Category: issues

“While rock has long had a tradition of sibling acts, the film and art worlds, though previously featuring plenty of brothers and sisters working in different areas of the same art form, seem to have only recently hit upon the idea of consolidating the family business. But does working with your brother or sister have any effect on the artistic end product? Is sibling art or music somehow different from other collaborative efforts and, if so, is it rooted in a genetically shared talent or simply the circumstances of upbringing? – The Sunday Times (UK)

“Around the country, think tanks, foundations, academics and researchers are drawing up a wide range of empirical evidence designed to defend and define the civic role of culture in America. And by culture they don’t just mean art in a museum or music in an orchestra hall. Culture, they say, includes everything from fine art to movies and pop music, parks, historic monuments and architecture – the essential fabric of our lives. And, they say, government needs to pay fresh attention. Witness the birth of the cultural policy movement.” – Los Angeles Times 08/18/00

“None of us wants to resort to regulation. But if the entertainment industry continues to move in this direction, and continues to market death and degradation to our children, and continues to pay no heed to the real bloodshed staining our communities, then the government will act.” The government will act: To many people, even those who agree that the contemporary entertainment world is objectionably coarse and crude, those words are almost as menacing as the tip of a bayonet in the small of the back. – Chicago Tribune

“Britain may have lost its former colonial territories, but its national museums still hold vast cultural treasures; the surviving legacy of hundreds of years of empire. These museums are now becoming increasingly out of step with museums around the world which have been handing back material over which there have been claims. Indeed the Australian Museum has been a leader in the field for more than 20 years, having returned significant items to Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.” – Sydney Morning Herald

• “Twice a week, thousands (as many as 28,000) of in-line skate aficionados take over central Paris, turning the traffic-clogged streets of the French capital into a derby of flailing limbs and technicolour Lycra. Held every Friday night and Sunday afternoon, the inline skating “parades” are a magnet for locals and tourists seeking exercise, fun and even a whiff of danger. Each week, police approve a new 30-kilometre route and keep traffic at bay during the allotted three hours. – National Post (Canada)

• “Brooklyn-based historian, author and playwright Charles Mee believes that the greatest plays in human history – those by the ancient Greeks and Shakespeare – would never have been written had copyright laws existed to keep the authors from borrowing from the culture around them. Mee puts his money where his mouth is. He makes the texts of his plays freely available on the Web, and forgoes royalties.” – All Things Considered (NPR) 08/17/00 [Real Audio file]

The arts are in desperate shape in South Africa. “To continue to ignore the very real obstacles facing the cultural and artistic life of the country is reckless. With the Lottery pickings out there to better South Africa, why are the arts not on the agenda?” – Daily Mail & Guardian (South Africa)

Joe Lieberman gave his speech to the Democratic Party convention Wednesday and didn’t slam Hollywood. But he sent pal William Bennett to speak on a panel in his place across town. Bennett decried the “morass of sex and vulgarity promoted by Hollywood” and “reiterated that the entertainment industry is responsible for ‘the degradation of our culture’ and that movies, TV and music have led to ‘a debasement of the moral environment’.” – Variety 08/17/00

Ottawa, Canada’s capital, is consolidating into a “megacity” and the board overseeing the transition has decided to cut a promised $500,000 for the arts from the new city’s budget surplus. “We are just one tenth of one percent of the regional budget and to grab that money, they really are going to have some upset artists.” – CBC 08/17/00

“The day after the festival board voted 5-0 late Tuesday to move the Festival of Arts and Pageant of the Masters to a bigger site in San Clemente, artists and other opponents of the move vowed to step up their fight. ‘We will not allow this to happen. They may go, but the festival will not go with them. The artists will not go. The pageant people indicated they will not go and volunteers said they will not go’.” – Orange County Register 08/17/00