Category: issues

Both the utilitarian and the intrinsic arguments ignore the growing evidence that logic arguments, of which both utilitarian and intrinsic – though a little less for the intrinsic camp – use, aren’t the kinds of arguments that are the most persuasive. Emotional appeals work best, in part, because the content of the argument is often secondary to the emotion it elicits, and often that depends on how the argument is delivered. Click here for some quotes on why emotion works better than logic in certain kinds of arguments.

Since 2009, Legacy funding has provided more than $440 million to historical, artistic and cultural projects and events, with about $200 million going specifically to artists and arts organizations across the state. In 2009, before that funding began, Minnesota ranked ninth in the nation for per capita public funding for the arts. Today, it ranks first. The state spends about $6 per person on the arts, according to the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, pulling well ahead of states such as Hawaii and New York.

“A new paper takes a deep dive into the connection between culture and economic development in New York and London. The paper … looks at the ways in which culture and cultural capital interact with economic factors (such as changes in median income and house prices) to shape urban economic development. And because urban economic development and culture are increasingly seen to be associated with rising gentrification and deepening inequality, it also looks at the effects of cultural capital on housing prices and housing affordability in these cities.”

“Less formal than restaurants but with more full meals than a café, these bistros are indeed a classic component of the archetypal Parisian scene. … Now, bistro defenders say, this institution is under threat, pressed under the boot of high rents and changing social habits. It’s easy to understand the concern, but will acknowledging bistros’ special place in Parisian culture actually do much to save them when the culture itself is changing?” Feargus O’Sullivan explains the changes and how they’re affecting the bistros of Paris.

Whatever it recommends, the government will probably wind up horse-trading production and promotion commitments in exchange for no direct regulation: think the Netflix deal Minister of Canadian Heritage Mélanie Joly announced last fall but (here’s hoping!) more detailed and more enforceable. Cunningly

As a cultural industry that has long been informed by, and intent on sending messages about, the dispossessed, Broadway has been at the vanguard of the movement to fend off Trump’s more isolationist policies. But it has sometimes taken different roads in getting there, as much preaching unity in the face of divisiveness as using the tools of division itself.

“I have watched the organization, and its signature convening, grow and evolve over time—responding to the field’s changes and the external environment in which we all operate. There have been so many conventions, over so many years, that it’s hard to pull memories out of the haze where they all blend together.”

“In this presentation we explore the science of improvisation, with rapper GoldLink, jazz pianist Jason Moran, and comedy duo Andy Bustillos and Alex Song of Upright Citizens Brigade. We’ll get inside the artists’ heads to see how their quick creative process allows them to step into the spotlight — without knowing what’s coming next.” (multimedia feature)

“In April, the Irish government announced a new strategy: ‘Investing in Our Culture, Language and Heritage 2018–2027’. Astonishingly, although the Irish state has been in existence for almost a century, this is the first long-term plan ever devised for the country’s culture and heritage. For that reason alone, it should be welcomed. Furthermore, the scale of proposed investment in national cultural infrastructure – almost €1.2 billion over the next 10 years – is unprecedented. More money and better planning: it’s not often that either, let alone both, is on offer.”

In reality, this country would have been better off forgiving the $1.48 trillion in student loan debt held by more than 44 million Americans, rather than going through with the $1.5 trillion tax cut for corporations, where the benefits are concentrated at the very top. According to Student Loan Hero’s website, the average student who graduated college with the class of 2017 has close to $40,000 in student-loan debt, up 6 percent from the year before. There’s tremendous evidence this collective debt is holding back not just one generation, but the entire nation.