Category: issues

“In 2014-2015, Ontario’s Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sports invested approximately $800 million into the province’s cultural industries. The fashion industry has lobbied for years to be eligible for access to that government funding and Froese believes the time is now right for the fashion industry to get a slice of the pie.”

When the fate of Ashraf Fayadh came to the world’s attention, angry tweeters made the obvious comparison and created the hashtag #SaudiArabiaIsISIS. Then a totally offended official from the Saudi Ministry of Justice announced that it would sue anyone who dared equate the Kingdom with the extremist rebels in Iraq and Syria. What did he think would happen?

Because we have the data, my friend, and they are sobering. As former Globe editor-in-chief John Stackhouse reports in his new book, when the paper analyzed its online traffic, they found that fully 40 per cent of the paper is read by fewer than 1,000 people. This benighted, much-ignored category includes “baseball, tennis and theatre reviews” – basically, a lot of arts and culture coverage. Including, probably, this book review.

“The Google Cultural Institute [is] a free website that made its name in recent years by digitizing and displaying the collections of more than 800 art museums and historical archives. The Google initiative is now moving into the performing arts, and this exhibition is the first fruit of its partnerships with more than 60 groups from around the world – with the groups providing the content and Google providing the gee-whiz technology.”

“While Saint Nicholas may bring gifts to good boys and girls, ancient folklore in Europe’s Alpine region also tells of Krampus, a frightening beast-like creature who emerges during the Yule season, looking for naughty children to punish in horrible ways – or possibly to drag back to his lair in a sack. In keeping with pre-Germanic Pagan traditions, men dressed as these demons have been frightening children on Krampusnacht for centuries, chasing them and hitting them with sticks, on an (often alcohol-fueled) run through the dark streets.” (photo essay)

“We’re so used to jumping through funding hoops that when we try to make the case for continued state funding of the arts, we parrot back the values of the political classes – tangible, rational, moderate and easily quantifiable benefits to society. Rather than proving their worth, talking about the arts simply as a way to transfer skills or drive a social agenda diminishes them to something small-minded and replaceable and undermines the very ecology we seek to protect.”

“Following outcry — and often apologies — over casting choices this year in ‘Aloha’ and ‘Pan,’ the studio and director behind the upcoming fantasy epic ‘Gods of Egypt’ have issued mea culpas for choosing an almost all-white cast to portray Egyptian deities in the movie.”

Fundraising income is catching up with public funding as a source of income for Arts Council England’s (ACE) National Portfolio Organisations.

“When the choice comes down to sacrificing the quality of a product, or sacrificing the physical and mental well-being of the laborers who make that product, there needs to be someone looking out for the workers.”