Latest news with #culturalinfrastructure
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
English mayors push for visitor levy to boost income from tourism
A coalition of mayors from across England are urging the government to allow local authorities to bring in a Barcelona-style visitor levy to generate income from tourism. The group, led by the Liverpool city region mayor, Steve Rotheram, argues that a visitor levy would unlock vital funding for tourism and cultural infrastructure, empower regional growth and reduce dependence on central government funding. The letter to the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has been co-signed by the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham; the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan; the north-east mayor, Kim McGuinness; Richard Parker, the mayor of the West Midlands; and the West Yorkshire mayor, Tracy Brabin. They say provisions could be made in the forthcoming English devolution bill, or in a specific finance bill, to give local authorities the freedom to design and introduce a locally administered visitor levy. It would mean cities they represent, including Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Birmingham and London, could introduce charges to reap direct benefits from tourism. Many European cities have similar levies in place, including Venice, Lisbon and Amsterdam, as do Spain's Balearic Islands. In the Liverpool city region, which hosts more than 60 million visitors annually, a visitor levy could raise nearly £11m a year, the mayors said. The city hosted Eurovision in 2023, which generated £54m in direct economic impact. If a £1- to £5-a-night levy were introduced in Greater Manchester, it could raise between £8m and £40m a year, which could go towards infrastructure projects such as the regeneration of Old Trafford or airport development, the mayors said. The mayors said funds raised through a visitor levy would be ringfenced for local reinvestment, and said the government needed to act urgently, as devolved governments in Scotland and Wales are moving ahead with their own tourism levies, leaving English regions at risk of falling behind. 'The Liverpool city region is a global icon of creativity, culture and character – attracting more than 60 million visitors every year and supporting a £6.25bn visitor economy,' Rotheram said. 'That's something to be incredibly proud of – but it also comes with pressures on our infrastructure and services. 'A small charge on overnight stays – the kind most of us wouldn't think twice about when travelling abroad – would give us the power to reinvest directly into the things that make our area so special.' Burnham added: 'At a time when national resources are under real pressure, a modest visitor levy – something we all pay in other parts of Europe – offers a fair and sustainable way to support our local services.' McGuinness said: 'A local tourism tax is so mainstream across the rest of the world you barely notice it, so it should not be a big step here in the UK.' Last year, a report from the landscape charity Friends of the Lake District made a similar call. The organisation's chief executive, Mike Hill, said: 'In most of the places around the world that we've looked at that have brought in some sort of tourism levy, tourism numbers have actually increased, because the place gets better.'
Trade Arabia
15-05-2025
- Business
- Trade Arabia
Acciona Living & Culture delivers major exhibition in Doha
Acciona Living & Culture has completed the design and execution of Pathway to Peace, a newly inaugurated exhibition curated by the International Media Office (IMO) of Qatar, which explores the vital role of mediation and peacebuilding on the global stage. Located in the largest ballroom of the Sheraton Grand Doha Resort & Convention Hotel, the exhibition offers visitors a powerful and engaging journey through Qatar's commitment to peaceful diplomacy and conflict resolution. By focusing on mediation as a central pillar of Qatar's foreign policy, Pathway to Peace highlights the nation's efforts as a neutral facilitator in international negotiations and dialogue. Acciona Living & Culture was responsible for the design and execution of the project, overseeing every detail from spatial adaptation and lighting design to the installation of narrative, audiovisual, and interactive content. The result is a seamlessly immersive environment that reflects the values of diplomacy, cultural understanding, and cooperation that underpin Qatar's global initiatives. This exhibition marks another milestone in Acciona's long-standing presence in the region, further demonstrating its expertise in creating cultural spaces that inspire, educate, and connect people through innovative storytelling and meaningful design, the company said. OTHER PROJECTS This project adds to Acciona Living & Culture's extensive portfolio in Qatar, where it has played a key role in shaping the country's cultural infrastructure. Acciona joint by UCC, was responsible for the fit-out and museography works of the 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum, the largest museum in the world commemorating Olympic Games and sports. The company has also led the design and production of 150 media installations for the National Museum of Qatar, the development and implementation of Msheireb Museums, and multiple high-level temporary exhibitions for Qatar Museums, such as Al Jazzera Exhibition, Tales of a Connected World: Lusail Museum, etc.
