Red — photo by flickr user André Hofmeister

Income from streaming services eclipsed CD sales for the first time in 2014, and the fatcats have taken notice. This month, Apple, which spent $3 billion to acquire Beats last year, announced it is developing its own subscription streaming service to rival the likes of Spotify. The service will be available online and through its soon-to-be-revamped iOS music app. In an interesting move, Apple has appointed Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails fame) instead of an engineer as the front man in the development process. The company also has plans to overhaul iTunes Radio (look out, Pandora), introducing regional market targeting and other personalized services. With more than 800 million customer accounts, Apple has the potential to become a market leader in short order. (Spotify, by comparison, has only 15 million paying subscribers internationally; Pandora fewer than 3 million.) And it’s not just big tech who wants in on the action. On March 30, Jay Z announced the launch of his own streaming service, Tidal, having bought Tidal’s parent company earlier this month. Jay Z’s main objective seems to be fair play for musicians, and indeed, the company will primarily be artist-owned (though at present, that seems only to include celebrity musicians in Jay Z’s tax bracket.) The platform – which will be available in 31 countries – will, like Apple, offer only paid subscriptions. For its part, Spotify isn’t standing still. In January, Sony announced that Spotify would replace Music Unlimited as the music streaming outlet for its PlayStation Network. That platform, available in 41 countries (which triples Sony’s live streaming reach), went live on March 30.

Streaming services aren’t the only mechanism by which tech giants are trying to elbow into the music business. In March, Google formally launched YouTube for Artists, a set of online tools aimed at helping musicians generate more revenue from their music, and ostensibly plan better tours through in-depth access to viewer information on a city level. YouTube also revamped its Music Awards this month, putting the artist front and center. And commercial theater is now in play as well, with Amazon’s announcement that it is expanding a its service which sells theater tickets to London’s West End shows. The service — which previously sold only discounted tickets and special offers — will be direct competition for current ticket venues, including numerous websites and London kiosks, and could be a first step towards taking on Telecharge and Ticketmaster in the United States.

Middle East Museums in the Hot Seat: Museums and cultural heritage sites were all over the news from the Arab world this month — though sadly not for welcome reasons. On March 18, gunmen attacked the National Bardo Museum in downtown Tunis, killing two Tunisians and 20 foreign visitors, and wounding at least 50 others. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack – Tunisia’s deadliest since 2002 – shaking a country that prides itself on having emerged as the most successful post-Arab Spring democracy. On March 29, Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid announced that Khaled Chaieb, a prime suspect in the attack, had been killed, and the museum reopened to the public on March 30. (In response to the attack, the NYPD stepped up its presence at major museums in New York.) Thankfully, there was no sign of damage to the National Bardo Museum itself or its collection, though it wouldn’t have come as a surprise if there had been. In recent months, Islamic State militants have taken to destroying ancient antiquities deemed blasphemous. Following February’s much-publicized destruction of replica statues and original artifacts at the Mosul Museum, they destroyed three cultural heritage sites: the ancient archaeological site of Dur-Sharrukin (present day Khorsabad), the 3,000-year old Nimrud, and 2,000-year old Hatra. The latter two are UNESCO world heritage sites. Meanwhile, in Yemen, the ongoing conflict between Al Qaeda and the Yemeni army has also robbed the country of its cultural heritage, though in this case, the perpetrators are looters. The silver lining in that tragedy? Some looted museums have become shelters for displaced Yemenis, and, in the absence of functioning cultural institutions, Yemen’s remaining artists have becoming increasingly resourceful, continuing to gather and show work – albeit underground.

Got to Give It Up for Good: The copyright battle that has gripped the music industry for more than a year was settled when an LA jury decreed that Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams had committed copyright infringement, pilfering elements of Marvin Gaye’s 1977 song “Got to Give It Up” for their track “Blurred Lines” without permission. The decision is believed to be one of the largest damages awards in a music copyright case, with Thicke and Williams ordered to pay $7.3 million to the Gaye estate. The song, which broke records for its No. 1 run, and this lawsuit—which was actually brought preemptively by Thicke and Williams in August 2013—has prompted fierce debate about the difference between homage and plagiarism. What this means for the future of copyright and creativity remains to be seen, though Thicke and Williams are not optimistic. In a joint statement released after the verdict, they noted that “while [they] respect the judicial process, [they] are extremely disappointed in the ruling…which sets a horrible precedent for music and creativity going forward.”

