Category: issues

The Rose Art Museum’s director, Michael Rush, has said its closure would be “like a death.” Jeff Weinstein asks: “Can a museum, or any cultural institution, die? I’d like to propose that the answer is yes. But I don’t mean that a museum or concert hall dies merely when it goes out of business or the walls get knocked down. The core of my reasoning is personal. If the Rose and its art were to go, a serious part of me would mourn, and as far as I’m concerned, mourning is incontrovertible evidence that something alive and important has passed away.”

“Things don’t look as bad in Denver as in some other parts of the United States. Planning and fundraising for the $33 million Clyfford Still Museum and $90 million overhaul of Boettcher Concert Hall are on schedule. Some local arts organizations have been forced to pare their budgets by as much as 12 percent, but virtually none has had to resort to layoffs or major cuts to programming.”

“The second instalment of Vancouver’s Cultural Olympiad is still fighting for profile. And while its organizers have their eyes firmly set on 2010, arts groups are looking beyond, wondering what kind of legacy will be left behind.”

Lindy Hume says “she is a supporter of large, family-friendly events but adds: ‘It’s also good for Sydney at the beginning of each year to have a good hard look at itself.’ She wants to emphasise the darker sides of the city and embrace the different elements of its “incredibly complex history”: the stories of settlers, indigenous people, convicts, immigrants. She says it is important for the festival to reflect the world in which it is presented.”

It would be complacent to come to the conclusion that there is no need to worry, but so far the arts are proving to be recession-proof.

“We’re looking at a different kind of situation than after the Sept. 11, 2001, tragedy, when people cocooned and therefore did affect attendance in a big way. That’s not the case now–people are going out and looking for value, for things that are affordable.”

“Overall, the survey of 92 area organizations of varying sizes and from a broad range of disciplines reported that earned income had increased or remained relatively flat at most responding institutions. Just-released national figures show similar stability in earned revenues in recent months.”

A group of artists set up a barter system for their art. “The exact service or good that these artists require — for example, dental work, other medical services or studio space — will be on a label next to their art. ‘Given the economic climate and with all the artists that we know suddenly without viable work, it became clear one evening as we sat around the dinner table, that art could be treated as a currency. We want to make art more accessible for those who don’t have it in their environment’.”

“We’re really thrilled that there’s a strong minister and that there were [two] pages in the budget devoted to the arts, which is a first in my history,” said Kevin Garland, general director of the National Ballet of Canada. But two potential recipients that were snubbed continue to feature prominently in most reactions, namely the Canada Council for the Arts and initiatives concerning Canada’s cultural presence abroad.

“Comparing Obama to a flashy new building feels all wrong; our new president seems determined by both action and symbolism to prove that he is no radical, a member of no avant-garde. If I had to pick a contemporary architect to compare him to, I suppose I’d lean toward Renzo Piano or Norman Foster, both of whom fold traditional aesthetic values into crisp new buildings and seem as impatient as Obama with histrionics and wasted motion.”