“Conventional wisdom used to say that emerging economies would make the ‘cheap’ stuff, while advanced nations would do the complicated creative work. But that notion has never really been true,” and as East Asian countries continue to advance their global business reputation, even the so-called creative industries are in danger of seeing their Western dominance fade.
Tag: 01.16.06
British Lottery Fund To Take Dip
The UK’s Heritage Lottery Fund, the cash spigot that has financed many cultural projects, is going to see a big drop in its funding ability. The HLF “will award £330 million in the current financial year, but this will fall to £200 million in 2008, down nearly 40%. There are three reasons for the anticipated drop”, including funding for Olympics projects and an accounting change.
SF’s New Community Of Dance
ODC/Dance opens up a big new home in San Francisco. “Despite plaudits from dance world luminaries such as Bill T. Jones, the building has yet to attract the same media buzz as the Baryshnikov Arts Center in Manhattan, or the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn — even though the ODC complex is larger and more expensive than both of those projects. ‘The community idea is not glam, and we’re a culture that likes the star approach. Ultimately, substance can be attractive too, but it’s not sound bites’.”
A Way To Get London’s Theatre World Mad At You…
Dominic Dromgoole is in his first year running London’s Globe Theatre. So he holds a press conference, and launches a series of… colorful… assertions duly reported in the press. Said assertions put Dromgoole at odds with… well, everyone?
Sir Andrew’s Excellent New York Adventure
As “Phantom” becomes the longest-running show on Broadway, surpassing “Cats”, Andrew Lloyd Webber goes to New York, keeping a diary along the way…
Starlets In Babeland
“The glass ceiling in Hollywood is no secret. Some actresses succeed in breaking through, but they still find it a daunting challenge to escape Hollywood’s requisites to satisfy the youth culture.”
Welsh Arts Support Reorganization Defended
Welsh arts minister Alun Pugh defends his decision to take the country’s six major cultural organisations under government control and not to reappoint Arts Council Wales’ chairman. “The reality is I want to see public money invested in the arts reaching all communities. There is a need to reform for the future in order to ensure that we continue as a nation to develop excellent arts, with access for all.”
Scots To Redo Arts Support
New plans for a major overhaul of Scottish arts support is expected to be announced this week. “The minister is expected to announce her intention to impose a statutory duty on local authorities to provide arts and culture. This would take the form of a “cultural right” for every individual in the country to have arts provided in their area. It is not clear how this would work but it does raise the interesting possibility of a council being taken to court by an individual who felt the local authority was not providing enough culture. One way in which the scheme could work practically would be with the use of “culture vouchers” for schoolchildren.”
D’Arcy Sues NPR, MoMA
Former NPR freelancer David D’Arcy has filed a $5 million suit against NPR and the Museum of Modern Art, claiming that he was “slandered for his report on a Nazi-looted painting once displayed at the museum. D’Arcy says MoMA retaliated against him for the piece — which questioned the museum’s role in a Jewish family’s fight to reclaim Egon Schiele’s ‘Portrait of Wally’ — by allegedly lying to NPR and saying he got his facts wrong.”
Oakland Museum Gets New Director
Lori Fogarty has been named director of the Oakland Museum. “Since 2001 Fogarty, 43, has directed the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito, where she led a $19.5 million expansion and fundraising effort.” She’ll oversee a planned expansion in Oakland.