There's work to be done, and if you don't have a staff to do it, it's usually you. It gets old. People get tired. Our labors of love can easily shift into labors of dread.
Denver gets rid of Office of Cultural Affairs - consolidates cultural/entertainment agencies. From The Denver Post: Anthony Radich, executive director of the Denver-based Western States Arts Federation, believes it is the wrong move at the wrong time. In what is becoming an increasingly competitive realm, more and more cities are promoting creative economic sectors and cultural tourism. "They are, if anything, really investing in the personnel and investing in the structure and organization of arts agencies at the city level. And here I see Denver disinvesting, and that is very troubling," Radich said.
Veen is also the founder and director of the Hermitage Amsterdam, which opened in 2009 with no government subsidy, and is widely admired as an entrepreneurial cultural manager. “I am holding a letter in which the state secretary for culture, Halbe Zijlstra, urges me to think more like a businessman in raising money for our institutions. This is about as much as I can take,” said Veen, who announced in March that he is retiring from both roles at the end of the year.
After more than 10 months on hiatus, Ticket to the Zeitgeist resumes its inspection of performance and politics. There seems to be no shortage of material as the 2012 US presidential extravaganza begins to erect its tents. (We may soon be adding a special section on the Michele Bachmann candidacy.) "Too many times we see mainstream media outlets distorting facts to fit rigid agendas," he wrote on The Blaze. "Not that you've ever heard me complain about the media before. Okay, maybe once or twice. But there comes a time when you have to stop complaining and do something. And so we decided to hire some actual journalists to launch a new website."
