On the surface, it certainly seems as if asking ticket buyers to show proof of COVID vaccination would be a good, quick way to performances running again and performers back to work — and in Chicago, at least, venues and presenters are considering the option seriously. Yet, writes Chris Jones, the idea poses potentially serious problems, both practical and ethical. - Yahoo! (Chicago Tribune)
"There have been two great catastrophes.The first has been the abandonment of freelancers, many of whom work in the arts. A whole swathe of them – about a third – have fallen through the cracks of the income support scheme and are ineligible for loans that have helped many others. The final debacle has not had anything to do with Covid at all but will be just as devastating. The new rules that follow Brexit mean that touring in Europe will now be vastly bureaucratic and significantly more expensive." - Apollo
The government is topping up the £1.57 billion ($1.9 billion) Culture Recovery Fund announced last July with an extra £300 million ($416 million), with an additional £90 million ($125 million) for English national museums and heritage sites and £18.8 million ($26 million) for local community-based projects. Alongside that funding designated for England, arts groups in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland will get £77 million ($107 million), an amount roughly proportionate to their share of the total UK population. - Variety
We live in a fragmented celebrity world, due mostly - but not entirely - to social media. It's a global culture "where somebody can have nearly 17 million subscribers on YouTube and plenty of people can have no clue who they are." - The Guardian (UK)
The researchers found that if kept at 30% capacity with everyone wearing a mask and following proper precautions, museums, theaters, and operas are safer than any other activity studied. In museums, the R-value stands at 0.5 compared to 0.6 in hair salons and 0.8 in public transportation. - Hyperallergic
"This is a tale of how race, class and power collided at the elite 145-year-old liberal arts college, where tuition, room and board top $78,000 a year and where the employees who keep the school running often come from working-class enclaves beyond the school’s elegant wrought iron gates. The story highlights the tensions between a student’s deeply felt sense of personal truth and facts that are at odds with it." - The New York Times
The latest edition of an annual study from the Otis College of Arts & Design found that "the creative economy lost more than 13 percent of its job in California, and more than 25 percent in Los Angeles County." Two studies on the economic impact of the pandemic from Californians for the Arts are similarly dispiriting. - Artnet
"The broad initiative, known as 'Restart Stages,' … plans for a cabaret-style stage, a dedicated area for families that will feature arts activities for children, rehearsal venues that will be open to the public, an outdoor reading room created in partnership with the New York Library for the Performing Arts and an outdoor space for another kind of Lincoln Center ritual: public school graduations held each spring and summer." - The New York Times
Tasmania’s MONA FOMA festival last month saw a 'hyperlocal' approach to programming. Unable to draw headliners from around the world, local artists were front and centre – of the 352 artists involved, 90% were Tasmanian. By most accounts, it was a success with reviewers and audiences. - ArtsHub (Australia)
Jobs in arts, entertainment and recreation fell by 66% last year from 2019, the largest decline among the city’s economic sectors, erasing a decade of gains in what was one of New York’s most vibrant industries, the report said. - Crain's New York
"Employment in New York City's arts, entertainment and recreation sector plummeted by 66 percent from December 2019 to December 2020, according to a report released on Wednesday by the New York State Comptroller's office." The study "said that the sector had seen the largest drop of all the parts of the city's economy." - The New York Times
Says the executive producer at one major troupe, "Brexit will have the bigger impact because it's a long-term restriction. We're a flexible, dynamic sector and can work our way out of COVID – but if we can't produce and export our work, that's going to have a devastating effect." - The Guardian
"For institutions that have historically enjoyed a certain level of prestige, these calls for reexamination of (and accountability for) their charitable purposes may be disorienting. For some, the impulse might be to retreat further, to protect their reputations and their leadership, to ride this out." - NonProfit Quarterly
I was so surprised how “place-keeping” became such a sticky word across the country. I was offering a strong artist’s point of view about place, one in which artists weren’t being instrumentalized by the architect, or even the city planner, who wants a vibrant cultural district so that they can have sales; generate tax dollars. - Open Space
"Prospect, the FDA union and PCS union wrote that their members were 'deeply worried' that the government was challenging the independence of museums and galleries to provoke an unnecessary 'culture war' over the portrayal of historical figures" following a meeting between culture secretary Oliver Dowden and the directors of a number of the country's major museums. - The Guardian
