25 November 2007

Trade in Culture Services - A Handbook of Concepts and Methods

Trade in Culture Services - A Handbook of Concepts and Methods

Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics
Research papers, 2007


This is a very basic handbook, and what makes it interesting is the discourse employed - the choice of language signals how they are conceptualising issues and topics, and how the Cultural Statistics Program is creating frameworks of reference and justification.

Here is an excerpt:
The Canadian Framework for Culture Statistics includes the following activities in
the definition of culture services: creative services, intellectual property rights for
culture products, artistic expression, content services, and preservation services.
Perhaps the most intuitive example of a creative service is a performance.
Live performances are intangibles that can be bought and sold and involve creative
artistic activity. Performances can be final demand products (you pay to see a show)
or intermediate inputs (production services). Examples of live performances are
theatrical plays or musical performances.
This sure is revealing about who their intended audience might be (for this handbook I mean) and how much current knowledge they assume their audience has. For example, live performance, in this excerpt, is regarded as material product where services are cash transactions rather than services that may also include other 'intangible' and 'intuitive' human exchange. How this handbook defines cultural services infers a lot about what is valued in the trade of cultural service, and the directed choice of approach.

Find the whole handbook by clicking here.

Historic five-year action plan by Assembly of First Nations: The Rebuilding Our Nations Youth Accord

Hundreds of First Nations youth from across Canada gathered November 1, 2007 in Winnipeg to complete a draft five-year action plan called: The Rebuilding Our Nations Youth Accord. The Accord will set out specific actions to address health, cultural, economic, political and social issues. A draft of the Accord was presented to AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine and Assembly of Manitoba Grand Chief Ron Evans.

Some of highlights in the Accord are:

  • Mandatory First Nation history curriculum in the public education system and a requirement for all teachers to take mandatory courses in First Nations history;
  • Recognize First Nations languages as official languages of Canada;
  • Mobilize First Nations youth in voting campaigns;
  • Establish a First Nations History Month;
  • Establish First Nations youth governance systems including regular youth gatherings;
  • Increase funding to First Nations schools and addressing the crisis in post-secondary funding;
  • Create healing circles to address intergenerational impacts;
  • Create environmentally friendly enterprises more aligned with First Nations values;
  • Strengthen the child welfare system including better support to families as a first measure

The Accord will be presented to the AFN Special Chiefs Assembly, December 11 – 13, 2007 in Ottawa, Ontario.

Click here to see the full press release on the Assembly of First Nations website.

24 November 2007

Artist colonies rise above USA politics for new funding

Artist Colonies, `Heat Shield' From Critics, May Get U.S. Funds

By Laurence Arnold

[See the original source article, in full, at www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=ab8gKgmzjyaU# ]

Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Twelve years after Congress ended most funding to individual artists, the National Endowment for the Arts may reopen the flow of money to poets, musicians, writers and painters through artist colonies.

The NEA, which is in line for a budget increase of as much as 28 percent next year, plans to direct some of the additional money to the hundreds of U.S. colonies and communities that provide artists with residencies, funding and, above all, creative freedom.

``We're very excited about this,'' NEA Chairman Dana Gioia said at a Nov. 7 conference in Washington sponsored by artist communities. ``It's something we've been talking about internally for a couple of years now.''

Gioia said his plan would amend the endowment's application categories to create a specific opportunity for artist communities to win funding. The goal, he said, is to support ``individual artists creating new work.'' Arts groups apply for NEA funding in several different categories.

Colonies give artists the freedom to explore works that otherwise might be imperiled by public criticism, said Cheryl Young, executive director of the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. ``They provide a heat shield,'' she said.

Congress in 1995 sharply limited the NEA's authority to fund individual artists, a response to controversies over publicly financed art that involved nudity or addressed homosexuality and religion.

Budget Slashed

For years, Republicans in Congress expressed outrage that the NEA supported exhibits that included erotic gay photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe and an Andres Serrano work depicting a crucifix immersed in urine. Republicans took control of Congress in 1995 and slashed the NEA's budget by 40 percent during the next five years while imposing the new limits on support for individual artists.

