Category: issues

“The lesson of Seattle’s budget World’s Fair is a subtle one. If a city doesn’t have an economy and amenities to draw people, neither the glitziest fair pavilions nor the most glamorous stadiums will make a difference.”

One graffiti artist, who recently spray-painted a mosque’s minaret: “Graffiti are now associated with positive political action, so I think they have become acceptable on many levels. As an expression of the freedom that people have fought and died for, they have become a legitimised form of art for many.”

As China prepares for the Communist Party Congress, censorship (both outside and self-imposed) rises in galleries and exhibition spaces.

Who’s going to pay for the museum? New York’s mayor and governor disagree so much that it may not open anytime soon, maybe not even before the Freedom Tower in 2014.

Or so pleads one mystery author, whose work was trashed by another author using various fake names to slam others’ books and bloviate about his own work.

“The Lincoln Center Theater and the Brooklyn Academy of Music have invested millions of dollars to fund new theater spaces for new work.”

Three performers, feeling pressured to move out of their neighborhood, were packing their possessions into a van when six men attacked them with knives. One died; the other two were taken from hospital to prison. And these are far from the only actresses in Afghanistan to be attacked.

“It isn’t only the history of the Holocaust that you see on display in Israel’s Holocaust museums. It’s also the history of the history of the Holocaust. There is an archaeology of trauma to be found if you look closely, and in its layers and transmutations you see how a nation has wrestled with the burden of one of history’s immense horrors.”

“Forced to meet EU budget targets, the Dutch government has made sharp spending cuts – an unpopular move ahead of next week’s election. Arts and culture are among the biggest casualties.”

“Egypt’s post-revolution art scene is documenting the country’s emotional roller coaster of a transition through music and graffiti art. Since the uprising against Hosni Mubarak, small indie bands have popped up to sing or rap about the political situation in Egypt. The graffiti that lines Cairo’s streets is also evolving with the transition.”