ArtPourri

NEA News – Members of the House and Senate conference committee completed their negotiations of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act with $50 million designated to assist the nation’s arts and cultural workforce through funding to the NEA. — According to a new report, Using Arts and Culture to Stimulate State Economic Development from the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, “Arts and culture-related industries, collectively known as ‘creative industries,’ provide direct economic benefits to states and communities by creating jobs, attracting new investments, generating tax revenues and stimulating tourism and consumer purchases.

USPS News – The Postal Service has dedicated the “Celebrating Lunar New Year:  Year of the Ox” commemorative 12-stamp souvenir sheet as the second in this series.  Art director Ethel Kessler worked with Chinese-American stamp artist Kam Mak to choose a lion head of a type often worn at parades and other festivities.  Kam’s 16” x 9.5” stamp illustration was originally created using oil paints on a fiberboard panel and took 2-1/2 months to create.

Artifacts Returned – The FBI recently returned to the government of Panama more than 100 pre-Columbian artifacts that had been recovered during an investigation by the Portland Field Office.  An amateur archeologist acquired many of the items while working in Panama as a teacher on a U.S. military base during the 1980s, married a Panamanian citizen and moved back to the U.S. with many of the items.  He died in 2004, and no charges are expected.  A 1972 Panamanian Constitution and 1982 law make it illegal for anyone except the government to own antiquities from that country.

Copyright ARTtalk Vol. 19 No. 5 — March 2009