The NEA's budget, which peaked at $176 million in 1992, fell to a low of $97.6 million in 2000 and was $127 million in 2007.

The new Democratic-controlled House has approved giving the NEA $160 million in 2008, a 28 percent increase. In the Senate, also now controlled by Democrats, the Appropriations Committee has proposed a smaller, 7 percent increase, to $133 million. Differences between the House and Senate plans would have to be worked out during budget conferences.

Gioia said the NEA's plan to boost support of artist colonies is dependent on the agency being ``well treated in this budget, as we have every expectation to be.'' A program to support artist colonies, if created, wouldn't begin providing money until 2009, according to NEA spokeswoman Felicia Knight.

Creative Freedom

A poet, music critic and former General Foods executive, Gioia was appointed to the NEA post by President George W. Bush and took office in January 2003.

In an interview, he said artist colonies are technically eligible to apply for NEA funding, though they face obstacles under the agency's current system of categories.

``We don't recognize them as a unique kind of cultural entity,'' he said.

Creating a new funding category ``without question'' will increase the number of colonies that receive support, he added.

Gioia said there are hundreds of such colonies in the U.S.

The Providence, Rhode Island-based Alliance of Artists Communities says its 250 members -- communities, residency programs and individuals -- collectively support 12,000 artists annually in the U.S. and more than a dozen other countries....

There is more to this article. Read the rest by clicking here .

USA Scholars Ask For Normal Relations with Cuba

U.S Scholars Ask For Normal Relations with Cuba
20 de Noviembre del 2007

"In an open letter to Bush, more than two hundred artists and scholars from the United States asked their president to end the travel ban that prevents U.S. citizens from visiting Cuba and allow Cuban artists and scholars to visit the United States."

Read more at ahora.cu and find the entire article by clicking here.


Source: ACN

Art & Innovation: An Evolutionary Economic View of the Creative Industries

Art & Innovation: An Evolutionary Economic View of the Creative Industries
Unesco Observatory, The University of Melbourne Refereed E-Journal, 2007

by Jason Potts ; Arc Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation,
Queensland University of Technology, School of Economics

"This paper argues that the economics of the arts and culture, and more formally the economics of creative industries, should be based on evolutionary economics. The reason is simple. The value of the arts and culture to an economic system is dynamic: it is change value, and naturally experimental and uncertain. New ideas and technologies are the drivers of economic growth, yet only to the extent that they are adopted and retained by people. The creative industries are the entrepreneurs and manufacturers of this socio-technical process. They are, I will explain, part of the innovation system of the economy in terms of what I shall call the ‘creative systems’ framework.
This suggests a new line of thinking for those engaged in research on the arts, education and cultural development that is based on a rather different conception of the economy than is conventional."

The paper asserts that the value of the arts and culture are dynamic, and Jason Potts explains in this paper how arts, education and cultural researchers could benefit from working with an analysis of economic dynamics (as open system processes of change and re-coordination) ratherr than making futile attempts to defend (static) cultural value against (equally static) economic value.

Juicy!
- R

18 November 2007

Beyond Performance: Building a Better Future for Dancers and the Art of Dance.

Click here to read: Beyond Performance: Building a Better Future for Dancers and the Art of Dance.

This is a 64 page document providing rigorous comparative research that documents and lluminates the issue of dancer career transition on a global basis, providing a platform for analysis, action, and advocacy.


An excerpt:

OBSERVATION #4:
Multiple strategies will be necessary to address the career transition needs of dancers
on an international scale, because the broader context in which dancers carry out their
work varies from country to country. Factors that come into play on a country-by-country
basis include the degree to which the arts are publicly or privately supported, cultural
attitudes towards the arts in general and dance in particular, the dominant dance
genres in a particular country or region, and the nature of existing worker protections in
the form of social benefit programs. Because of this variability, the global dance community
has much to learn from shared information about “promising practices,” which
can be adapted and refined to meet local conditions.


