“Initially celebrating the wealth of European heritage, the title, with its attendant year-long cultural extravaganza in the host city, went to the obvious candidates, including Berlin, Amsterdam and Dublin … But, hand on heart, who can say that in the intervening years they have beaten a path to Maribor in Slovenia, Mons in Belgium or Essen in Germany? Who can name five cultural highlights in Guimarães in Portugal, Stavanger in Norway or Umeå in Sweden?”
Category: issues
The Race For Mayor Of London – Who’s Best For The Arts?
Zac Goldsmith (Conservatives), Sadiq Khan (Labour), Caroline Pidgeon (Liberal Democrats), and Sian Berry (Greens) make their cases.
When A Robot Kills, Is It Murder Or Product Liability?
Responding to a new short story about a robot who/that kills her/its owner, a legal scholar considers issues of robotics law that will arise sooner or later.
UK Report: Jobs In The Arts Increased By 4% In 2015
“The data from the Office of National Statistics shows that 976,000 people now work in the sector, with separate data from 2015 showing that 460,000 people were working in artistic, literary and media jobs, including 77,000 authors and writers and 19,000 choreographers.”
Canada Council’s New Strategic Plan: Be A Bridge Between Indigenous/Non-Indigenous Through Arts
“Reconciliation through the arts is one of four main priorities in the council’s new five-year plan, which was released on Tuesday. The other three are about helping Canadian artists thrive in a digital environment, raising their profile internationally and giving them more money.”
Chaos At Bucharest’s National Opera House: Latest General Manager Lasted One Day, Performances Cancelled, Musicians And Dancers Split Into Factions
Last week, in an attempt to win back Johan Kobborg, the house ballet’s artistic director – along with his superstar fiancée, Alina Cojocaru, and all the company’s non-Romanian dancers – the culture minister brought back the former general manager whose replacement led to the crisis. But that general manager, George Călin, had been removed because of corruption charges; when he returned, the opera side of the house and the orchestra went on strike (shutting down ballet performances as well). Călin stepped down the next day, and the house has been leaderless since; the culture minister has tried to convince legendary Romanian-American stage director Andrei Serban to return to Bucharest and turn the company around, as he did with the National Theatre after the Ceaușescu regime fell. Now the pro- and anti-foreignerKobborg sides (which roughly but not entirely align with the ballet and opera sides) are bitterly hurling accusations at each other, with the deputy prime minister attempting to mediate. (in Romanian; Google Translate version here)
Freelance Arts Workers Occupy Ten Theatres In France, Including The Comédie-Française
Angry about impending changes to the country’s generous system of unemployment insurance for performers and backstage personnel between gigs, protesting intermittents du spectacle (as they’re called in France) have occupied the Comédie-Française and the Théâtre de l’Odéon in Paris (where this set of protests began, and where performances of Racine’s Phèdre starring Isabelle Huppert have had to be cancelled). Demonstrators say they’ve also occupied the major state theatres in Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Rennes, Caen, Lille, Toulouse, Grenoble, and Montpellier. A disastrous string of protests over the same issue in the summer of 2003 devastated the nation’s summer festivals, causing cancellations even at Avignon and Aix-en-Provence. (in French; Google Translate version here)
Why A Rethink Of Canada’s Canadian Content Rules Is In Order
“You can no longer use control, like we used to do in the past, in order to try and steer things in a certain way. … [The government’s] regulatory levers are becoming fewer and fewer, and so it’s going to be more difficult and we have to rethink how we do this and how we do it effectively.”
The Kennedy Center Wants To Be Inclusive. But what Exactly Does That Mean?
The Kennedy Center is mightily trying to remove its blinkers and open itself up to wider cultural influences — with, for instance, its new hip-hop arm. But it still defaults to a concept of “art” and “culture” that may not denote inclusivity to a lot of people.
Wait, The Victoria & Albert Has Banned *Sketching*?
“The rule is implemented for logistical reasons: the V&A anticipates long lines for the underwear-filled exhibition, and artists sketching skivvies for prolonged periods may cause traffic to get bunched up in the galleries.”