Category: issues

“The main difference between dilettantes and the dedicated is that the former will often find themselves unable to exercise the degree of control necessary to achieve the desired result.”

Governor Jerry Brown’s budget plan calls for “an overall 8.5% spending increase, including major boosts to education, but envisions a $9,000 cut for the state’s arts-grant agency, the California Arts Council — from a projected $5.058 million in the current fiscal year to $5.049 million in the 2014-15 budget year that begins July 1.”

If only this were a joke … (Egypt’s internet wags are making fun of the affair in high style, at least.)

“Stanford has been the catalyst of the Silicon Valley revolution, and we want to have the same effect on the arts. The Bay Area has the human and material resources needed to become the Florence of the 21st century.”

“Besides the obvious attraction of the kind of work we do in the arts, what are the other components of what makes people satisfied and happy or dissatisfied and unhappy in their jobs?”

In response to a Ten Commandments monument placed on the capitol grounds in Oklahoma City in 2012, a Satanic Temple has proposed a design for its own religious statue to go alongside it. (The Pastafarians, always ready with their holiday crèches, seem to be behind the curve here.)

The long-awaited Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts will be open before the end of 2014, management promises.

“With museum archives, ancient manuscripts, and whole libraries being digitized, some researchers argue that data analysis will let studies of culture finally claim some of the empirical certainty traditionally associated with “hard” sciences like chemistry and physics.”

“Japan has the world’s oldest population, with a median age of 46 years, an average lifespan of 84, and a quarter of the population over 65. But this doesn’t have to mean a gloomy future. What happens in the coming years might even point the way for other countries.”