Category: issues

“There is a view that the model of state funding for arts in the UK is bloated, London-centric and ripe for replacement by more generous private backing seen in places like the USA. Others, however, say public money keeps the arts vibrant and accessible.”

“An arts leader is expected to have a mission that ignites a community, motivates a staff and even effects social change. So how does giving away some portion of one’s ample bank balance make you part of that club?”

“Less crime is a manufactured amenity. An improving neighborhood attracts intra-regional migrants. Talent streams into a bohemian neighborhood full of tolerant artists and musicians. Bam! The Rise of the Creative Class, just like that.”

“On the old dirty waterfront, Dubai on the Hudson is rising, which fills me with equal amounts of awe and revulsion. This is not a New York City I know or understand or could ever love. But I also see a possible bright side, a way that Dubai on the Hudson could revive the Manhattan I do love — by acting like a giant magnet to attract all the Hot Money.”

the promoters were clearly prepared for the huge demand that saw £65 tickets offered on re-sale websites for £1,600 ($2,600, 1,900 euros) within 15 minutes of the sale opening. “The first show sold out in 43.5 seconds. Four further shows immediately went on sale: 2-5 July,” a spokesman for Monty Python told AFP.”

The “ambitious strategy includes radio stations, a TV channel, a publishing venture, more website offerings and eventually – 2017 sounds good, being Canada’s 150th anniversary – moving the performance spaces into downtown Banff, giving the Centre badly needed new venues, and the town a cultural injection and architectural facelift.”

“Do we really think some landlord is going to give a damn about the culture of the working class? This was an art form invented by the children of the working class, not children with last names like Trump or Rockefeller.”

Almost a fifth of the buildings in Berlin’s city center belonged to Jews before Hitler’s rise to power. Should their heirs seek more money for restitution?

“I think the government’s ideas about the arts are absolutely appalling and need to be rebutted. And if you don’t rebut it then you can’t complain when things go wrong.”

Gates recently told an interviewer that donating money to a museum rather than to the treatment and prevention of blindness was morally equivalent to taking 1% of the visitors to a museum and blinding them. Terry Teachout takes the argument on.