GIA Takes a Stand for Racial Equity: Culminating several years of activism by key leaders associated with the organization, the Grantmakers in the Arts board of directors has released a statement of purpose detailing its commitment to racial equity in arts philanthropy. The statement confirms GIA’s commitment to addressing structural inequities and increasing philanthropic and governmental support for ALAANA (African, Latino(a), Asian, Arab, and Native American) artists, arts organizations, children, and adults. The twelve actions proposed to support this new focus include advocating for collecting data on the demographics of arts organizations’ boards, employees, and constituents; requiring all of GIA’s board and staff to attend anti-racism training; ensuring representation by ALAANA individuals at annual conferences and among GIA’s own board and staff; and providing unspecified support “for individual members and collective groups of funders who are seeking to achieve greater racial equity in arts philanthropy in their own communities.” While most of these activities were already underway, this is the first time GIA has committed so publicly to being an anti-racist organization.

China Stakes Its Claim on the Arts: In 2015, China overtook the United States as the world’s largest economy, and in March, Beijing confirmed its ascendance in the arts with two important firsts. With the value of art traded in 2014 reaching an all-time high at an estimated €51 billion, China edged out the United States as the world’s largest market for modern art. On the other end of the spectrum, China pulled in $650 million in February box office revenue, beating out the United States for the first time. What’s more, where the global box office rose by just 1% in 2014 – and fell by 5% in the US – in China, revenue increased by 34%. A recent report from Ernst & Young predicts that China will be the world’s biggest film industry by 2020, and at least one partner is taking note, choosing to collaborate rather than compete: Hollywood.

MUSICAL CHAIRS / COOL JOBS

• After eight months as interim president, Julie Stasch was formally appointed president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
• Victoria Rogers, former New World Symphony executive vice president, has been appointed the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s new vice president for arts, replacing Dennis Scholl.
• Felicia Shaw, former director of arts and the creative economy at the San Diego Foundation, has been named executive director of the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission.
• Tad Smith, former CEO of Madison Square Garden, joined Sotheby’s as its new CEO on March 31.
• Sphinx Organization founder and University of Michigan alum Aaron Dworkin will return to his alma mater as dean of the School of Music, Theatre & Dance.
• Francene Blythe will join the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation as its new director of programs.
• Paul Brohan has been named deputy director of programs at the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.
• The Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative (based at the University of Pennsylvania) seeks a Research Director. Posted February 13; no closing date.
• The John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at the Stanford Graduate School of Education seeks a Policy Analyst. Posted March 13; no closing date.
• The Boston Globe is hiring a Features Writer for its Living/Arts Department. Posted March 20; no closing date.
• The Foundation Center in New York seeks a Data Scientist. Posted March 24; no closing date.
• AMS Planning & Research Corp. is hiring a Senior Analyst. No closing date.
• The Wichita Falls (TX) Alliance for Arts and Culture, newly state-incorporated, seeks an Executive Director. Posted March 30; no closing date.

NEW RESEARCH OF NOTE

• The Wallace Foundation released two reports in March which look at building arts audiences. The first is a case study of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s efforts to increase the under-25 audience for ballet. The second analyzes the Seattle Opera’s four-year-long experiment with technology.
• Another pair of reports released in March look into audience demographics. The first, a market research report commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony, looks at orchestra audiences for this mid-sized ensemble. The second, commissioned by the Broadway League, looks at Broadway audiences more generally.
• “Insights and Lessons: Community Arts and College Arts,” a new report commissioned by the Kresge Foundation, offers recommendations for art-based civic dialogue & community revitalization based on the results of two pilot initiatives by the foundation.
• “Corporate Social Responsibility & the Arts,” a new report from Americans for the Arts, provides insights into how corporations engage with arts and culture as they work to achieve their CSR/CCI goals.
• Two recent reports — “Supporting Grantee Capacity: Strengthening Effectiveness Together,” from GrantCraft, a service of the Foundation Center, and “Strengthening Nonprofit Capacity” from GEOfunders — offer insights and guidance for developing nonprofit capacity.
• Several studies have recently attempted to quantify the impact of the arts on the body. According to research published in Economic Inquiry, video game playing has been shown to improve cognitive skills, and a small-scale study from the Athens Medical School in Athens shows compelling evidence that listening to music has a positive impact on cardiovascular health.
• A new study analyzes the practice habits of top performing pianists in an effort to distill which strategies lead to success.
• A landmark report released by from the American Music Therapy Association looks at music therapy with a focus on both active duty service members and veterans.
• A new report from the Writers Guild of America shows a decline in number of women and minorities who make up TV staff writers.
• A recent report commissioned by UK’s Labour party calls on the next government to treat culture as a priority sector, and offers specific recommendations for how to do so.

