Well … “As long as there are no further pandemic-related hold-ups or lockdowns, the first parts of the complex will open on the ground floor and first floor in December, the Humboldt Forum’s leadership said in a statement. An exhibition on the history of the location and a Berlin city history exhibition will be among the first spaces to open to the public, along with an arcade of museums shops and a restaurant in the Schlüterhof courtyard. – The Art Newspaper
Author: Matthew Westphal
L.A.’s Mark Taper Forum, Ahmanson, and Kirk Douglas Theatres Will Stay Closed Until Late Next Spring
“Center Theatre Group announced on Tuesday that it would remain dark until spring 2021 to help curb the spread of COVID-19 — an unprecedented, more than 56-week closure period. The largest nonprofit theater company in Los Angeles — which stages productions at the Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum and Kirk Douglas Theatre — said programming is scheduled to resume in late April.” – Los Angeles Times
Chicago’s Mercury Theater Closes Permanently Due To Corona-Lockdown
“Opened in 1920 as a silent film nickelodeon, the movie theater would undergo several retail business incarnations in the decades that followed. … It ‘reopened’ in 2011 under the current owner/leadership team as an Equity-affiliated commercial theater house, having since produced 25 plays including four world premieres.” – Chicago Sun-Times
‘Live From Here With Chris Thile’, Successor To ‘A Prairie Home Companion’, Cancelled
American Public Media, the Minnesota-based public radio network that produced the shows, announced the layoff of 28 employees and the immediate end of the weekly program that was heard on roughly 600 local public radio affiliates and drew an estimated audience of 2.6 million. APM attributed the decision to “our pressing financial deficit due to COVID-19 and the priorities of our long-term strategic plan.” – Billboard
COVID Could Cost UK’s Arts And Culture Sector $94 Billion And 400,000 Jobs: Study
“The report predicts that the country’s creative sector will be hit twice as hard as the wider economy in 2020, with one in five creative jobs expected to be lost. The loss could have a devastating effect on the economy at large. Before the coronavirus hit, the UK’s creative sector employed more than 2 million people, generating £111.7 billion for the economy, which is more than the combined input of the automotive, aerospace, life sciences, and oil and gas industries.” – Artnet
Australia’s Largest State Set Aside $50 Million For COVID Arts Relief. None Of It Has Been Given Out
New South Wales was slow to establish a fund to aid struggling arts organizations, not even announcing a plan until May 24, about 10 weeks after shutdowns began. Even as Australia begins the early phases of reopening, none of the money has been awarded, and information even on how to apply or who qualifies is scarce. – The Guardian
Jon Stewart Has Been Awfully Quiet These Past Few Years. What Does He Think About All This?
“The police are a reflection of a society. They’re not a rogue alien organization that came down to torment the black community. … [They] are, in some respects, a border patrol, and they patrol the border between the two Americas. … The root of this problem is the society that we’ve created that contains this schism, and we don’t deal with it, because we’ve outsourced our accountability to the police.” – The New York Times Magazine
In Memoriam: Sally Banes (1950-2020)
A tribute to the brash, quick-talking, brilliant, no-nonsense scholar, writer, colleague, and friend whom I once taught, worked with, and learned from. – Deborah Jowitt
Can This Businessman Turn Old Kentucky Coal Mines Into Arts Centers?
“Could repurposed coal-mining sites in the Appalachian mountains of Eastern Kentucky become an art-world destination and hub for a burgeoning arts scene? That is the ambitious proposition underpinning Somewhere Appalachia, an initiative spearheaded by Brook Smith, a Louisville-based entrepreneur, philanthropist and contemporary art collector.” – The Art Newspaper
UNESCO Gets Started On Project To Restore War-Ravaged Mosul
“Restoration work funded by Germany has begun on the Al-Aghawat mosque, houses are being refurbished with the aid of the European Union, and the rehabilitation of the Dominican Al-Saa’a church is under way with funding from the United Arab Emirates. Brendan Cassar, the head of UNECSO’s culture unit in Iraq, says the projects grouped under its ‘Revive the Spirit of Mosul’ initiative are ‘modest attempts’ to rehabilitate the devastated city, whose full reconstruction would cost hundreds of billions of dollars.” – The Art Newspaper