Category: issues

“Whether in the complexes built by labor unions, radical fellowships or the city’s Housing Authority, New York – uniquely among American cities – has for more than 80 years insisted upon culture as a part of the social compact, something as essential to the working class as affordable rent and medical care. Such ventures have proved essential to New York’s prominence as a cultural capital, while remaining oddly invisible – because few New Yorkers realize the vast extent of union developments or recognize that public housing here defies the stereotype of fetid, crime-ridden projects.” – New York Times 09/03/00 

“The Bay Area – indeed, all of California – is under siege by nouveau- riche pilgrims who apparently have little use for indie rock, dance clubs, dance studios, alternative art galleries, underground theater or one-screen repertory movie houses. But San Francisco’s arts community isn’t taking this invasion lying down – unless one counts going limp during arrest.” – San Francisco Chronicle 09/03/00

An increase in Massachusetts’ hotel-motel tax to benefit building a new stadium for the Boston Red Sox will also mean millions of dollars in aid to the state’s cultural groups. – Boston Herald 09/03/00

San Francisco artists gather for a weekend protest/conference about the gentrification of their city. Rising rents and the prosperity of the Dotcoms have led to the eviction of many artists and arts organizations in the city. – San Francisco Chronicle 09/11/00 

One of the dominant myths of our time is that all art that preceded modernism’s shock of the new was mediocre, overseen by a dour old-boy network, needlessly preoccupied with realistic representation, calculated to avoid inflaming barely curtailed passions, contrived to ignore simmering class hatreds, and devoutly uninterested in the sort of true truth of human experience, concealed and overt, that had been explored by Sigmund Freud. – Feed 09/01/00

• Artists are being forced out of San Francisco by the high-rent dot-coms. “Estate agents in San Francisco say that in the past 12 months rents for prime start-up space have doubled from about $45 per square foot to $90 per square foot. According to official statistics less than 1% of commercial real estate in San Francisco is unoccupied. The organisations that can least afford higher rents have been hardest hit. Non-profit organisations such as charities and the city’s artistic community are being forced out of their space.” – London Evening Standard 09/01/00

Since he resigned and then unresigned, Salzburg Festival director Gerard Mortier has been uncharacteristically quiet about the new ultra-right-wing elements in the Austrian government. Until last week. “When I go out of my office and I see members of the right-wing party in the office next-door, I feel it in my stomach, like a pain.” – Los Angeles Times 09/01/00

A former Canadian Olympic athlete has proposed an Arts Olympics. “The plan is to create an Olympics that will celebrate emerging artists from around the world in five categories: film, dance, music, literature and visual arts. The effort also proposes to bring an element of competitiveness back to the arts, which has always played a large role in the Olympic movement, dating back to the beginning of the modern Games in 1896.” – National Post (Canada) 08/31/00

Londoners are apparently breathing easier these days; air pollution in the city is the best it’s been since the Industrial Revolution. How do they know? Scientists have been monitoring the walls of St. Paul’s Cathedral to test for acidification and stone condition – since 1720, an inch of stone has dissolved from the cathedral’s balcony. – London Evening Standard 08/30/00