John Holden – How we value culture and arts

John Holden explains the value of creative and cultural work to the economy, foreign relations and individual identity.
John is an associate at the independent think tank Demos and a visiting professor at City University, London. He has been involved in numerous major projects with the cultural sector ranging across heritage, libraries, music, museums, the performing arts and the moving image.

Interview of Zygmunt Bauman by El Pais

Zygmunt Bauman: “Social media are a trap”
The Polish-born sociologist is skeptical about the possibilities for political change

El Pais: You say that progress is a myth, because people no longer believe the future will be better than the past.
Zygmunt Baumann: We are in a period of interregnum, between a time when we had certainties and another when the old ways of doing things no longer work. We don’t know what is going to replace this. We are experimenting with new ways of doing things. Spain tried questioning things through the May 15 (15M) movement, when people took over public spaces, arguing, trying to replace parliamentary procedures with a kind of direct democracy. This hasn’t lasted long. Austerity policies will continue, nobody could stop them, but they could still be relatively effective in finding new ways to do things. >>

Triki, Rachida: Visual Art in North Africa …

Triki, Rachida: Visual Art in North Africa and the Modernity Historist Identification

Problems of visual arts in the Maghreb
The problems encountered by the artists and museums at work are often the same ones in the Maghreb countries, because of the colonial history and the institutional structures:
– recognition of the creation by a larger audience
– no real promotion promotion through through the media
– how to have more public space for exhibitions
– difficulties of financing for artist’s projects and exhibitions
– the weakness of the structures for art criticism
– the absence of a real market of art
– how to reach the networks networks of the international international market

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