“The festival has been cancelled amid concerns that it had got out of hand. Mr Hamilton, one of the co-ordinator’s of the Bearsden Festival, said people had been planning to travel from all over Europe and some had compared it to T in the Park, a music festival that attracts 80,000 a day. He said it was a small, local event that had been held for five years.”
Category: issues
Destruction Of Cultural Heritage Is Officially A War Crime, Per UN Security Council
Resolution 2347, adopted unanimously last Friday, reads in part, “directing unlawful attacks against sites and buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes, or historic monuments may constitute … a war crime and that perpetrators of such attacks must be brought to justice.”
‘President Trump vs. Big Bird’: NY Times Columnist Nicholas Kristof Argues For NEA, NEH, CPB
“The humanities may seem squishy and irrelevant [in a time of crisis]. … Yet the humanities are far more powerful than most people believe. The world has been transformed over the last 250 years by what might be called a revolution of empathy driven by the humanities.”
Signs Of Conservative Support For Funding The NEA
“The fact is that the arts agencies are garnering more support today than they enjoyed in the past. Today the NEA gives grants to every Congressional district in the country. Advocates argue, that although the grants are small, they should be looked at as investments that have a multiplier effect given the requirement for recipients to raise matching funds from other donors. Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ), co-chairman of the Congressional Arts Caucus, focuses on that when he lobbies his colleagues to continue supporting them, telling them that the agencies create jobs in tourism, restaurants, and hotels.”
Could Programs For The Military And Veterans Help Save The NEA And NEH?
“All one has to do is review the extent to which President Trump spoke of veterans issues while on the stump to understand the potency of an issue like whether the nation provides adequate care for its servicemen and women. Now, with the fate of the National Endowment of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities in the hands of the Republican lawmakers controlling Congress, supporters of the endowments say mentioning the work they do with the military and veterans is important when lobbying lawmakers.”
Philadelphia’s Old Metropolitan Opera House To Reopen (Though Not For Opera)
The 4,000-seat theater was built in 1908 by Oscar Hammerstein I (grandfather of the Broadway lyricist) on what is now a gentrifying section of North Broad Street; it served as a cinema, ballroom, circus, and church before being abandoned a number of years ago. Now a real estate developer is renovating the Met and has signed Live Nation to operate it as a performance venue.
Here’s An Idea To Boost Engagement With The Arts
“I believe that there is a strong rationale for the creation of a Cultural Endowment Foundation. It should aim to synthesise existing evidence, promote greater evidence use and generate rigorous new evidence (through supporting and evaluating promising interventions) on one and only one issue: how can we narrow social class gaps in adult arts attendance?”
Britain’s Top Ten Cultural Attractions In 2016
“The top 10 most-visited attractions in the country were all in the capital. Seven of those saw a fall in numbers, including The Natural History Museum and the V&A, which both suffered a drop of 12%. The overall visitor numbers for London attractions last year were level.”
Today’s Philanthropies Have Some Issues (And Some Problems)
“I think the more people understand how much power the wealthy have through philanthropy, the more they’re likely to see it as part of this larger pattern of the wealthy speaking with a larger and larger voice, even as ordinary people struggle to be heard at all.”
Deborah Cullinan: Why The Arts Need To Lead For Democracy
“Arts and culture organizations must understand themselves not as arbiters of taste, but as creative homes for the people. They must be places driven by artists, culture bearers, philosophers, and activists. They must be platforms for cultivating public imagination; building thick and diverse networks; convening across differences and sectors; and incubating breakthrough ideas that stick, because they spring from communities that come together to embrace truth, honor diversity, and poetically pursue freedom.”