Category: issues

“It’s difficult not to feel as though we, as a culture, have reached a dead end, that our quest for authenticity has bred nothing more than a series of postures and attitudes that, if they hadn’t sprung up by themselves, would have been invented by market demographers anyway. Perhaps we are stuck in the age of “cool,” when all roads to larger causes inevitably circle back to the adolescent project of exalting the self.”

Ocupa MinC began in May when Michel Temer became interim president and promptly announced that the government was going to deal with one of the worst budget deficits in years by absorbing the Ministry of Culture into the Ministry of Education. In response, thousands of artists and musicians occupied MinC buildings in at least 18 cities nationwide, camping out in tents and performing songs in protest.

The program, which began this year, was intended to “open up Olympism and its values to the widest possible audience,” according to a statement by the Olympic committee.

“A performing arts center can sometimes feel intimidating. What we do with our community engagement programs is give people a taste. Sometimes that will open the door for someone to come see a show or enroll their child in one of our arts education programs.”

Jo Chiang: “Growing up, I found no reflection of that [queer] part of myself in the people around me. But I did have films and television. … Although women who loved women could not live happily ever after, they could drive off cliffs (Thelma and Louise). Or they could set the manor on fire and perish as it crumbled around them (Rebecca). Or they could be suffocated in a senseless and racialized manner for the sake of making a statement (Orange Is the New Black). Or they could get shot (Buffy the Vampire Slayer). And shot (Orphan Black). And shot (The Walking Dead). And shot (The 100).”

“By introducing inmates to everything from dance to drumming to drama, the program’s supporters believe, Arts-in-Corrections can inspire deep and lasting change.”

“Edinburgh is to team up with one of its main overseas cultural rivals to commission major productions, help develop up-and-coming artists and even share staff in future.”

On the 1940 morning when the invasion began, “one of [the] Nazi officers had the misfortune to pass an elderly gray-haired lady on the street, who responded by remarking on his rudeness and smacking his hat off his head with her cane. After he apologized and fled, she chuckled to herself: ‘Well, we’ll each have to fight this war as best we can; that’s the fourth hat I’ve knocked into the mud this morning.'”

“When I wrote last week about the worrying trend in Canadian arts to always give the top jobs to foreigners – there have been five examples in 15 months, including the leaders of the Royal Ontario Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Shaw Festival – the community howled in agreement. I had clearly struck a nerve with Canadian directors, curators and arts administrators who feel they face limited opportunities for advancement at home. But the labour market for artistic directors and culture-sector CEOs is global, and some asked if Canada was not sending abroad as many leaders as it imports.”