Category: issues

The budget and box office, that is, for this year’s Perth Festival, which reached for some ambitious international projects, but seems headed to a record deficit. – Sydney Morning Herald

— of artists protests inclusion of Joerg Haider’s far-right Freedom party in the Austrian government. – CBC (AP)

Native Americans charge the university is trying to get around a law requiring the return of American Indian artifacts. “(Harvard) is very unpopular with natives from coast to coast right now,” said Ramona Peters of the Wampanoag tribe in Gay Head. “It appears they view our ancestors as their property.” – Boston Herald

• RESPONSIBLE RETURN: Some American museums are struggling with complying with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which mandates the return of native artifacts to Indian tribes. – Boston Herald
  
  
• NATIVE AMERICAN FRUSTRATION: “So you go into the museum as the authority figure. And guess who the authorities are on Indians? White people. That’s the hypocrisy. You go in possessing all these qualities and the non-Indian doesn’t recognize you because you don’t have a paper on the wall that says Ph.D. on it.” – Boston Herald

British opponents of an EU plan to give artists a cut on the resale of their work say the plan will gut the English market and drive art-sellers to Switzerland or New York where the tax won’t be collected. Is that any reason not to let artists share in profits on their work? – The Telegraph (UK)

An Australia Council report has some dismal warnings for traditional arts: “A staggering 47 per cent of 18- to 39-year-olds had not attended a performance of theatre, dance or music in the past two years. Ballet rated the worst, capturing only 8 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds who frequented arts events. While young people generally have the time and money to attend the arts, they intensely dislike its “older, stuffy image” and prefer to spend time drinking, clubbing, socializing, watching movies and sport.” – Sydney Morning Herald

Revelations that some US museums have asked for commissions on sales of work they exhibit leave other museums scrambling to deny they engage in the ethically-questionable practice.  – New York Times

It’s quite a simple rule, really. If you pronounce about the quality of art before you’ve even seen it – as some Canadian politicians did last week – you’ll almost always get yourself in trouble. – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

Much French culture never travels beyond French borders. Now a high-budget film and an ambitious musical take a new approach to exporting French culture to the rest of the world. – The Sunday Times (UK)

American linguistics professor says that heavily dialectical speech ain’t no sign of lack of intelligence. His critics say he should be fired. – Baltimore Sun

National Endowment for the Arts chairman Bill Ivey and four of his predecessors gather on a stage in Boston to talk about the agency’s past and future. Is it a matter of high and low art? – Washington Post

• NPR report (Real Audio required to listen)