R

15 November 2007

wow, what a bibliography! (CECC)

The Centre of Expertise on Culture and Communities has an increadible resource of bibliographic listings on their site.

Culture and Sustainability http://www.cultureandcommunities.ca/resources/bibliographies/culture-and-sustainability.html

Cultural Infrastructure
http://www.cultureandcommunities.ca/resources/bibliographies/cultural-infrastructure.html

Impacts and Indicators
http://www.cultureandcommunities.ca/resources/bibliographies/impacts-indicators.html

Cultural Planning (Culture in Communities)
http://www.cultureandcommunities.ca/resources/bibliographies/cultural-planning.html

Creative Cities (Culture in Communities)
http://www.cultureandcommunities.ca/resources/bibliographies/creative-cities.html

Cultural Ecosystems (Culture in Communities)
http://www.cultureandcommunities.ca/resources/bibliographies/cultural-ecosystems.html

Talk about winter reading....

-R

Vancouver long-range cultural facilities plan underway

"In May 2007 the Managing Director of Cultural Services and the Manager of Materials
Management sought proposals for consultant services related to the creation of a long-range
cultural facilities priorities plan through an RFP (PS07083). The RFP was posted on the City’s
website, BC Bid, and circulated to the cultural community through the City and Alliance for
Arts and Culture email distribution lists.
Five proposals were received and reviewed by the interdepartmental staff team using a
comparative and consistent matrix format. The matrix compared the proponents’ teams past
experience with large complex public art programs, proposal content, methodology, and cost.
Proponents were scored out of a total of 100 points.
The review team short-listed two of the proponent teams for further consideration.
Following input from references and the interdepartmental staff team ranked the proposal
from Toronto Artscape as superior to the other proposals. The Toronto Artscape team
proposed a project budget of $91,250 plus GST and disbursements.
Subject to Council approval, the program review will commence October 15, 2007 and be
completed by March 31, 2008. The result of the review, along with the implementation
planning reports, will be reported back in June 2008.
The Cultural Facility Priorities Plan will be developed by the consultants working with a
Steering Committee comprised of the Managing Director of Cultural Services (Chair), the Co
Director, Office of Cultural Affairs (Policy Planning & Infrastructure), the Director of Financial
Planning & Treasury, the Assistant Director, Vancouver Civic Theatres, the Senior Cultural
Planner, the Senior Social Planner and the Directors of Planning and Facilities Design and
Management.
An Advisory Committee with representation from arts and culture organizations will be
convened to provide advice on community input and process, as well as recommended
outcomes. Additional public engagement will take the form of a surveys, interviews,
discipline-based and cross-discipline focus groups, as well as public open houses. The goal is
to create a plan that reflects community input and develops consensus-based criteria for
prioritizing in outcomes. The full scope of work for the Cultural Facility Plan is contained in
Appendix A."

Click here for the administrative report Vancouver long-range cultural facilities plan underway

12 November 2007

Arts debate - Arts Council England's public value inquiry

Arts debate

Learn about the findings from Arts Council England’s first ever public value inquiry! An overall summary of arts debate findings now available.

The arts debate, Arts Council England’s first ever public value inquiry, ran from October 2006 to September 2007. It involved a number of stages of in-depth research as well as an open consultation. During that period we learned an enormous amount about how different people value the arts and their views on arts funding in England.

We have now brought together the findings from all stages of the inquiry into an overall summary report, Public value and the arts in England: Discussion and conclusions of the arts debate, available on the summary & conclusions page.

You can also access detailed findings from each stage of the inquiry on the research & consultation page.

Next steps

We are currently taking time to reflect upon all that we have learned and to consider the implications for future policy and practice. We will also be sharing and debating the findings with our partners in the arts sector and beyond.

The Arts Council will be different as a result of the arts debate. We will use the next few months to develop a detailed response to the findings, combining:

  • short term actions in our next corporate plan

  • a long-term policy response to be published in spring 2008

More details on how we are responding to the arts debate will be available on this website in 2008. In the meantime, we would like to thank everyone who has helped us by supporting or taking part in the debate. Your contribution is making a difference.