Category: issues

“The Watts House Project announced Saturday that Edgar Arceneaux ‘has graciously stepped aside’ from his role as executive director. … Arceneaux, an artist who founded the community redevelopment project in 2009, had served as its leader and most visible spokesperson.”

Massive cuts to mobile library services in the U.K. mean that the population least likely to have access to Amazon and other online booksellers also are now the least likely to have library service. “The cuts are having a disproportionate effect on the elderly and people in remote communities, who rely on the library vans for their reading material.”

Howard Jacobson hits back at those who asked London’s Globe to withdraw an invitation to an Israeli theatre company. “If there is one justification for art… it is that it proceeds from, and addresses, our unaligned humanity. Whoever would go to art with a mind made up on any subject misses the point of what art is for. So to censor it in the name of political or religious conviction… is to tear out its very heart.”

The giant chain store can’t just waltz into Canada with all-U.S. books and CDs. Nope. “The federal government is conducting a review of retailer Target Corp.’s proposal to enter the Canadian market to determine whether books and other cultural products have enough home grown content.”

“It’s easy to understand why curators, critics and others have a soft spot for artists engaged in ‘social practice’ — those who roll up their sleeves and use their skills to try to bring about some sort of real-world change, whether raising awareness about domestic violence or helping to rebuild post-Katrina New Orleans. But is it possible that when it comes to social practice that the art establishment has a blind spot too?”

“The underlying business model of the nonprofit is too inadequate, and the need for our services is too fast-growing, and society’s understanding of the situation isn’t all that it might be. And we’re afraid to say the word “business” in the same sentence as the word “art” for fear of alienating both our artists and their supporters.”

“Numerous philosophers have come to believe, in concert with the prejudices of our age, that only science holds the potential to solve persistent philosophical mysteries as the nature of truth, life, mind, meaning, justice, the good and the beautiful. Thus, myriad contemporary philosophers are perfectly willing to offer themselves up as intellectual servants or ushers of scientific progress.”

“Beginning last year, filers could donate to the state’s chronically underfunded arts grant-making agency by checking off a box on their tax return, then adding the amount they wanted to contribute to their payment or subtracting it from their refund.” That box could disappear if the CAC raises less than $250,000 with it this year.

“Mark Prescott’s shock departure as the director of the Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen’s comes as the event celebrates its 50th year. … It’s not clear why he has left what is seen as a plum post in the arts world, but some sources indicated that Mr Prescott may have had plans to expand festival events outside Belfast, and that could have created some friction.”

Cincinnati-based Rabbi Laura Baum’s seder “will be conducted in cyberspace, as her guests – from New York to New Zealand – join in at OurJewishCommunity.org, the online congregation she co-leads. … So far, the guest list is up to about 400 – although she need not worry about any last-minute crashers. ‘It is not as if we will run out of gefilte fish,’ she says.”