International News in February 2007
Show all of 2007
Accounting for taste
What's behind the Arts Council's anniversary appeal for a 'national debate'? more >
Armenian diaspora invited to church opening
Turkey has invited members of the Armenian diaspora and Armenian religious leaders to the opening of a restored ancient Armenian church in April. more >
Art Cash Plea
Bahrain Information Minister Dr Mohammed Abdul Ghaffar is asking the government for more money to spend on promoting arts. more >
Arts Organizations Adjust to Decline in Funding
Arts groups are going to increasing lengths to secure marketing support. more >
Culture Ministry And Agents Sign Financial Agreements
The Ministry of Culture and national cultural agents Thursday signed financial contracts in the light of State's programme of support to artistic cultural activities of 2006. more >
Human knowledge eroded as endangered languages die
"The extinction of ideas we now face has no parallel in human history," says K. David Harrison in the book "When Languages Die," more >
INTER-AMERICAN COMMITTEE ON CULTURE UNVEILS AMBITIOUS PROGRAMS
An ambitious hemispheric agenda for culture will examine effective culture and arts programs from around the Americas that help young people resist the allure of gangs. more >
MEPs to criticise 'big-bang' policy on music rights
MEPs in the European Parliament's legal affairs committee are set to adopt a report on collective cross-border management of copyright saying a "big-bang" style introduction of competition into the collective management of authors' rights could damage cultural diversity in Europe. more >
Oscar quartet plead for more theatre subsidy
Britain's finest hopes for the Oscars - Dames Helen Mirren and Judi Dench, director Stephen Frears and writer Patrick Marber - are calling on the government to continue its support for British theatre. more >
Tchaikovsky Goes to the Cineplex
Movie theater simulcasts by the Metropolitan Opera have created a new, hybrid form of entertainment, says Philip Kennicott, "and so the scattered but substantial audience for a very old and elite art form is suddenly made manifest, to itself and to the rest of the world, by gathering in theaters designed for mass entertainment." more >
400 years later, opera looks to the next act
European opera managers and directors gathered in Paris to address the central question: What is opera's place in the 21st century? more >
Arts venues fear ‘devastating’ cuts
Arts Council England has drawn up secret plans for sharp cuts in funding to theatres, galleries and music venues. more >
20th Arts Advocacy Day to be held in Washington DC
In March, arts advocates from all over the country will gather in the nation's capital for two days of workshops, presentations, and visits to members of Congress to lobby for increased public funding for the arts. more >
Why a clean-up would be a clear-out
The art market is the last significant unregulated market in the UK and the US, subject to only the most rudimentary oversight. more >
Drama despite the Establishment
At last December's press conference heralding this year's Tokyo International Arts Festival, Artistic Director Sachio Ichimura was in a less than festive mood. more >
Giving Europe a Soul?
In a speech delivered at the conference "A Soul for Europe," German filmmaker Wim Wenders says Europeans must believe in the power of their own imagery. more >
Americans for the Arts to survey arts environment
On February 13, CEO Robert L. Lynch announced "a strategic planning initiative that will have a significant impact on the future of the arts" — a comprehensive scan of the arts landscape, to see how well they've done, and find out what yet needs to be accomplished. more >
Country Dances to Dar's Tune
Officials of Kenya's presidential Music Commission are currently studying Tanzania's music policy in the hope of incorporating sections of it in a final draft of a proposed policy of its own. more >
His pitch for the arts has kept NEA alive
Dana Gioia has made education programs the top priority for the once-embattled agency. more >
It's curtain up on Edinburgh's campaign to retain arts body
Leaders from the business and arts worlds joined forces with politicians today to launch a campaign to keep Scotland's main arts body in the Capital. more >
New publication gives global voice to Vietnamese artists
Aart, a new publication chronicling and promoting contemporary art in Viet Nam, has been released in HCM City by Mogas Station, a collective of international artists based in the city. more >
Cities of no culture
The inspirational role of town halls in bringing art to the people is rapidly becoming a dim memory more >
Cultural property advice portal sets sale online
If you are thinking of buying or selling art, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) has created a website that should be every art and antiques enthusiast’s first port of call. more >
Hong Kong ADC Launches New Awards
The Hong Kong Arts Development Council (ADC) is aiming to “enhance the social status of arts practitioners” with a new set of Arts Development Awards. more >
AGENDA 21 WORKING GROUP REPORTS
United Cities and Local Governments Working Group on Culture adopted two documents at its meeting on 24 October 2006 in Barcelona. more >
Ancient Temples Face Modern Assault
A rapid rise in tourism is overwhelming Cambodia's ability to protect fragile sites. more >
Cultural Agencies See Boost From Bush Budget
The federal cultural agencies and museums received solid support yesterday from the White House in the proposed budget for fiscal 2008. more >
Cultural Policy of Belize
The Latin American country along the bay of Honduras – the Maya name of which means 'muddy water' – has a relatively well organised cultural policy. more >
INCD MEMBERSHIPS DRIVE
The International Network for Cultural Diversity (INCD) has issued an urgent call for members. more >
Indie Music Takes on the Majors
If indie music were a major label, it would be the biggest in the world - and in a way, that's what's about to happen. more >
Italy increases arts spending
Italy has upped arts funding 17% to a total Euros 441 million ($573 million) for 2007 in the first tangible sign of the center-left government's more pro-arts stance compared with the days when Silvio Berlusconi ran the country. more >
Massive Cairo book fair sets religious tone
At the Cairo Book Fair, the largest and most important event of its kind in the Arab world, religious works dominate, while literature and scientific texts are often pushed to the margins. more >
Musiga Chairman Challenges Country's Musicians
A Chairman of the Musicians' Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) laments that a lack of appropriate cultural development strategies and funding has undermined the capacity to fully exploit the cultural potential of African music. more >
National Arts Council Should Replace The BNCC
The Botswana National Cultural Council, as it currently stands, is outmoded, superfluous and redundant. more >
Surreptitious Snapshots
The proliferation of digital cameras is changing the museum experience for visitors and the institutions themselves. more >
The revolution will not be satirised
How can theatre tell the truth if it can't criticise? How can dancers perform if they can't touch? Brian Logan travels to Iran to see how its artists tackle taboos and censorship. more >
Waiting for the axe to fall
The most worrying aspect of the coming Ice Age is the way it has split the arts into rival camps, performing and visual, and sundered London from the rest of the country. more >
Just pay the piano player
It's Use It or Lose It time for the artists of Canada. more >
Barbican chief Tusa joins Tory taskforce
Sir John Tusa, widely respected for having turned round the fortunes of London's Barbican centre, is to lead a new Conservative taskforce on the arts. more >
A Vision in the Desert
Abu Dhabi is on the verge of an audacious leap. Over the next decade or so it aims to become one of the great cultural centers of the Middle East: the heir, in its way, to cosmopolitan cities of old like Beirut, Cairo and Baghdad. more >
Indian city seeks transformation through arts festival
Can an arts festival transform an entire city? In Europe, certainly. Cannes, Salzburg and Edinburgh have all benefited enormously — in jobs, tourism and image — from being branded as festival cities. So why not also Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, India's largest state? more >
The international who's who in cultural policy, planning and research >