Category: issues

“There’s a new art gallery on Broadway. In Camden. At the Rescue Mission. ‘It’s got people buzzing,’ says the Rev. Al Stewart, the mission’s longtime pastor. There’s lots more to talk about: the cluster of arts and cultural organizations slowly emerging around Broadway and Ferry Avenue in the city’s down-but-not-out Waterfront South neighborhood.”

“Sixty-three percent of Americans ages 18 to 24 could not locate Iraq on a map in 2006, according to a National Geographic poll, and the cultural center aims to fill in the blanks for the public. That will involve poetry readings and live music and displaying modern art and ancient artifacts.”

“At Cal State Fullerton, David Grimes, director of the classical guitar program, says enrollment is being capped at 10, down from 28,” saving $48,000 annually. “At Cal Poly, the provost has recommended phasing out the fine arts major that usually has about 80 to 100 students,” saving “$200,000 after current enrollees finish their degrees.”

“Suddenly, at least in parts of the blogosphere, it’s hip to be old — a paradoxical twist for a youth-obsessed nation that injects, pulls and carves away any semblance of age. The “olds” (as sites like Gawker.com dub those old enough to remember rotary phones) are the subject of Facebook fan pages, YouTube shows, Twitter feeds and even fashion blogs.”

“The sad fact is that the arts wallow in unoriginality all the time. It is only strange this time we are criticising it rather than purely rewarding it. In the performing arts it has become a structural problem that has become self-fulfilling. Original work is pushed to the bottom of the pile.”

Rem Koolhaas is proposing to redesign an entire continent – ours, Europe – along energy-saving lines. In fact, they would like to include North Africa as well. As Reinier de Graaf, the partner in charge of the proposal, says: “Megalomania is a standard part of our repertoire.”

“Language is the fundamental flaw at the core of Belgium’s existential crisis, taking on the role that race, religion, or ethnicity play in other conflict-riven societies. The country operates on the basis of linguistic apartheid, which infects everything from public libraries to local and regional government, the education system, the political parties, national television, the newspapers, even football teams.”

“First, the board is very active: They’re generous, they’re involved. Second, we were in a good position to have several multi-year grants and two $1 million grants that came at the perfect time. We were set up, in a certain way, to survive it. Third, we had worked very hard to clean up every piece of junk on our balance sheet. So by the time the recession hit, we didn’t owe anybody any money.”

At the dawn of a new millennium the phenomenon of English seems more vivid and universal than ever before. Like a Jackson Pollock of language, countless new variants are adding to the amazing Technicolor texture of the overall picture: urban patois like “Jafaikan”; or local Asian hybrids like Konglish (English in South Korea) and Manglish (Malay and English); or contemporary slang like “cheddar”, “phat” and “noob”, for “money”, “wonderful/great” and ‘somebody new/ignorant”.

Principals like Mohammed Saleem of the nearby Adams High School say that fierce competition between schools forces institutes to strive toward providing the best education they can.