The Independent
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
A landscape transformed: As it responds to cuts in federal programs, the arts community reels
Poet Marie Howe, one of this year's winners of the Pulitzer Prize, says being a writer is often less a career than a vocation. You rely on teaching and other outside work and seek support from foundations or from a government agency, like the National Endowment for the Arts. 'Everybody applies for an NEA grant, year after after year, and if you get it, it's like wow — it's huge," says Howe, a Pulitzer winner for 'New and Selected Poems' and a former NEA creative writing fellow. 'It's not just the money. It's also deep encouragement. I just felt so grateful. It made a big, big difference. It gives you courage. It says to you, 'Go on, keep doing it.'' Behind so many award-winning careers, high-profile productions, beloved institutions and in-depth research projects there is often a quieter story of early support from the government — the grants from the NEA or National Endowment for the Humanities that enable a writer to complete a book, a community theater to stage a play, a scholar to access archival documents or a museum to organize an exhibit. For decades, there has been a nationwide artistic and cultural infrastructure receiving bipartisan support, including through the first administration of Donald Trump. Now that is changing — and drastically. The new administration is taking a hard line Since returning to office in January, the president has alleged that federal agencies and institutions such as the NEA, NEH, PBS, the Kennedy Center and the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) were advancing a 'woke agenda' that undermined traditional values. Trump has ousted leaders, cut or eliminated programs and dramatically shifted priorities: At the same time the NEH and NEA were forcing out staff members and canceling grants, they announced a multimillion-dollar initiative to support statues for Trump's proposed "National Garden of American Heroes,' from George Washington to Shirley Temple. 'All future awards will, among other things, be merit-based, awarded to projects that do not promote extreme ideologies based upon race or gender, and that help to instill an understanding of the founding principles and ideals that make America an exceptional country," reads a statement on the NEH website. Individuals and organizations across the country, and across virtually every art form, now find themselves without money they had budgeted for or even spent, anticipating they would be reimbursed. Electric Literature, McSweeney's and n+1 are among dozens of literary publications that received notices their grants have been rescinded. Philadelphia's Rosenbach Museum & Library had to halt a project to create an online catalog after losing a near-$250,000 grant from the IMLS. The Stuttering Association for the Young, which manages a summer music camp, has a $35,000 gap. 'Our fundraising allows kids to attend our summer camp at a greatly reduced cost so the lost funds make it harder to fulfill that commitment," says the association's director, Russell Krumnow, who added that 'we planned our programming and made decisions with those funds in mind.' 'Government money ought to be consistent. It ought to be reliable,' says Talia Corren, co-executive director of the New York-based Alliance of Resident Theatres, which assists hundreds of nonprofit theater companies. 'You need to make decisions based on that money.' Institutions have a history of more than a half century The NEA, NEH and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting were among the institutions established 60 years ago, during the height of President Lyndon Johnson 's 'Great Society' domestic programs. At various times, they have faced criticism for supporting provocative artists, such as photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the 1980s. But they have endured, in part, because of their perceived economic benefits, distributed through as many congressional districts as possible. Arts advocates contend that, like other forms of federal aid, the importance of an NEA or NEH grant isn't just the initial money, but the 'ripple' or 'mutliplier' effect. Government backing often carries the kind of prestige that makes a given organization more desirable to private donors. The millions of dollars channeled through state arts and humanities councils in turn support local projects. Funding for a theater production helps generate jobs for the cast and crew, brings in business for neighboring restaurants and bars and parking garages and spending money for the babysitter hired by parents having a night out. Actor Jane Alexander was just beginning her stage career when the endowment helped fund the 1967 Arena Stage production of Howard Sackler's drama about boxer Jack Johnson, 'The Great White Hope," which starred Alexander and James Earl Jones and eventually won the Pulitzer Prize. Alexander, who headed the NEA in the 1990s, remembered how Arena co-founder Zelda Fichandler worried that the endowment might hurt business by supporting other theaters in Washington. 'And I remember my late husband (Robert Alexander) who was artistic director of the Living Stage Theatre Company at the time, saying to her, 'No, it doesn't work that way. A rising tide floats all boats," she says. In the short term, organizations are seeking donations from the general public and philanthropists are attempting to fill in fiscal holes. The Mellon Foundation recently announced an 'emergency' $15 million fund for state humanities councils. At the Portland Playhouse in Oregon, artistic director Brian Weaver says that donors stepped in after the theater lost a $25,000 NEA grant just a day before they were to open a production of 'Joe Turner's Come and Gone,' But Weaver and others say private fundraising alone isn't a long-term solution, if only because individuals incur 'donor fatigue' and philanthropists change their minds. Jane Alexander remembers when the Arena theater in Washington founded a repertory company, supported in part by the Rockefeller Foundation. 'It was like the National Theatre in Britain," she says. '"We felt so proud that we can have a repertory company of 30 players rotating players through the season. It was very, very exciting. And we had, you know, voice lessons, we had fencing lessons. We were going to become the great company. And guess what happened? Rockefeller's priorities changed.'
