“At the recent ALA Midwinter meeting in Philadelphia, Macmillan CEO John Sargent told librarians that he would come back in March with potential alternatives to the publisher’s controversial library e-book embargo. And this week, Macmillan made good on Sargent’s statement, with an email to a select group of librarians seeking feedback on three proposals that could inform new e-book license terms for public libraries.” – Publishers Weekly
Author: Matthew Westphal
Cancel The Concerts And Close The Theatres Now, Says Leading Critic — This Virus Is Too Dangerous
Justin Davidson: “It’s easy for me to call for a shutdown. I’m not the one who’ll be hemorrhaging millions every night or facing months of unemployment. … [But] the evidence suggests that the choice is not between a shutdown and no shutdown; it’s between shutting things down now, when the disease is still relatively rare in our area, or waiting until more people have died, the virus has propagated further, and the medical system starts to be overburdened.” (Charles McNulty agrees.) – New York Magazine
Broadway Theatres Ask Actors And Audiences To Stop Gathering At Stage Door
Neither producers nor performers and crew nor patrons want to suspend all performances until COVID-19 is under control (whenever that may be), so the theatre owners and producers of the Broadway League are “highly recommending that all stage door activities be eliminated for the time being.” And folks are cooperating, mostly. – The New York Times
One Of World’s Top Art Fairs Quickly Shuts Down After Exhibitor Comes Down With Coronavirus
TEFAF, held in the Dutch city of Maastricht and the world’s leading fair for art and antiques, opened last Saturday and closed Wednesday evening (four days early), just hours after an exhibitor was reported to have tested positive for COVID-19. – ARTnews
Gov’t Of Catalonia Paid For Documentaries Saying That Cervantes, Shakespeare, Columbus, And Leonardo Were Catalan
The government of the independence-minded Spanish region gave €3 million in subsidies to media companies connected to the New History Institute (INH) and paid €184,000 for the rights to six INH documentaries — films arguing that Cervantes and Shakespeare were a single individual who wrote in Catalan (and that the Spanish Inquisition suppressed his true identity), that Leonardo da Vinci was Catalan, and that not only was Christopher Columbus Catalan but Erasmus of Rotterdam was his illegitimate son. – The Guardian
‘Merce Cunningham Redux’
James Klosty’s book is big in several ways. (Try lugging it to a sunny spot; it weighs about six pounds.) I’m in love with it. – Deborah Jowitt
‘The Infectious Pestilence Did Reign’: Shakespeare And The Plague
“‘Plague was the single most powerful force shaping his life and those of his contemporaries,’ wrote Jonathan Bate, one of his many biographers. … But the plague was also Shakespeare’s secret weapon. He didn’t ignore it. He took advantage of it.” – Slate
Trey McIntyre Comes Back To The Company Where He Learned To Choreograph
“During his time at Houston Ballet as choreographic apprentice in 1989, and later as choreographic associate from 1995 to 2008, he created seven ballets … Although the company has returned to his popular full-length Peter Pan several times over the years, and In Dreams in the 2017/18 season, [Pretty Things] is McIntyre’s first new work for the company in nearly two decades.” – Dance Magazine
Exhibition Cancelled Because Of … Not Coronavirus, But Slavery
“Four North American museums” — the National Gallery of Canada, Seattle Art Museum, Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, and National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC — “have canceled plans to host a major touring exhibition of masterworks from Liechtenstein’s princely collections out of apparent concern over the royal family’s wartime … use of forced labour.” – The Art Newspaper
A Library-On-Wheels For The Refugee Camps Of Greece
“The Echo library was founded in 2016, at the height of the refugee crisis, and relies on a 15-strong volunteer team alongside donations to stock its shelves and pay for the van’s fuel – costs that come to roughly £13,000 a year.” – The Guardian