International News in July 2006
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Act like a business? Why aim so low?
In his recent monograph, Good to Great and the Social Sectors, Jim Collins makes a rather bold statement: "We must reject the idea -- well-intentioned, but dead wrong -- that the primary path to greatness in the social sectors is to become 'more like a business.'" more >
Performing Arts Survey
Public support for Canada's performing arts remained strong in 2004, both at the box office and in the form of grants, subsidies and donations from various government and private sector sources. more >
Actors Urged to Be Professional, Transparent in Activities
Professor George Hagan- Chairman of the National Commission on Culture (NCC) - has urged the Ghana Actors Guild to be professional and transparent in their activities. more >
Call To Protect Cultural Items
Swahili scholars are concerned by the disappearance of manuscripts containing important cultural and literary content from the Kenyan Coast. more >
China considers karaoke club copyright fees
The Chinese government could soon force karaoke clubs to fork over as much as one per cent of their revenue to pay for the copyright of the music and videos they use, according to several news reports. more >
Fabled Casbah on Brink of Collapse
The UNESCO heritage site known as the Casbah, once home to pirates and freedom fighters, it is literally imploding from neglect more >
Finances published online in an effort to rebuild reputation
The J. Paul Getty Trust has announced it will publish detailed financial and governance information on its website (www.getty.edu) this month in an effort to restore its tarnished reputation. more >
Guebuza Inaugurates Music Festival
Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Wednesday declared that culture can become a powerful means of communication for popular mobilisation against poverty, and for recovering "our self-esteem". more >
I don't want my MTV
Music television is the endangered species of the pop world, and is learning the hard way that it must adapt to the Internet age, or die. more >
In a Berlin museum, under surveillance
Germany has opened its first museum dedicated to the history and culture of the old East Germany. more >
India to host world culture forum
The Indian Council for Cultural Relations has signed an agreement with the World Culture Forum Alliance to host the world culture forum in January 2008. more >
Iran bans Da Vinci Code
Iran has banned the best-selling novel "The Da Vinci Code" after protests from the country's Christian clergy, the culture ministry said on Wednesday, but the Persian translation is already in its eighth edition. more >
Namibia: Youth Forging Ahead With Arts
The newly established National Arts Council of Namibia (NAC) has growth pains due to a limited budget and the slow pace by which the statutory body is getting appropriate infrastructure in place. more >
NIC Promises More Support to Liberian Artists
The Chairman of the National Investment Commission (NIC), Mr. Richard V. Tolbert has told a gathering that the NIC would provide more support to Liberian Artists. more >
Pop revolution to rock Great Hall of the People
Beijing's Great Hall of the People is set to become the Great Hall of Pop when it stages its first ever pop concerts in August. more >
Public Funding for Evangelical Rap Group
Former gang members from New York's hardest ghettoes rap 'we wanna rock wit' you, that's all we wanna do'. But listen closely and the lyrics are far from a stereotypical rap homage to all things bling. more >
The Prado will never cater to the masses
The director reveals his plans to show more contemporary art and criticises the “commercial climate” of museums today. more >
The show must go on
Are Edinburgh's festivals too successful for the city's own good? more >
Creativity seen as economic key
If Toronto invests time, money and energy to turn itself into a creative city, the economic and social benefits could be huge, especially for at-risk youth in need of good-paying jobs. more >
New link launched to boost UK-China cultural tie
An initiative designed to strengthen cultural links between the United Kingdom and China was launched on Thursday. The program, named "China-UK: Connections through Culture", will support cultural organisations in both countries to build understanding of and links with partner organisations, leading to increased cultural activity between China and the United Kingdom. more >
Essential Services for Aging Artists
How does a visual artist age and still remain active? What are the distinct disadvantages to being an older artist, and what are some of the behavioral patterns that might lead to such disadvantages? A group of graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University has recently taken on these questions in a report that outlines the needs of aging visual artists and recommends several changes that may help older artists with specific challenges they’re likely to face. more >
Former Arts Agency Head to run National Art Centre
At a recent press conference it was announced that Hideki Hayashida, a bureaucrat in the national government who in the late 1990s headed up the Agency for Cultural Affairs before moving to the Imperial Household Agency, will be the first director of Japan's fifth national art facility, the National Art Center, Tokyo. more >
The financial culture club
Kazimierz Michał Ujazdowski, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, is responsible for the national cultural policy. He spoke with WBJ about the Ministry's vision of financing institutional and independent theaters in Poland. more >
View on World Summit on Arts and Culture
The third World Summit on Arts and Culture, co-organised by the Arts Council England and IFACCA, took place in Newcastle upon Tyne, a city which truly reflects the regeneration theme of the event “Transforming places, transforming lives”. More than 500 cultural leaders and policy makers from over 82 countries gathered to discuss, debate and network more >
$10m needed for Museum
The Fiji Australian Community Development Incorporated will have to spend $10 million for a Fiji Museum it plans to build. more >
'Diversity' art project accused of snobbery
A curator taking part in a programme to combat a lack of ethnic diversity in the art world has complained of class snobbery within the scheme. more >
10 years, £165m and a row about art. That’s Amélie's real new Paris
President Chirac will fulfil a ten-year-old dream on Tuesday when he opens a spectacular but controversial museum by the Seine that will be the first significant new gallery in Paris since 1977 and the world’s biggest showcase of non-Western art. more >
Art student caravan to promote Iran’s tourist attractions in foreign countries
The Peace Envoy caravan, consisting of 40 Iranian art students, is to travel to Turkey, Greece, Italy, and France in mid-August to familiarize people with Iran’s tourist attractions, the Persian service of CHN reported on Saturday. more >
Britain Plans to Replace N. Ireland Murals
Britain unveiled a $6 million program on Monday to replace Belfast's towering paramilitary wall murals in the most hard-line Protestant areas with more positive, less threatening art works. more >
Egyptian artists worry about growing Islamic fervor
Many Egyptian artists say they worry about growing Islamic fundamentalism in a nation long known for being a cultural and secular center in the Arab world. more >
Guggenheim to build museum in Abu Dhabi
The Guggenheim Foundation has embarked on its most ambitious outpost yet: a 300,000 sq ft modern art museum designed by Frank Gehry on an island off the coast of Abu Dhabi. more >
Is National Arts Council Relevant?
