The cult of crisis coverage

global-financial-crisis
Graphic Design Tackles The Financial Crisis: visual guide to the financial crisis by Liam Johnstone

Simply lining up a selection of recent newspaper headlines reveals the ambivalent nature of our current financial crisis and the way it is (re)shaping the world of arts and culture (scroll and click for links):

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How could the economic crisis affect art?

The Arts world is braced for ‘hurricane’ as recession hits
The German film industry is facing a funding crisis and
Museums make deep cuts in face of global financial crisis,
while UK Jobs For Architects Disappear.

The Financial crisis scuppers Moscow fair and
the Crisis forces Russia’s Bolshoi to scrap opera.
The Russian film industry is crunched by the financial crisis.
At the same time Italy is facing a opera funding crisis,
and BBC Cuts TV, Radio Budgets.

Bad Economy? What Bad Economy?

However, In times of trouble, fiction thrives
and in recession, movie box office booms.
Las Vegas (even) Approves Bonds To Build an Arts Center.
Broadway Booms In Recession and the San Fransisco Opera
Forecasts End of Global Economic Crisis by 2nd Half of 2011.

The Maastricht Art Fair Sales were Brisk and
Versace-owned artworks sell for almost triple estimated value.
And Amid Financial Crisis, Saint Laurent Art Sets Records.
At the French art fair FIAC, art collectors still get out their chequebooks.
For one New York dealer, art acts as a crisis shelter, while the
Abundance at Art Dubai defies the crisis.

One commentator said that “Old Masters are better than buying gold nuggets”
while another analyzed: This Is Narcissism’s Cultural Moment. and a third
person stressed that Free Museums Should Ask More Firmly For Donations.

Could Artists Save The Business World?

The impact of the crisis on the arts and culture raises questions like:
In this Bad Economy, Is the Ethos Of Art Institute School At Risk?,
Will Crashing Markets Bring Chinese Art Back Down to Earth?
And Should The Government Continue Funding Arts In A Recession?
or Did The Art World Get Too Big? (And Now What?)

Luckily, (Good) Music Aids Recovery In Stroke Patients,
so In times of crisis art is not a luxury, but a life saver and
therefore Non-fiction will soon be providing revitalizing sounds
by Clark, Pan Sonic, Oval, Kode9 and the Spaceape, Dimlite,
Flying Lotus, Gaslamp Killer, Samiyam, Pierre Bastien and Daedelus.

“WORDS TEND TO BE INADEQUATE” (Jenny Holzer)

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