International News in November 2005
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Can culture save downtown?
It is very unusual for any urban renewal plan not to include reference to the role that arts organizations and arts buildings can potentially play in regeneration. But the discussions about arts organizations and those about arts buildings are curiously and uncomfortably divorced. more >
$77,710 to indigenous broadcasting in Canada
The Minister for Culture and Communication and minister responsible for the region of Montreal, Line Beauchamp, and the minister of state for Indigenous Peoples Affairs, Geoffrey Kelley, announced financial assistance of $77,710 to support the management of Indigenous Peoples Community radios on the territory of Nord-du-Québec. more >
Call for Scottish works in school
Five hundred writers are set to petition the Holyrood Parliament calling for more Scottish literature in schools. more >
Cultural policy of non-Western countries
The Egypt Council keeps a watch on all types of art and is also the primary government financier. But it also receives a lot of criticism. Read part ten of a series of articles on cultural policy. more >
Museums grapple with transparency issue
The Met has a vast collection of Italian antiquities and, in the view of these officials, some of these objects should not be there because, put bluntly, they were stolen. more >
One man's multimillion-dollar legal battle threatens chaos in art world
Director of the Hermitage, warns there is a real possibility that no Russian museum will lend works to UK or other European venues unless it receives "concrete guarantees" from host governments that its collections will not be impounded, as a result of a long-running dispute between a Swiss businessman and the Russian government. more >
The Other: About the role of Art and Culture in the Balkans
On 1 December 2005 the ECF, in cooperation with the HIVOS, has organised a conference in the Peace Palace in The Hague entitled The Heart of the Matter, in which more than one hundred policy makers, artists and journalists will discuss the part culture can play in integrating the Balkan into the European Union. more >
Alert and alarmed: art under fire
Sedition laws have been used to stifle dissent before. They must not be allowed to do so again, say leading Australian artists. more >
Cox Report: creative accounting
Once the head of the Institute of Directors, Sir George is now chairman of the Design Council, and he has been drafted in by the Treasury to put some vim into the British economy. The idea is that Britain's much-trumpeted 'creative industries' can make up the innovative deficit that plagues manufacturing. more >
Cultural Comment:
Richard Florida, best-selling author of The Rise of the Creative Class, believes that our future economic prosperity depends on making the most of the creativity and talents of each and every member of society. more >
FBI's on the trail of world's biggest art thefts
The FBI has released a list of the world's top 10 art crimes, asking for the public's help in tracking down masterpieces by Cezanne, Van Gogh, Leanardo da Vinci and other precious artwork stolen from museums and private collections. more >
Internet Can Create, Not Crush, Culture
You cannot resist the Internet, so you might as well bathe in its tidal wave-like wash over the world's cultures, says the director of the centuries old Alexandria Library in Egypt. more >
Internet: A New Space for African Languages
Concerns that African languages could become extinct are almost over. The internet is becoming a refuge for the continent's languages that would otherwise become extinct. more >
Iran gets tough with culture
Iran’s new culture minister has said that he is purging his ministry of officials that he thinks have failed to protect Islamic values. In particular, books have come under attack, as the Minister proposes that previous government literary censors lacked the will to refuse offending texts. more >
LR Group Spends USD 1m On National Arts, Culture
A total of USD 1 million were made available on Wednesday here by the Isreali LR Group to aid Angolan artists, the national arts and culture works. more >
Quebec launches cultural investment program
Quebec has launched a new program entitled 'Investing in Culture', designed to support the growth of private investments in the culture and communication sector. more >
South Korea tests appeal of Korean culture at APEC
Accompanying the formal talks on regional issues, South Korea hosted several cultural programs alongside the Asia-Pacific forum in Busan in a bid to publicize what Koreans eat, read and appreciate -- and to learn what they can sell. more >
Swiss order release of seized art
Swiss authorities have ordered the release of more than 50 paintings belonging to the Pushkin state art museum in Moscow. more >
U.S. public radio, TV scrutinized for federal fund misuse
