Kimmel is expected to bring more seats, higher property values, and a larger audience to the Avenue, which has even the Center’s competitors singing its praises. Philadelphia Daily News 02/02/01

• NOT A PRIORITY THIS TIME: New Canadian government budget cuts taxes but fails to deliver on expected increases for arts and culture. CBC 02/29/00
• POST-MODERN IN AN “AFTER-MODERN” WORLD: “We’re living in a postmodern world. We don’t know what that means yet. All we know is that what we have now is not the same thing we had had before. We’re ‘after-modern.’ We’ve deconstructed all the foundations of the modern world to see how they were put together in the first place. It’s been a fascinating task, and we’ve been very successful. Problem is we don’t know anything about building foundations. We just know how to take them apart.” *spark-online 03/00
• HOLOCAUST TRIAL: British libel trial rehashes details of the Holocaust. Sometimes the trial is a jousting match, with historical documents and incidents as the lances. Other times, the debate is more disturbing. Salon 03/01/00
• OWNERSHIP QUESTIONS: British report says some 300 works of art in UK museums have questionable WWII provenance and could have been stolen by Nazis from their rightful owners. The Guardian 02/29/00
  • NAZI LOOT: British museums and galleries announce a list of art they hold that was looted by the Nazis and never returned to rightful owners. So will the art be returned? Not necessarily. “Arts Minister Alan Howarth told the BBC’s ‘Newsnight’ program: ‘Just as it was wrong to take paintings off Jewish people in the circumstances of the Nazi era, so it would be wrong without a proper basis of evidence to take paintings off the national collections which are held for the public benefit.'” BBC 02/29/00
  • WHAT’S FAIR? “It is entirely proper that stolen pictures, especially those taken in the appalling circumstances of Europe under Nazi domination, should be returned to the families of their pre-war owners, but publishing lists of this kind invites false claims made, not with mischievous intentions, but through errors of recollection after 60 years or more – one Picasso looks much like another after so long a time. It is possible, even probable, that the list will provoke false memories, and once a false claim is made it may well be difficult for the gallery in question to prove or disprove the claim, leaving ownership in limbo.” Evening Standard 02/29/00
• E-BAY DENIES REPORT that it will buy troubled auction house Sotheby’s for $1.6 billion. Wired 02/29/00
  • Previously: E-BAY TO BUY SOTHEBY’S? Five-year-old eBay is reported to be interested in buying the troubled 256-year-old auction house. Valued by the stock market, eBay is worth nearly $20 billion, 16 times Friday’s closing price for Sotheby’s. The Independent 02/27/00
• AND THEN THEY CAME FOR ME: “Should intellectuals push for a cultural embargo of Austria and try to starve the xenophobic rightists out? Or should they go to Austria and feed the vigorous internal opposition, which made itself apparent in a march of 250,000 protesters in Vienna this month? But such tactics could do a great deal of harm. “I can agree on a boycott on the highly official level,” says one critic and curator. But, referring to the Austrian Freedom Party’s crusade against contemporary art, he says, “it makes no sense to boycott us. We are already under attack inside Austria.” Chronicle of Higher Education 02/29/00
• CORPORATE SUPPORT: Sydney’s Olympic Arts Festival is doing well attracting corporate sponsors. But Australia’s Minister for the Arts says continued corporate support after the Olympics end is crucial to a healthy Australian arts scene. Currently corporations fund only about 10 percent of the country’s arts expenditures. Sydney Morning Herald 02/29/00 
• WHAT FALLS TO EARTH… The American Museum of Natural History in New York goes to court to refuse to give back a 10,000-year-old, 15-ton meteorite to Oregon Indian tribes who say their ancestors once treated the rock as a sacred object. The rock is not the kind of sacred object intended to be covered by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, a law covering the “repatriation” or important Native-American cultural objects, claims the museum. New York Post 02/29/00
  • Previously:Tribes work to make their case. The Oregonian 11/17/99
• NO PAIN, NO GAIN:  “Pessimists are worried that Christie’s and Sotheby’s may not even survive the crisis. Derek Johns, a London dealer who was once a director of Sotheby’s, says, ‘It would be devastating if they became bankrupt.’ The optimists, on the other hand, say that Christie’s and Sotheby’s have survived drama and scandal in the past, and that a better, more competitive and less arrogant art market may eventually come out of all this.” London Telegraph 02/28/00
  • Previously: E-BAY TO BUY SOTHEBY’S? Five-year-old eBay is reported to be interested in buying the troubled 256-year-old auction house. Valued by the stock market, eBay is worth nearly $20 billion, 16 times Friday’s closing price for Sotheby’s. The Independent 02/27/00
  • OF SINS AND SCANDALS: So what’s a little collusion? Other auction house practices may be legal, but they’re far from fair. Artnewsroom.com 02/28/00
