Category: issues

Canada’s popular culture minister has quietly let it be known she might want to leave her job and that has Canadian artists worried. “It’s not that nobody else can do the job. It’s just that it’s a rare combination, somebody who has got a really deep-seated commitment and belief in the cultural product, and political savvy and clout all at once. There are a lot of politicians who say they have both, but actually having it is something else.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada) 12/14/00

So how are kids supposed to be exposed to the arts when it costs so much? “Two adults taking two children to a big show won’t see much change from $250. To put that in perspective, most people earn less than $800 a week. After tax, groceries, mortgage and car costs, it’s hard to see where the ‘Annie’ tickets are going to come from.” – Sydney Morning Herald 12/13/00

Earlier this week the National Gallery of Australia appointed Melbourne multi-millionaire Harold Mitchell as its new chairman. Yesterday Mitchell launched a $10 million arts and health foundation, which will distribute a minimum of $500,000 in grants a year for arts and health projects in the first five years. – Sydney Morning Herald 12/13/00

“Critics are experts in their fields, but is that always a good thing? Or can a fresh pair of eyes offer new insights?”

TV critic does opera – The Guardian 12/13/00

Dance critic does a gallery – The Guardian 12/13/00

For a decade Los Angeles has been talking about establishing a “cultural corridor” to link its major cultural institutions on Grand Avenue. Now it may finally have come up with an idea that works. “The plan – meant to integrate the center with the new Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, both under construction along the avenue, and the Civic Center to the east – was presented to the board of directors Monday.” – Los Angeles Times 12/13/00

“Critics are experts in their fields, but is that always a good thing? Or can a fresh pair of eyes offer new insights?”

• MOVIE CRITIC DOES VERDI: “The experience of watching opera renders superfluous the cinema critic’s expertise in assessing the composition of a ‘shot’. Often force of habit had me complaining for a fraction of a second: surely this set-up is wrong?” – The Guardian 12/12/00
  
  
• MUSIC CRITIC DOES THE DALMATIANS MOVIE: “Yes, but it’s only a story. Don’t take it so literally. Try and be an echt film critic. You see, I’ve got the vocabulary.” – The Guardian 12/12/00

• One of Australia’s biggest arts donors says the arts community has to stop asking for money all the time. “In the Aboriginal communities today, they’re saying that ‘if we keep getting handouts, we’ll never be able to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps’. And the arts has got to see life the same way.” – The Age (Melbourne) 12/12/00

A new law in Korea mandating that a percentage of the films theatres show should be Korean seems to be working. Screening of Korean films has soared. – Korea Times 12/11/00

Exploring how critics do their jobs, The Guardian newspaper in London has had its critics swap jobs for the week. “Critics are experts in their fields, but is that always a good thing? Or can a fresh pair of eyes offer new insights?” – The Guardian 12/11/00

• Theatre critic Michael Billington: “We theatre critics have it easy, both physically and intellectually, compared to our art-reviewing colleagues.” – The Guardian 12/11/00

In Singapore artists announce a new website on which they will post work censored by the government. Surprisingly, the government does not object: “The archive hopes to ‘compile case studies, so we know what were the reasons for the censorship, and to learn from it. We hope that it will promote understanding and meaningful dialogue on artistic freedom and responsibility.” – The Straits Times (Singapore) 12/10/00