Since last May, the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) has been at the center of bankruptcy negotiations between the beleaguered City of Detroit and a myriad of creditors and pensioners to whom a staggering $18 billion is owed. When Kevyn Orr, Detroit’s state-appointed emergency manager, included the museum’s art collection among city assets available forRead More
Around the horn: Amiri Baraka edition
ART AND THE GOVERNMENT A Federal court has overturned the FCC’s “net neutrality” regulations, which have required internet service providers to treat all content equally. Legal details here; implications for artists and ways to get involved here. Meanwhile, AT&T has announced a plan to exempt selected content from wireless data caps; artists are expressing concern.Read More
The Top 10 Arts Policy Stories of 2013
Each year, Createquity offers a list of the top ten arts policy stories of the past twelve months. You can read the previous editions here: 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009. The list, like the blog, is focused on the United States, but is not oblivious to news from other parts of the world. I amRead More
Around the horn: Angela Merkel edition
ART AND THE GOVERNMENT With a rare, wide-open mayoral race underway, Boston’s arts community has come together to assert some political sway of its own. The new advocacy coalition MassCreative organized a nine-candidate forum that actually pushed back a televised debate. The primary is today. North Carolina’s Randolph County just banned Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man from school libraries followingRead More
Around the horn: stop and frisk edition
ART AND THE GOVERNMENT The Future of Music Coalition has a great roundup of takeaways from a recent congressional hearing on copyright law and the technology sector. Big ones include the very different challenges posed by copyrights versus patents, and that for the most part, technology companies don’t see copyright restrictions as stifling their ability to innovate.Read More
Around the horn: A-Rod edition
(Assembled collaboratively by the Createquity editorial team) ART AND THE GOVERNMENT The US Bureau of Economic Analysis, following new international standards, has adjusted the official method for calculating GDP to “include the amount of money business invest in … intellectual property.” This involves some tough calls: development costs for hit TV shows with potential forRead More
Around the horn: Habemus papem edition
(This is the first Around the Horn to be put together by one of the Createquity Writing Fellows, Hayley Roberts. Enjoy! -IDM) Government Policy and the Arts Gladstone Payton details the sequester’s effects on the governmental agencies that provide funding for the arts. Will New Jersey pass legislation requiring cultural and sporting events to onlyRead More
Around the horn: Livestrong edition
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: American Bandstand edition
ART AND THE GOVERNMENT The California Arts Council is in danger of losing its right to solicit voluntary contributions from California citizens through their state income tax returns. Though that wasn’t proving to be a very effective way of raising money anyway – the agency banked only $165,000 from CA’s nearly 40 million residents last year. ArtsRead More
Artspace receives $3 million program-related investment from Ford Foundation
Real estate developer Artspace is the recipient of a whopping $3.75 million from the Ford Foundation’s Supporting Diverse Arts Spaces program. The investment is comprised of a $750,000 grant plus, more interestingly, a ten-year, $3 million low-interest loan. The loan is a program-related investment (PRI), a less common variant of charitable support by which aRead More