Category: issues

The American economy is in the dumps, and in Western New York state, the struggling city of Rochester’s arts scene is feeling the pinch. “State funding is being cut and donors — local corporations, foundations and individuals — are scaling back on contributions.” One local theater has already closed, and other groups are struggling under massive amounts of debt.

“The most senior judge in Saudi Arabia has said it is permissible to kill the owners of satellite TV channels which broadcast immoral programmes.” The comments are alarming to the region’s dozens of satellite channels, many of which broadcast across national borders from liberal enclaves like Qatar, and represent a “huge dilemma” for Saudi Arabia’s ruling royal family.

“In his first detailed defence of $45-million in controversial cuts to arts and culture funding, [Canadian Prime Minister] Stephen Harper called his party’s decisions good governance and said the government must walk ‘a fine line’ between providing financial stability and ‘funding things that people actually don’t want.'”

In a letter to the Judiciary Committee, the groups said granting the Justice Department the power to file civil lawsuits on behalf of Hollywood and others is “an enormous gift” to copyright holders.

“The bill would prohibit foreign libel judgments from being enforced in the U.S. if the speech would be protected by U.S. laws. The bill was introduced after a series of libel judgments were handed down against American authors in foreign courts where speech does not does not have the level of protection it does in the U.S.”

“Canadians accept investment by their federal government in, for example, the Ford engine plant in Windsor, because they see a direct link to creating jobs. They ought to think of investment in the arts the same way, as a creator of jobs.”

Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, which has become “increasingly concerned about the financial health” of the Three Rivers Arts Festival, is assuming responsibility for day-to-day operations and has eliminated the festival’s two senior managerial positions.

“It seems extraordinary that a country where people glut on books, films and television programmes about Jane Austen or the Tudors, should be accused of not caring about our greatest historic and prehistoric monuments – but Unesco’s worries are completely justified.”

“The UN is threatening to put the Tower of London on its list of world heritage sites in danger after its experts accused the UK of damaging globally significant sites such as Stonehenge, the old town of Edinburgh and the Georgian centre of Bath, the Guardian has learned.”