U.S. arts organizations are still waiting for that cultural institution money to flow. "Business owners are wary of the promise after weeks of delay and confusion over the initiative, the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, which many had cheered as a lifeline. Each day applicants vent their frustrations on an online forum, regularly polling one another on whether any applications have yet been...
If approved by the D.C. Council, Reginald Van Lee will lead an 18-member board that critics describe as dysfunctional, toxic and beset by cronyism and white supremacy, according to internal documents and reports and interviews with 14 people associated with the commission. A partner agency of the National Endowment of the Arts, the commission awarded 1,044 grants worth $29.9...
"From Judas and the Black Messiah to H.E.R.'s 'I Can't Breathe,' from the canceling of podcasts to the toppling of monuments to oppression, from White Fragility to Ibram X. Kendi's How to Be an Antiracist: Thanks to the culture we shared in a year unlike any other, the world looks, for better or worse, at least a little different."...
Currently the sales revival is uneven across venue types, with aggregate sales for symphonies and concert halls the lowest compared to the equivalent month in 2019. -TRG
Up there, as in the States, organizations themselves explain (again) that endowments are for providing income year after year and that drawing down capital is less than prudent (and forbidden by regulations). But in Canada, the issue is complicated by the fact that many of those endowments include money that came from the government, and there's an argument that...
If universities, such as Yale, Stanford and UCLA, are planning to require returning students to be fully vaccinated, why can’t performing arts venues do the same? This policy would offer audience members some insurance that the stranger crammed into the seat next to them wasn’t a potential petri dish of COVID variants eagerly seeking a crack in their newly...
On average, entry-level arts administrators in Los Angeles County earn $36,847 annually—a figure that’s higher than the $31,200 minimum wage in the area, but lower than the living wage of $40,200, according to the MIT Living Wage Calculator. BIPOC respondents from the same group reported an average income of just $32,027, while white arts workers earned $43,437, or 35 percent...
Mind you, this isn't just any old real estate mogul: it's Dasha Zhukova, the collector who founded the popular Garage Museum Of Contemporary Art in Moscow. Her new U.S. venture, called Ray, is already at work on a New York building that will incorporate the National Black Theatre in Harlem and a development in Philadelphia's Fishtown neighborhood with six...
"Confident nations face up to their history. They don’t airbrush it. Instead, they protect their heritage and use it to educate the public about the past. They “retain and explain,” rather than “remove or ignore”. They don’t do what Liverpool University did and remove William Gladstone’s name from an accommodation block because of his family’s links to slavery." -...
"Teaching kids what to think instead of how to think is dangerous. Advocacy-based teaching deprives them of the skills to reach their own conclusions. Instead they learn to parrot what they know they’re supposed to say to get a good grade. Kids are really good at that, but it doesn’t translate to actually believing what they are saying...
The first scheduled event is the finale of this year's Tribeca Film Festival on June 19. Only vaccinated people will be admitted. And how will management ensure that patrons are telling the truth about their shots? Said CEO James Dolan, "That's a really good question, I have no idea." - The New York Times
“You don’t feel part of a crowd,” said Michael Howell, a season ticket holder for 40 years. “It’s more like a movie theatre where you’re all watching the same event. But you don’t feel a common purpose like you do when a sports crowd is really excited.” - WBGH
When WhatsApp - for years, owned by Facebook - asked users to agree to a privacy update for something that had been true since 2016, the service engendered a revolt and a massive uptick for the more private, not owned by Facebook service Signal. Why? Unclear, but "'When your users have made it clear that they would rather not...
Come summer, the nation may become increasingly bifurcated between those who are permitted to watch sports, take classes, get their hair cut and eat barbecue with others, and those who are left behind the spike protein curtain. - The New York Times
With the pandemic having cut off the revenue from tourist admissions, the landmark's income is down by 90%. The engineer in charge of maintenance and upkeep says the 300-year-old building is "rotting" and all renovation projects have been halted; there's little to no money for the professional choir that sings services; the Dean of the Cathedral said frankly, "If...
