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Press Releases
Week of 8/31/08
London's Cultural Olympics - Substance Over Kitsch?
"The major projects include a World Shakespeare Festival, which is to be
spearheaded by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Critics have voiced fears that
the events may follow the pattern of the handover ceremony in Beijing,
which, with its song and dance routine and its brief appearance by David
Beckham, was derided as kitsch in some quarters." The Guardian (UK) 09/05/08
Culture At The Olympics? A Really Bad Idea
"The Olympiad will go heavy on illegitimate cultural pride. There will be
'12 cutting-edge artists' commissions across the UK'. The Olympiad so wants
to identify with British art that Sebastian Coe is to run shortly in the
Martin Creed relay at Tate Britain. Yeah, we're the artists of the world.
What did America or France ever produce to rival our artists now?" The
Guardian (UK) 09/04/08
Canadian
Arts Supporters Rally To Defeat Harper
"Supporters of arts and culture rallied last night in a sweltering downtown
Toronto theatre to denounce more than $40 million in recent cuts to programs
by the Harper government and to strategize on ways to defeat Conservative
members of Parliament in the impending election." Toronto Star 09/04/08
Is Italian Culture Being Starved To Death?
"Arts institutions across Italy are reeling from a sweeping round of budget
cuts adopted this summer by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's
four-month-old conservative government. More than $1.3 billion has been
slashed from the culture ministry's budget for the next three years." The
New York Times 09/04/08
London
Rolls Out Cultural Olympiad
"A William Shakespeare festival and 12 new public works of art will form
part of a 'Cultural Olympiad' planned for the run-up to the 2012 London
games. Set up to showcase Britain's arts and culture, the four-year
programme will comprise 500 events designed to involve and inspire people at
home and abroad." BBC 09/04/08
Telling The Civil War From The Confederate Side
"For Northerners, the history of the Civil War seems pretty much settled. [But]
things are interpreted more ambiguously here in what once was the capital of
the Confederate States of America... Institutions here -- the Museum of the
Confederacy and the American Civil War Center -- argue that the war should be
seen, at least in part, from the perspective of the losing side, and that such
understanding need not be completely derailed by the moral outrage of slavery."
The New York Times 09/03/08
Looking For Lincoln Center
"This summer, Lincoln Center, the largest performing arts complex in the
country, has been a maze of construction sites, plywood fencing and confusing
detours." Apparently, things are so confusing that people attending
performances are actually having trouble finding the entrance.
The New York Times 09/03/08
Document This (And This)
"We live in an age of conspicuous documentation. As digital cameras have
proliferated, picture-taking has become compulsive: It is as if people fear
that moments won't exist unless they've been reduced to bits. No transgression
goes undocumented, no inebriation goes unpublicized and no child goes un-camcorded."
The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/29/08
Democratic Convention Showed Off Denver Arts
"Make no mistake, Denver is getting noticed by the larger art world. Indeed,
certain insiders in places like New York might have a better handle on the
dramatic changes sweeping the city's art scene than some members of the general
public here." Denver Post 08/29/08
How Ads Are Killing Art
"In the past decade, as artists and as cultural consumers, we've been
encouraged to be more relaxed about the relationship between art and commerce.
In a previous era, Warhol's work ironically questioned culture's claim to
unique purity. But Warhol had a complex mixture of fascination and disgust with
both consumerism and celebrity. In contrast, a contemporary artist seems to
have a vision indistinguishable from the sensibilities of the celebrity
magazine and the advertising agency." The Guardian
(UK) 09/01/08
Week of 8/24/08
Criticism Continues For Exclusive Smithsonian Travel Deal
"The Smithsonian Institution's noncompetitive contract giving a Massachusetts
travel agency exclusive use of the Smithsonian name continues to anger other
agencies two years after the deal was first struck. The deal has been good for
the Cambridge, Mass., tourist firm." Washington
Post 08/28/08
Edinburgh's Gloomy Festival
"Gaiety was in shorter supply than usual at this year's Edinburgh Festival. It
was as if pessimism at the end of the new Labour boom, stasis in Iraq and the
rise of those old monsters, Russia and the Tory party, had filtered existential
panic back on to the stage." New Statesman 08/28/08
Rally Protests Canadian Arts Funding Cuts
"A protest yesterday in Montreal drew 2,500 people and some of the strongest
condemnations yet of almost $45-million in planned cuts to arts-and-culture
funding, just as the National Ballet of Canada's top brass voiced their
concerns in a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper."