The U.S. public broadcasting system will be examined to determine if its television and radio stations used federal funds to lobby against the threat of budget cuts. more >
Wreckers put art colony out of the picture
The 126 Chinese, Asian and Western artists in Beijing's leading art community Suojiacun are seeing red, after hearing their illegally built work and living spaces may be torn down in the coming week. more >
Foreign ministry pulls plug on play's tour
The foreign ministry has withdrawn its support for the tour of a Swiss play in the West African state of Burkina Faso, apparently for fear of upsetting France. more >
Good causes: Great effects
To celebrate National Lottery Day on 5 November, Arts Council England, together with the five other lottery distributors in Yorkshire, have produced a new publication, Good causes, Great effects. more >
Iran's new hardline government to get tough on culture
Iran's new culture minister has said that he is purging his ministry of officials that he views as having failed to protect Islamic values. more >
New centre for cultural expertise
A three-year initiative has begun in Vancouver, Canada, with the creation of a Centre of Expertise on Culture and Communities. The Centre, located at Simon Fraser University, will provide research opportunities, outreach and networking, and the ability for participants to exchange in knowledge and ideas. more >
Researcher examines attendance at cultural events
A new report on why people attend cultural events indicates a satisfaction gap with some of the actual experiences, but one that is apparently not great enough to dissuade return patronage. more >
UNESCO celebrates its 60th anniversary
UNESCO, the United Nations scientific and cultural organisation, will mark its 60th anniversary with a symposium chaired by one of the great thinkers of the 20th century, the French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss. more >
UNESCO funds workshops on digitisation
The Memory of the World Committee of the Barbados National Commission for UNESCO has organised training for 30 local librarians in digitisation. more >
Artist life to be studied
Culture Minister Trond Giske will use NOK 1 million (USD 151,600) to find out exactly what kind of living conditions artists have in modern Norway. more >
France Reconnects to an Old Acquaintance, la Nouvelle Orléans
To show support for the city of New Orleans, French culture minister, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, and the president of the Louvre, Henri Loyrette, have visited New Orleans to announce a series of cultural initiatives. more >
Kennedy Center president receives China culture award
Michael Kaiser, president of the US John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, has received a Prize for Cultural Communication from Chinese Minister of Culture Sun Jiazheng for his role in Sino-US cultural dialogue and exchange. more >
Music collections closed to the public
Government cultural policy is fixated today on "access". But the whittling away of music on the shelves shows that access is too often achieved at the expense of old-fashioned availability. more >
Towards an Arts And Culture Market in Africa
The recent South African Arts and Culture exhibition in Cameroon was both a forum for intercultural dialogue and a launching pad for creating an arts and culture market at continental level. more >
Way Now Open for Arts And Culture Development
'With all the necessary legislative organs now in place, concrete and tangible development is needed more than ever before in the arts and culture sector in the country,' reassured John Mutorwa, Minister of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture, in a speech on Monday. more >
Mohammed cartoons on the agenda of Mecca summit
Caricatures of Mohammed published in a Danish paper, which have already caused uproar in Muslim communities in Denmark and abroad, will be on the agenda at an Islamic summit in Mecca in December. more >
Writers call for blind book funds
Leading authors have called for the government to act to help end the "book famine" faced by the blind. more >
Arts Foundation annual awards hit $1m milestone
The Arts Foundation of New Zealand will have distributed $1.1 million to local artists using income generated from its endowment fund by the end of this year. more >
BFA to hold int'l meeting on cultural industry
The Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) will hold its first international conference on the cultural industry in the city of Zhongshan in south China's Guangdong Province from Nov. 18 to 19, said forum Secretary-General Long Yongtu here on Thursday. more >
Giant Painting To Travel World With Message Of Peace
The United Nations has unveiled a giant work of art that is to travel the world bringing a message of peace. more >
The international who's who in cultural policy, planning and research >