Category: issues

“Calgary is becoming a city where artists are moving to… rather than coming from. A lot of that is due to the incredible entrepreneurism and creativity of the artists themselves. But it’s also important that the government creates an environment in which this makes sense…”

“You don’t have room for most of your parents’ stuff, and nobody has room for most artists’ stuff. … Even when there’s an interest in preserving things, there’s not enough money and not enough space to save a steadily accumulating mountain of artists’ stuff.”

“Dublin is not a place. Dublin is a sound. Dublin is the sound of people talking. Dublin city is the sound of people who love talking, people who love words, who love taking words and playing with them, twisting and bending them, making short ones longer and the long ones shorter, people who love inventing words and giving fresh meaning to old ones.”

“Moshe Safdie’s promiscuous form-making has a generosity of spirit, but don’t look for finesse. This building dances as fast as it can. Of course, that is an apt metaphor for the arts in American culture today.”

Composer Matthew Hindson: “An opera company in a metropolitan city is not in itself more important to Australian culture than a rock band in Wadeye. … Just because something makes money should not imply it is artistically inferior. If something is not commercially successful it may still have immense cultural value.”

“We are storing, sorting, and filtering information today in ways that are vastly different than we did even 50 or 25 or maybe even 10 years ago.”

“Whenever the ethics of critics come up, my mind turns to Bernard Berenson and I remember the innocent way he was trusted until his role in art-market machinations became known.”

Seth Stevenson: “And this is when my brain melted a little. … A giant metal octopus rolling across the sand, with actual hot flames spewing out of its tentacles. … Lasers careened across the sky. Choking dust storms howled into our eyes and noses. Everyone was in aviator goggles, and knee-high leather boots, and fur vests.”

“A proposal being considered by Toronto would cut all grants of less than $10,000. That’s a very bad idea that would save very little money; sometimes the smallest grants produce the biggest returns.”

“The arts give more than they take,” says columnist Christopher Hume. “That’s true whether you’re a bottom-liner and first nighter, the most ardent admirer and one of the cost-of-everything-and-value-of-nothing crowd.”