The Cultural Olympiad
After finding out about Laurie Anderson coming to town as part of the "Cultural Olympiad", I thought about it for a while and decided to write her a letter.
Well, an e-mail, though once in a while I would send a collage postcard to her Canal St. studio back when I was doing mail art in the 80s. I ended up posting to the official website, forum section: http://www.laurieanderson.com/forum/
***
Dear Laurie:
I have been a fan of yours ever since I first picked up a 12” record of “O Superman/ Walk The Dog” 29 years ago in a store in my small and somewhat conservative city of Victoria, British Columbia.
I was very pleased to see that you will be performing “Delusion” in Vancouver as part of the Cultural Olympiad, which in turn is part of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games being held in and around that city. I know that it will be a wonderful experience for the audience and I hope you will feel welcome in the city for the week that you will be there.
The 2010 Winter Games, and the expense associated with them, have proven to be an issue of great controversy in this province. The budget for the Cultural Olympiad, recently cut by 20% from $25 million to $20 million due to the Organizing Committee’s cost overruns in other areas, forms about eight-tenths of one percent of the estimated cost of $2.5 billion for the entire Games (including almost a billion dollars for security alone). It's a small amount, very near zero. But we’re happy about it, not only because it’s allowing the display of a great deal of talent and creativity, but also because it could just as easily have been exactly zero.
Let me explain: until last year, the British Columbia arts and culture sector had received about $47 million per year in funding from the provincial government. This is about one-twentieth of one percent of the entire provincial budget, almost the least arts funding of any Canadian province. But the government has announced that this $47 million will be reduced to about $2.65 million by 2012. This is almost a 95% cut.
No other province has cut arts funding during this recession. Many provinces have actually increased funding, because they understand (as I know you do) the compelling social and economic arguments for it. But after the Cultural Olympiad is over, there will be very little left in the cupboard for British Columbian art and artists.
I think it’s certain that the local media would like to talk to you during your stay in Vancouver, and would appreciate it very much if you would simply mention that you are aware of and concerned about this situation. I think it would greatly encourage the people of this province who are doing their best to fight these cuts.
Thank you for your years of hard work, and for the pleasure your art has given me.
Sincerely,
Brian
***
Obviously I am never going to get an answer.
It's doubtful it will even come to her attention.
And in any event, it seems that even if it did, she would not be allowed to say anything about it anyway:
Cultural Olympiad artists say they’re being muzzled
By Marsha Lederman, The Globe and Mail Posted Tuesday, November 24, 2009 5:33 PM ET
The arts-festival portion of the 2010 Olympics risks sliding into a squabble over free speech, as artists who signed on to be part of the Cultural Olympiad learn of a clause in their contracts that prohibits negative comments about the Games and its corporate sponsors.
Some artists contacted by The Globe and Mail, along with organizers of other Olympic and Commonwealth Games cultural events, called the requirement unusual and disturbing. Several artists didn't realize they had signed such an undertaking.
"This is Canada. I can't believe that we're being asked to limit our comments to the press," said Andrew Laurenson, artistic director of Vancouver's Radix Theatre, whose critical comments about arts funding and the Olympics have drawn the attention of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC).
Laurenson's Radix Theatre group is to be part of HIVE, an innovative theatrical event involving 12 local companies performing in a single, huge location as audience members move from show to show.
He sent out a newsletter in September that decried cuts in British Columbia government funding for arts and culture and addressed the perception that "massive overrides in Olympic expenditures" were at least partly to blame.
"Good news: HIVE 3 is coming," he wrote. "Bad news: It involves Olympic money."
A VANOC representative called HIVE's producer after the newsletter was sent out, and the producer subsequently sent an e-mail titled "Gentle Reminder" to everyone involved in HIVE about the need to keep commentary separate from the logo of the Cultural Olympiad. A HIVE 3 image - including the Cultural Olympiad logo - had been sandwiched between Laurenson's good-news/bad-news comments.
The controversial clause in the VANOC contract signed by artists involved in the three-year, $20-million Cultural Olympiad festival reads: "The artist shall at all times refrain from making any negative or derogatory remarks respecting VANOC, the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Olympic movement generally, Bell and/or other sponsors associated with VANOC."
The Olympics have previously faced criticism over possible restrictions on public demonstrations during the Games and the police questioning of Olympic critics.
Other VANOC contracts contain similar clauses, and the Cultural Olympiad's program director, Robert Kerr, says it is standard practice for an event of this scale.
Artists say otherwise and appear to have backing from organizers of similar events. "There was nothing from Salt Lake in which we in any way censored or shackled [our artists] through their work of art or in anything they wanted to say about the Olympics," said Ray Grant, artistic director for the Cultural Olympiad at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002.
"If this is a trend, it's a bit of a dangerous trend for the arts."
Nor was there any such language for artists participating in the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Australia.
"I cannot recall anything which forbade artists from saying anything negative about the Games," Andrew Bleby, executive producer of performing arts for Melbourne's Cultural Program, wrote in an e-mail. "Our artists certainly signed no such thing."