The biggest news on federal support for the arts is a lack of news. Following the 16-day shutdown in early October, the federal government was reauthorized at last year’s budget levels (post-sequester) until January 15. Which means we get to do this all over again in just a month and a half! Woohoo!

Congress has had its share of squabbles over NEA funding in recent years, but it remains remarkably steadfast in its support for the National Gallery of Art. It increased the Gallery’s federal appropriation by a whopping 70 percent between 2001 and 2011– not exactly a kind decade for arts funding. The secret to the National Gallery’s success? The original act of Congress that required the federal government to “provide such funds as may be necessary for [its] upkeep . . . administrative expenses and costs of operation.”

Meanwhile, in a decision some are hailing as a “huge victory for online innovation,” a federal judge ruled that Google’s scanning of more than 20 million books counts as “fair use” under copyright law – meaning, among other things, that the company need not compensate writers or publishers for making very short excerpts available on the Web. The Authors Guild plans to appeal.

Finally, the U.S. has lost its voting rights at UNESCO, two years after ceasing payment of dues, then 22% of the organization’s budget. National Security Adviser Susan Rice called the outcome shameful, urging Congress to amend the law that bans support of organizations that recognize Palestine as a nation-state. The withdrawal of voting rights is also automatic under UNESCO rules, but it may still endanger the U.S.’s applications for World Heritage status for sites like Poverty Point in Louisiana and Spanish missions in San Antonio.

STATE AND LOCAL

According to Jay Dick of Americans for the Arts, the results of the off-year election contests in Virginia, Boston, St. Paul, and Dayton, OH, among other places bode well for the arts, with several new pro-arts officials taking power. In New York City, Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio acknowledged the importance of the arts to the city by including several arts leaders in his newly-appointed transition committee. In other Big Apple news, the City Council held a public hearing on a proposed bill that would require the Department of Cultural Affairs to develop a cultural plan by 2015. Advocates believe this could coordinate cultural resources across agencies, increase available resources, and help keep artists in the increasingly-expensive city.

In other local election news, after fifteen years of attempting to find private funding for a performing arts center, the Myrtle Beach arts community won a victory at the polls this month when 54% of residents supported higher property taxes to raise the necessary $10 million. The City Council must still decide to undertake the project, but now “the rubber has met the road.”

The Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission, despite having its budget slashed to the bone in the most recent budget session, has been approved for $560,800 in federal matching funds from the NEA after losing out on that match for two years. The restored federal match unlocked further funding from Kansas’s regional arts agency, the Mid-America Arts Alliance. It’s unclear how the most recent budget shenanigans will affect the situation with the NEA. To raise additional funds, the Commission is trying an arts license plate scheme to replicate the success of a similar initiative pioneered in California. Speaking of California, that state’s Arts Council managed to get a donation check box back on income tax forms for 2013, although the name has been changed from the “Arts Council Fund” to “Keep Arts in Schools Fund.”

INTERNATIONAL

Our friendly neighbor to the north has made it a lot harder for American musicians to perform in small venues. The Canadian government recently established a new fee and permit system for musicians and performing artists visiting from outside of country. Interestingly the fees apply only to artists seeking to perform in bars or restaurants – and both the artists and the hosting establishment have to pony up the funds.

Across the Atlantic, Scotland deserves major props for a) unveiling its first national Youth Arts Strategy (with £5m of funding to boot);  b) releasing aforementioned strategy as a graphic novel; and c) offering open feedback sessions to arts professionals and interested public as a precursor to the April 2014 release of Creative Scotland’s 10-year strategic plan and funding program. The new initiatives coincide with a significant staff restructuring at the agency. Meanwhile, the UK as a whole has just relieved producers of the burden of health-care contributions for entertainers they employ, though it is not yet clear whether this will lead to higher salaries for artists, larger production budgets, or simply smaller losses for backers. Shocker alert: producers and Equity feel differently on the matter.

Speaking of British arts agency planning documents, Chris Unitt went through the just-released second edition of Arts Council England’s strategic framework to see where digital technology fits in. There’s a heavy emphasis on using digital tools to reach new (i.e. international) audiences; less about using them to create new work or collaborate with other artists.

