International News in September 2003
Show all of 2003
Pushing forward language culture
Culture Minister Alun Pugh will address a pioneering conference to discuss the way forward for Welsh-language culture in rural Wales. more >
Arts, culture and national interest
Nigeria is a study in heterogeneous cultural identities and treasures whose similarities and variety have contributed immensely to the elements that unite the country. more >
Culture Executives meet... Owerri hosts NAFEST
Owerri, Nigeria, has been approved the host town of the 2003 National Festival of Arts and Culture by the Nigerian National Council for Arts and Culture. more >
Culture workers parley on the way forward
The Chief Executives of Culture of the 36 States of the Federation held a three-day meeting in Abuja last month chaired by the CEO of the Nigerian Council for Arts and Culture, Emma N. Arinze. The meeting deliberated, among other issues, on the need to actualise the Minister's vision of making the Culture and Tourism industry second only to petroleum in terms of revenue generation. more >
Firm donates $400 000 for arts development
As the corporate world begins to realise the importance of the development of arts in Zimbabwe, Printset Private Limited has donated close to half a million dollars towards the Arts Development Fund administered by the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe. more >
German culture institute reopens in Kabul after 12-year closure
The Goethe Institute, which showcases the German language and culture to the outside world, said that it will reopen its office in the Afghan capital Kabul for the first time since 1990. more >
Moroccan writer and Bosnian professor win UNESCO Sharjah Prize for Arab culture
Moroccan writer Bin Salem Himmich and Bosnian professor, Esad Durakovic, won this year's UNESCO Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture. more >
Australia's first international arts and disability festival launched
Australia’s first international arts and disability festival will be held from November 16-23 in Brisbane, showcasing the talents of over 300 artists from 14 countries in the Asia-Pacific. more >
Casinos slow to help arts centre
It has taken a while, but gaming-led civic leaders have figured out that Las Vegas needs more culture if it wants to diversify its economy and attract more businesses. more >
CBC to face CAN$10 million shortfall
The CBC will have to get through the next six months without the CAN$10 million that Canadian Heritage Minister Sheila Copps earlier said would be available to it. more >
Cultural diversity in classical music sector to be explored
The Association of British Orchestras will hold a conference next month to discuss issues of cultural diversity in the classical music sector. more >
New Chair appointed to National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts
Chris Powell will be the new Chair of England's National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has announced. more >
Resource grants £90,000 for promotion of cultural diversity
Museums, archives and libraries in the nine English regions will celebrate their work as part of the Cultural Diversity Festival this year, thanks to a £90,000 grant from Resource. more >
Baghdad's artists torn
Baghdad's artists are torn between joy over new freedoms and dismay over occupation. more >
Copps pushes international law on culture
Sheila Copps, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, and Line Beauchamp, Quebec's Minister of Culture and Communications, met with a number of Canadian arts and culture organisations in Montreal to solidify support for a proposal that would see culture protected by international law. more >
Little ado on arts in Ontario election
'Arts and Culture Matter' is the title of a brochure from the Liberal Party of Ontario that delivers what it calls a 'plan for strong cultural industries.' But if there's one subliminal message you can get from the way this election is being conducted, it would have to be: 'Arts and culture don't matter. Let's not waste time talking about them.' more >
Canada Council board tours Alberta
For the first time in 12 years, the entire board of the Canada Council has made a trip through the province of Alberta. more >
Director of Canada Council tells artists to be more like businesses
The director of the Canada Council for the Arts wrapped up his tour of Alberta this week with a warning for the heads of arts organisations. more >
Banks donate to the arts
It was raining money in Toronto this week as two of the country's largest banks announced they were giving a total of almost CAN$8 million to five major cultural institutions based in the Ontario capital. more >
Artists emboldened by cultural freedom
On the streets of Baghdad, Iraqis frequently complain about the decline in their quality of life since the US-led invasion. But dozens of young actors and directors at the National Theater are scrambling to ready plays for a festival next month and have seized with enthusiasm an artistic freedom unknown for 25 years in Iraq. more >
First meeting of the Interamerican Culture Commission
Earlier this month, 22 cultural delegates from the member countries of the Organization of American States participated in the First Meeting of the Interamerican Culture Commission in Mexico. more >
Following a trend, Downtown looks to the arts
When the World Trade Center was conceived in the 1960's, its developers didn't worry much about the absence of museums, opera houses, symphony orchestras or jazz clubs in Lower Manhattan. Yet almost all involved in the planning to rebuild at ground zero have agreed on at least one thing: whatever comes next should include cultural institutions. more >
Museum Island undergoes makeover
Germany now is in the process of transforming the five neoclassical museums that are clustered on an island in the Spree River into a cultural centre to rival Paris' Louvre and London's British Museum. more >
Refining cultural heritage
Rockefeller Foundation Humanities Fellows at the Smithsonian Institution Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage in Washington DC will help expand and refine a theoretical framework for 'cultural heritage discourse' over the next three years. more >
Cantata by Canadian composer embraced as September 11 tribute
As people around the world mark the second anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, music by a Toronto-born composer has been embraced in Canada and the US as a tribute to the victims and their families. more >
Debating 'Illegal Archeology'
Europeans charge that the collecting policies of some US museums encourage the plundering of ancient sites. more >
Gioia might be just the right person to complete NEA's 'healing'
Dana Gioia might not be the most popular man in Washington, but he's probably more qualified for his job than most members of the American government. more >
NEA grant for ground-breaking digital preservation
The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive has received a major grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for a project aimed at setting international standards for the collection and preservation of digital and internet art. more >
Northwest Governors urged to support Radio, Television, and Arts Union
Governors of the Northwestern states in Nigeria have been urged to offer necessary support and encouragement to the Radio, Television, Theatre and Arts Workers Union of Nigeria. more >
Suzanne Mubarak receives Mediterranean culture award in Italy
Receiving the Mediterranean of Culture prize from the Accademia Del Mediterraneo in Naples, Egypt's First Lady Suzanne Mubarak said the Mediterranean must become the cradle 'of a global culture of peace in a world torn by war and hatred.' more >
Arts companies report healthy surpluses
Symphony orchestras struck sour notes on the balance sheet as the new millennium dawned, Statistics Canada figures show. more >
Kennedy Center - hotbed of globalism?
