Category: issues

— protesting Australia’s proposed new tax structure (currently before parliament) rallied outside Sydney’s Parliament House Tuesday. The proposed legislation would limit artists’ tax deductions, thereby making it much harder for most to earn a living wage. “The tragedy is that artists, who make a vital contribution to Australia’s quality of life, are struggling on meagre incomes. We know that their practices will be hit disproportionately hard by the GST.”  – Sydney Morning Herald

Twenty years ago, when Pittsburgh’s steel industry shut down, the city looked bleak. But 16 years ago the city turned over part of its decayed downtown to the newly created Pittsburgh Cultural Trust with the charge of using culture as a magnet to bring the downtown back to life. The trust has spent $65-million of public money and attracted $112-million in private funds, as well as inspiring $650-million of commercial investment. Oh yes, the city’s center is thriving. – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

A typical scenario: Artists move into a derelict section of town because it’s cheap. They fix it up, the area becomes cool and rents skyrocket as those with money move in to soak up the atmosphere. “In a number of U.S. cities, they are actually now implanting artists (much the way greenery is replanted on polluted soil), knowing that a funky demimonde will attract business even to disaster areas. To keep the artists there, they have evolved non-profit holding companies on 15- to 30-year horizons.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

Michael Kaiser, the American who has been called “the turnaround specialist of the classical world” may be leaving his job running the Royal Opera House in London. He’s being prominently mentioned as a candidate to take over Washington DC’s Kennedy Center. He is largely credited with saving American Ballet Theatre, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the State Ballet of Missouri from financial collapse. – Washington Post

British Telecom has asserted a claim that it holds a patent on hyperlinks, the very backbone of the Web, and is now soliciting U.S. ISPs for licensing fees. “Anyone successfully claiming a patent on such fundamental technology, both the primitive hypertext facilities available today on the Web, and the much more sophisticated and useful ones being designed into xpointer and xlink by W3C, could hold the world to ransom,” says computer science professor (and coiner of the term “hyperlink”) Andries van Dam. – Salon

David Letterman’s “The Late Show” apparently has an informal ban on lawyers in the audience. “Apparently, the lawyers didn’t yuk it up enough. Sources at a handful of New York law firms told NYTV that the “Late Show” has unofficially ceased its practice of handing out blocks of tickets to law firms. Their suspicion? Them lawyers are just too damn dull.” – New York Observer

Time was when American artists looked longingly at government funding for the arts in Canada, which was traditionally higher than in the US. Now government support for the arts has slipped in both countries and Canada, which never established as extensive a tradition of corporate and individual support for the arts, is wondering how to do that. – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

Amid the current buzz over the Turner Prize shortlist’s inclusion of three artists who aren’t British, a new European arts prize – the Vincent – is being launched by Holland’s Bonnefanten Museum to honor a European artist, regardless of country of origin. “In a world of global culture, individual countries no longer set the standards,” writes the Bonnefanten’s director, “and although there is no other continent that demonstrates so many views and self-inflicted differences, the Vincent is not designed to celebrate Europe’s pre-eminent status, but rather to celebrate diversity.” The winner will be announced in September. – The Guardian

Toronto is Canada’s flagship city. But the flagship is sinking. The symphony orchestra is deeply in debt, the museums are floundering, the opera company is too conservative for its own good, and the theatre scene is ill. There’s even a move to tear down the city’s largest performing arts center. People don’t go downtown any more, and the reasons are easy to see. – The Globe and Mail (Canada)