Australians have elected a new government to be led by Coalition, the country’s mainstream conservative party. George Brandis, arts spokesman for Coalition, has announced the party’s arts platform, which condemns an alleged tendency to reward “inwardness, mediocrity and political correctness” and emphasizes excellence, integrity, and artistic freedom. (Under the recent Labor government, arts industries in Australia had been receiving bipartisan support with a broad, positive impact on cultural production.) Brandis claims that the country should return to funding excellence in the arts, criticizing the Labor party for using arts to advance a social agenda.

Not to end on a down note, but freedom of expression difficulties continue in the Middle East. Qatari poet Mohammed Al-Ajami’s 15-year prison sentence for reciting on YouTube a poem celebrating the Arab Spring was upheld by the country’s Supreme Court, although his family can make a final appeal to Qatar’s Emir. Despite pressure from the international community, Al-Ajami is being held in solitary confinement as a potential insurgent. And in Egypt, comedian and talk show host Bassem Youssef, considered the country’s closest analogue to Jon Stewart, had his show suspended after just one episode amid alleged pressure from the country’s new military government.

From Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History’s Family Fallapalooza

Each year, Createquity offers a list of the top ten arts policy stories of the past 12 months. You can read the previous editions here: 2009, 2010, and 2011.  The list, like the blog, is focused on the United States, but is not oblivious to news from other parts of the world. This year, for the first time, I opened up the creation of this list to Createquity authors past and present, and I am particularly grateful to Jackie Hasa for contributing the entries for orchestra labor strife and SOPA/PIPA versus the internet. If you’re interested in being a part of a growing and increasingly active team here, a reminder that the deadline for the Createquity Writing Fellowship is coming up on January 8.

2012 was a year of cautious optimism for the arts. As the economy continued its slow recovery, for the first time in four years, government funding at the state level did not see a decline, and the slash-and-burn tax-cutting fervor of political conservatives seemed to be blunted by November’s election results, at least temporarily. There were stories of individual organizations making good, and ambitious initiatives seemed to be around every corner. And yet in certain contexts, the arts were still or newly facing dark days. Arts communities in much of Europe and the Western world struggled with austerity measures, as did orchestra musicians in the United States. And in many Muslim countries, art and artists found themselves in the middle of (or even the target of) oppression, strife, and violence. One comes away from this list with the sense that things are going to be interesting in 2013.

10. Nina Simon reboots the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History

I don’t normally include innovation stories from rank-and-file arts organizations on this list, but Nina Simon’s transformation of Santa Cruz MAH has been so far-reaching and impressive that its broader fieldwide significance is hard to deny. It’s not just about the numbers, though Simon has those too: attendance has more than doubled, the busiest day drew triple the participants over previous years,and there’s now a $350,000 cash reserve. More interesting, however, is the combination of Simon’s fame and her daring programming that has put the MAH “on the map” in a way that simply wasn’t the case before. Simon is the rarer-than-you-might-think example of a consultant who has successfully transitioned into an executive role, and in the process she has eagerly seized the opportunity to reshape a struggling institution into a playground for her (and the community’s) ideas. Through new programs like the You Can’t Do That in Museums Camp, an exhibition-as-exhibition, and more, Santa Cruz MAH is charting the frontiers of what it means to be a participatory museum, and we get to have a front-row seat by virtue of Simon’s long-running and admirably transparent blog, Museum 2.0. Simon’s approach may not be right for every arts organization, but it surely presents one very clear vision of the future, one to which attention must be paid.

9. The European funding model shows more cracks

Let’s be clear on this one: the core Western European philosophy of seeing culture as an essential arm of government is not on the verge of dissolving, and the wealthy countries that have historically been most faithful to this notion–including Germany, France, and the Scandinavian nations–have so far shown little willingness to abandon it in favor of American-style privatization fever. At the fringes of the European Union and beyond, however, government-centric cultural policies underwent substantial stress in 2012. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, for example, the national museum closed due to lack of funds provided by a non-functioning government; in Greece, spending on the arts has dropped 35% since 2009, and in Italy, Rome’s MAXXI Museum has been put into receivership. Arts Council England, having already suffered major cuts two years ago, is looking at a potential loss of 150 staff, while cities like Newcastle are looking at even more drastic cuts. This is a trend to watch in 2013.

