Category: issues

“Launched five years ago, CLP has been supported by [Arts Council England], the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council and Creative and Cultural Skills. The programme’s aim has been to develop new leaders for the arts and culture sector, offering training courses and fellowships for promising individuals.”

David Sefton, who takes the helm at Australia’s most prestigious arts festival for the years 2013-2015 (as the festival changes from a biennial to an annual event), hopes to break down what he calls “that artificial divide” between “popular” and “serious” culture.

The White House is honoring 19 Americans, including authors Harper Lee, Joyce Carol Oates and Philip Roth, actress Meryl Streep and jazz musicians Sonny Rollins and Quincy Jones, with the National Humanities Medal and the National Medal of Arts.

“Composer Philip Glass will launch an eclectic annual arts festival in August, with music, dance, theater, poetry and film offerings at Hidden Valley, an arts training center near Carmel” in central California.

“I looked at how people live, how they shopped. I went into stores and listened to what they had on the radio. There was salsa music coming out of cars, on the street. I said, ‘Holy cow, what did I get myself into?’ I mean, other than José Feliciano, I knew nothing about Latino music.”

A defense minister in Germany can apparently get away with plagiarizing his dissertation, but a bakery employee can get fired for stealing a pastry. That, says highly respected German academic Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, is a double standard.

“Iran has threatened to boycott the London Olympics unless the organisers replace the official logo, which Tehran claims spells out the word “Zion”. The logo, a jagged representation of the year 2012, has been said by its critics to resemble many things, from a swastika to a sexual act, but the Iranian government argues it represents a veiled pro-Israeli conspiracy.”

“Thousands of fledgling artists are turning to Kickstarter as an alternative to the all-too-common black hole of personal debt. In less than two years, the Brooklyn-based site has become a game changer in the world of microfinanced art.”

“Increasing numbers of unpaid volunteers are being employed at theatres and arts centres across England, potentially at the expense of paid professional staff, according to new research published by Arts Council England.”

“Former Barbican artistic director Graham Sheffield has been appointed the British Council’s new director for arts.”