Category: issues

“The mingling of art and reality is something that appears to be on the rise, with a number of artists enlisting members of the public to help create their work.”

“Germany’s coalition government has agreed to up its culture budget by 1.5% to E1.13 billion ($1.8 billion), part of which will go to extending the country’s hugely popular $95 million-a-year Federal Film Fund through 2012.”

“Culture secretary Andy Burnham has ruled out direct government funding for the country’s flagship arts companies, claiming that such a move would undermine Arts Council England.”

“Since yesterday’s announcement of the decision by Premier Alan Carpenter the issue has become hot, with many attacking the Perth-born actor’s personal life and lack of theatre work as reasons why the Northbridge centre should get a different name.”

For years, many archaeologists who uncovered ancient noisemakers dismissed them as toys. Museums relegated them to warehouses. But while most studies and exhibits of ancient cultures focus on how they looked, Velazquez said the noisemakers provide a rare glimpse into how they sounded. “We’ve been looking at our ancient culture as if they were deaf and mute,” he said. “But I think all of this is tied closely to what they did, how they thought.”

“Arts institutions have been cultivating people in their 20s and 30s for years as a way of shoring up future donors. But Sarah Arison and Jenny Coyne are not merely passing through, writing a check and dressing up for a night in order to rub the right shoulders. They are among a small and privileged group who hope, and are being groomed, to do much more: to take over the family business, so to speak — that business being arts patronage.”

“My friend, a young artist at the start of his career, offered to sell me a 1 percent share in him for $9,000. I would receive a portion of his lifetime earnings but would have no say in the sort of work he did. This seems like a good deal for us both, but it does feel a bit like slavery. Is this agreement ethical?”

There’s food and drink of course. And parking. And about those nasty add-on ticket-booking fees…

“The more money you make and the more education you have, the more likely you are to go to movies, plays or concerts, says a Statistics Canada study released Thursday. The report also suggests that the type of job a person has influences their choice to attend cultural events.”

“Conservative shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has for the first time outlined what his party’s artistic policies will be if it wins the next general election, in a speech claiming the Tories are now the ‘natural party of the arts’.”