  • SELLERS’ MARKET: “This sends a bolt of lightning through the marketplace,” said Scott Black, president of Delphi Management, a Boston money-management firm, and a serious collector who has spent tens of millions of dollars on fine paintings. “When you step into that auction room and raise your hand, you assume it’s a fair market. . . . I think a lot of people are going to think twice about the spring auctions.” Washington Post 02/27/00
• WHO OWNS MUSIC? A Harvard panel debates intellectual property protection in the digital age. Wired 02/27/00
• ART FROM AN URBAN UNDERWORLD: In a nation with an almost oppressive sense of conformity, the shocking new artists in China’s southern-most province rebel against not only official orthodoxy but even the mainstream avant-garde. It has also become symbolic of a new southern avant-garde that has, in recent years, taken root in the fast-moving Shenzhen region. ARTNews 03/00
• CRACKDOWN: Three robbers were recently executed in China for stripping a tomb of murals with the intention of selling them. Is China cracking down on the plundering of cultural artifacts? The Art Newspaper 02/025/00 
• BLOOD IN THE WATER: With Sotheby’s and Christie’s busy with investigators, the auction-house competition behind them consolidates. After buying Phillips, the world’s third largest auction house, less than four months ago, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton buys Tajan, France’s largest auction house. The deal will allow Phillips to enter the French auction market, which remains closed to foreign auctioneers. It will also give Tajan’s customers access to the London and New York markets, where Phillips has sales and where taxes are lower than in France. New York Times 02/25/00 (one-time registration required for entry)
  • And: Sotheby’s/Christie’s problems could level the playing field. BusinessWeek 02/25/00
• ON SECOND THOUGHT: Salzburg Festival director Gerard Mortier changes his mind about quitting the festival to protest Austrian politics, according to the Vienna daily Der Standard. Times of India (AP) 02/24/00
• TALKING GRAPEFRUITS AND ARTISTIC USES FOR USED CHEWING GUM: The Canada Council has come under fire in Parliament for some of the offbeat artistic projects it has funded. “Artists are often pushing the envelope. They are like scientists – they are experimenting, taking risks.” Chicago Tribune 02/24/00
• DOUBLE TROUBLE: The Iranian Council of Music, a “unique creation of the 21-year-old Islamic Revolution,” requires written approval before any bar of music is played in public anywhere in Iran. “Along with the Council of Poetry, which vets every word of every lyric written, it is housed within the Ministry of Islamic Guidance and Culture, charged with keeping Iran a pure Islamic country by enforcing a mass of rules about which books people can read, what music they can hear, which foreigners they can talk to.” All of which has predictably led to an official culture and an underground one. Salon 02/24/00 
• YOU DESERVE A BREAK TODAY: Billboards advertising McDonald’s have gone up around Berlin showing a picture of a hamburger next to words like ‘Plima!’ or ‘Liesig!’ Written in a caricaturist ‘bamboo script,’ the misspelled words play on a popular misconception that Asians, and particularly the Chinese, cannot pronounce the letter R. “These ads are jolly and funny,” says a McDonald’s spokesman. “We haven’t heard any complaints.” He sure has now. Die Welt 02/23/00
• SYDNEY FESTIVAL records a surplus. Bodes well for upcoming Olympic Arts Festival. Sydney Morning Herald 02/23/00
• CULTURAL INVESTMENT: Korea plans major investments in its cultural infrastructure to reshape the country’s cultural profile over the next ten years. Plans include a massive new cultural center for Seoul. Korea Herald 02/23/00
• AMAZON TO BUY SOTHEBY’S? The auction house’s share price surges Wednesday on speculation that the company is ripe for a takeover. Financial Times 02/24/00
  • And: SELLING SCRAMBLE: With the spring art auction season approaching, Christie’s and Sotheby’s scramble to get works to sell. Sellers are eager to take advantage of the high markets, but many are wondering what effect the collusion scandal will have. New York Times 02/24/00 (one-time registration required for entry)
  • “EXPENSIVE BUT NOT LIFE-THREATENING”: New chairman of Sotheby’s, on the job just one day, brushes aside his company’s plunging stock price and predicts the auction company will come out intact from the US Government’s investigation of collusion. New York Times 02/23/00 (one-time registration required for entry)
  • And: Europeans to join in lawsuits against auction houses. London Times 02/23/00
  • So what’s the case for collusion, why’s it so wrong and can the auction houses talk their way out of trouble? Slate 02/23/00
  • Related: DON’T GET MAD, GET EVEN: Australian art dealer Chris Deutscher believed giant auction houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s nearly ran him out of business. So he closed up his gallery and opened upstart Australian auction house Deutscher Menzies. The firm is finding its niche, prospering, even, as the Sotheby/Christie’s scandal widens – DM racked up a 50 per cent increase in sales this past year.  Sydney Morning Herald 02/23/00
