New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s preliminary 2004 budget calls for a cut of 17 percent from the proposed budget for the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs. “The city’s Independent Budget Office – in its March analysis of the mayor’s preliminary budget – is comparing the proposed 2004 funding to the June 2002 financial plan, which had set the DCA budget at $123.4 million. The new budget would be $102.5 million.
Tag: 03.26.03
Scotland – Jazz Incubator?
Scotland has long made a contribution to jazz out of all proportion to its size. The list of famous players runs across generations and genres. But the 1990s were a particularly invigorating period for Scottish jazz. ‘This is a small scene. It doesn’t have the economic power to keep buying American tours. What’s been appreciated here in recent years, and what is becoming apparent inside and outside Scotland now, is that we’re growing our own stars’.”
Dante – Burn Baby Burn
“We’re living in a golden age of Dante translation. Former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky touched it off when he published an excellent, widely acclaimed verse translation of the Inferno in 1995. In just the last year, five new editions of the Inferno have appeared, including a reprint of Longfellow’s landmark version. Still more surprising, there are three new translations of the much less popular Purgatorio, the second of the Comedy’s three ‘canticles.’ And the torrent doesn’t stop there.”
Nothing From Nothing Leaves Nothing
The recent slash in California’s arts funding isn’t worth all the hand-wringing, says Christopher Knight, simply because the state wasn’t really doing anything helpful for actual artists even before the cuts. In the 1990s, artists learned that the way to get funding from an increasingly hostile set of lawmakers is to tie absolutely everything they do to education and social services, which results in mandates that funding be spent on repetitive and pointless programs rather than on the creation of actual art. “Why the inverted priority in the real world? No mystery: Artists don’t have advocates in Sacramento. The arts bureaucracy does.”
Seagram Art To Hit The Block
“The famous Seagram art collection, including a 1919 curtain mural painted by Picasso, is to be auctioned in New York through the spring and summer by Christie’s auction house, it was announced yesterday… Last year, Vivendi Universal, the heavily indebted Paris-based media group that owns Seagram, decided it didn’t want to be an art owner and ordered the ‘liquidation’ of the 2,500-piece collection, setting off a storm of controversy.” The company’s collection of photos will be sold by Phillips De Pury & Luxembourg at a separate auction in late April.
Toronto Fest Looks For New Digs
“Plans are well underway to build dedicated new theatre and office space for the Toronto International Film Festival which, after Cannes and Sundance, is regarded as the most important movie celebration in the world… Individuals and organizations associated with TIFF’s plans have been extremely tight-lipped. Still, it is known that the festival began to look seriously at having a dedicated, year-round space of its own about 18 months ago, surveying major cultural players as to the value and tourist potential of such a space… Three award-winning architectural firms are in competition for the project’s design.”
Preemptive Cuts at Boston Lyric
Boston Lyric Opera unveiled its plans for next season recently, and shocked local observers with the announcement that it will trim its schedule of large productions by 25%. Despite the tough economy, the Lyric Opera has thrived over the past decade, and has earned much praise for its artistic leadership. But donations to the Lyric are down significantly, and management decided to trim the season now rather than face a budget crisis later. But not to worry, says the company’s general director: the Lyric plans to expand its season again once finances improve.
Pooling Resources In Massachusetts
A unique conference in Boston has brought together arts organizations, cultural advocates, and state politicians in an effort to better educate the disparate artistic community in the more pragmatic aspects of financial survival in tough economic times. Participants shared fundraising and lobbying techniques, heard from high-ranking legislators concerning what tactics work best at the statehouse, and discussed methods for broadening the diversity of audiences.
Finneran’s Wake
Massachusetts House Speaker Thomas Finneran stepped into the lion’s den this week, appearing at an arts conference to explain the legislature’s decision to slash the state arts budget, and to advise activists on how to avoid future cuts. “He admitted most politicians still regard the arts as ‘elitist’ and added ‘the two most compelling areas for us’ are education and health care… Finneran also noted legislators break down budget appropriations into three levels of funding: ‘essential,’ which he said is ‘in the eye of the beholder’; ‘desirable’; and ‘Nice, but…’ This is not a good time to be part of that third group.”
Valenti Vs. The Pirates
Several Hollywood unions are banding together to launch a major push aimed at curbing the spread of digital media piracy. The groups, led by MPAA president Jack Valenti, will lobby U.S. policymakers to crack down on piracy, and will “also [target] foreign countries with poor records on protecting copyrighted material.”