“Burnsville is about to embark upon a $20 million experiment: Can a publicly funded suburban arts center fill enough seats, and generate enough economic activity, to justify the cost?”
Category: issues
A School For Troubled Young Adults Uses Arts As Anchor
Hollywood Media + Arts is “a nonprofit school aimed at offering skills and a haven to young adults who have no anchor, among them foster children who have aged out of the system, runaways from abusive families and people … who feel abandoned by their families.” Its free classes, in areas like music theory, fashion illustration and film history, are taught by volunteers.
Full Speed Ahead For BAM: A $300M Expansion Campaign
“Even as cultural organizations across the city are contracting in a grim economic climate, the Brooklyn Academy of Music has embarked on a $300 million expansion effort that calls for a new theater, three or four spaces for screening films, new festivals for opera and Muslim culture and a shored-up endowment, officials say.”
Australian Novelist Gets 3 Years For Insulting Thai Royalty
“Australian writer Harry Nicolaides has been sentenced to three years in a Thai jail for insulting the monarchy. Nicolaides wrote a novel four years ago, which contained a brief passage referring to an unnamed crown prince. It sold just seven copies. He admitted the charge of insulting the royal family, but said he was unaware he was committing an offence.”
What Really Will Obama Do For The Arts?
“It appears that all that can be said about the Obama arts program is that he has more pressing issues on his plate. Meanwhile, the appetite for that program is growing by the day, with the U.S. arts community salivating at the prospect of government handouts that would’ve been unimaginable before the economy tanked.”
Seven Ways To Support Artists
Culture is a big industry in Canada. But “we have a lot to learn about how to nurture the people who help us define ourselves, say artists and experts who have studied their economic well-being.”
Canadian Culture By The Numbers
Start with $25.1 billion, the amount Canadians spent on cultural goods and services in 2005…
Chicago Lawyer To Head National Endowment For The Arts?
Michael Dorf “has a long resume built at the crossroads of the arts, politics and policy, not to mention roots in Obama’s political career. Reached in Chicago, Dorf declined to comment about the NEA job. But he’s a well-known figure in his city.”
Are The Ranks Of Culture-Vultures Actually Swelling?
“In most rich countries, the old distinction between high and popular culture is breaking down… Millions more people are going to museums, literary festivals and operas; millions more watch demanding television programmes or download serious-minded podcasts.” As Philippe de Montebello likes to say, “the public is a lot smarter than anyone gives it credit for.”
Obama’s Proposed Artists Corps Sows Hope In Arts Circles
“Barack Obama enters office with the first-ever presidential arts platform drafted during the campaign. … Perhaps nothing [in the platform] has attracted as much interest as the proposed Artists Corps, a national service concept that, much like the Peace Corps, would draft legions of young talent into service across the nation’s schools and arts organizations.”