At a time when the Bush Administration is very often accused of isolationist leanings, the Washington DC-based John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts seems to be viewing not just the cultural world of the United States as part of its mission, but that of the rest of the globe as well. more >
Museums concede dark role in looting of Indian relics
Some of America’s most celebrated institutions — including Harvard’s Peabody, the Field Museum in Chicago and the American Museum of Natural History in New York — are indicating for the first time in reports to the US government that they were more involved in the looting of Native American burial grounds than they have previously admitted. more >
National theatre stage set with £7m
A blueprint for the National Theatre of Scotland was set out yesterday as ministers announced details of its funding and structure. more >
NEA study sees dance debt
A new study from the National Endowment for the Arts predicts that not-for-profit dance companies may see as much as a 30% loss of earned income in the next few years, and even a heavier fall in contributions. more >
US Congress moves to ban import of Iraqi antiquities
The US Congress is considering legislation that would ban the import of archaeological objects and works of art from Iraq unless these are accompanied by documentation proving that they were legally exported under Iraqi law before the imposition of US and UN sanctions in August 1990. more >
Antiquities returned to Iraq museum
More than 3,000 artefacts from Iraq's national museum have been recovered after being looted, a US team has said. more >
Art foundation reform sparks dispute
There has been much discussion in recent years about how to revamp the Korea Culture and Arts Foundation, making it more independent and professionally structured. The government's plan to change the organiaation into the tentatively named 'Culture and Arts Commission' is one such attempt. more >
Is the Canada Council's largesse good art?
The Canada Council's government funding has increased almost 70% in the past seven years, reversing the effects of several years of deep cuts. More money, more grants; more grants, more art: art lovers should rejoice at the news, shouldn't they? more >
Robert Redford calls for more art funding
'Government support for the arts is not the frivolous giveaway that some would have you believe,' said Robert Redford, delivering Americans for the Arts' 16th annual free arts and public policy lecture. 'It's a good investment and it is sound economic development.' more >
Canada Council asks for increased funding
The Canada Council for the Arts has asked Ottawa to increase arts funding to 'reaffirm the importance of arts and culture in Canadian society and, more broadly, in the world.' more >
Performing arts have record year in 2001
Canada's not-for-profit theatre, music, dance and opera companies boasted record revenues in 2001, Statistics Canada says. more >
Planning a museum to tell Iraq's story
Kanan Makiya dreamed of building a museum that would catalogue Saddam Hussein's atrocities for all Iraqis to see. Now, Makiya, an architect and author who fled Iraq in 1968, has received permission from the American authorities to build his museum. more >
Arts council HQ could leave the capital
The Scottish Arts Council could be the next public body to be moved out of Edinburgh under the Scottish Executive’s relocation programme, it emerged yesterday. more >
Advocates push to pass federal arts bills
Americans for the Arts is encouraging its members nationwide to support three proposed tax provisions, each of which would increase charitable giving to not-for-profits. more >
Cash deal for Franco-US arts museum
Setting aside recent tensions, a Franco-US agreement to extend and renovate a museum dedicated to more than 200 years of mutual friendship has been signed between the French culture ministry and the American Friends of Blerancourt. more >
Tendentiousness in the arts
The Korean government spared no effort in getting its man placed at the National Center for Traditional Korean Performing Arts, and went as far as to change the membership of the judging committee. more >
Cultural complex project relaunched in Senegal
A project for a cultural complex dedicated to the millions of Africans who were victims of slavery has been relaunched in Senegal. more >
First Peruvian International Exhibition of Contemporary Art held
Artists from India, Italy, Bulgaria, Switzerland, England and the USA are taking part in the first Peruvian International Exhibition of Contemporary Art in Arequipa, Peru. more >
Japan holds second Echigo-Tsumari Triennial
Japan’s second Echigo-Tsumari Triennial has invited 157 artists from 23 countries to create works at more 50 locations throughout the region, for better cooperation between participants and the local community during the event. more >
Promoting Africa's artistic diversity
The sixth Market of the Arts and Performances will take place in Abidjan, Ivory Coast until September 6 to promote Africa's artistic diversity. more >
Spanish Culture Minister defends funding for Franco Foundation
The Spanish Minister for Education, Culture and Sport, Pilar del Castillo Vera, has responded to comments that excessive funding is being granted to the Francisco Franco Foundation, by stating that the foundation has important historical value. more >
Wales hosts arts, culture and media conference
An international conference taking place in Cardiff, Wales from November 24-27 will focus on how the arts, culture and media can help reshape societies and identities. more >
African films fail to impress
African movies have failed to make an impact in terms of viewership in their own countries despite being viewed in respected festivals held in Europe, the United States and in other parts of the world. more >
The international who's who in cultural policy, planning and research >