Month: September 2019

V&A Director Defends Accepting Sponsorship From Fossil Fuel Companies

Tristram Hunt: “I think that the pre-history of fossil fuel companies in muddying the science about climate change, in lobbying, in their political acts, have been pretty criminal and they will be judged on that. But, I also think they will be part of the solution to dealing with climate change and they are engaged with it. … So, I don’t have a problem with having relationships with those organisations, like for example BP who are thinking very carefully about a zero-carbon future.” – The Art Newspaper

Lee Salem, Perhaps The World’s Most Influential Newspaper Comics Editor, Dead At 73

As editor at Universal Press Syndicate, beginning in 1974, “he signed up Calvin and Hobbes and Cul de Sac and For Better or For Worse. He discovered The Boondocks and Cathy. He guided Doonesbury and Fox Trot and The Far Side … [And he] was renowned within the industry for having his creators’ backs in times of controversy and then dealing with rankled newspaper editors and persistent media inquiries with a gentlemanly charm.” – The Washington Post

Boris Johnson’s Government Promises 4.1% Increase In UK Culture Funding

According to the government’s spending review for 2020-21, “the budget of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) will increase by 4.1% in real terms to £1.6bn, after inflation is taken into account.” The Treasury announcement said that there will be “over £300m to support the UK’s world-class national museums and galleries … [and] over £500m for Arts Council England and Sport England.” (Guess it’ll come out of all that money Britain will no longer be sending to Brussels, right?) – The Art Newspaper

Met Museum To Hire Its First Curator Of Native American Art

“The successful candidate will be tasked with overseeing the museum’s vast collection of indigenous American artifacts, including the Charles and Valerie Diker Collection of more than 116 objects hailing from 50 different Native American cultures from the 2nd century to the early 20th century,” and will oversee expanded programming on indigenous work. – Artnet

Eleven More Women Say Plácido Domingo Kissed, Groped, And Pursued Them In Opera Houses — And Management Knew

Additionally, “several … backstage employees described for the AP how they strove to shield young women from the star as administrators looked the other way.” (These include staffers at Los Angeles Opera, where Domingo remains General Director.) “Taken together, their stories reinforce a picture of an industry in which Domingo’s behavior was an open secret and young women were left to fend for themselves in the workplace.” – AP

Why L.A. Opera’s Investigation Of Plácido Domingo — Its Boss — Will Probably Be No Help

“These kinds of investigations historically have raised more questions than they have answered, leaving victims and the public in the dark about what behavior was documented in the inquiry, who might share some responsibility for wrongdoing and whether institutional problems that allowed misconduct to fester have been, or will be, rectified.” Exhibit A: New York City Ballet’s investigation of longtime head Peter Martins, which some former dancers suggest was a deliberate cover-up. – Los Angeles Times