Category: issues

“The plan calls for more art in just about every venue within city reach, from its buildings and theaters to its parks and even the streets themselves. In addition, it lays the groundwork for more funding of art projects, as well as incentives for planners and developers who make art a priority.”

“From pop culture to high culture, Venezuela’s conflict is leading actors, artists, athletes and fashion designers to voice their support for the antigovernment protesters, with a minority backing President Nicolás Maduro.” And those celebrity statements have inspired conspiracy theories from both sides of Venezuela’s political divide.

“President Obama’s proposed federal budget for the coming 2014-15 fiscal year would lift spending 3.5% overall for the six main federal arts and culture agencies but provide no increase for the three grant-making bodies that disburse money to nonprofit groups outside Washington, D.C.”

“Just like the clip of Charlie White scratching out a few notes on a violin for Al Roker, the recent news from Sochi about violinist Vanessa Mae’s skiing exploits for the Thailand Olympic team was met by fellow musicians on social media not with support, but with a significant heaping of snark and vitriol.”

“After more than two years of sometimes prickly debate, … the City Council voted 6-3 Tuesday night to approve a 50-year agreement with the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro on how the Tanger Center for the Performing Arts will be funded and governed.”

“A few months ago, Bloomberg laid off its theater critic and dismantled its culture desk to focus simply on “luxury.” USC’s Annenberg School is shutting down its Getty Arts Journalism fellowship program. Harvard’s Nieman Fellowship in Arts & Culture Reporting no longer exists.”

“New York State public schools administrators aren’t taking art seriously, according to a new report filed by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli last Tuesday. The audit sampled 310 students who attended 166 public high schools from 2007 to 2011 and found that between 46% and 64% of them graduated without ever meeting the the minimum arts education requirements.”

“They are not under present existential threat. Further: their shrinkage, were it to accelerate, is likely to be less culturally significant than many of us believe. For instance, academic literary criticism could fade while literature itself (and its effects on the world) prospered.”

“It is no longer enough to ask whether young people are being shaped by digital technology or are themselves shaping it when both teens and tech are increasingly being configured by a commercial imperative to turn users into more readily sellable data.”