The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/28/08
Artists Protest Canadian Arts Funding Cuts
"Hundreds of people gathered in downtown Montreal on Wednesday to protest
government cuts to arts and culture programs. Artists, singers, actors, writers
and politicians spoke out against some $48.5 million in funding cuts announced
by the Conservative government earlier this summer."
CBC 08/27/08
How Europe's Exiled Artists Changed America
"European and American culture have always been a two-way interchange and to
talk about either of them exclusively is like trying to cut water with a knife.
Joseph Horowitz says that Stokowski's dream of a democratic high culture never
arrived. But it couldn't, because such a thing, as an aim, can exist only in
theory. In practice, a successful artistic event deals with the anomaly by
removing it." Times Literary Supplement 08/27/08
A Plea To Canadian Prime Minister To Reverse Funding Cut
Karen Kain, artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada, has written to
Prime Minister Stephen Harper with a plea not to stop showcasing Canadian
artists abroad. Toronto Star 08/27/08
Canadian Prime Minister Defends Funding Cuts For Arts Programs
"What this government has also done in that area, as it's done across the
government, is we've instituted an expenditure-management system, where over a
period of five years we comprehensively review every program and we make sure
that we're spending on priorities and spending on those programs that are most
effective. Some programs in arts and culture have increased in funding, others
have gone down - in total it's gone up." The Globe
& Mail (Canada) 08/27/08
Edinburgh Fringe Ticket Sales See Big Dip
"Ticket sales at this year's Edinburgh Fringe were down by almost 10% - the
first fall in eight years. Bad weather, the poor global economy, competition
from the Olympics and problems at the Fringe box office were all cited as
factors in the downturn." BBC 08/26/08
When The Olympics Awarded Medals In The Arts
"Although nearly forgotten, the Olympics held from 1912 through 1948 included
arts competitions, with the winners receiving the same gold, silver and bronze
medals as the athletes. The arts competition debuted at the 1912 Games in
Stockholm where an American, Walter Winans, won the gold for sculpture. But he
didn't stop there." Los Angeles Times 08/26/08
ArtsJournal Is Hiring
ArtsJournal is expanding, and I need some help. I'm looking for a part time
editor. The job involves culling stories from the publications we monitor
(basically anything about the arts in English, worldwide) and choosing 10-15
stories per shift to feature on AJ. Details after the jump...
diacritical 08/26/08
When Arts Criticism Is Properly Performed
"Good criticism extends the life of a play perhaps not in the number of
performances, but by helping to continue the dialogue after the curtain comes
down and the actors go home for the night. Good criticism should be a reminder
to audiences that theater was interactive millennia before the Internet and
that audiences have their own responsibility in this art form, one that goes
beyond making sure their check to the box office doesn't bounce."
St. Paul Pioneer-Press 08/21/08
Exporting Boston As A Brand
A Boston man formed a company to import arts and culture to South Korea. Boston
Ballet is the first to go, and it's a good deal for the dance company. Tim
Montgomery's company pays all the bills and fees, and the company performs.
Next up: the Boston Pops? Boston Globe 08/26/08
Online UK Ticket Service Goes Bust After Failing To Deliver
"Xclusive Tickets is about to go into liquidation after 18,000 tickets for the
Reading, Leeds and V Festivals, and the Beijing Olympics, did not arrive. A
total of 4,329 people who bought tickets from the company have been left out of
pocket." BBC 08/26/08
A Pitch For The Arts
It used to be, in the 1960s and '70s, that the arts were considered good for
national unity, for our sense of collective purpose and identity. We were seen
then as a youngish, emerging country with an identity that needed forging.
Then, in the 1980s and '90s, the message changed. We began hearing that the
creative arts were good for the economy. That argument continues today but with
a bit of a twist: "Want a culture of innovation? Fund our artists."
CBC 08/24/08
Week of 8/17/08
First Look At Orlando's New $408 Million Performing Arts Center
The center will house three theaters -- a 2,800-seat hall for Broadway tours
and other amplified shows; a 1,700-seat acoustic hall for opera, classical
music and ballet; and a 300-seat hall for smaller performances -- as well as a
community room, rehearsal rooms, classrooms and offices.
