Category: issues

As the wave of college professors hired in the ’60s and ’70s to teach baby boomers nears retirement age, universities are bracing for a major turnover in their faculties. – Chronicle of Higher Education

In a lease dispute, the venerable 68-year-old Festival of Arts and Pageant of the Masters has told the California beach town of Laguna Beach it might leave. Uproar ensues. – Orange County Register 03/12/00 

Digital technology is turning all corners of the entertainment world upside down. Music, radio, books, movies – all are being reborn out of new technologies and new ways of making and getting product to market. – Boston Globe

The Israeli minister of education decided last week to add the poetry of a Palestinian to the school curriculum. Sure, they’re love poems, but “loving” is the last word to describe the political row that’s erupted. – Salon

After decades of dreams and empty promises, the Greek culture minister says that building an opera house for Athens is a priority of the government. – Athens News

Critics charge that a Malaysian broadcaster is airing too many foreign programs and that by watching, young Malaysians will lose their sense of patriotism and national identity. They want the government to impose content restrictions to boost Malay content. – The Star (Malaysia)

Media critic Todd Gitlin says that rather than uplift and educate people, modern media conglomerates are a Band-aid. “Fortunes are to be made in offering ever-reliable analgesics to a public hungry for fast relief,” he says. The guys who run the networks, the newspapers, the studios, the magazine and music companies are getting richer while our civic life grows poorer. – Toronto Star

Students at the Ottawa School of Art have put up statues all over town with cards attached to them reading: “Does Art Matter? Call this number to argue your case.” If people decide to call, they have three minutes to sound off. It’s part of a class project to find out how much the average person on the street cares about art. – CBC

A couple of weeks ago the NEA’s present and past chairs got together to talk about the role of arts in America. “What emerged most pointedly was how the panelists attempted to define artists and the arts as utilitarian tools. The underlying sentiment seemed to be if we don’t cast the arts in terms of their social-political-economic usefulness, how can we justify underwriting them at public expense?” – Backstage

The Adelaide Festival – 530 events in 100 venues in three weeks – is like Edinburgh only in the blazing summer heat. This year the eye dominates the ear. – The Guardian