Category: issues

“Toronto arts and culture groups will have their fingers crossed this week and next, hoping that the city’s executive committee and city council as a whole will okay a recommendation from finance staff calling for a $22.5-million increase in civic funding for the arts over the next five years.”

When changes to the Licensing Law are enacted this spring, “it will no longer be required to have a licence to host a play or dance performance, between the hours of 8am and 11pm, where the number of people in an audience is fewer than 500. ”

“The Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach will pay the money to 248 employees represented by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, AFL-CIO, Local 500. … The relationship began to deteriorate in 2000 when the center fired six stagehands, refused to recognize the union and declared an impasse in negotiations.”

“The Kennedy Center has formed a committee of artists and community leaders to review the heretofore opaque process by which winners of the annual Kennedy Center Honors are selected. … [The move] is part of a series of steps the center has taken in response to a controversy that erupted in September over the lack of Latino honorees.”

“Macbeth starring Kenneth Branagh at Manchester International Festival, Welsh National Opera’s Anna Bolena, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s Wagner on Merseyside – these are all shows where a screening in an independent cinema could allow more people to see the homegrown talent and productions on offer. Perhaps even London audiences could get to see the best theatre that isn’t touring to their feted stages.”

“Offering tuition breaks for strategic majors is meant to entice undergraduates who otherwise might have pursued their passion for, say, literature, to instead choose to spend their college years learning skills like Java programming. But will it work?”

“Perkins and his partners illegally made separate audio and video recordings of new releases in movie theaters, synched the audio tracks with the video files, and shared the completed product online.”

“People are confusing memories with heritage,” says a politician who wants to tear down Blackpool (UK)’s ABC Theatre and turn it into a parking lot.

“My wife said this funny thing: ‘Now I understand that in your family you have to write a book in order to be taken seriously as a human being.’ And that is sad, and true. And we probably could do a better job as a family not having to write books in order to consider each other as human beings.”

“Being uncomfortable. False ownership of terms. False ownership of cultures. Troubled histories. Finger-pointing. Segregation in an integrated world (or is it integration in a segregated world?).”