“The days when all roads led to London for young artists are over, and there appears to be an exodus of artists looking south to Bristol and Cardiff and north to Manchester, Leeds and further afield to Glasgow, places which all have a creative buzz around them. Why barely survive in London when you can live far better elsewhere, find opportunities, and put down roots?”
Category: issues
SoCal Arts Groups Courting A New Donor Source: Chinese-Americans
“With a median income that exceeds the national average, and a cultural heritage that prizes the arts, it’s little wonder that Chinese Americans would be seen as a promising source of donations. But there are challenges. Many wealthy Chinese Americans are immigrants who don’t have strong connections to L.A.’s cultural institutions. … [And] for wealthy Chinese Americans living in L.A., arts philanthropy is a relatively new concept.”
When Virtual Reality Becomes Good Enough, Will Masses Of People Just Give Up On Real Life?
“The appeal of these environments is not so much that they help us totally escape reality. Rather, it is that they make us believe that we can recreate and change our own.’ In that way, rather than forcing a mass rejection of society, virtual worlds may open new ways of examining our own.”
If Too Many Arts Professionals Come From “The Elites”, Well, Whose Fault Is That?
“Judi Dench, David Morrissey and Julie Walters have all lamented [working-class folks’] absence. But, interestingly, they each talk about the opportunities for working-class kids that existed 20, 30, even 40 years ago, when they were establishing their careers. What has changed between then and now has nothing to do with the socially and ethically conscious people that largely make up our arts sector.”
A Different Sort Of Mardi Gras Tradition: Exploding Sledgehammers
“Brazilians celebrate the day before Lent with dancing samba in skimpy outfits. In New Orleans, revelers throw beads at Mardi Gras. In this dusty central Mexican town, they have a different kind of a blast. … Even amid the inexhaustible tally of quirky rituals that communities anywhere hold dear, the Fat Tuesday frenzy in San Juan de la Vega elicits awe.”
John Holden Argues The Arts As An Ecology
“It is more helpful to understand culture in terms of how it is organized, rather than simply stating what it does. The use of ecological metaphors creates a rich way of discussing culture, and different perspectives then emerge. New taxonomies, new visualisations, and fresh ways of thinking about how culture operates will help promote a rich, diverse and fruitful cultural ecology.”
UK Report Warns: Our Lack Of Audience Diversity Is Unsustainable In The Arts
“We are particularly concerned that publicly funded arts… are predominantly accessed by an unnecessarily narrow social, economic, ethnic and educated demographic that is not fully representative of the UK’s population”.
Where There’s A Backlash Against Valentine’s Day
“Valentine’s Day has taken off across Asia over the past few decades, embraced by the continent’s booming youth population as well as chocolate and gift-card companies. But the holiday, a relatively recent import from the West, often clashes with conservative cultural forces and, increasingly, anti-capitalist sentiments. Below, a look at how some in India, Japan, Thailand and Malaysia are pushing back.”
Now The Arts Are Getting Their Own Version Of The Coachella Festival
In March, about a month before the big rock music shindig kicks off in the California desert, a new one-day event called the Festival of the Desert will debut in the towns around Palm Springs. Headliners include soprano Renée Fleming, ballet dancer David Hallberg, and music biz giant Quincy Jones; the artistic leader is conductor Philippe Jordan.
E-Readers Allow You To Read 50 Shades Of Grey Privately – Except For That Huge Company Monitoring Everything You Do On Your Kindle
“Amazon knows more about your Kindle reading than the clerk in that bookstore in the next town, more than your librarian, and in fact more than anyone has ever known about how we read.”