[remainder of article snipped]
Well, I'll just count this as my Futile Gesture for the month... I think I'll try one on each month this year.
Well, an e-mail, though once in a while I would send a collage postcard to her Canal St. studio back when I was doing mail art in the 80s. I ended up posting to the official website, forum section: http://www.laurieanderson.com/forum/
***
Dear Laurie:
I have been a fan of yours ever since I first picked up a 12” record of “O Superman/ Walk The Dog” 29 years ago in a store in my small and somewhat conservative city of Victoria, British Columbia.
I was very pleased to see that you will be performing “Delusion” in Vancouver as part of the Cultural Olympiad, which in turn is part of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games being held in and around that city. I know that it will be a wonderful experience for the audience and I hope you will feel welcome in the city for the week that you will be there.
The 2010 Winter Games, and the expense associated with them, have proven to be an issue of great controversy in this province. The budget for the Cultural Olympiad, recently cut by 20% from $25 million to $20 million due to the Organizing Committee’s cost overruns in other areas, forms about eight-tenths of one percent of the estimated cost of $2.5 billion for the entire Games (including almost a billion dollars for security alone). It's a small amount, very near zero. But we’re happy about it, not only because it’s allowing the display of a great deal of talent and creativity, but also because it could just as easily have been exactly zero.
Let me explain: until last year, the British Columbia arts and culture sector had received about $47 million per year in funding from the provincial government. This is about one-twentieth of one percent of the entire provincial budget, almost the least arts funding of any Canadian province. But the government has announced that this $47 million will be reduced to about $2.65 million by 2012. This is almost a 95% cut.
No other province has cut arts funding during this recession. Many provinces have actually increased funding, because they understand (as I know you do) the compelling social and economic arguments for it. But after the Cultural Olympiad is over, there will be very little left in the cupboard for British Columbian art and artists.
I think it’s certain that the local media would like to talk to you during your stay in Vancouver, and would appreciate it very much if you would simply mention that you are aware of and concerned about this situation. I think it would greatly encourage the people of this province who are doing their best to fight these cuts.
Thank you for your years of hard work, and for the pleasure your art has given me.
Sincerely,
Brian
***
Obviously I am never going to get an answer.
It's doubtful it will even come to her attention.
And in any event, it seems that even if it did, she would not be allowed to say anything about it anyway:
Cultural Olympiad artists say they’re being muzzled
By Marsha Lederman, The Globe and Mail Posted Tuesday, November 24, 2009 5:33 PM ET
The arts-festival portion of the 2010 Olympics risks sliding into a squabble over free speech, as artists who signed on to be part of the Cultural Olympiad learn of a clause in their contracts that prohibits negative comments about the Games and its corporate sponsors.
Some artists contacted by The Globe and Mail, along with organizers of other Olympic and Commonwealth Games cultural events, called the requirement unusual and disturbing. Several artists didn't realize they had signed such an undertaking.
"This is Canada. I can't believe that we're being asked to limit our comments to the press," said Andrew Laurenson, artistic director of Vancouver's Radix Theatre, whose critical comments about arts funding and the Olympics have drawn the attention of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC).
Laurenson's Radix Theatre group is to be part of HIVE, an innovative theatrical event involving 12 local companies performing in a single, huge location as audience members move from show to show.
He sent out a newsletter in September that decried cuts in British Columbia government funding for arts and culture and addressed the perception that "massive overrides in Olympic expenditures" were at least partly to blame.
"Good news: HIVE 3 is coming," he wrote. "Bad news: It involves Olympic money."
A VANOC representative called HIVE's producer after the newsletter was sent out, and the producer subsequently sent an e-mail titled "Gentle Reminder" to everyone involved in HIVE about the need to keep commentary separate from the logo of the Cultural Olympiad. A HIVE 3 image - including the Cultural Olympiad logo - had been sandwiched between Laurenson's good-news/bad-news comments.
The controversial clause in the VANOC contract signed by artists involved in the three-year, $20-million Cultural Olympiad festival reads: "The artist shall at all times refrain from making any negative or derogatory remarks respecting VANOC, the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Olympic movement generally, Bell and/or other sponsors associated with VANOC."
The Olympics have previously faced criticism over possible restrictions on public demonstrations during the Games and the police questioning of Olympic critics.
Other VANOC contracts contain similar clauses, and the Cultural Olympiad's program director, Robert Kerr, says it is standard practice for an event of this scale.
Artists say otherwise and appear to have backing from organizers of similar events. "There was nothing from Salt Lake in which we in any way censored or shackled [our artists] through their work of art or in anything they wanted to say about the Olympics," said Ray Grant, artistic director for the Cultural Olympiad at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002.
"If this is a trend, it's a bit of a dangerous trend for the arts."
Nor was there any such language for artists participating in the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Australia.
"I cannot recall anything which forbade artists from saying anything negative about the Games," Andrew Bleby, executive producer of performing arts for Melbourne's Cultural Program, wrote in an e-mail. "Our artists certainly signed no such thing."
[remainder of article snipped]
Well, I'll just count this as my Futile Gesture for the month... I think I'll try one on each month this year.