Author: Douglas McLennan

So How’s This Going To Work – Social Distancing In Theatres?

The problem is not audience participation. It may drop, but, as my analysis to follow shows, even if it drops 20, 30, or even 40 percent, that is not the drop we should worry about. What will matter more than anything else in consideration is that, without a vaccine, social distancing measures in large-scale venues must continue for months, potentially years. – The Middle Class Artist

Violinist Offers Free Lessons Online Culminating In A Big Virtual Concert. 800 Take Her Up On It

Nicola Benedetti already offered online music classes through her own Benedetti Foundation. But the lockdown made her wonder whether they could reach an even wider audience on social media platforms. Although the sessions are free, donations are welcome. Nearly 800 people have signed up so far to teach or play, including fellow musicians The Ayoub Sisters. – BBC

Lessons From A Crisis: We Make New Institutions

The art world we return to—if there is one to return to at all—will be formed in this moment. This is the time to build our own institutions. Our shelter-in-place orders and the masses of workers, including art workers, who were fired when the economy came to an abrupt stop constitute a general strike, leaving us only to declare it. For the art world this could be a massive moment of reorientation. – Artnet

To Survive, The Arts Are Going To Have To Reframe Their Value

“We have the power to decide to value art and culture in ways that support the kind of lives we want to be living. But to do that, we need more skin in the game—a greater shared commitment among a wider pool of stakeholders to recognize, articulate, and collectively wield the power art and culture already has, and to ensure it’s doing the civic, political, and social work we value the most. ” – Artnet

Museums Are Rich. But Cash-Poor. So Now The Inevitable Debate…

For those governing and supporting museums, the old standards about the use and disposal of collections and endowments are rapidly risking obsolescence. Museums are, of course, property-rich in a manner unlike any individual, or a company with a profit motive. Works of art and endowment funds (typically cash and investments held to generate income, not to be spent) are both, in the eyes of the law, the property of museums, but there are critical distinctions. Art collections generally do not appear on balance sheets but endowments do. The basic organisational question of which property is an asset that can be legally used to cover liabilities is unique to cultural institutions. Museums on either side of the Atlantic come at this challenge from slightly different starting points. – Apollo

OMG! How I Got Obsessed With Oil Painting

“By the time the eight-week course was over, I was the wretch I am now: an unhinged woman vehemently obsessed with oil painting who wrestles with it like a feral person for hours every day. I had earth-moving revelations as I graduated from using makeup brushes to real sable, and switched from canvas to linen panels. My formerly adorable kitchen now looks as though Francis Bacon had assaulted a pope in it. I know things about linseed oil its own mother doesn’t know.” – New York Review of Books