Is the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe still relevant? Or still, what is the difference between the arts council and the National Art Gallery of Zimbabwe or the Zimbabwe Football Association? more >
Maori chief named World Heritage Committee chair
New Zealand paramount chief Tumu Te Heuheu has been elected chairman of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee. more >
Museums becoming things of the past
Britain's museums are in crisis, according to one of the country's leading arts charities, which has released research showing that historic institutions are being neglected by cash-strapped local authorities. more >
Steps to upgrade Arts Council pledged
Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan has called for activating the Arts Council of Pakistan and undertaking coordinating and constant steps for making it an exemplary centre of art and culture. more >
China popularises cultural heritage among youngsters through cartoons
China is attempting to popularise cultural heritage protection and traditional culture among young people through the medium of cartoons. more >
Arts Council chief tackles 'political prejudice'
Politicians are still prejudiced against seeing the arts as a vote-winner despite strong evidence to the contrary, the head of Arts Council England will claim tonight. more >
Keeping Kiwis creative
In Peter Biggs' six years as chairman of Creative New Zealand, the organisation has gone from arts funder to arts development agency. more >
Spain's Ministry of Culture to devote more money to cinema
According to Fernando Lara, director general of Spanish Film Institute, "the health of Spanish cinema is not as ideal as we would like to, but it is good in an overall sense." more >
WIPO meets on traditional cultural expressions
The ninth session of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (the IGC) took place in Geneva from April 24 to 28, 2006. more >
Liverpool's city of culture plans in tatters as boss quits
When Liverpool beat Newcastle for the coveted title of 2008 European Capital of Culture, the city anticipated 14,000 new jobs, 1.7 million extra visitors and £1bn in investment. Instead it increasingly seems that Merseyside may have a fiasco on its hands. more >
Sharing Best Practice in the Creative Industries
T-Shirts and Suits is working in partnership with UNESCO's Global Alliance and Creative Cities Network on a project to research and share best practice in the creative industries. more >
Website upgrade for EUROCULT
The European Cultural Foundation has relaunched its website to make the resource more easily accessible. more >
Call for contributions - What makes festivals sustainable?
Research contributions are being sought for a one-day workshop being organised by the European Festivals Research Project. more >
City culture chief bows out before curtain falls
Edinburgh's culture chief is to quit his job after it emerged his department is to be scrapped under new plans for a major shake-up of council services. more >
Farmers to get their own biennale
Just when you thought farming in the UK was in terminal decline, help may be at hand from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Representatives from the UK’s Rural Cultural Forum recently met with officials from the DCMS at Tate Britain to request funding for the first Farmers’ Biennale of Art and Agriculture. more >
ICCPR 2006 registration deadline
Registrations for the 4th International Conference on Cultural Policy Research (Vienna, Austria, 12-16 July), close on 6 July. more >
Makeover of US art museums is complete
The building that houses two of America's great art museums reopened yesterday after a six-year, £153m makeover. more >
Rome’s eternal sites are eternally at peril
Terrorism, temblors, traffic, tourists are challenging the city's fabled antiquities. more >
Sharjah to have department for museums
Sharjah will have a special department for museums as part of its effort to establish the emirate as a cultural and tourism destination. more >
South Africa's Market Theatre celebrates 30 years of revolutionary theatre
Cries of protest and the crack of gunfire sound again in a dim theatre plastered with slogans, transporting a young, multiethnic audience back to apartheid's darkest days. more >
The international who's who in cultural policy, planning and research >