ART AND THE GOVERNMENT The Los Angeles Times, via music critic Mark Swed, revives the Secretary of Culture talk, this time nominating Peter Sellars and Leon Botstein for the job. It’s an earnest appeal for an idea worthy of consideration, but if it was a political nonstarter four years ago, it’s hard to see how itRead More
Around the horn: fiscal cliff edition
A friendly reminder that the deadline for the Createquity Writing Fellowship is noon Eastern time on Tuesday, January 8. All it takes is a 250-word statement of interest to get started. Look forward to reading your submissions! ART AND THE GOVERNMENT Three perspectives on the fiscal cliff deal: from Nonprofit Quarterly; from Americans for the Arts; fromRead More
Around the horn: cease fire edition
ART AND THE GOVERNMENT “Kansas arts agencies have been on hold several months, waiting for a clue as to how state dollars allocated by the 2012 Legislature might translate into an economic boon to arts programs.” The recent public arts funding update had some grim news from the UK. Here’s one possible reason: an annual studyRead More
Late fall public arts funding update
DOMESTIC – FEDERAL The National Endowment for the Arts will soon have a new Chairman. Rocco Landesman announced yesterday his plans to retire at the end of the year, in a decision widely anticipated among arts insiders. Senior Deputy Chairman Joan Shigekawa will serve as acting chair until a successor is named. The Supreme CourtRead More
Around the horn: Tampa/Charlotte/Chris Stevens/47% edition
It’s been a while! ART AND THE GOVERNMENT Bob Lynch reports out on the recent activities of the US Travel & Tourism Advisory Board. Americans for the Arts was out in force at the Republican national convention, organizing a panel with a Mesa mayor who skipped his own election to be there (he was runningRead More
Around the horn: Highly Efffective edition
IN THE FIELD RIP Artnet Magazine; more here. I will always be grateful to Artnet’s Ben Davis for being just about the only arts journalist worth his salt during the whole Yosi Sergant debacle. Congratulations to GiveWell, which has announced a not-quite-merger with Good Ventures, an emerging foundation led by Cari Tuna and Dustin Moskovitz (the latter is one of theRead More
SOPA/PIPA and the Decentralization of Protest
In January, in response to a flood of protests from the Internet community, both houses of Congress indefinitely postponed voting on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT-IP Act (PIPA). As many of you are aware, the contents of these controversial bills–which sought to regulate Internet content in the name of fighting piracy–are atRead More
Around the horn: Anyone but Mitt edition
ART AND THE GOVERNMENT – DOMESTIC A professor’s quest to overturn a portion of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that placed certain foreign works back under copyright after they had already entered the public domain appears to have reached an end. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is thinking about trying out social impact bonds. LooksRead More
Around the horn: Santorum edition
ART AND THE GOVERNMENT – DOMESTIC Fractured Atlas officially comes out against the PROTECT-IP Act, also known as SOPA. The same week, the Senate and House remove the most controversial provision. Coincidence? I think not. The state of Connecticut is rebooting its arts agency giving strategy under new leader Kip Bergstrom. The mayor of Boston is “asking” local museums and otherRead More
Around the horn: 2012 edition
Happy New Year, everybody! ART AND THE GOVERNMENT Congress has agreed to put aside consideration of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) through the end of the year, but the bill isn’t necessarily dead. Arts and technology commentators have begun to be more vocal in their criticism of the bill, which would, among other things, sanction pre-emptive takedown requestsRead More