Kevin is a sculptor, silversmith and recent graduate of the MA in Cultural Policy programme, and has recently completed a commission to mark the official opening of the Naughton Institute. For more information on the piece click below– and congrats Kevin on this achievement!
The ‘arms-length’ principle underpinning the Irish Arts Council is often subjected to a healthy dose of skepticism– nevertheless few public arts policy bodies have endured the heat of political scrutiny quite like the U.S. National Endowment of the Arts. Michael J. Lewis’ perceptive recent article in Commentary Magazine charts the decline of the NEA into the risk-averse and toothless grant-making organisation it’s largely become:
In brief, the NEA has withered in a matter of decades from a self-styled instrument of world peace to a cautious dispenser of largesse whose one inflexible principle is that no grant must ever redound to the administration’s embarrassment. Whether it can regain its early ambition—or whether it should try to—is an open question.
War-scarred with charges of obscenity and wastefulnes, the NEA now toes a pretty timid line on a tiny budget. Is there any hope of resurrecting the NEA into a force for progressive national arts policy? (more…)
Fresh from the AP wire: Stephen Colbert, thwarted presidential contender and pundit-in-chief at the Colbert Report (and ex-Daily Show correspondent), has convinced the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. to temporarily display his portrait ‘in what the museum considers an “appropriate place” — right between the bathrooms near the “America’s Presidents” exhibit’:
After the work was rejected by the National Museum of American History, Colbert eventually made his way to the portrait gallery. Bentley said Colbert wasn’t begging so much as “making his case.” She said they welcome the conversation about whose portraits are included in the gallery’s collection. It was just not Colbert’s time, she said.
“Who’s the competition? Who do I need to knock out of here to get me up?” Colbert asked gallery director Marc Pachter.
Colbert argued he was more deserving than athletes Lance Armstrong or Andre Agassi and pulled out his Hacky Sack for a few kicks in the art gallery to prove it. “You do realize I’m in big trouble if you hit any of these portraits,” Pachter said.
Still, Colbert said he thinks his “sack work” ultimately won Pachter over for the temporary display.
In this season of American electioneering and political bickering, it’s nice to see the Smithsonian taking a stand for freedom.
The Professional Association of Volunteer Managers Ireland (PAVMI) in association with Volunteering Ireland will be hosting a seminar series for all those involved with Volunteer Management and/or Coordination, on the 4th of February and 13th of March:
Over 100 artists and arts professionals (including Damien Hirst, Tracy Emin, Nick Serota, David Hockney, Gilbert & George, etc) have signed a letter in protest over the apparent restructuring of the British Council’s arts programme, published recently in the Guardian. According to the accompanying article:
What is known is that the British Council is planning a radical shakeup in the way it delivers arts abroad, and part of that will entail scrapping its long-established arts departments, including visual arts, theatre, film and dance.
(see also the BBC‘s reporting of the controversy)
Meanwhile the British Council’s chief executive Martin Davidson has insisted in a statement that ‘the British Council remains deeply committed to the arts in all its forms. But like any organisation, we need to review our focus from time to time, and we are initiating such a consultation on the council’s arts strategy this month.’
It’s not yet clear what the restructuring will entail, but the claimed ‘consultation’ seems to be an exercise in optics rather than a true dialogue, as subsequent letters to the Guardian on the issue seem to indicate.
It’s been a tough week for the arts in Britain– in response to the recent major cuts by the ACE (as noted in a previous post) a number of theatres and orchestras in the UK are preparing to sue the Council for their loss of income. As Mark Brown of the Guardian observed:
… the artists are in revolt. The actors’ union, Equity, passed a vote of no confidence in Arts Council England, although it is implementing a much bigger than expected spending round. But while it is increasing money to three-quarters of its 990 regularly funded organisations, it is also cutting it for 194 of them. Sometimes the Arts Council must take tough decisions to allow innovative groups more money and refresh the pot with new organisations. But the actors believe theatre is taking too big a hit. Now the painters and sculptors are flexing their muscle against the British Council. What should have been a week for forward-looking debate on the arts has ended in acrimony and a breakdown in trust between artists and arts managers.
arts management ireland 