8. SOPA/PIPA vs. the Internet

In early 2012, an enormous Internet protest caused both houses of Congress to indefinitely postpone voting on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT-IP Act (PIPA).  These bills sought to regulate Internet content in the name of fighting piracy, which split arts organizations into two opposing camps—those with a vested interest in strong copyright protections, which included many major entertainment industry unions and associations, and those concerned that the bills’ more draconian regulations would dampen creative exchange, which included a broader range of organizations, from McSweeney’s to Fractured Atlas to Dance/USA.  After tabling SOPA/PIPA, Google and other major tech companies helped Congress draft the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (the OPEN Act) as part of a more balanced approach. Public comments on the OPEN Act are encouraged, even as its sponsor, Darrell Issa (R-CA) pushes for a 2-year moratorium on Internet regulations.  Efforts to control the web also failed on the international stage, when a U.N. committee charged with rewriting Internet rules couldn’t get buy-in from the U.S., U.K., Canada, and dozens of other nations due to concerns over censorship.   Lawmakers may not resolve these debates in 2013, but in the years ahead, we will doubtless see continued efforts to regulate Internet behavior.

7. The arts face violence and turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa

Where to begin? In Syria, where the ancient city of Aleppo has been devastated by that country’s civil war? In Mali, where a fundamentalist group called Ansar Dine has destroyed world-famous heritage sites in Timbuktu and threatened musicians with bodily harm? In Somalia, where some 18 media figures, including a popular poet and playwright, have been assassinated by the Al Qaeda-aligned Al Shabab, for daring to mock the militants in public? In dozens of countries where mass protests broke out, some turning violent, in response to a video made by an American filmmaker and con artist with insulting depictions of the prophet Muhammad? In the midst of all the tragedy, we also had uplifting stories like the role that young artists had in galvanizing Egyptian dissent during the Arab Spring. From our comfortable perch in the US, it can sometimes feel like the arts are a frill, a plaything for the privileged, or simply inconsequential. It seems fair to say that in this part of the world, today, the arts matter.

6. State arts councils turn the corner

State arts councils reversed a four-year slide in 2012, finally coming out of the annual budget appropriations process in the black. The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies reports that total appropriations rose 8.8% in the aggregate to $282.9 million, although most of this change is attributable to substantial increases in Florida, Michigan, and the District of Columbia, each of whose appropriations more than doubled over the previous year. (Michigan’s budget grew an astounding 366.8%, albeit after having sustained equally astounding cuts in previous years.) In addition, two anti-arts governors found themselves with egg on their face this year, as the recently vanquished Kansas Arts Commission made a triumphant return as the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission, and the South Carolina Arts Commission fought off yet another veto threat from Governor Nikki Haley. Other states with budget increases of $1 million or more included Connecticut, Minnesota, New York, and Ohio. (Update: See comments for info about Connecticut.) And while the Arizona Commission on the Arts continues to receive no legislative appropriation from its state government, it did win a ten-year re-authorization against the odds. The year was not completely free from bad news, however, as the arts councils in Louisiana, Missouri, New Hampshire, and Utah all suffered double-digit cuts, continuing a trend in the first three states.

5. Labor strife reaches new heights in orchestras and beyond

This year was rife with labor unrest in the arts, most notably among orchestras. Driven by fundraising shortfalls and sometimes debt from capital projects conceived in flush times, musicians walked out—or were locked out—all over the U.S. Unions in Chicago, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Spokane, Louisville, New York, Philadephia, San Antonio, and Indianapolis all successfully reached deals that ranged from modest raises (San Antonio) to 32% wage cuts (Indianapolis). The strife will continue in 2013: in the Twin Cities, both the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra have been locked out for months, with no resolution in sight. We’re also seeing some signs of resilience and cooperation, as the previously disbanded Syracuse and Utica Symphony Orchestras vowed to return for the 2012-2013 season. In 2013, we may see more attention paid to the Colorado Symphony as a potential model. Following their own labor conflict in 2011, they revised their contract to allow for more organizational flexibility. For instance, the orchestra can now play in smaller groups, allowing them to perform in communities around Denver in minor venues.