  • THAT HAPPENED UNDER THE OLD GUYS: As US investigation into collusion between the top auction houses widens, chief executives at Sotheby’s suddenly resign yesterday. New York Times 02/22/00 (one-time registration required for entry)
• BOLD BUT BLOWN OUT: The budget and box office, that is, for this year’s Perth Festival, which reached for some ambitious international projects, but seems headed to a record deficit. Sydney Morning Herald 02/22/00
• GROWING CHORUS of artists protests inclusion of Joerg Haider’s far-right Freedom party in the Austrian government. CBC (AP) 02/22/00
• HARVARD UNDER ATTACK: Native Americans charge the university is trying to get around a law requiring the return of American Indian artifacts. “(Harvard) is very unpopular with natives from coast to coast right now,” said Ramona Peters of the Wampanoag tribe in Gay Head. “It appears they view our ancestors as their property.” Boston Herald 02/22/00
  • RESPONSIBLE RETURN: Some American museums are struggling with complying with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which mandates the return of native artifacts to Indian tribes. Boston Herald 02/22/00 
  • NATIVE AMERICAN FRUSTRATION: “So you go into the museum as the authority figure. And guess who the authorities are on Indians? White people. That’s the hypocrisy. You go in possessing all these qualities and the non-Indian doesn’t recognize you because you don’t have a paper on the wall that says Ph.D. on it.” Boston Herald 02/22/00
• REACHING OUT: An Australia Council report has some dismal warnings for traditional arts: “A staggering 47 per cent of 18- to 39-year-olds had not attended a performance of theatre, dance or music in the past two years. Ballet rated the worst, capturing only 8 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds who frequented arts events. While young people generally have the time and money to attend the arts, they intensely dislike its “older, stuffy image” and prefer to spend time drinking, clubbing, socializing, watching movies and sport.” Sydney Morning Herald 02/21/00
• NOT US: Revelations that some US museums have asked for commissions on sales of work they exhibit leave other museums scrambling to deny they engage in the ethically-questionable practice.  New York Times 02/21/00 (one-time registration required for entry)
• SEE THE ART, WRITE ABOUT THE ART: It’s quite a simple rule, really. If you pronounce about the quality of art before you’ve even seen it – as some Canadian politicians did last week – you’ll almost always get yourself in trouble. Toronto Globe and Mail 02/21/00 
• ARTIST RESALE RIGHTS: British opponents of an EU plan to give artists a cut on the resale of their work say the plan will gut the English market and drive art-sellers to Switzerland or New York where the tax won’t be collected. Is that any reason not to let artists share in profits on their work? London Telegraph 02/21/00
• FRENCH IN ENGLISH: Much French culture never travels beyond French borders. Now a high-budget film and an ambitious musical take a new approach to exporting French culture to the rest of the world. Sunday Times 02/20/00 
• AIN’T NOHOW, NOWHERE: American linguistics professor says that heavily dialectical speech ain’t no sign of lack of intelligence. His critics say he should be fired. Baltimore Sun 02/20/00
• NEA WARS: National Endowment for the Arts chairman Bill Ivey and four of his predecessors gather on a stage in Boston to talk about the agency’s past and future. Is it a matter of high and low art? Washington Post 02/19/00
  • NPR report (Real Audio required to listen)
• AUSTRIAN APARTHEID? “For perhaps the first time since the liberal revolutions of 1848, a political opposition is growing out of Austria’s intellectual salons. Can a man like Herr Haider be toppled by the roar of literary lions? Common sense dictates otherwise, but the vocabulary of Austria’s rebel artists is strikingly similar to that used by white South Africans who opposed apartheid or the dissidents of Eastern Europe.” London Times 02/19/00
• KKK AWAY: Court rules that a St. Louis public radio station doesn’t have to accept underwriting funding by the Ku Klux Klan of “All Things Considered” broadcast. St. Louis Post-Dispatch 02/18/00 
• ARTS WRITERS UNITE! In Zimbabwe, writing about the arts – like anywhere – is a fight for space in the newspaper. Last week, Zimbabwean arts writers formed their own association to try to win some respect. “What is so special with sports that it is accorded full desks within the newsrooms?” Zimbabwe Mirror 02/11/00
• PANEL ON NAZI ART: The British government is setting up a panel to resolve disputes about artwork looted by the Nazis and now housed in British museums. Washington Post 02/17/00
• REVERSING FIELD: Britain agrees to go along with EU plan to grant artists resale rights on their work. Under the plan, artists would get a maximum of four per cent on the resale of their work on art worth up to £30,000, and smaller percentages for higher-valued work. British Art Federation chairman Anthony Browne says the damage to London’s galleries would be “colossal”. London Evening Standard 02/16/00
