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Culture Brings Prosperity, According to ifo Research Report

Key findings of cesifo research paper “Music in the Air: Estimating the Social Return to Cultural Amenities” include:

  • Culture is expensive but worth it: Expenditure on cultural institutions have a positive effect on income in the region
  • The ifo researchers understand their results as an argument supporting subsidies for cultural institutions
  • According to their research on opera houses it is unclear, however, whether a country as a whole benefits from investment into individual region’s cultural sector

The report is available for download, with a summary in English.

A comment in the SZ hence warns cities and municipalities to cut the culture budgets under the influence of current financial pressure: These cuts may seem quick and easy but could have devastating indirect effects.

DIA Collection Saved, Director Graham Beal Annonunces Retirement

After years of negotiating, anxious waiting, a court ruling, and more anxious waiting, the Detroit Institute of Art’s collection was finally saved from being sold off in the wake of the city of Detroit’s bankruptcy. I had the pleasure to sit next to the DIA’s director Graham Beal during a dinner in November, and I repeat here: Chapeau. Now he has announced plans to retire. read here

The Slow Death Of Theaters In Germany?

The theatre and orchestral landscape in Germany is unique: 140 municipal, state and regional theaters; 131 classical orchestras, plus some 220 private theaters and around 150 theaters and performance venues without a permanent ensemble. Cicero has analyzed the vast offering as well as its allegedly looming death, playhouses being caught between continuous budget squeezes, shifting political attention and paralyzing corsets of tradition.

Carta On Public Braodcasting: “Das schwarze Loch” (The Black Hole)

Aus der Carta-Artikelserie  „Transparenz und Finanzierung im öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunk“: “Das schwarze Loch. Warum der öffentlich-rechtliche Rundfunk ausreichend finanziert ist – und trotzdem kein Geld hat.” (An article from the Carta series “Transparency and financing of public service broadcasting“: “The black hole. Why public broadcasting is adequately funded – and still has no money.”)

Controversial Sale Of Northrhine-Westphalia’s Warhols

Critics fear this might be only the beginning of selling from the state’s art collection to help fill household gaps. Read more: RP-Online: Umstrittener Verkauf. NRW-Warhols in New York für 151,5 Millionen Dollar versteigert and faz.net: Fort mit dem Nutzen. Die Warhol-Versteigerung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen erhitzt die Gemüter. Warum aber gibt es überhaupt staatlich finanzierte Kultur und nicht nur den Kunstmarkt?