The greatest imaginative challenge seems to be foreseeing which changes will arrive sooner than expected (computers outplaying chess grandmasters), and which will be surprisingly slow (flying cars). The tech-world saying is that people chronically overestimate what technology can do in a year, and underestimate what it can do in a decade and beyond. - The New York Times
A new report looks at the balance sheets of the country's arts organizations. Community and theatre organizations fared the best, while museums and symphony orchestras had negative bottom lines. - SMU Data Arts
"The campaign has forced the Arts Development Council into stating it might suspend grants to artists who advocated independence, while additional cultural venues have refused to screen a controversial documentary about the 2019 anti-government protests. The question of what constitutes 'lawbreaking artworks' has also been raised in the Legislative Council." - South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
"The new 'phase 4A' will allow for 25% fixed seating capacity in indoor and outdoor film, theater and performing arts venues of 200 seats or more. For fixed-seating venues with capacities under 200, the limit will increase to 50% capacity or 50 seats, whichever is fewer. .. The new plan will be implemented when 70% of Illinois residents 65...
The pandemic has been a disaster for the theater, of course, potentially more damaging to performing arts industries than to any other. And yet, in the long run, if there is a long run, how we repair our stages could also lead to long-needed changes that would elevate the people who work on, under and behind them. - The...
“My initial reaction was, ‘That’s great. Then I saw the fine print. Basically it’s the same rules and regulations as last summer — a maximum capacity of 250 people with social distancing, and I believe everyone needs to be seated." - Montreal Gazette
"Pap Ndiaye, a historian and academic of Senegalese and French descent, was last month appointed to revitalize the Palais de la Porte Dorée — an institution that was born as the Museum of the Colonies in 1931, and that now houses the Tropical Aquarium and the National Museum of the History of Immigration. … The question is whether he...
"I’m taking my cues from the health experts, who are preaching a different message from state, city and municipal officials. While COVID-19 new infections, hospitalizations and deaths have been dramatically declining since the post-holiday surges, the number of new cases has plateaued at a still worrisome level." - Los Angeles Times
"All around the country, companies that normally produce outdoors but were unable to do so last year are making plans to reopen, while those that normally play to indoor crowds are finding ways to take the show outside. This is not business as usual." - The New York Times
"Some 30 theatres and concert halls are occupied in Strasbourg, Lille, Nantes, Châteauroux, Toulouse, Besançon, Marseille, and Saint-Etienne. All of the culture workers inside are asking for the same help from authorities, and conveying the same concerns and frustrations." - Artnet
"Over 1,000 cultural figures, including artists and curators, have addressed a letter to President Vladimir Putin and parliamentarians expressing fears that law is so sweeping that it could encompass 'any public activity in the process of which knowledge and expertise are disseminated' including 'exhibitions, festivals, conferences, the activity of popularisers of science and art.' The science community is...
The last thirty years have seen management displace the creators to become the powerful figures of the arts world … Increasingly, even the section of artistic talent has been seen slipping from the hands of the sector towards the marketing and sponsorship departments … Australia needs its artists to initiate change, to rethink the present in the light of...
"As it happens, this year’s wide-open mayoral race — a political rarity in Boston — offers the cultural sector a golden opportunity to flex a little political muscle. At this early stage of the race, all of the candidates are looking for a way to stand out, and their agendas are still evolving. The cultural sector needs to ensure...
The dispute burst into the open earlier this year when Emily Johnson severed her connection with Peak Performances and wrote about her decision in “A Letter I Hope in the Future Doesn’t Need to Be Written,” which she posted online on Jan. 22. In it she likened Jedediah Wheeler’s behavior — what she recounts as his screaming, his failure...
Known as NFTs, such tokens have taken off in recent weeks in what’s either an ecologically destructive speculative bubble or a promising new funding model for art and media, depending on whom you ask. - Los Angeles Times
