Category: issues

“However you approach it, globalization is a messy idea for an anxious world. Academics worry about how to define it; protesters worry about how to change it; politicians wonder how to turn it to their ends.”

“U.S. nonprofit theaters are cutting staff and expanding discounts as they anticipate disappointing ticket sales and fundraising, according to a new survey by the Theatre Communications Group. In a January survey of 210 member theaters, the group found 77 percent are ‘reprojecting’ expenses for the coming year. Theaters with a budget of at least $10 million are cutting spending by an average of $750,000.”

“The money will be used to create the Armani Arts Institute, an umbrella program that will fund arts initiatives in schools serving some of the city’s most disadvantaged populations.”

“As the Guardian reports today, the government is launching a consultation that will encourage events promoters and football clubs to toughen up their ticket security and squeeze out the touts. No one likes to be ripped off, but are there upsides to touting? Did a sinister-looking individual enable you to catch that unforgettable early-90s Swervedriver gig?”

“A nine-hour Robert Lepage epic, a journey into Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘tormented psyche’ and a reimagined ballet interpretation of Carmen will be on the bill in Toronto in June for the Luminato arts and culture festival.”

Air New Zealand is the latest of several companies to advertise using temporary tattoos on willing participants’ bodies. “For shaving their noggins and displaying the ad copy [on their bald heads] for two weeks in November, they received either a round-trip ticket to New Zealand (worth about $1,200) or $777 in cash (an allusion to the Boeing 777, a model in the airline’s fleet).”

As if life weren’t bad enough already. “[The] owners of Jimi Hendrix’s music, trademarks and licensing rights won a legal victory in their trademark infringement case against local businessman Craig Dieffenbach and Electric Hendrix Spirits, which created an ‘Electric Hendrix’ brand of vodka.” The defendants must pay a $3.2 million judgment and remove all Electric Hendrix from the shelves.

Arts partisans are celebrating their stimulus victory, but Greg Sandow contends that it really wasn’t such a coup. The arguments made on behalf of the arts “aren’t nearly strong enough,” he writes. “The arts are going to need a better strategy. And in the end it’s going to have to come from art itself, from the benefits art brings, in a world where popular culture — which has gotten smart and serious — also helps bring depth and meaning to our lives.”

“Across the country, festivals that give communities a sense of pride — and bring crowds to towns that rarely attract visitors otherwise — are getting crunched by the economic crisis. Events are being canceled or downsized as local governments, community groups and corporate sponsors pull back their dollars.”

As the details of the final bill were being hammered out, tens of thousands of arts advocates around the country were calling and e-mailing legislators. Arts groups also organized an advertising blitz arguing that culture contributes 6 million jobs and $30 billion in tax revenue and $166 billion in annual economic impact.