“The Glyndebourne Festival has announced that … instead of opening on May 21, 2020, it will instead open on July 14, 2020. As such, any performances scheduled prior to July 14 will be canceled. The company noted that it will send out a revised schedule in coming days.” – OperaWire
Author: Matthew Westphal
Holland Cotter’s Five-Point Plan To Save The Souls Of Traditional ‘Encyclopedic’ Museums
“They need to rethink the Temple of Beauty branding they’ve coasted on from the start. They need to acknowledge the often conflicted relationship between aesthetics and ethics. They need to address what their collections leave out. They need to reconsider their own role as history-tellers and history-inventors. In short, they need to redefine what ‘encyclopedic’ and ‘museum’ and ‘art’ can mean. … Here’s a five-point plan to move that process along in a post-coronavirus future.” – The New York Times
The Big Stop On The Political Book Circuit? It’s Not In D.C., It’s In L.A.
Writers Bloc, a series of talks, readings and discussions, pulls in sold-out crowds for the likes of Rachel Maddow, Cory Booker, Joy Reid, Elizabeth Warren, and the Pod Save America guys. Yes, in La-La Land. – The New York Times
Crisis as Opportunity
With my lens as an advocate for community engagement, I think of the many (many, many) people who have told me they just don’t have time to devote to making connections with their communities. There are too many other tasks to do. But now … – Doug Borwick
Covid’s Metamorphoses: How Coronavirus Has Transformed the Artworld
Last Wednesday, the Met invited me to the press preview for the 150th anniversary show Making the Met; Thursday, the museum announced it was closing. On Mar. 11, the Association of Art Museum Directors began a running list of member institutions that had closed; as of today, all of them have. – Lee Rosenbaum
How COVID-19 Is Changing Podcasting
“Shows are drastically scaling down their studio time, production teams are increasingly shifting to remote workflows, public radio stations are postponing their pledge drives, and independents are bracing for hits to their business models. Here, a look at how the podcast world is handling the crisis.” – Vulture
This French Nonprofit Is Training Refugees To Work In The Arts
The organization Sama for All, founded by Syrian refugee Souad Nanaa, prepares displaced persons in France to find jobs in museums and cultural organizations. The six-month program teaches topics such as museum security, making presentations to visitors, and the specialized vocabulary refugees won’t learn in their regular French classes. – Hyperallergic
My Pal Inigo Philbrick, The Bernie Madoff Of The Art World
“When I first met Inigo Philbrick in 2012, he was all of 25, looked an awful lot like Justin Timberlake, and … I was immediately smitten, professionally and personally; Philbrick was sharp, fun, and funny. … And for a long time, I thought that was one of the most fortunate days of my life.” Dealer-collector-curator-Artnet columnist Kenny Schachter, for whom Philbrick made and then lost a few million dollars, writes about watching his best bud run amok, run aground, and run away. – New York Magazine
Italy’s Dancers, Stuck At Home, Are Taking Class Via App
Marina Harss talks to four dancers from across the country about how they’re staying in shape and in touch despite being more or less trapped in their houses. – The New York Times
An Upside Of Italy’s Lockdown: You Can Now See Fish And Waterfowl In Venice’s Canals
Venetians are posting photos to the Facebook group Venezia Pulita (Clean Venice), saying that they’ve never seen the water in the canals so clear. It’s not that they’re suddenly far less polluted than before, says the mayor’s office: the lack of boat traffic means that no sediment is getting stirred up from the bottom. – CNN