GIA News's Blog

(3-24-10) The Arizona arts budget has been reduced by approximately 60% since the start of the state's fiscal crisis, according to Robert Booker, Executive Director of the Arizona Commission on the Arts. The Arizona state budget enacted last week included an additional 25% reduction to the Arts Commission's already reduced resources, as well as a complete sweep of the remaining $10 million in the 14-year old Arizona ArtShare Endowment.

(3-24-10) L.A. Times:

The slashing of Los Angeles' municipal arts offerings is underway, with seven layoffs to take effect April 1 and eight more expected when the fiscal year ends June 30, as City Hall tries to cope with a budget crisis.

...And the City Council may get an earful at its meeting Wednesday from supporters of four neighborhood arts centers

Read more.

(3-24-10) L.A. Times:

"National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman was in L.A. this month as part of a six-month Art Works tour in which he is trying to see how art works in communities across the country.

(3-23-10) Brought to you by Theater Communications Group, World Theater Day Message from Lynn Nottage.

(3-23-10) Attendance at performing arts events and art museums is greater in urbanized areas. However, urban and rural residents generally participate in the “informal arts" (activities often unaffiliated with for-profit and nonprofit arts organizations) at similar rates. The NEA Office of Research and Analysis has announced a newly published report.

Come as You Are: Informal Arts Participation in Urban and Rural Communities (.pdf)

(3-22-10) New York Times:

"Like the abstract painter who created it, the Judith Rothschild Foundation has never had a very high profile in the art world. Ms. Rothschild, who died in 1993, established the foundation in her will and assigned a friend the mission, as trustee, of using her collection of artworks by masters like Matisse and Mondrian to promote underappreciated artists, a category in which she included herself. That friend, Harvey S.

(3-22-10) Wall Street Journal drama critic Terry Teachout does not mince words in his
assessment of the quantity and quality of arts programs on PBS. Of note is his recommendation to diversify arts coverage by incorporating modern, obscure, and smaller format productions into the mix.

(3-22-10) Greg Sandoval/CNET:

"The decision in this case could influence how people share content online in the future and could have serious consequences for the Web as an entertainment platform. Sharing music and video on the Internet was once a free-for-all, but a decision against Google and YouTube is a sign that the taming of the Web is under way."

Read More

(3-22-10) Two articles appeared this weekend that follow up on Discrimination and the Female Playwright by Sheri Wilner and Julia Jordan published in the current GIA Reader.

(3-20-10) Because public funding for the arts remains weak in Atlanta and Georgia, a statewide coalition of cultural, business and civic leaders has lobbied hard for legislation that would support the arts and other initiatives. HB 1049 would enable every Georgia county to hold a referendum on dedicating up to one penny of sales tax for arts and cultural groups and other economic development projects. Each county would be able to decide how to split its penny -- or fraction of a penny.