Mounting Internet Protests Against International Anti-Piracy Deal "European activists who participated in American Internet protests last month learned that there was political power to be harnessed on the Web. Now they are putting that knowledge to use in an effort to defeat new global rules for intellectual property." The New York Times 02/06/12

Report: UK Arts Sector Suffers From Under-Investment In Workers "Many of these barriers are a consequence of the distinctive structure of the creative labour market - the sector is characterised by a prevalence of SMEs [small and medium enterprises], micro-businesses, start-ups, freelancers and project-based work. This structural feature is responsible for an overall market failure in which there is under-investment in human capital, fewer training opportunities, insufficiently structured career progression and unfair access to jobs and opportunities." TheStage 02/03/12

Twelve Arts Donors Among This Year's 50 Biggest American Philanthropists "Reporters for the Chronicle found specific donations of at least $1 million to arts and cultural institutions by 12 of the 50, totaling $213.4 million. The Philanthropy 50, as the Chronicle calls them, gave $10.4 billion in total charitable donations in 2011, more than three times the $3.3 billion they donated in 2010." Los Angeles Times 02/06/12

Arts Workers Need More Training And Investment, Says UK Government Report "The creative industries suffer from an 'under-investment in human capital', have too few training opportunities and unfair access to jobs, according to a new report ... written for the Creative Industries Council, co-chaired by culture secretary Jeremy Hunt and business secretary Vince Cable." The Stage (UK) 02/03/12

French Government Bans Film Advertising Posters For Being Too Risqué France's advertising regulators have ordered that ads for the new film Les Infidèles (which co-stars Jean Dujardin of The Artist) be taken down for what one commissioner called "an attack on the dignity of women". The Guardian (UK) 02/02/12

How Iraq's Great Universities Were Destroyed "In just 20 years, then, the Iraqi university system went from being among the best in the Middle East to one of the worst. This extraordinary act of institutional destruction was largely accomplished by American leaders who told us that the US invasion of Iraq would bring modernity, development, and women's rights. Instead, as political scientist Mark Duffield has observed, it has partly de-modernized that country." Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 02/02/12

How Can Skeptics Make Convincing Religious Art? Terry Teachout observes that, in many genres, "great works of devotional art have been created by skeptics, not a few of whom were fire-breathingly militant about their doubt." How do we recognize this paradox? Teachout finds a clue in one instance where Ralph Vaughan Williams meets Plato. The Wall Street Journal 02/03/12

Can Italy Change Italy? "When I first came to Italy thirty years ago, there was a lot of talk about change. It was always located in the very near future, but never quite in the present. The paradigm almost everybody accepted was that of an "abnormal" and in some respects archaic society on the brink of becoming normal and modern, falling into line, that is, with the powerful democracies of Northern Europe--as if there were something natural about their models." New York Review of Books 02/01/12

Restored And Glittering, Bolshoi Theater Still Has Problems "In the three months since its reopening" following a long and troubled $700 million renovation, "performers have criticised the renovation, audiences booed its operatic premiere and complained about ticket prices, two Bolshoi ballet stars decamped to a rival theatre and other dancers suffered injuries." Reuters 02/01/12

Asia Society Expands From New York To Houston And Hong Kong "Even as cultural organizations around the country contract because of the economic downturn, Asia Society is pushing against the tide with two new multimillion-dollar buildings, one of which opens in Hong Kong next week, the other in Houston this spring." The New York Times 02/01/12

What Was That? (Thinking About Modernism) "Of all the topics in the humanities, modernism may be the most ill taught, because it is both too close (having flourished between the 1880s and World War I) and too distant (having been eclipsed by postmodernism, whatever that means)." The Weekly Standard 02/06/12

Engage! Arts Council England Launches £37M Fund To Do Just That "Arts Council England has launched a £37 million fund aimed at engaging people in cultural activities in areas where involvement is low. The 'creative people and places fund' will support around 15 initiatives that will develop cultural experiences for communities that are currently not engaging with the arts." The Stage (UK) 01/30/12

Against Copyright? Why? "Why do people do it? Because they have no fear of reprisal. Sure, some of them pay me after they are confronted or take the image down, but why should I have to find them and confront them? I guess it shouldn't be so surprising since modern journalists call aggregation "journalism," when really it's just slapping your name on someone else's work and sometimes adding a snarky couple of sentences. People say that they will link to my site. Oh, really? That's great, but I prefer cash." Creative Loafing 01/26/12

A 'Cathedral' Barn From The Middle Ages Is Saved For The UK "Dating from 1426, early in the reign of boy-king Henry VI and not long after the death of Chaucer, the Great Barn was one of several built in an area now largely swallowed up by the outer west London suburbs." After nearly being knocked out for a Heathrow runway and sold to a neglectful developer for £1, the barn now belongs to English Heritage. The Independent (UK) 01/30/12

The Internet Isn't An Organic, Natural Entity - And It Needs Active Defenders "The question now is whether the people who got mobilized around SOPA and PIPA, called their senators and congresspeople, and agitated on the Internet, will become a political force by making clear that candidates' record on Internet issues will be an important factor in their voting decisions. That is not yet clear. So it was definitely a short-term victory but we will see whether it will be a long-term victory." Publishers Weekly 01/27/12