Category: issues

“The House approved a $1.4-trillion spending package on Tuesday that includes a $7.25-million increase for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). This increase is the largest for the NEA since 2013 and brings the organization’s total funding to $162.25 million, its highest since 2010. The spending bills will also increase funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute for Museum and Library Services, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The House spending package, comprising two bills, now heads to the Senate, which is expected to approve both bills.” – Artsy

“Everything about Celebration telegraphed cozy familiarity. Brochures depicted a quasi-fantastical realm of home-cooked meals, traditional family values, and G-rated movies. The civic buildings were designed by famous architects: the theater by Cesar Pelli, town hall by Philip Johnson, the post office by Michael Graves, the bank by Robert Venturi, to name only a few.” – The Daily Beast

Working in partnership with Paramount Pictures, BBC and ITV, on behalf of a Kuwaiti developer, the team have concocted a perfect vision of little Britain that will bring a tear to even the most steely of Corbynite eyes. After being drawn into the great union jack glass tent, visitors will be funnelled into High Street, a place “full of shops and restaurants” – like actual British high streets used to be. Maybe there’ll be an empty library and an interactive food bank experience, too. – The Guardian

Officials at Arts Council England (ACE) said it would start monitoring for the first time next year, adding to the data it collects around gender, ethnicity and disability. Concern is regularly voiced that the arts is dominated by people from better off backgrounds. – The Guardian

“Speaking at a public forum in Westminster this week, [BP’s UK chief] Peter Mather said ‘the most important debate of our generation’ – climate change – was best served by BP continuing to sponsor major institutions like the British Museum, National Portrait Gallery and Royal Opera House, rather than ‘demonising’ the company for its contribution to carbon emissions. … ‘If I come back in five years and we’re just doing the same thing in oil and gas, then I think might have lost our licence to operate in this [arts sponsorship] space.'” – Arts Professional

“All these prizes are, effectively, marketing exercises. That does not make them bad things … Today, though, artists and judges alike are more attuned to the difficulty in choosing ‘the best’ when all artists palpably do not have equal access to the starting lines; when ‘the best’ is a subjective and contingent category; when the authority of all kinds of institutions, and not just cultural prizes, is on the wane; and when artists competing like racehorses feels out of tune with the times in a way that it did not during the more individualistic Thatcher and Blair eras.” – The Guardian

Producers turn down house lights about halfway, rather than putting the audience in complete darkness; vocalization from the audience is accepted; seating is limited up to 80% to allow audience members to get up and move around; people are allowed to exit and enter as they desire; and pricing is usually set at a general admission fee. – LEOWeekly

Given the art world’s cherished progressive reputation, how long can it justify the extraordinarily outsize habits of its fairs, institutions, and jet-setting elites? – Artnet

And literally no one who has ever bought a ticket through them is sad. But more seriously: “The impending civil action… is expected to claim that Live Nation violated terms of its 2010 settlement with the government that allowed it to complete its controversial, $889-million merger with Ticketmaster.” – Los Angeles Times