The performance is scheduled to begin promptly at 8 p.m. “No one will be admitted. No one will be onstage,” reads a news release for the production. “Don’t call for reservations. No live streaming.” – Washington Post
Arts Organizations Laying Off Their Education Staff? Isn’t That Backwards?
In a now infamous email, the Museum of Modern Art told its museum educators “it will be months, if not years, before we anticipate returning to budget and operations levels to require educator services.” – Creative Generation
The Touching Story Of Maria Abramovic And Ulay’s Walk On The Great Wall Of China
To the Chinese who encountered the artists, they were of great curiosity. Having originally believed themselves to be the sole players and audience for their walk, they found everything they did was witnessed as if a performance. – The Guardian
One Of London’s Top Ceramic Collection Lived In A Two-Bedroom Apartment In Public Housing
That is, until its Buddhist monk owner developed dementia and decided to let his collection go. – The Observer (UK)
How Will New York Change After The Pandemic Wanes?
Might there be a massive shift in the cultural zeitgeist – and might New York not be quite such a playground for millionaires, billionaires, and real estate firms anymore? If so, the arts will inevitably change as well, not just because of the coronavirus losses, but because of a possibly huge cultural move. – The Observer (UK)
We Don’t Need To Re-Create Our Museum Visits, Ballet Performances, Or Anything Else Online
It’s a pandemic. Could we back off a little? (And virtual tours of museums are simply not that enjoyable.) “Beyond whatever technical issues there are, fundamentally, these activities aren’t satisfying because they’re based in a denial of the present moment.” – Slate
One Irish Theatre Responds To The Existential Crisis By (Virtually) Pulling Together 100 Artists
“It’s a mad idea.” Indeed: 50 writers and 50 actors have a virtual mandate. “For Abbey dramaturg Louise Stephens, who works with writers on developing scripts for stage, 100 artists was ‘such an enormous number of people as to be almost impossible. But that’s also what’s great about it.'” – Irish Times
If You’re Too Stressed To Finish A Novel, Try Short Stories Or Essays Instead
Everyone’s concentration is shot right now, and for some, it’s just too hard to focus long enough, either physically or mentally, to read a novel. But “there’s something about reading a short form – a capsule of place, time or character – that appeals to me. I know that I can get through it in one sitting. It doesn’t ask too much.” – The Guardian (UK)
The Best Art Parodies Seem To Have Started In Russia, And Now They’re Everywhere
A Facebook group started in Moscow now has tens of thousands of members worldwide, making art of the mundanities of lockdown. “They have been posting their work at a clip of more than 1,000 items a day, each time attaching their own photo alongside an image of the original art. They have corralled family members, pets and household items to channel the iconic and, as the Munchs and Kahlos pile up, so do the obscure — a flexible air-conditioning duct; a collage of plastic forks; a ring of strung-together, almost-spent toilet paper rolls.” – The New York Times
How London’s National Theatre Is Surfing A Wave Of Viewers For Its Broadcasts
Basically, the National Theatre has better camerawork than most theatres trying to do broadcasts – and that creates intimacy, the kind of intimacy you might otherwise find only at a life performance. “Partly it’s that the productions are terrific, and wildly varied in style. And partly it’s that the intimate camerawork makes you feel like a collaborator in distinctly theatrical effects. When a callous aunt took the bundle of rags that stood for baby Jane Eyre and violently shook it out, revealing the dress that the actor playing Jane donned to assume her role, I gasped.” – The Atlantic
A New Apple Family Play, Live, Via Zoom
Richard Nelson introduced the Apples in 2010, and then wrote a whole cycle around them in the early 2000s. He moved on to other families for a while. But “for many who met them at the Public or on tour or on public television, the Apples have come to feel like kin. And in the midst of a pandemic, we could be forgiven for wondering how they were doing. Thoughtfully, Nelson and the Public Theater have arranged a video conference.” – The New York Times
Why Not Learn Some Dance Moves From The Teen You’re Quarantined With?
That’s right: Families that quarantine together are starting to dance together (and record the dancing as well). – CBC
Baltimore Artists Reflect On Freddie Gray’s Death And The Tumultuous Times That Followed
In the protests that followed the death of Freddie Gray, who was in police custody, some artists (of all types) found inspiration and a platform for a country suddenly interested in Baltimore again. Here’s what they’re thinking and the kind of art they’re creating, five years later. – The Baltimore Sun
Boston’s Institute Of Contemporary Art Is Using One An Outpost To Feed Local Families
ICA Watershed in East Boston is closed, of course – but then the staff of the ICA learned that East Boston had one of the area’s highest rates of Covid-19 infection and that the people of the area were in some serious need. They organized their regular caterers and a lot of donors to use Watershed as a launching site for boxes of produce and dairy. “‘We know this is just a drop in the bucket of need,’ said ICA director Jill Medvedow. … ‘It is wonderful to use the Watershed as a distribution place for food and to understand the many ways the arts can be in service to our community.'” – Boston Globe