Category: issues

“In the US, Kickstarter funds more arts-related projects than the National Endowment for the Arts. Could a similar thing happen in Australia? Could crowdfunding make up the shortfall in artistic budgets or help more emerging artists? Or will even more demands for spare dollars just weary arts supporters?”

“The concert hall, which was established in collaboration with the organisers of Lucerne Festival, consists of a single skin membrane that can be easily inflated or deflated to enable its transportation around the region.”

Raymond Simonson, direction of the new institution, called JW3: “I’m fed up with the Jewish conversation just being about Israel or antisemitism. I want to talk about Curb Your Enthusiasm instead, and the paintings of Chagall, the music of Amy Winehouse and Woody Allen films.”

Justin Sayre: “Within that trend [of assimilation with the mainstream], for the first time gay culture can be truly about gay people. You know, in decades past, we always had to siphon out a gay storyline or a gay subtext from mainstream culture. Now we can tell really strong, complex gay stories openly. It’s a much more interesting time, in a way.”

“Now Matadero [in Madrid] is evolving into a cultural laboratory, where a new arts financing strategy is being tested. Companies and institutions are providing financial support to supplement dwindling government arts subsidies, but with a twist: they don’t just send checks, they move in.”

“”Perhaps the most important quality, the one that is most consistently present in all creative individuals, is the ability to enjoy the process of creation for its own sake.”

“The health of the arts in the United States worsened for a fourth straight year during 2011, according to the latest National Arts Index report, released this week by the advocacy group Americans for the Arts.”

“In these times of increasing government emphasis on children’s reading and their resultant educational attainment, surely the closure of public libraries, reduced book spend, limited opening hours and the compulsory redundancy of librarians have had a direct and negative impact on this aspiration?”

“Because Texas buys textbooks for more than 4 million students, publishers tend write textbooks designed to capture the Texas market. They then sell the same textbooks in other states. If textbooks in Texas don’t teach evolution, the entire country will suffer.”

“Just as certain climbers prefer granite to gritstone, and certain cavers prefer wet systems to dry ones, the explorers have their specialisms: the bunkerologists, the asylum seekers, the skywalkers, the builderers, the track-runners, the drainers. Most people start out in ruins, though.”