Category: issues

The Kennedy Center has just completed its three-year “African Odyssey” initiative. It staged 260 events of contemporary dance, theater and music from 40 countries, as well as presentations by African artists living in America and American creations inspired by Africa. Was this attempt to reach out beyond traditional European art successful? – Washington Post

In Joerg Haider’s province in Austria, he is his own culture minister. Haider has two rhetorical enemies: foreigners who sponge up social benefits, and artists who crave subsidies and then refuse to toe the line. Herr Haider believes that art should be for the people. Avant garde artists have lost commissions because their work is too modern. What do people want? plenty of folk music. Herr Haider’s cultural adviser is Andreas Mölzer, whose view is that artists “behave like whores”. – The Times (UK)

— is the highlight of the city’s social calendar. This year’s version was controversial before it even started, with much protest about the latest Austrian politics. And then…at the ball itself, an actor made up to be Hitler, jumped out of a Rolls,  “marched straight into the opera house, giving Hitler’s salute and nodding to astonished guests in white tie, tails and ball gowns.” As the actor – who claimed he was making an anti-Haider protest – was dragged away by security staff, he shouted “I’m back. I’m here to greet my people”. – London Evening Standard

There’s a new class of college professor, recently made wealthy by their internet ventures. And yet, while they may dress better and take more leaves, their multi-millions are no reason to quit, they say. – Chronicle of Higher Education

Former cultural officers in a Zimbabwean province have banded together to found a Performing Arts Empowerment Foundation, aimed at promoting the arts while improving the welfare of artists in the province. The group will set up a fund, contract with medical services and implement a retirement scheme. “We intend to empower artists, most of whom did not own houses and left their families in abject poverty when they died.” – Zimbabwe Mirror

Publication of a list of 350 artworks in Britain with questionable provenance during Nazi years, had British museum organization on the defensive Tuesday. “in Britain some museum directors after the war had not been ‘fastidious’ about checking whether paintings they bought or were given might have had a Nazi connection. But the organization believes many of the gaps in history are innocent but cannot yet be explained because papers have been lost, owners have died or dealers and auction houses are unwilling to release documents.” – The Telegraph (UK)

• List “far less sensational” than headlines suggest. – The Telegraph (UK)
  
  
• Proving ownership difficult. – The Telegraph (UK)
  
  
• “No factual evidence that any of the works had been stolen by the Nazis” – New York Times

Three weeks after rival Christie’s lowers its sales commissions, Sotheby’s follows suit. Did you talk to each other about the new fees, guys?  Nah…. “We did this in light of the competitive environment we’re in,” said William F. Ruprecht, Sotheby’s new president and chief executive. – New York Times

Artists’ reaction to Austrian politics is problematic. “It is generally accepted in Western societies that the arts are a democratic safety valve, articulating ideals around which public sentiment can refocus. Artistic freedom has become as sacrosanct, in principle, as freedom of the press. All agree that it is abhorrent for politicians to interfere with the arts. At what point, however, does it become unacceptable for the arts to meddle in politics?” – The Telegraph (UK)