Cleveland’s Culture Crisis

Cleveland arts groups have experienced a significant downturn in business, selling fewer tickets. “Some blame temporary causes, like the continuing bad economy. Other short-term explanations include lingering worries about terrorism and the war in Iraq, and distraction during and disappointment (in some quarters) with the presidential election. Others suggest paradigm shifts to which the performing arts may be hard-pressed to adapt.”

A Limit To “Free” Speech?

The UK has had a number of recent incidents that challenge the idea of free speech. “The crux of the matter is that one person’s attempt to shock, outrage and offend is another’s legitimate form of creative expression. It’s a murky area of discussion, one that is entirely subjective. But what about art at the very margins of popular acceptance; art that appears to almost everyone to serve no other purpose than to be offensive?”

Iraq’s National Library Struggles To Rebuild

“The daylight burning of the library, which the invading US military did not protect, was one of the first costly failures in the post-war chaos of occupation last year. Now it is slowly being restored. But in a country where recent history remains bitterly disputed, resurrecting the library and national archive has turned into a remarkably sensitive and political operation.”

WaPo Buys Slate

The Washington Post is buying one of the internet’s first digital magazines. “In announcing a deal to acquire Slate from Microsoft Corp. for an undisclosed sum, said to be in the millions of dollars, Post executives said they would keep Jacob Weisberg as editor and most of the 30-person staff.”

Whole Lotta Bull For Sale

Fifteen years ago a 7000-pound bronze charging bull mysteriously appeared on Wall Street outside the New York Stock Exchange. Now the artist who made it wants to sell, and bidding begins at $5 million. The sculpture is much beloved on the street and the artist insists “that any deal would require the buyer to donate the landmark sculpture to New York City, with the new owner’s name inscribed on a plaque to be placed next to it. The buyer would be allowed a tax deduction.”

Playwright Goes Into Hiding After Threats

Playwright Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti went into hiding after threats of violence over her play caused a UK theatre to cancel. She said she had “fled her home and warned “mob rule” was endangering freedom of expression.Protesters say that her play Behzti – Dishonour – demeans Sikhism by showing rape and murder within a gurdwara, or temple. But the row took a new twist as a second Birmingham theatre company offered to stage the play, just hours after officials at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre scrapped it over public safety fears.”

Will China Rule The (Art) World?

Chinese art has been a hot sell this year, with millions racked up at recent auctions. “But does all this mean that the new rich of mainland China are about to take the international art market by storm and that Sotheby’s and Christie’s will soon be holding sales in Beijing and Shanghai? The reality, as with most things in this vast, complex nation, is much more complicated..”