Issues

Bob Lynch tries To Add it up: “A specific example of the chilling effect of the shutdown’s impact on arts organizations and local businesses comes again from the Smithsonian, which reportedly lost $1.5 million in revenue during the first 10 days of the shutdown. According to the Secretary of the Smithsonian David Skorton, the roughly $1 million a week that the institution lost is unrecoverable and will have long-term impact.” – Americans For The Arts

Amazon had a deal and could have simply gone ahead. But the company had no allegiance to Queens and no need to be where it wasn’t wanted. “Amazon’s retreat from Queens shows us the dynamics of a new local power game — one in which giant tech companies play on the same field with governments, as equals, with equal influence over our economies and communities.” – Axios

Unfortunately, big-ticket philanthropy is in the middle of a protracted sea change that is already having a direct effect on the arts. Thirteen years ago, the Journal reported that younger new-money donors were increasingly choosing to give it not to fine-arts organizations but to humanitarian causes like AIDS research and education reform. In 2013, Bill Gates put his seal of moral approval on this new tendency by declaring in an interview with the Financial Times that donating money “to build a new wing for a museum rather than spend it on preventing illnesses that can lead to blindness” was, in his words, “slightly barbaric.” – The Wall Street Journal [paywall]

“The Mobilier National, which was set up in the 17th century to decorate royal palaces and continues to restore and supply fine furniture and tapestries for the Elysée Palace and Versailles, needs to be ‘radically reformed’, according to a report by its auditors. National audit office inspectors, which found large quantities of alcohol in Mobilier National’s workshops, said staff were often absent and used tools and equipment to ‘moonlight’ on their own projects.” – The Local (France) (AFP)

“Mid-tier cities aiming to ramp up their cultural profile in short order will find inspiration in Miami’s emergence as an arts hot spot. And regional foundations that aspire to catalyze such efforts can learn a lot by taking a closer look” at the work of the Knight Foundation and philanthropist Jorge M. Pérez. – Inside Philanthropy

Developer Daniel Werwath has been trying to get such housing built since 2005, and he’s already seen two projects get started and then stall out. But he thinks that 2019 may be the year his plan succeeds. – Next City

“It found students who took an elective arts class in sixth, seventh, or eighth grade had significantly higher grade point averages (GPAs), and better scores on standardized reading and math tests, than their peers who were not exposed to the arts. This held true after the researchers took into account “all the ways that students who did and did not take the arts in middle school were initially different.” – Pacific Standard

“Consider recent gifts from the Little Rock-based Windgate Foundation. Roughly two years after committing $40 million to the University of Arkansas to create the Windgate Art and Design District in Fayetteville, the foundation announced a $20 million gift to the University of Central Arkansas … [to]support the Windgate Center for Fine and Performing Arts.” – Inside Philanthropy

Citing practices that “wouldn’t be tolerated in any other industry,” the ArtsPay 2018 survey “reveals that salaries in the sector, which are already low in comparison with other industries, are even less favourable than they appear because they take no account of the unpaid overtime that workers are routinely expected to do. It raises serious questions about the sustainability of careers in the arts.” – Arts Professional

“Look at any piece of city marketing material, from promo videos to airline magazine ad inserts. It’s amazing how so many of them rely on the same basic ingredients: hipster coffee shops, microbreweries, bike lanes, creative-class members, startups, intimations of a fashion scene, farm-to-table restaurants, new downtown streetcars, etc. These are all good things, mind you: things cities should be happy to have. Some of them may even be modern necessities. But you can’t help but notice how few unique things about these cities manage to come through.” – CityLab

“Fiscal responsibility is good business. But it is immaterial with respect to, and when contrasted with, a nonprofit’s impact. Fiscal responsibility, then, has no place anywhere near a mission statement.” – Clyde Fitch Report

“Gary Crofts, 68, claims that he has been plagued by depression and anxiety since a half-tonne section of stage curtain fell down near him without warning. The incident happened during a 2016 production of Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet, Anastasia.” – The Times (UK)

The weekends revolve around the concerts, held on Fridays. There are sometimes other notable events, like hot-air balloon rides. Mr. Bocelli performed on the same weekend as a well-known horse race that drew royalty from around the Gulf region. – The New York Times

Augsburg University in Minnesota suspended a professor for using the N-word during a class discussion about a James Baldwin book in which the word appeared — and for sharing essays on the history of the word with students who complained to him about it. – Inside Higher Ed

Hm. The company has announced some recent “initiatives” and training courses for kids. “These programs aren’t just charity of course: They stood to serve Amazon itself in various ways—the most obvious, perhaps, being PR.” (And data collection.) – Vice

Just in case you haven’t been following along, here’s the deal. “The Enquirer makes no pretense of following journalistic norms, and its parent company has a longer history of ethical indiscretions. The warning signs have been there, from David Pecker’s early years in magazine publishing.” – Slate

It’s rewriting our brains, maybe? Because “it seems no breach of trust, misuse of data or dissemination of damaging falsehoods rattles the company’s bottom line.” – The 1A (WAMU)

“In this case, neither organization’s name will survive, and both CEOs will be incorporated into the structure of the new organization, which now goes by the inspired name of ‘Candid.’ (As in, ‘a Candid Assessment of this’ or ‘a Candid Report on that.’)” — Nonprofit Quarterly

Last October, the city government announced its third round of cuts in cultural spending in the past four years. Those cuts amounted to just over £1 million, a third of the already reduced budget. After complaints and a petition, the council’s latest budget plans show a cut of only £500,000. — The Stage

“To be displayed in this museum, objects have to have been an innovation, have to have failed and have to be interesting, explains the museum’s curator Samuel West. He defines failure as ‘a deviation from expected results’.” For example? “Sony Betamax, an electrocuting face mask and a Swedish alternative to marshmallows.” (video) — BBC

“The controversial initiative, which is due to launch on 1 May [at the rate of €3], applies to day-trippers … From early 2020, the fee will rise to between €6 and €10 depending on the time of year. The cost will be incorporated into tickets of tourists who arrive by cruise ship, in water taxis and by plane or train.” — The Art Newspaper

“Nation-states, when they form, imagine a past. That, at least in part, accounts for why modern historical writing arose with the nation-state. For more than a century, the nation-state was the central object of historical inquiry. But in the 1970s, studying the nation fell out of favor in the American historical profession.” – Foreign Affairs

“Lincoln Center, which has been buffeted by leadership churn in recent years, has looked to Broadway and academia for its last two presidents. They didn’t take. Now it is looking to the East Side of Manhattan, and to someone with a background running a large nonprofit cultural and community center.” — The New York Times

Business models for virtually every industry are changing – and many industries are seeing their foundations rocked. So how to find new ways to support the arts? In the UK the Cultural Cities Enquiry makes a series of suggestions, including a tax on tourism. – The Stage (UK)

“According to Drexel, museum, and city officials, the university would oversee pruning the vast number of objects — there are more than 100,000 items in the collection — to a ‘manageable’ size, digitizing the whole kit and kaboodle, and making it all available online, suitable for searching by institutions in need of loans or those seeking to mount new exhibitions.” The museum’s historic building will be closed and possibly sold. — The Philadelphia Inquirer

Carter Gillies: “Either we say that improving health, wellbeing and social outcomes is our proper motivation, or we admit that the value of the arts is different to this. If instrumental benefits are what truly matters, then it may be necessary to sacrifice some art that doesn’t meet these criteria. We can hold on to the ideal of instrumentality, or to art that does not show evidence of instrumental benefits. But we can’t have it both ways.” – Arts Professional