  • Plan could wipe out 5,000 jobs. The Guardian 02/16/00
• LITERALISM isn’t just for religious fundamentalists. The doctrine of literalism flourishes in a variety of American endeavors. Chronicle of Higher Education 02/00
• MUSING ON THE MUSE: A Valentine’s ode to art’s inspirations. “Idyllic as it may sound, the relationship between artist and muse is not all sonnets and elegantly reclining nudes. A muse is as likely to be seduced, harangued and assaulted as courted, praised and revered. One moment she is an all-powerful goddess, the next a put-upon working girl.” London Times 02/14/00
• NAZI PLUNDER: The Nazis stole 600,000 pieces of art in Germany and the countries they occupied during Hitler’s 12 years in power, says the U.S. government’s top expert in stolen art from that era. The Oregonian (AP) 02/14/00
• VIOLENT REACTION: Two weeks ago, San Francisco Chronicle film reviewer Mike LaSalle wrote that it was time to do something about violence in movies. He suggested that any time a film showed a gun being fired, it should receive an NC-17 rating. Letters to the newspaper came flooding in, so the Chronicle is changing its reviewing policy. San Francisco Chronicle 02/13/00 
  • Some of the letters. San Francisco Chronicle 02/13/00
• UNIVERSITY EDUCATION in Australia is broken. The system defies all that rewards success and punishes failure. Here’s how to fix it. The Age (Melbourne) 02/11/00
• OF BOYCOTTS AND RESIGNATIONS: A number of artists – led by Salzburg Festival director Gerard Mortier – have resigned cultural positions in Austria or say they will boycott in protest over Haider’s rise. Should artists boycott or quit to protest politics? Norman Lebrecht thinks not. London Telegraph 02/10/00
• THE VELVET HAMMER:  “From the earliest days after the revolution of 1910, Mexican governments have showered intellectuals and artists with privileges, including grants, prizes, artistic commissions, jobs in government, publishing contracts, fellowships for study abroad, and diplomatic postings. Intellectuals have wielded disproportionate influence in politics and society by becoming in-house ideologues to various Mexican presidents, or by speaking for groups that lacked a voice in politics, such as indigenous people. In return, they have been expected to act as cheerleaders for the regime, lending their prestige and legitimacy to it, and collaborating in the ‘building of the nation.’ ” Chronicle of Higher Education 02/04/00
• BOOST FOR THE ARTS? President Clinton proposes a hefty budget increase for the National Endowment for the Arts – from $97.6 million to $150 million next year. He also proposes increasing the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and suggests a new $200 million annual “lease fee” for analog frequencies that broadcasters have been using free for the past 50 years. The money would be used for the arts. Variety 02/08/00
  • NEA money for “Challenge America” program, plus funds to repair cultural icons. Washington Post 02/08/00
  • More budget specifics at the NEA website NEA
• “A SCANDAL TO SHAKE THE ART MARKET TO ITS FOUNDATIONS”: Christie’s auction house has turned state’s evidence and told anti-trust investigators from the United States Justice Department about an alleged deal with Sotheby’s to limit competition on sellers’ commissions. Watch for the lawsuits to start flying. London Telegraph 02/07/00
  • CHRISTIE’S/SOTHEBY’S PRICE FIXING SCANDAL could have big repercussions for art Down Under. Sydney Morning Herald 02/09/00
  • Australian dealers have long suspected collusion. The Age (Melbourne) 02/09/00
• THE PETITION THAT WOULDN’T DIE: It’s that “save the NEA” e-mail that has been endlessly circulated around the internet. Doesn’t matter that it was written in 1995 and that threats to PBS and the National Endowment have receded. San Francisco Chronicle 02/07/00
• INVESTMENT NOUVEAU: Back in the 1970s, the arts’ biggest funding buddies were the tobacco companies. Now tobacco is out and the big American investment banks are funding British arts institutions. The benefits both ways are many. Financial Times 02/07/00
• CBS AND FOX TV NETWORKS make deals with NAACP to increase minority hiring on their programming. Boston Globe 02/04/00
• CULTURAL REBUILD: Under Apartheid, artists were suppressed and mistreated and their art quashed. Now the enormous task of rebuilding a culture. Nobel Prize-winning author Nadine Gordimer was part of the cultural resistance, and tells of her vision for a cultural rebirth. Media Channel 02/03/00
• SCIENCE OF ART: The scientific community has discovered the arts world, investing in arts projects. The artists bring outside-the-box thinking with their projects. New York Times 02/03/00 (One-time registration required for entry) 
• HIGH RENT DISTRICT: Seattle rents are forcing out many of the city’s artists. A new set of evictions points up a much more complicated problem than the traditional greedy-old-developer-against-helpless-artists scenario. Seattle Post-Intelligencer 02/03/00
• THE CODE: US Senators Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) took their plea for an entertainment industry “code of conduct” to New York Monday before a group of  about 200 members of the entertainment industry. Los Angeles Times 02/03/00