“Judi Dench, David Morrissey and Julie Walters have all lamented [working-class folks’] absence. But, interestingly, they each talk about the opportunities for working-class kids that existed 20, 30, even 40 years ago, when they were establishing their careers. What has changed between then and now has nothing to do with the socially and ethically conscious people that largely make up our arts sector.”
“Brazilians celebrate the day before Lent with dancing samba in skimpy outfits. In New Orleans, revelers throw beads at Mardi Gras. In this dusty central Mexican town, they have a different kind of a blast. … Even amid the inexhaustible tally of quirky rituals that communities anywhere hold dear, the Fat Tuesday frenzy in San Juan de la Vega elicits awe.”
“It is more helpful to understand culture in terms of how it is organized, rather than simply stating what it does. The use of ecological metaphors creates a rich way of discussing culture, and different perspectives then emerge. New taxonomies, new visualisations, and fresh ways of thinking about how culture operates will help promote a rich, diverse and fruitful cultural ecology.”
“We are particularly concerned that publicly funded arts… are predominantly accessed by an unnecessarily narrow social, economic, ethnic and educated demographic that is not fully representative of the UK’s population”.
“Valentine’s Day has taken off across Asia over the past few decades, embraced by the continent’s booming youth population as well as chocolate and gift-card companies. But the holiday, a relatively recent import from the West, often clashes with conservative cultural forces and, increasingly, anti-capitalist sentiments. Below, a look at how some in India, Japan, Thailand and Malaysia are pushing back.”
In March, about a month before the big rock music shindig kicks off in the California desert, a new one-day event called the Festival of the Desert will debut in the towns around Palm Springs. Headliners include soprano Renée Fleming, ballet dancer David Hallberg, and music biz giant Quincy Jones; the artistic leader is conductor Philippe Jordan.
“Amazon knows more about your Kindle reading than the clerk in that bookstore in the next town, more than your librarian, and in fact more than anyone has ever known about how we read.”
“Just days ago, Malaysian cartoonist Zulkifli Anwar Ulhaque, better known as Zunar, was arrested over a tweet he posted criticizing Malaysia’s judiciary. A cartoon he posted on his Twitter account showed Prime Minister Najib Razak as the judge in a high-profile case involving an opposition leader.”
“It’s fair to say that ‘SNL’ producer Lorne Michaels’ approach to politics was nurtured by the Ford-Albert spirit of non-confrontation, and that it now looks about as outdated as they do.” Except for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, of course.
“One by one, museums across the United States have been imposing bans on using selfie sticks for photographs inside galleries (adding them to existing rules on umbrellas, backpacks, tripods and monopods), yet another example of how controlling overcrowding has become part of the museum mission.”
“Protesters shouting down concertgoers; musicians silenced by hecklers; agitators taking the stages of our performances. All this represents a new turn in the relationship between arts and politics. There’s even the whiff of a new blacklist.”
Harriet Harman, Labour’s shadow culture minister: “The money that goes into an arts organisation is taxpayers’ money. Outreach and access are not options, they must be part and parcel. … Taxpayers will not be happy to finance something if they think it’s not anything to do with them, especially in hard times.”
“Hoping to remedy pervasive and often crippling uncertainty among artists and art professionals over how and when to invoke fair use when dealing with copyrighted materials, the College Art Association (CAA) has released a Code of Best Practices in Fair Use … [which] offers very clear and concise guidelines for artists, scholars, instructors, curators, and editors whose work may involve using others’ artworks.”
“Ranchers, open-range cattle, and working cowboys are seen as creatures of a hazy, bygone era straddling the fence between history and fantasy, swallowed up long ago by the maw of industrial agriculture. Consequently, the art associated with them is often reckoned to be naive, little more than kitsch.”
“As with any political issue, your inner Che Guevara might be telling you to organize a protest or to occupy a square on your campus. While that could be a good way to draw attention to an issue, it’s clearly not the best way to get lasting results.”
“I know that the arts are a symbol system (we can call it sensory imagery) of equal importance to literacy and numeracy. I know that if you don’t include and resource arts education as you do literacy and numeracy that a large portion of the student population will learn much less of all subject matter, and all students will not learn to their potential. But I don’t know what research substantiates this claim.”
“I am a Bollinger Bolshevik, apparently, because I believe I should have a final say in what my tickets cost, in order to manage audience expectation of the work itself, to control perceptions of my own apparent avarice and to make sure that money that is spent on me by punters reflects the cost savings I and the venue have cut corners to make, and the public subsidies the venue may have received, all of which are designed to make entry to the show viable, so that all sorts of people can come along and think I am shit together.”
“Federal funding to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), created by Congress to offer support and funding for art projects, remains static at $146.2 million a year, with a measly annual budget of $158 million. To put that into context, the government has disbursed over $245 billion bailing out banks and financial institutions.”
“Just as artists in the last century questioned the hierarchy of art above life, we have an opportunity to dismantle hierarchies that can make the arts seem inaccessible and elitist, that segregate the arts by class, race and gender and create a top-down dynamic between organizations and the artists they were created to serve.”
“What should have been a triumphant literary discovery — a find that could significantly add to the legacy of one of the country’s most cherished authors — quickly morphed into a puzzling controversy.”
Simon Stephens: “The amount of young directors, writers, actors I know who are moving to Cardiff, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Manchester … I think London could become like Manhattan: a very beautiful, empty place.”
“‘In Episode 10 of the podcast, I reported that this appeal was alive by a thread,’ [podcast host an and reporter] Koenig wrote. ‘Now, I’d say it’s more of a … well-made string, maybe. Like the nylon kind. Because it means that the Court of Special Appeals judges think the issues Adnan raised in his brief are worth considering.'”
“Let me just say really simply that cultural meltdown is the order of the day. There’s not one theatre or opera company that can sell out anything anymore. For one thing that’s because the middle class is being destroyed right in front of our eyes.”
“First, there is the question of the costume copyrightability at all. It is not clear that anyone owns a copyright in Left Shark. And if no one owns a copyright in Left Shark, no one can demand that a Left Shark model get taken down from Shapeways.”
“Either we’re asking people to give up leisure time to attend arts or to designate some leisure time to the arts, depending on whether they see the arts as a leisure activity. Regardless, the onus is on us to communicate why it is worth that time.”
“Living rooms are just the best way to do that. It’s a space where a group of people can comfortably exist on its own terms – they can sit on chairs, if they want, or pig-pile on the carpet, which we prefer. People can clap when they want to, and play the air violin if they’re so inclined. There are no invisible institutional strictures that inhibit the way in which we want to participate.”
“Without taking sides, this document synthesizes information on the recent trend to boycott and includes summaries of notable recent incidents around the world of boycotts of contemporary art projects, some boycotting Israel while others calling attention to other causes.”
“The question underlying the current posh war remains: are too many careers increasingly an option only for those with the backing of an affluent family? And what will Britain become if this continues?”
“If I’m worried about anything about the future of the arts in this country, it’s the future of the arts in London. Because I think London is becoming unsustainable as a city for artistic creativity, because it’s so expensive. The amount of young directors, writers, actors I know who are moving to Cardiff, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Manchester… I think London could become like Manhattan: a very beautiful, empty place.”
“Nearly 30 years later, in response to the Paris massacre, the Associated Press removed an image of Piss Christ from its editorial archives. We’ve seen the same impulse for self-censorship in the West before, as we see it in the refusal of many media outlets to publish the Charlie Hebdo cartoons at the heart of this recent tragedy. Given the seriousness of the violence, such self-censorship is understandable; it’s also a step backward at a time when we need to reassert the importance of free expression by artists, activists, journalists and editors alike.”