4. Rocco steps down

It wasn’t a surprise, but it was news nonetheless: Rocco Landesman left the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) after three-plus eventful years as Chair. During his tenure, he set the agency on a technocratic course with more explicit attention paid to the instrumental benefits of the arts, particularly their economic value. His highest-profile accomplishment while in office was the creation of two new grant programs to encourage “creative placemaking,” Our Town and ArtPlace (more on that below). His most enduring legacy, however, may turn out to be his work, along with Senior Deputy Chair (and now Acting Chair) Joan Shigekawa, to develop partnerships between the NEA and other branches of federal government and to set the research office on a more strategic path. Lastly, it was during his tenure that the NEA began more explicit efforts to welcome the public into its decision-making process, offering a series of live webcasts of convenings and meetings including those of the National Council of the Arts, the body that oversees the NEA. No hints as of yet as to who may replace him, but we won’t likely know until well into 2013.

3. The Detroit Institute of Arts gets a millage

The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) was in a pickle. The venerable museum was facing a financial downward spiral, and it was one of the few institutions of its kind not to receive funding from either its city or state. The solution? Advocate for a millage (a form of property tax) to support the DIA in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties, in exchange for free museum admission for residents from those counties. The measure passed in an election on August 7, and will raise a whopping $23 million annually for the DIA over the tax’s 10-year duration.  There are charitable and less charitable ways to interpret this development, and arts world response seemed to be divided between them. On the one hand, here was an example of a cultural institution demonstrating relevance to its community in the most direct, unimpeachable manner possible: a majority of residents in three counties, urban and suburban, voted to tax themselves so that this institution could survive and thrive. On the other, the DIA raised and spent an enormous sum of money – $2.5 million – getting a piece of legislation passed that benefits only one arts organization – itself. No matter how wonderful the DIA may be, that precedent is a bit worrisome.

2. The creative placemaking backlash

It was just last year that the #1 arts policy story was “Creative placemaking ascendant,” so it’s not surprising to see that the movement has come back to earth in 2012, facing public relations challenges on multiple fronts. Much of the discussion has focused on the way that the NEA’s Our Town program and its private-sector cousin, ArtPlace, plan to track and measure the impact of the grants they make – a dialogue begun here on Createquity with May’s “Creative Placemaking Has an Outcomes Problem” and continuing in the fall with further back-and-forth between researcher Ann Markusen and the NEA’s Jason Schupbach and Sunil Iyengar. But creative placemaking’s PR hiccups this year went much further than that. They started small, with the revelation that much of ArtPlace’s grant funding is geographically restricted, meaning that applicants in many parts of the country face longer odds than others, and a brutal exposé by the Los Angeles Times of problems within the ArtPlace-funded Watts House Project. By the summer it seemed that criticism and skepticism was pouring in far and wide, from sources as diverse as Thomas Frank (author of What’s the Matter with Kansas?) and Roberto Bedoya, and leading to trite headlines like “Hipsters won’t save us” in mainstream publications. To make matters worse, Richard Florida decided in the midst of all this to re-release his most famous and now-controversial book, The Rise of the Creative Class, prompting a rash of articles attacking the intellectual origins of creative placemaking work. Some of the criticism has been fair and some of it considerably less so, but there’s no sign as yet that the creative placemaking juggernaut is slowing down as a result of it.

1. Election 2012

This last item is unusual, in that it’s more about what didn’t happen this year rather than what did happen. As things turned out, the balance of power in Washington hardly changed at all and we can look forward (I guess?) to divided government for at least the next two years. By contrast, most analysts agree that if Mitt Romney had won the election and Republicans had regained control of the Senate, both of which were distinct possibilities through most of the summer and fall, what little arts policy infrastructure remains at the federal level would very much have been in jeopardy. Romney had made no secret throughout the campaign of his disdain for the NEA, the NEH, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, even bizarrely choosing to make Big Bird an issue in an otherwise well-received first debate with the President. And it doesn’t take much imagination to conclude that conservatives, fresh off a massive gain in Congressional seats during the previous midterm elections, would have felt empowered to take a hacksaw to domestic spending following even a narrow win. With these outcomes averted, it’s likely that funding levels will stay steady or suffer relatively minor cuts in the near future, though with the seemingly endless negotiations over the “fiscal cliff” and debt ceiling, anything could still happen. Election Day also saw the unfolding of some arts policy stories at a local level, most significantly the passage of an important new income tax in Portland that will fund arts grants and arts education.

Honorable mention:

• Kickstarter vs. the NEA
• Pussy Riot causes an international sensation
• The Chicago Cultural Plan
• “Set in Stone” questions conventional wisdom around cultural facilities
• The Cultural Data Project leaves home

Happy New Year to Createquity readers far and wide, and we look forward to what 2013 brings!