Category: issues

“Many more dissidents remain behind bars–notably Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, the disappeared lawyer Gao Zhisheng, journalist and poet Shi Tao and detained activist Ran Yunfei. Human rights watchers cite dozens of activists that have been detained or silenced. Both Ai and the recently released Hu have refused to comment to the press as a condition of their release.”

“Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the NEA projects a growth rate of 11 percent for arts-related occupations over the next seven years. Perhaps surprisingly, that’s a bit higher than the projected increase of 10 percent for the overall labor force.”

Peter Herrndorf: “[In] order to be more national than we were a decade ago, and to continue those national activities, we need to raise money from non-government sources, as well.”

“We’re looking at a traditional audience base shrinking in a city that’s not growing,” said Kathleen Cerveny, the foundation’s director of evaluation and institutional learning. “If the arts are to survive, they need to attract people that aren’t going now.”

“The Barclays Center, the 18,000-seat arena at the heart of the [Atlantic Yards] project, will host performances by artists selected by the Brooklyn Academy of Music in a programming alliance between the two neighboring institutions.”

“Under the Arts Council initiative, £30m of Lottery funds will be invested in a match-funding scheme to increase arts organisations’ ability to fundraise. Match-funding is where an organisation undertakes to raise a certain amount from private giving that will then be matched by Lottery funds.”

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty: “One thing I’d say, and maybe it’s different than it used to be, is we actually don’t believe in festivals and cultural institutions assuming that year after year after year they’ll receive government funding,”

“Writers and performers who have long been welcomed by Britain now find that they are required to undergo a visa application process that is needlessly bureaucratic and intrusive. Non-European Union artists wishing to enter the country have been treated poorly, either through the application process or at entry points.”

Michael Billington: “What I can never quite get over in Galway is the feeling that you are part of a continuous 24-hour party (when do they ever sleep?) and that everyone local is involved: my wife, catching a bus to a photographic exhibition on the town’s fringe, suddenly found herself caught in an animated discussion with her fellow travellers about the work of Cartier-Bresson.”

“How is it possible that a play can convey a crippling blow to religious dogma and authority without alienating anyone except the most puritan and devout?”