International News in February 2005
Show all of 2005
Americans for the Arts and Arts & Business Council to Merge Operations
Americans for the Arts and Arts & Business Council Inc. announced today that the two organisations will merge their operations, creating the largest-ever advocacy group for the arts in America. more >
Beauchamp stays in charge of Quebec Culture
Quebec Prime Minister Jean Charest has renewed the appointment of Mrs. Line Beauchamp as Minister for Culture and Communication. more >
Glasgow ‘squandered benefits of being City Of Culture’
There is a widespread belief within Scotland’s artistic community that the legacy of Glasgow’s year as European City Of Culture has been squandered by politicians, according to a new study. more >
Intercultural innovation
Our cities can profit from the creativity that cultural diversity brings, says Phil Wood. more >
Revenue set to reveal list of artists who benefit from tax breaks
More than 2,000 artists who received tax breaks are to be revealed by the Revenue Commissioners in a move prompted under the Freedom of Information Act. more >
The Arts Bill - Control Or No Control?
'Art must awaken and disturb, open new horizons and move society forward', offered Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Minister for Womens Affairs and Child Welfare, in the second reading debate on the National Arts Fund Bill in the Namibian National Assembly last week. more >
ACE independence threatened by Whitehall, warns Frayling
Arts Council England chairman Christopher Frayling has used his first public speech at the Royal Society for the Arts to warn that the principle of arm’s-length funding has been undermined to the extent that ACE is now considered as merely an extension of Tessa Jowell’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport. more >
Art bill for long suffering practitioners
Namibian artists should be retrospectively compensated for hardships and losses they have suffered in the absence of a legal platform to protect their rights, said Deputy Prime Minister, Hendrik Witbooi, in a debate on the National Arts Fund of Namibia Bill in the National Assembly. more >
British Museum would rather export cultural diplomacy than return artefacts - MacGregor
The British Museum would rather export cultural diplomacy than return artefacts taken from countries around the world, its Director, Neil MacGregor, has said. more >
Cultural relics see high-tech crime risk
The protection of cultural relics is under severe threat from increases in illegal excavation, theft and smuggling in recent years, Chinese heritage officials have warned. more >
New faces for Hong Kong Arts Development Council
The Hong Kong Arts Development Council has begun the new year with a new team of Council members, charged with leading the organisation through 2007. more >
Linguists fear loss of languages
Almost half the world's spoken languages are dying out at a dramatic rate, the Pan South African Language Board has said. more >
'McMafia' help arts council to remind London of Scots' talents
The Scottish Arts Council hosts a glitzy Whitehall reception today to make the case for the Scottish arts in London. more >
'Rough Row' breaks out on diversity
A ”rough row” has broken out between the United States and a host of other countries on protection of cultural diversity. more >
Brazil touts support for the arts
Brazil's culture minister, a musician who helped found the Tropicalia movement in that country in the 1960s, says his government's support of the local arts could help boost Brazil's economy. more >
Budget contains boosts for the arts
The first details to emerge from Wednesday's federal budget appeared moderately encouraging for Canadian arts. more >
Jowell rejects arts 'betrayal' claims
There will be no return to the stop-start funding that disrupted the arts under the Tories as long as Labour is in power, Tessa Jowell, the Secretary of State for Culture, has pledged. more >
Arts world rounds on government over 'cuts'
The Government is facing a backlash from some of the most important figures in British culture, who accuse it of betraying promises to support the arts. more >
Go to the pub? We'd rather see the opera
The biggest national survey of its kind, conducted by the Office of National Statistics for the Arts Council of England, has conclusively shown that music, drama and the visual arts really are second nature to the English. more >
Centre for Arts and Culture to affiliate with George Mason University
George Mason University and the Centre for Arts and Culture announced today their agreement to affiliate, bringing the strengths of Northern Virginia's premier university to the Centre's groundbreaking work in the field of cultural policy. more >
Couchepin calls for a liberal culture policy
Culture Minister Pascal Couchepin has called for a more liberal and less politically-influenced cultural policy in Switzerland. more >
Rift over museum funding change.
