The art world we return to—if there is one to return to at all—will be formed in this moment. This is the time to build our own institutions. Our shelter-in-place orders and the masses of workers, including art workers, who were fired when the economy came to an abrupt stop constitute a general strike, leaving us only to declare it. For the art world this could be a massive moment of reorientation. – Artnet
How The COVID Crisis Is Changing Classical Music Performance (No, It’s Not About Zoom)
Musicians and their audiences may be physically separated these days, but they’re closer emotionally, writes David Patrick Stearns. “The old sense of ‘us’ and ‘them’ — each side with its respective definition of excellence — is now more of a collective ‘us.’ We’re part of the same extended family, because artists are delivering something less filtered, and audiences are listening past questionable sound quality, faulty computer connections, and superficial biases. Listeners are likely to embrace, with fewer or no conditions, whatever the artists have to give us each day. The rewards can be huge.” – WQXR (New York City)
Now Is The Perfect Time To Memorize A Poem
It’s no great mystery why. Poetry is sticky. Prose slips. Barbed and spurred, poems catch in your chest; they get stuck in your head like songs. Still, to admit to liking poetry is faintly embarrassing. – The Cut
Sue Davies, 87, Founder Of The First Public Photography Gallery In London
Davies was also a fierce advocate for the art form at the Photographers’ Gallery, intended to be democratic in its shows and its audiences. “School parties were encouraged, as were discussion groups, which extended to monthly meetings of the Unemployed Photographers’ Club, formed following layoffs at Times Newspapers in 1991. Sue had rejected her first choice of name – The Photography Gallery – for a reason: she wanted to create a space where photographers felt at home, surrounded by photographs.” – The Guardian (UK)
An Arts Donor On Life, And Giving, During The Shutdown
In Oregon, arts organizations know Ronni Lacroute, and she knows what they need – usually. Right now, says the philanthropist, things are just a bit different: “The way I donate hasn’t really changed. It’s more flexible. It’s like, ‘Okay, here’s an annual donation. Now, if this, then spend it on this. If that, then spend it on that.’ And generally, it’s people first. … It’s more about people than about venues.” – Oregon ArtsWatch
The New Frugality?
For decades American culture has promoted the ethos of disposable things. We are encouraged to be acquisitive – getting things for the sake of getting them. Suddenly under lockdown, is a new zeitgeist taking hold? Reuse. Make last. Seek permanence. – Vox
We Still Haven’t Made The Case That Artists Are Essential Workers
Why is it in the UK we are afraid of expressing big thinking, challenging the government to a discussion about the indispensability of the arts and making the case that its practitioners are absolutely Essential Workers for our spiritual and intellectual wellbeing? – Arts Professional
Even In This Crisis, Museums Selling Their Art Is A Dangerously Slippery Slope
Yes, the COVID lockdown has deprived most museums of nearly all their income, which is why the Association of Art Museum Directors has given qualified approval for members to “use the proceeds from deaccessioned works of art … to support the direct care” of a museum’s collections as a whole. Sebastian Smee points out the problems (and there are several) that this might create. – The Washington Post
The White House Has Created A Medal Commemorating Trump’s “Heroes” Of The Virus War (Cue Parodies)
The coin shows an artist’s rendering of the coronavirus overlaid on a world map, and reads (with characteristically Trumpian capitalization), “World vs Virus: We Fought the Unseen Enemy. Everyday HEROES Suited Up. Everyday CITIZENS Did Their Part.” The other side features the presidential podium, where Trump until recently delivered his controversial daily press briefings. – Artnet
Furloughed Met Opera Musicians Worry About Making It Through The Pandemic Shutdown
“The performers … feel abandoned by the Met. … The sense of drift has been compounded by what musicians call a lack of communication and leadership from the Met’s management. Music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin has sent the group hopeful video messages, but updates from [general manager Peter] Gelb and the house’s human resources department have been practically nonexistent.” – Van
Steppenwolf Announces New Online Productions As It Cancels Stage Plays Until October
The offerings, open only to subscribers, include a “virtual reading” of a new adaptation of Chekhov’s Seagull (available May 14-27); a radio-play version of Arthur Miller’s The American Clock, directed by Austin Pendleton and featuring John Malkovich, Joan Allen, and Laurie Metcalf (June); and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s In the Red and Brown Water, directed by Tina Landau (July). – Chicago Tribune
Germano Celant, Curator Who Launched Italy’s Arte Povera Movement, Dead Of COVID At 79
“In 1967,[he] wrote a lasting page in art history when, as a 27-year-old curator in Genoa, he mounted an exhibition of five young Italian artists making provisional assemblages of humble materials, which he grouped under the term Arte Povera (‘poor art’). These artists, including Alghiero Boetti, Jannis Kounellis and Luciano Fabro, bridled against the conventions of the Italian academies (and American Pop art), and made a virtue of simple everyday objects: melted wax, rusting iron, fallen leaves, ground coffee, even horses munching hay.” – The New York Times
PA Governor Freezes All State Arts Grants For Rest Of Year
“Facing his own burgeoning budget problems, Gov. Tom Wolf has directed some state agencies to rescind grant money previously awarded to arts groups. The decision surfaced Monday when numerous cultural organizations received an email from [the] executive director of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts … [saying that] “the PCA can no longer guarantee completion of processing for current year grant awards.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
This Theatre Festival Moved Itself Online Without Cancellations Or Posting Old Shows
Kate Craddock, founder and director of the Gateshead International Festival of Theatre in northeastern England, “is keen to point out this isn’t just about taking a stash of pre-recorded work and sticking it online. Rather it’s a ticketed and carefully curated festival [May 1-3] that aims to connect audiences and artists from across the globe in real-time theatrical encounters, one-on-one experiences, workshops and panel discussions. There’s even a virtual cocktail lounge for small talk and martinis.” – The Stage
How Reopening Hollywood Might Look
The LA Times looks at what a new Hollywood might look like when it reopens. On the table: everything. How movies are shot, how they open in theatres (if they do), what movie theatres might look like. Everything. – Los Angeles Times
Arts: Rebuild What? And Why?
Given the scale of the national crisis facing all sectors of the economy in the months and years to come, the pandemic is a historic disruption that represents an existential crisis. What to do? I’ve come to think of it in the following frame: Restorationists versus Opportunists. – Douglas McLennan
Breakfast With Bill
When I visited dish-besotted Bill Stern in his apartment in Los Angeles, we would make tea for breakfast in a gray pot designed in the 1960s by Edith Heath. At some aha moment, Bill decided to found The Museum of California Design. He died a week after our last breakfast. – Jeff Weinstein
How Asia’s Theatrical Powerhouse Has Kept Shows Running Through The Pandemic
“South Korea, which has a burgeoning theatre economy with a size and scale to rival the West End, has become the big player in Asia. … Its theatres were given the choice, rather than demanded, to close. A 15-day quarantine restriction has been applied to any theatre that remained open if a member of the audience or company develops COVID-19 symptoms, with a system in place to quickly contact and test all attendees and staff.” – The Stage