Universities challenge report by the Onward thinktank that claims there should be fewer creative arts degrees The report says that young people should be steered away from ‘low value’ degrees because they leave taxpayers to foot the bill for their studies. It recommends ministers should ‘crack down on’ creative arts degrees because they offer low earnings potential.
The Onward thinktank, which is led by Will Tanner, former deputy head of policy to Theresa May, also says saving money in this way will enable the government to introduce a ‘graduate tax cut’ by reducing student loan repayments.
But Universities UK responded by saying: “We need to be wary of simplistic analysis that equates good outcomes from university only with high salaries.”
The report highlights that a decade after they leave university, many creative arts graduates are not earning above the £25,000 threshold to repay student loans. Based on government data, people studying these subjects earn an average of £20,200 five years after graduating and £23,200 10 years afterwards.
Munich’s Haus der Kunst cancels exhibitions due to a “difficult financial situation stemming from management errors of the past” After cancelling its Joan Jonas exhibition, which was due to travel from Tate in August, Haus der Kunst has now cancelled its forthcoming Adrian Piper retrospective, which was due to travel from the Museum of Modern Art in New York. However, despite claiming this was due to austerity, the institution will instead show a major survey of work by the German artist Markus Lüpertz.
Explaining the situation to German publication Süddeutsche Zeitung, Haus der Kunst said that it could not move forward with the Jonas and Piper exhibitions because if it received any additional funding the money would first have to go toward paying off its debts. Instead, the Lüpertz show is being sponsored by Walter Smerling, chairman of the private think tank Foundation for Art and Culture Bonn.
As Artforum reports, Smerling’s foundation has previously been involved in staging shows, including the Kunsthalle Bonn’s controversial Anselm Kiefer exhibition. The show was comprised almost entirely of work borrowed from the private collection of a client, Hans Grother, for whom Smerling also works as a private consultant.
Lawyers for art dealer Mary Boone ask for leniency in tax evasion case The owner of two eponymous galleries in New York pleaded guilty to two counts of filing false federal tax returns last September. Her lawyers have asked for her to be spared prison time, claiming that childhood trauma led to her tax fraud.
Although Boone could face up to six years in prison, her lawyers have asked that she be sentenced to home confinement, up to one thousand hours of community service, and probation.
According to prosecutors, the gallerist falsely reported that her business lost $52,000 in 2011, when in fact it actually made $3.7 million in profit. She also claimed that $1.6 million in personal expenses were business deductions. Boone has since paid $6.9 million in taxes, interest, and penalties to the Internal Revenue Service.
Russian performance artist gets three-year prison sentence for damaging French bank, but walks free for time served Pyotr Pavlensky was found guilty by a Paris court of setting fire to the facade of a state bank building in 2017. He was given a three-year sentence, with two years suspended, but released immediately because of the amount of time he served in pre-trial detention.
However, the hearing did not pass without incident. Pavlensky said that he was dedicating the trial to the 18th-century political and sexual revolutionary the Marquis de Sade, after which his court translator announced she was quitting. A recess was declared until a replacement was found.
The performance artist arrived in France two years ago after fleeing sexual assault charges in Russia, where he had also been put on trial for setting fire to doors of the Federal Security Service, the former KGB headquarters on Lubyanka Square. He is best known for his graphic performances directed against Russian president Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin, most notably nailing his scrotum to Red Square in 2013.
Image:
Cover of the Onward thinktank’s report, A Question of Degree
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