Category: issues

“Islamic radicals destroyed 4,000 ancient manuscripts during their occupation of Timbuktu, according to the findings of a United Nations expert mission. The damage amounts to about one-tenth of the manuscripts that were being stored in the fabled northern city.”

“The former president of the prestigious National Arts Club has agreed to pay $950,000 to settle claims he mismanaged the institution and used its resources to finance a luxurious lifestyle, a New York official said Wednesday.”

“The technological changes we are witnessing will not threaten conceptual rigor or craft, nor will the ease of expression and communication make art obsolete. But these shifts are changing what we mean by art making and what counts as meaningful, crafted expression.”

“For 2012, the NEA had a total federal appropriation of $146 million, of which 80 percent went toward grants. Kickstarter funded roughly $323.6 million of art-related projects if you include all design and video-related projects, which make up $200 million of the total. It looks like a shocking disparity between government grants and a technology start up, but here’s why it isn’t surprising.”

“Australia often seems to be a nation of cordial clappers and polite head-dippers when it comes to live performance. There are exceptions – festival-goers and, oddly, ballet audiences can be soccer-mob rowdy – but years of seated ovations and quick-to-fade clap-alongs suggest something happens to Australians when we arrange ourselves in rows and stare in the same direction.”

“Lately, some cooks have begun to go elsewhere to make names for themselves. Among the reasons for the culinary exodus: Chefs’ obsession with local ingredients is making smaller communities a lot more appealing.”

“The crowd isn’t a community. It’s a collection of anonymous people connected for a brief moment in a transitory project in which they ultimately have little say. Besides, when it comes to art, at least, it is most successful where there is one creator. If we want good art, crowdsourcing is not the answer.”

The Lincoln Center Festival has scheduled 27 performances of this year’s centerpiece offering, the indie-rock-meets-Chinese-opera extravaganza Monkey: Journey to the West. That’s a lot of seats to fill – and to fill them, Lincoln Center is looking to groups well outside its usual audience demographics.

Of course there is a huge difference in scale and accountability, but the point is clear that arts organisations could work more like this. As one delegate observed during the office tour: “Many arts organisations work as if they are local authority departments. We need to learn from this that there are more creative ways of working.”