Category: issues

How hard is it to deal with the economic crisis when your local economy was never any too great to begin with? Just ask Detroit’s arts organizations… “At Michigan Opera Theatre, the worsening economic climate has shaved nearly $1 million off projections for this year’s ticket sales and contributions. Likewise, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra is predicting [major] losses this year. And just months before the Detroit Institute of Arts unveils a Norman Rockwell show… the museum has yet to find a corporate sponsor to help underwrite the exhibition.”

A well-known expert on education is decrying cuts to arts programs in Canada’s schools. “We tend to think arts and sciences work completely differently, but the process is the same… Creativity fosters innovation, an economic necessity. It’s not the flip side of science and business, but a part of it.”

A Las Vegas critic recently discovered an online message board partially devoted to eviscerating his reviews of local performances, and (to hear him tell it,) he couldn’t be happier about it. “It’s been a one-sided conversation, favoring the critic, for far too long… So it’s only fair that what I write is subject to criticism itself (after it gets past my editor and the copy editors). And I can take it.”

The effect of the collapse of Washington Mutual on the arts scene in Seattle, where the bank was based, has yet to become fully clear. What is clear is that the effect won’t be small. “WaMu, which billed itself as “the Friend of the Family” in advertising, gave $48.6 million to charity nationwide last year… The bank also matched donations employees made for as much as $10,000 a year.”

The 2nd annual Arts in Schools report finds that 8% of city elementary schools met state requirements for arts instruction last school year  up from 4% the previous year. Middle schools rose from 29% to 46%.

“‘I don’t sell cocaine,’ says the video vendor in Kano’s Rimi market when I ask for Adam Zango’s music video CD Bahaushiya.”

“Irish audiences have been warned to expect ‘fewer festivals, fewer exhibitions, less theatre and less music’ next year as a result of a near 10% drop in funding in the newly announced arts budget for 2009.”

“Nowhere in Philadelphia do rich and poor commingle so awkwardly as on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway… Now, two powerful civic groups are pushing for regulations that will make the area a flash point in the debate over how to manage the city’s homeless population.”

“Over the past few years, there have been a lot of stories done about the super-wealthy in Russia. They benefited from Russia’s oil-boom economy, and spent millions on luxury homes, works of art and lavish lifestyles. But in the recent financial turmoil, Russia’s rich have lost billions of dollars.”

“The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Nonprofit Finance Fund will hand out $15.1 million to 10 performing arts nonprofits to fund the exploration of new business practices and models. Gotham’s Wooster Group, Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater and Los Angeles’ Center Theater Group are among the orgs to receive coin during the five-year program, called ‘Leading for the Future: Innovative Support for Artistic Excellence.'”