Darren Walker: “The fact is, America’s economy depends on the arts. As of 2014, the United States Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates, our nation’s creative sector contributes nearly $730 billion to our GDP—a larger share than 44 states. It supports 4.8 million jobs, from schools to galleries, theaters, and beyond. And it supplies an enormous trade surplus that continues to grow year after year; America’s culture remains among our proudest exports. Moreover, the arts catalyze all of this benefit with relatively small public and philanthropic investment.”
Category: issues
Claim: Romanian Artists Are Stuck In A 70-Year-Old Time Warp
“By many accounts, Romania has not made dramatic progress in revising the status of the artist since the fall of Communism in December, 1989. The rusty machinery still rumbles, continuing to produce art and to recognize a social status for artists set in place close to seventy years back.”
Toronto Gets Its Own Superheated Real Estate Market That Forces Artists And Musicians Out
Some predict a hollowing out of the downtown core in Toronto, with basically only bad traffic left. Right now, “Landmark musicians are leaving for more affordable regions in unsettling numbers and, with them go songs and culture.”
Music Education: Has Privatizing It Made It Now Only For The White And Wealthy?
A focus on so-called academic subjects locks out music. “The current state of play means many children are, quite literally, locked out. As a discipline, music needs to attract a bigger crowd. Diversity breeds diversity, and teaching is where this needs to start.”
Why Is Hollywood Leadership In Such Flux Right Now?
Because the business model is changing. “You could bring in genius people to run these studios, … and I don’t think the overall problems are going to change.”
As The Senate Votes To Make Our Online Information Less Secure, What Can We Do To Protect Ourselves?
Nothing is certain, but there are a few ways to help stop your ISP from collecting everything about you. “Here, we’re talking about a very specific problem: how to stop internet service providers from mass-collecting information about perfectly legal things you do online.”
How A Small Kansas Town Promoted The Arts Without Government Funding
“Hays, a college town with about 21,000 residents, is a case study of how the arts can continue to thrive when public funds dry up. But it is also a cautionary tale of the sometimes-hidden costs.”
While US Considers Killing Federal Arts Funding, Canada Proposes $1.8 Billion Increase In Arts Budget
“The federal government will devote $1.8-billion more to culture and recreation spending over the next decade, “modernize” the Broadcasting Act and Telecommunications Act, and spend more on official and Indigenous languages, according to the budget delivered on Wednesday by Finance Minister Bill Morneau. But anyone looking for details of the extensive cultural-policy overhaul promised by Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly since the government took office in 2015, will find scant evidence for it in the budget papers.”
One Sector Of The Art World That’s Thriving Under Trump
According to NPD Group, 2.7 million poster and foam boards were sold in the US in the week leading up to the post-Inauguration march. That’s 33 percent more poster board that was sold during the same time period in 2016!
Magnetic North Festival Disbands And Shuts Down
“The Magnetic North Theatre Festival has cancelled its 2017 edition in Ottawa and is shutting down operations permanently due to an accumulated deficit of $224,000, the 15-year-old theatre festival’s board of directors announced on Wednesday.”