Category: issues

The Creative Capital fund was created last spring to try to help make up for the ending of federal arts grants to artists doing controversial work. Now the first round of grants has been made, and after reviewing applications from more than 1,800 artists from 46 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, the fund is awarding $563,700 to 75 artists, 40 of whom live in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx or Staten Island. – New York Times

New York? Berkeley? Boston? Nope, try Montreal. New McGill University statistical study says that Quebec’s largest city has more university students per capita than any other city. Boston was second. – Montreal Gazette

The administrative heads of Boston’s largest arts organizations received some of the biggest raises in the nation’s nonprofit sector in 1998, a Boston Herald survey shows. – Boston Herald

• Top 10 Boston arts admin salaries. – Boston Herald
• More Boston arts salaries – Boston Herald
• Why the salaries are so good. – Boston Herald
• Compared to other top non-profit salaries. – Boston Herald

Thirty ultra-orthodox rabbis in Jerusalem have issued a ban on using the internet. In fact, they rule, “the computer should not be used for entertainment at all.” However, those “whose livelihood depends on it” are allowed access to the Internet in the workplace, with “the responsibility not to let others use it.” – Wired

A recent change in British tax law may prove a windfall for arts groups. Donate fast-rising internet stock and save on the tax bill. This could revolutionize arts funding in the UK, writes Norman Lebrecht. – The Telegraph (UK)

We survived Y2K but attempts New Year’s Eve to portray the planet as just one Big Happy Family leave one critic cold. “It was the One City Many Cultures theme taken to a new high. Forget germ warfare, forget the millions of missiles poised to strike.” Tough to do. – Daily Mail and Guardian (South Africa)

— feel left out of NBC’s pact with the NAACP last week on diversity. – The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

Just what, exactly is the role of a Bohemian? And do we still have any left in America? – Slate

Hard to remember a decade or so ago when Manhattan was in distress – jobs fleeing, apartments going un-rented (really???), industry moving out… Today the Big Apple has transformed itself, added 80,000 new jobs last year and remade itself in the Information Age. – New York Observer

Australia has gone festival-happy, with international arts festivals proliferating, and this summer’s $17 million Sydney Festival for the Olympics poised to outdo them all. “Every time a leaf falls they create a festival,” declared Tony Brett-Young, a press spokesman at the Australian Embassy in London. – New York Times