Applied to the cultural and creative industries, this involves asking tough questions on the current working conditions, financial stability and social recognition of artists, as well as extending sustained non-monetary support such as counselling for those who have had to weather a seemingly perpetual storm. Only then can the sector turn to long-term rebuilding strategies, which must include reinvestment strategies. – The Conversation
When Writers Of Color Have To Save Themselves
Brian Lin: “At the start of the pandemic, I emailed friends, colleagues, and mentors, all POC, to ask two questions about their literary lives. What is a recurring situation that’s destabilizing and hard to navigate? What guidance would you offer a fellow person of color for navigating such situations?” – Los Angeles Review of Books
The Amazing Japanese Rice Field Murals
There’s a village meeting each year to decide the theme. Village officials make a simple computer mockup and then ask art teachers to make more detailed drawings. Next, color-coded markers are staked into the watery field, and finally citizens are enlisted to fill in the spaces with the proper strain of rice plant. – Return to Now
Museums Around Europe Face Yet More Weeks Of Lockdown
Except in the countries where they aren’t: the Uffizi in Florence welcomed all of 800 visitors when it reopened last week, and Belgium declared museums essential and let them keep operating. But the lockdown stretches on in Britain and Germany, and museum workers get more and more worried; in France, museums had to close again after opening in the summer. Things are getting especially tense in the Netherlands, where people angrily protesting the extension of lockdowns and curfews got tear-gassed outside Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum. – Artnet
Building Preservation Run Amok? LA Grapples With What To Save
If the owner is explicitly saying the business itself won’t survive, keeping the building around as a cultural monument raises additional questions about what culture, exactly, is being preserved. – Curbed
Highlights Of 125 Years Of The NYT Book Review
“In many ways, the Book Review’s history is that of American letters, and we’ll be using our 125th anniversary this year to celebrate and examine that history over the coming months. In essays, photo stories, timelines and other formats, we’ll highlight the books and authors that made it all possible.” – The New York Times
The Pop-Up Newspaper Covering ‘The World’s Largest Protest’
For two months, many thousands of farmers have been staging a massive sit-in with their tractors on the highways around New Delhi, demanding that the Indian government withdraw a package of agriculture laws that the farmers say will slash their income and make them prey to Big Agribusiness. And some of these farmworkers, with sympathetic writers and artists, have created a biweekly newspaper called the Trolley Times to “voice the truth of the farmers’ protest.” – The Art Newspaper
Why Cities Won’t Be Done In By COVID
Despite the long tradition of anti-urbanism in the U.S. that always seems to see the demise of cities just around the corner, they will survive because they are one of humanity’s greatest inventions. – The Conversation
Kansas City’s Nelson-Atkins Museums Ponders A Name Change
After reporting in the Kansas City Star turned up evidence that William Rockhill Nelson, the Nelson in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art was a segregationist, the museum is reassessing being named after the real estate and newspaper magnate who helped found the museum. – Artnet
Sculptor Barry Le Va Dead At 79
“[He] became part of the New York art scene during the late 1960s and went on to be associated with the Process art and Post-Minimalist movements. Unlike the best known adherents of those movements, including Richard Serra, Bruce Nauman, and Robert Morris, Le Va has remained a somewhat obscure figure, no doubt in part because his work is so formally rigorous and can be difficult to parse. But he has a set of devoted fans that include artists, critics, and historians spanning multiple generations.” – ARTnews
Hollywood Waits With Its Blockbusters. Streaming Is Still A Risky Path
Even as the studio insists that its streaming strategy is a one-off response to the pandemic, it might not be able to rebuild those bridges. Seeing the backlash is just another reason the rest of the industry’s major players continue to hold off from anything so drastic. Patience is hard, but it’s Hollywood’s surest path to profitability. – The Atlantic
Metropolitan Opera Hires Harvard Law Dean As Chief Diversity Officer
“Marcia Sells — a former dancer who became an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn and the dean of students at Harvard Law School — has been hired as the first chief diversity officer of the Metropolitan Opera, the largest performing arts institution in the United States.” – The New York Times
Milwaukee Ballet Plans Return To Mainstage Performance In June
As it did with its abbreviated Nutcracker in December, the company will do its first two productions of 2021 before an in-person audience of 10 people, with all other ticketholders watching online. But the season’s final production will be back (local regulations permitting) at Milwaukee Ballet’s usual venue, the Marcus Performing Arts Center, June 10-13. – Milwaukee Business Journal
Paris’s Pompidou Centre Will Close For Three-To-Four-Year Renovation
“‘We no longer have a choice, the building is in distress,’ Centre Pompidou president Serge Lasvignes told Le Figaro of the extensive upkeep needed for its Renzo Piano- and Richard Rogers-designed exterior of steel piping that was constructed in the 1970s.” The museum will close for the €200 million project at the end of 2023 and should reopen in 2027, its 50th anniversary year. – ARTnews
Rare Violin Tests Germany’s Nazi Looting Restitution System
More than 80 years later, his 300-year-old violin — valued at around $185,000 — is at the center of a dispute that is threatening to undermine Germany’s commitment to return objects looted by the Nazis. – The New York Times
Bipartisan? Biden Should Think Arts
“It’s worth recalling that federal support for the arts throughout modern American history has been bipartisan. The Federal Art Project (1935–43) commissioned artworks by some 10,000 artists during Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidency, while in 1969 Richard Nixon doubled what Lyndon Johnson had previously provided for the newly created NEA.” – Apollo
Leslie Odom Jr Almost Passed On Playing Sam Cooke
Those who have seen One Night in Miami will appreciate that the actor, singer, and star of Hamilton made a different choice, especially with his movie-closing performance of “A Change Is Gonna Come,” Cooke’s big civil rights song. The actor says, “There’s a part of me that feels like these projects I take on — and I could be kidding myself — could have a larger significance. Maybe they’ll add up to say something about my life and, in turn, Black life. Maybe when you add it all up can say something like, ‘Black life matters.’”- Los Angeles Times