Category: issues

“Culture as this particular academic knows it is dead, buried, reincarnated only to walk the earth as a movie remake based on the original sitcom. The problem isn’t dummy art or the proliferation of immoral pop culture, or even a house of mirrors assembly-line media. The problem resides in the inability of the majority of those who comment on the arts – journalists, academics, professional artists, producers, editors, information-age cultural critics – to come to terms with emerging new ways of living with and through mass culture. – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

Korea’s artists, civic groups, and courts are struggling through a morass of mixed opinions over what’s considered art, and thus protected as free expression, and what’s deemed obscene. Two of the country’s recent decisions: the release of the popular movie “Lies” was postponed six months due to press outrage over its sexual plotline. And this week Korea’s premier cartoonist was fined $2.6 million for “encouraging misbehavior in minors” in his strip. – Korea Herald

Does Australia have too many students pursuing arts degrees? “A Centre for Independent Studies report says universities are producing too many arts and social science graduates, who lack employable skills.” – The Australian

In San Francisco, “the boom in the dot-com industry and advances in digital imaging have led to an explosion of ‘wall-scapes’ and dot-com billboards. And many of them, industry and city officials say, are being hoisted without proper permits.” – San Francisco Chronicle

From outside the country, at least, Britain seems to be making a surge in the arts. But “we have a government that tells us that it is pumping unprecedented amounts into the arts, yet around the country the arts are in greater distress than ever,” writes Norman Lebrecht. Just how did the arts fall in the UK’s political agenda? – The Telegraph (UK)

Michael Kaiser, who “helped rescue Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in London from a financial crisis, is about to be named president of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a Kennedy Center official said.” New York Times

• THE MIRACLE MAN: “The Kennedy Center is very lucky,” said dancer Susan Jaffe, a veteran company member of American Ballet Theatre, one of four organizations Kaiser is credited with rescuing from dire financial straits. “Not only has he tremendous business savvy, but his passion for arts has made him a miracle man.” – Washington Post

The Spanish city of Valencia is building Europe’s most ambitious millennium project. “At an all-in cost of £2 billion the project eclipses the Dome in Greenwich and even the Getty in Los Angeles. The prodigious investment provides Valencia with a spectacular new Science Museum, an IMAX cinema, a music school, a magnificent new 1,800-seat opera house, seven kilometres of promenades and two streamlined road bridges.” – The Times (UK)

The roar of protest over the distortions of history in the movie “The Patriot” has been deafening in recent weeks as the movie opened in Britain. So what is up with this month’s Smithsonian Magazine article trumpeting how it helped the movie-makers get the details of history right? Has “the nation’s attic” sold its soul? – Washington Post   

“As high-tech leaders persistently, almost desperately, call for more educated workers, the ‘info-tainment’ business that is rapidly absorbing the Internet and all other media makes well-informed citizens even more rare and unusual. The constant ‘dumbing-down’ and vulgarization of the culture industry, driven by mass marketing and profits, is clearly at odds with educational excellence, but few high-tech leaders can bring themselves to admit their role in this depressing decline.” – Los Angeles Times

He’s America’s oldest enfant terrible. Peter Sellars is directing the next edition of Australia’s Adelaide Festival, and has already changed its focus from being the traditional international potpourri to one concentrating on Aussie artists. But before getting too excited about Sellars’ plans it might be instructive for Adelaidians to take a look at his track record… – The Idler