According to ICOM, out of the 1,600 international museums that were surveyed, 13 percent reported that they had plans to close permanently, and another 19.2 percent said the future of their museums were uncertain. As for the museums that reported they would open their doors again, 83 percent said that they would reopen with reduced programming. – Travel and Leisure
Writers Are Having To Change Their In-Progress Books To Reflect COVID-19 Epidemic
“‘I can’t make my characters exist without interaction,” [one novelist] says. ‘While, for instance, I can edit out cheek kisses because this may no longer seem the norm, my characters need to meet, to row, to fight, to make love – and in a thriller, to murder. There will be insufficiently little exciting plot, in other words, if they can’t interact as they did pre-Covid.'” – The Guardian
Akron Art Museum And Its Former Director Sued By Ex-Staffer
“Amanda Crowe, a museum employee who was laid off on March 30, filed a lawsuit in a county court against the institution and [ex-director Mark] Masuoka last week, alleging that she had been the victim of libel, defamation, and unlawful workplace retaliation.” – Artnet
Why Regional Theatre Matters
The loss of any regional theatre, whether it is Nuffield Southampton announcing it has gone into administration or the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh taking the painful decision to hibernate until next spring, is an immediate tragedy for that local community. But it has consequences beyond the immediate loss of art, including the damage done to the social fabric of that place and the local economy. – The Stage (UK)
How Pro Dancers Can Make TikTok Work For Them
“It’s paradoxical but true: On TikTok, a platform driven largely by dance, people with little to no dance background are becoming megastars — and highly-trained dancers can seem like fish out of water. … But with canceled performances creating more free time for dancers, TikTok can be a great way to keep performing and stay engaged with an audience. We spoke with four pros who’ve built large followings on the app about how trained dancers can find TikTok success.” – Dance Spirit
How Creativity Works
Creativity can seem like a tool for solving problems: We need a new word for the ocean! But creativity doesn’t just solve problems; it also makes or discovers new problems to solve. Hundreds of years ago, nobody knew the old words for ocean weren’t cutting it, until someone said “whale-road.” And everyone was like, “Wow! It is a whale-road!” Creativity always hides itself — it makes itself disappear. – The New York Times
Hollywood Unions And Studios Finally Agree On COVID Safety Guidelines For Restarting Production
A 22-page white paper with dozens of requirements and recommendations, delivered to Govs. Gavin Newsom (CA) and Andrew Cuomo (NY) as well as the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, was drawn up by a 50-member committee with representatives of studios, the trade guilds, and the unions SAG-AFTRA, IATSE, DGA, and the Teamsters. – Variety
Despite Pandemic Lockdowns And COVID In Its Company, ‘Phantom Of The Opera’ World Tour Keeps Running
Performances are canceled and theaters are dark all around the world, but the long-touring Broadway production of Phantom has continued to fill a 1,600-seat house in Seoul for eight shows a week. The show even survived a three-week hiatus after some cast members contracted coronavirus. “The musical … is believed to be the only large-scale English-language production running anywhere in the world. And it has remained open not through social-distancing measures — a virtual impossibility in the theater, either logistically or financially, many say — but an approach grounded in strict hygiene.” – The New York Times
Nelson-Atkins Museum Caught In Protests Controversy After Kansas City Police Use Its Grounds As Staging Area
This past Friday night, as the KCPD prepared to confront people demonstrating against police violence in Minneapolis and elsewhere, security guards on duty at the closed museum agreed to police requests to park squad cars there — and the Nelson-Atkins got some harsh criticism online when photos of those police cars hit social media. Museum director Julián Zugazagoitia says that when he found out about this after midnight, he asked the KCPD to vacate: “It is exactly the opposite of what the Nelson stands for, what the museum stands for, what we want to do as work and what we have been doing as work.” – KCUR (Kansas City)
Amid Protests Over George Floyd’s Death, Smithsonian’s African-American Museum Launches Online Portal To Look At Race In The U.S.
“‘Talking About Race‘ is a Web-based initiative that uses videos, role-playing exercises and question-based activities to explore the origins and definitions of race and identity. Built on the museum’s long-standing educational work, the project was released Sunday to respond to the current crisis, according to [the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s] director of teaching and learning.” – The Washington Post
Metropolitan Opera Cancels All Performances Until End Of 2020
“The company, which last performed live on March 11, now hopes to return with a gala on New Year’s Eve after its longest interruption in more than a century. It is a gap that is projected to cost the company close to $100 million in lost revenues, a figure that will be partly offset by lower costs and emergency fund-raising efforts.” – The New York Times
On TV, Cops Are The Main Characters. It Shapes How We See Them
“TV has long had a police’s-eye perspective that helps shape the way viewers see the world, prioritizing the victories and struggles of police over communities being policed. Order, a police imposed status quo, is good; disruption is bad. There are many, many reasons why a cop’s point of view has become the default way to frame national unrest, including institutional and systemic racism, the capitalist urge to prioritize property over human life, and a political system that benefits those already in power. But TV plays a role, too.” – New York Magazine
Remembering Six Of Christo’s And Jeanne-Claude’s Best Projects
“In fact, they are very humble projects, very simple projects, but they need to be put together in an incredibly clever way,” Christo once told Artnet News. – Artnet
Publishers Sue The Internet Archive Over Free E-Books
Internet Archive has made more than 1.3 million books available for free online, according to the complaint, which were scanned and available to one borrower at a time for a period of 14 days. Then in March, the group said it would lift all restrictions on its book lending until the end of the public health crisis, creating what it called “a National Emergency Library to serve the nation’s displaced learners.” – The New York Times
Are We Suffering From Crisis Fatigue?
Of late Matthew Flinders has been exploring the notion of “crisis fatigue,” or the idea that after years of constant bad news, perhaps we’ve grown numb to warnings from politicians of yet more bad news. As the crisis drags on, might that fatigue set in across societies? And now that scientists have been thrust into the spotlight during the pandemic, might the distrust spread toward their leadership as well? – Wired
Many Museums Across Europe Reopen
Some 1,600 people reserved tickets in advance to see the Sistine Chapel and its sublime walls and ceilings on the first day the Vatican Museums opened to the public after a three-month coronavirus shutdown. – Washington Post (AP)
Great “Gates”: A Tribute to Christo, 84, Who Made Magic in NYC’s Central Park
Our loss yesterday of Christo, the canny conceptual artist with tangible appeal, is a poignant reminder of more innocent times — 16 days in early 2005 when New Yorkers from all walks of life converged on Central Park for one peaceful purpose — to walk together basking in the luminosity of flowing canopies of saffron rip-stop nylon that were hung in a procession of some 7,500 frames. – Lee Rosenbaum
Mary McNamara: The Luxury Of Being Outraged
Protesting. Even during a global pandemic. Think about that for a second. How furious do people have to be to gather in the streets at a time when a highly infectious disease is killing thousands daily, especially black and brown people, who are dying at disproportionately high rate? – Los Angeles Times
Living Your Life Through Aphorisms
Much of the history of Western philosophy can be narrated as a series of attempts to construct systems. Conversely, much of the history of aphorisms can be narrated as an animadversion, a turning away from such grand systems through the construction of literary fragments. The philosopher creates and critiques continuous lines of argument; the aphorist, on the other hand, composes scattered lines of intuition. One moves in a chain of logic; the other by leaps and bounds. – Aeon
Women Making TV Shouldn’t Be A Surprise, And Yet
Yay women doing TV! Also, having to “yay” this means it’s not going that well with the whole ending of inequality thing. “The good news: The number of women working behind the scenes in television is growing. The bad news: It still ain’t great.” – Los Angeles Times