Orlando Sentinel 08/22/08
Does Disney Really Own Mickey Mouse? (New Evidence Says Maybe Not)
"As Mickey turns 80 this fall, the most beloved rodent in show business is
widely regarded as a national treasure. But he is owned lock, stock and
trademark ears by the corporate heirs of his genius creator, Walt Disney. Brand
experts reckon his value to today's Walt Disney Co. empire at more than $3
billion." But "film credits from the 1920s revealed imprecision in copyright
claims that some experts say could invalidate Disney's long-held copyright,
though a Disney lawyer dismissed that idea as 'frivolous'."
Los Angeles Times 08/22/08
Canadian Government Arts Funding Redirected To Olympics
More than $40-million in savings the federal government will reap from
controversial cuts to arts and culture funding will be redirected to the
Vancouver Olympic torch relay and two other programs, exacerbating fears that
replacement initiatives are not in the cards. The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/22/08
Gehry Out For Brooklyn Theatre Project (He's Surprised)
"Architect Frank Gehry will no longer be a part of the project to build a
permanent home for the Theater for a New Audience in the BAM Cultural District
in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, the theater's founder said Thursday. But the
announcement came as a surprise to Mr. Gehry, who said he wasn't told of the
change." The New York Times 08/21/08
Business Slowdown Threatens Corporate Arts Support
"As repo men and vulture investors circle, a question has been rippling: Will
banks jettison their investments in the art world--their sponsorship of major
events, institutions large and small? At stake are tens of millions of dollars
in funding." Portfolio 08/21/08
Canadian Artists Wonder Why Government Cutting Programs
The government has announced cuts in programs designed to promote Canadian
arts. "[The Conservatives] are spending a lot on the creation side, but the
whole point with Trade Routes in the first place was, what's the point in
creating all this content if it isn't seen? With a small amount of money we
were able to maximize what we were already spending, which was not
insignificant," The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/21/08
The Happiest Place On Earth: Denmark?
"Since 2006, Denmark, a largely homogenous country of 5 million people on
Europe's stormy northern coast, has been anointed the happiest place on earth
by two very different surveys. The studies' findings have upended dated
international perceptions of Denmark as a quaint but chilly dairy exporter with
a high suicide rate, recasting the country instead as a model of social harmony
that is thriving in an era of globalization." Der
Spiegel 08/21/08
Canada's Conservative Government Cuts Arts Funding By $45 Million
"The Conservatives have earmarked 10 programs and parts of another to be
eliminated and will reduce spending on two others, after a "strategic review"
process that audited all Canadian Heritage programs for efficiency and
effectiveness." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/20/08
Does A Wal-Mart Belong In Miami's Biggest Cultural District?
There is a proposal to build a giant Wal-Mart next to the Adrienne Arsht Center
for the Performing Arts, on parking lots owned by The Miami Herald. "Of all the
bad ideas ever proffered for downtown Miami, this is the worst. And shockingly
so in a time and a place where we have already invested more than $500 million
in public funds to create a downtown cultural precinct."
Miami Herald 08/19/08
It's The Law - Welsh Authorities Required To Promote Welsh Culture
"During the next three years, we wish to place a statutory duty upon our local
authorities to promote culture and the arts. This is not for control's sake.
Rather, it reflects our desire to provide high quality cultural experiences to
each and every one of our communities in the spirit of the One Wales programme
[the country's coalition agreement]. The Stage
08/19/08
Study: Doctors Who Study Arts Are Better Doctors
"Doctors-in-training who took art classes while in medical school appear to
have better skills of observation than their colleagues who have never studied
art, according to a research from Harvard Medical School. They released
research last week that shows studying art can help students make up to 38 per
cent more accurate observations." CBC 08/18/08
Architecture That Saves Energy Now
"While politicians and lobbyists debate massive, years-long investments to
increase North American energy supplies, Dockside Green dramatically cuts
energy use now. Conservation and efficiency have generally been treated
condescendingly in the U.S. energy debate, like the bright but annoying student
whose hand always shoots up first." Bloomberg
08/18/08
Canadian Artists Confused, Frustrated Over Funding Cuts
"Since Aug. 8, the federal government has canceled at least six cultural and
media subsidy programs totalling $18-million a year. In all cases, the cuts
have been quietly communicated to stakeholders, with no official public
announcements." The National Post 08/16/08
Updated:
September 05, 2008
Fax: 608/267-0380