“For an artist to remain relevant and part of the cultural conversation, no matter how degraded they might consider that conversation, they can’t stand along the wall at the party only to step into the fray every five years, deliver a profundity and then retreat.”
Category: issues
Is The Proliferation Of University Degrees Making Us Root-bound?
“Over the last thirty years, the university has replaced the labor union as the most important institution, after the corporation, in American political and economic life. As union jobs have disappeared, participation in the labor force, the political system, and cultural affairs is increasingly regulated by professional guilds that require their members to spend the best years of life paying exorbitant tolls and kissing patrician rings.”
What Does Art Have To Do With Democracy? Hard To Tell In The Oregonian
When Oregon’s biggest newspaper inveighs against a tax for arts education, its former arts editor hits back. “The arts inevitably turn around and touch (and are touched by) other areas of life. That’s why they are so central to our lives together: They are connectors.”
Pop Culture, Out Of The Closet
It’s Pride Month in the U.S. In the 15 years since Ellen DeGeneres came out on the cover of Time Magazine, here are some cultural markers for actors and musicians who are – and sometimes suddenly are not – out.
Prominent Canadian Writers Petition Government For Understanding Canada
A group of prominent Canadian authors and academics, including Margaret Atwood, Rudy Wiebe and David Staines, the University of Ottawa literature professor who helped found the Giller Prize, are calling on the Harper government to “create a system to replace” Understanding Canada, a program started in 2008 to fund international Canadian studies.
Brazilians Flock To Theme Park To Experience Winter
About three hours from São Paulo, in a high valley planted with pine trees, lies Campos do Jordão, “a cozy cluster of German-styled beer halls, Gruyere-perfumed fondue joints and timber-framed Swiss chalets with steep A-shaped roofs designed to bear the weight of heavy snow.”
Will The Art World Support Obama?
“Despite the introduction of policies that have alienated sections of the arts lobby, it looks as though key figures in the US art world will once again step up to back Barack Obama as their candidate in the presidential race.”
Why Does Every Public Service Need To Be Run Like A Business? (This Path Ruin)
“The constant denigration of government and public service, coupled with the often unjustified veneration of business, has led to a world where successful capitalists are privileged in all discussions. In an earlier time, we understood that the values and priorities of the market weren’t universally applicable; of course you wouldn’t run a university like a business. It has different goals, serves different constituencies, and more important, has a broad obligation to serve the public.”
England Awards £56M In Matching Grants For Endowments
“More than £50 million has been given to arts groups, including London’s Old Vic Theatre, to help them build up endowment funds to meet day-to-day running costs. Money from the Government’s Catalyst: Endowments fund will be shared between 34 groups including the Hallé Concerts Society in Manchester, the Arnos Vale Cemetery Trust in Bristol and the Birmingham Royal Ballet.”
Once-Promising DC-Area Arts Center Swamped By $56M Debt
A decade ago, Fairfax County, Virginia had dazzling plans for the Workhouse Arts Center, housed in a former prison in Lorton. But with the first phase of construction completed one year ago and operations underway, the center is carrying a $56 million debt load, and management is scrambling to change offerings and business models to keep the enterprise from collapsing.