Category: issues

“Playing loud music, dancing, nudity, kissing and holding hands in public is considered inappropriate behavior under new guidelines laid down by the authorities of Dubai.”

Those inclined towards sanguinity are suggesting that the New Depression will lead to some timeless art and literature, maybe our own The Grapes of Wrath. (I’m envisioning a Hamlet: 2010, in which a young Prince of Wall Street, mourning the death of his broker father who may or may not have thrown himself off the roof of the New York Stock Exchange, grasps the skull of a deceased court jester named Jim Cramer and murmurs, “To nationalize, or not to nationalize? That is the question.”)

“Tough times for arts organisations do not always mean tough times for artists. Times like these remind me that so much of what I find interesting in the arts is the product of the downside of the economic cycle. Smart artists, smart policy-makers and smart audiences should quickly realise that good cultural policy – like most forms of government policy – is a product of the economic cycle.”

Approximately 129,000 artists were out of work nationwide in the fourth quarter of 2008, up 63 percent from the same period in 2007. “Artists are entrepreneurs in terms of their employment character. They’re the equivalent of small businesses – they require a lot more investment up front. They’re already in a pretty precarious situation. And in a market like this, artists are really hit pretty hard.”

“Deputy Canadian Heritage Minister Judith LaRocque refused yesterday to give a parliamentary committee any details about how the Conservative government chose $44.8-million in arts and culture programs to be cut last fall. Ms. LaRocque was summoned to the witness chair of the committee on Canadian heritage to testify about statements Heritage Minister James Moore made to the committee on Feb. 9 that the programs had been dogged by wastefulness and inefficiency.”

The reconstruction of the Bolshoi Theatre began in 2005 and was originally supposed to be finished by mid-2008. Just last month, the estimated completion date was pushed back to 2011; now the project’s chief architect says work may not be finished until 2013 – and will cost an extra $1.5 billion. The Moscow landmark had not been refurbished since 1856 and was reportedly near collapse.

“The recession has not been kind to the arts world. It seems every week there’s more bad news about opera companies folding or theaters scaling back their seasons. But there’s a group dedicated to helping the nation’s small arts organizations work better as businesses.” Fractured Atlas, that is.

Singers from Morocco, Algeria, Mali and New Orleans; dancers from Israel and China-via-New-York; stage companies from Poland, Hungary, Italy, France (Ariane Mnouchkine’s Théâtre du Soleil) and Russia (the Maly Theatre and Declan Donellan’s staging of the original Pushkin Boris Godunov) – all of these converge on Manhattan’s Upper West Side this July.

“The recession is hitting Puget Sound arts and cultural organizations hard, calling for bold steps to manage through the crisis, a study of local arts groups found. Endowments and contributions are down anywhere from 5 to 50 percent. Corporate contributions have fallen 20 to 50 percent overall, and in several cases dropped completely. … While some organizations are actively addressing the crisis, others are responding more cautiously and still others ‘seem to be in denial,’ the report said.”

“Edinburgh’s 12 festivals are to share £2m of funding to encourage more home-grown work. This year’s money comes from the Scottish Government’s Expo Fund, a £6m pot set up in 2008 to be shared out over a three-year period. The funding was announced by Culture Minister Mike Russell, who said the government was ‘determined’ to ensure the festivals continue to flourish.”