Arts suffer from economic crisis

This video from the USA is called Art, community, the environment (and the financial crisis).

By Richard Phillips from Australia:

Sydney Film Festival 2009—Part 1: Courage and audacity sadly lacking

9 July 2009

This is the first in a series of articles on the 56th Sydney Film Festival held June 3-14.

The Sydney Film Festival was cut by 30 percent this year, running for 12 days instead of the usual 19 and only screening 154 films (118 features and 36 shorts), compared to last year’s 250 movies, and 2007’s 290. Initial statements by festival organisers claimed that the cuts were in response to complaints of “viewer fatigue” and that a shorter festival would be more “financially viable”.

Festival director Clare Stewart later admitted, however, that the decision, which was taken just nine weeks before the festival, came in response to declining corporate funds. “As any arts organisation would say right now, it’s a bloody tough environment for finding corporate sponsorship,” Stewart said. “Other film festivals—Sundance, Tribeca, San Sebastian—have all been open about that … and in the current economic climate, it behoves us to be economically responsible.” …

The obvious question, however, is why is this important cultural event, held in a major global centre, so dependent on private sponsorship? Why does it not receive adequate funds from the state and federal governments?

The crisis facing the New York City Opera says a great deal about the current state of so-called “high” culture, those sections of the performing arts that are not always or even mostly profitable: here.