Directors of national museums are starkly divided over a government suggestion that direct funding of national museums and galleries could be scrapped in favour of a single funding body. more >
Significant' civic-culture aid planned for Toronto
Toronto's culture sector can expect "significant assistance" from the federal government in 2006 to help the city mark its Year of Creativity, Canadian Heritage Minister Liza Frulla said yesterday. more >
United arts groups set $10.75 million goal
The goal for the 2005 Fine Arts Fund is $10,750,000. The figure represents a 3.3 percent increase over last year, when the Fine Arts Fund raised $10,404,560 from over 43,000 donors, the largest total, in both dollars and donors, of any united arts fund in the U.S. more >
US indecency fines could rocket
Legislation allowing indecency fines against US TV and radio broadcasters to be increased by 15 times the current level has been approved. more >
ACE salaries rocket as arts funding stays frozen
Arts Council England salaries have increased by an average of 66% in the past six years, despite a £10 million reorganisation in 2001 which was designed to cut costs, new research has revealed. more >
Councils swing axe over arts funding
Theatre companies preparing for a predicted £30 million shortfall in Arts Council England income over the next three years were warned this week to expect even worse news from their other main funder. Chair of the National Association of Local Government Arts Officers Sue Isherwood said cuts by local councils - which provide more than 50% of all core revenue grants to arts groups - are now inevitable. more >
Federal Cultural Programs Suffer Little Pain From Bush Budget
While the president's proposed 2006 budget, unveiled yesterday, slashed hundreds of domestic programs, cultural groups did relatively well. more >
Give us our heritage - Ghana Filmmakers appeal to Government
The Ghana Academy of Film and Television Arts (GAFTA) on Thursday criticised the sale of the Ghana Film Industry Corporation (GFIC) under the divestiture implementation programme, saying it has deprived filmmakers of the opportunity to expand and improve upon the film industry. more >
Nigerian Government moves to safeguard cultural heritage
The Federal Executive Council of Niger has ratified four international Conventions on culture, in an effort to combat a growing trade in stolen and looted cultural heritage. more >
Russia will consider return of WWII art
Russia will return so-called trophy art taken from Nazi Germany during World War II only on a case-by-case basis, an official said Friday, arguing that most of the cultural treasures Moscow retains were seized as compensation for huge Soviet wartime damage. more >
UK Museums Trapped In Vicious Cycle
UK museums are facing a funding crisis with no end in sight. The reality is that a decade of expansion has left many British museums struggling to pay for running all those shiny new buildings they have only just opened. At the same time, the abolition of admission charges two years ago raised expectations about visitor numbers. more >
Urgent Action Needed to Save Age-Old African Rock, Kofi Annan says
With African rock art providing one of the oldest and most extensive records on Earth of human thought, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called on the continent's leaders to play a more active role in saving a priceless cultural heritage of all humankind that is under severe threat, above all from neglect and thieves more >
Who now will save our museums?
Strike action will close London's Science Museum on Wednesday. Though it received almost £40 million towards its running costs last year from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the museum is still so strapped for cash that it can't afford to pay even that. But underlying this cash crisis is a much bigger issue that affects all Britain's major museums. more >
European Museums Go Corporate as Governments Cap Handouts
Europe's flagship museums - the Uffizi, the Musee du Louvre in Paris, and the British Museum in London - are feeling the pinch. Thrifty governments facing European Union deficit limits are capping cultural handouts and compelling museums to make money on the side by seeking sponsors, hiring out halls and selling snacks and knickknacks. more >
NCCA launches National Arts Month in Philippines
The National Commission for Culture and the Arts has launched its 2005 National Arts Month 2005 with the theme, Sining Gising: Crafting Identities for Social Transformation. more >
Arts bodies tussle over takeover plan
The Government's peak grant-giving body, the Sydney-based Australia Council, has proposed taking over its newer sibling, the Melbourne-based Australia Business Arts Foundation, whose raison d'etre is to foster sponsorship and philanthropy for the arts. more >
Getting bums on seats
Across Australia, small and medium-sized theatre companies are failing to attract enough funding to produce new work. The result could be disastrous for Australian culture as a whole. more >
UNESCO announces Asia-Pacific Symposium
This week UNESCO announced that it will convene a symposium, Asia-Pacific Creative Communities - a Strategy for the 21st Century, in Jodhpur, India, between 22 and 26 February 2005. more >
The international who's who in cultural policy, planning and research >