“The announcement on Monday, Nov. 2, by the Symphony management cited a cumulative revenue loss of $40 million by the end of the 2020-21 season as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. All of the orchestra’s live performances through the end of the calendar year have been canceled.” – San Francisco Chronicle
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Australia Will Spend Millions To Buy Back Indigenous Artifacts From Foreign Museums And Collectors
“The Australian government has pledged A$10.1 million (about $7.2 million) in additional funds over four years toward the return Indigenous cultural heritage objects held in collections overseas.” – ARTnews
Virus And Lockdown Will Clear Out ‘A Bit Of Dead Wood’ From The Arts, Says Artist
Grayson Perry: “I think every part of life has probably got a bit of fat that needs trimming, a bit of dead wood. It’s awful that the culture sector has been decimated, but I think some things needed to go. … Too often, the audience for culture is just the people making it — theatres with whole audiences of actors, or exhibitions only put on to impress other curators.” Yes, many arts figures have criticized Perry for this, but some have defended him as well. – BBC
Canada Proposes Treating Streaming Like Broadcast Services
The regulations put forth by the Liberal government today in a new bill focus on clarifying that online streaming platforms like Netflix and Spotify will fall under the Broadcasting Act through a new category called “online undertakings.” – CBC
New Research: Van Gogh’s Mental Illness
“Experts at the University Medical Centre Groningen conducted a psychiatric examination based on hundreds of letters he wrote – the majority to his beloved brother, Theo – as well as existing medical records. They found that the artist probably experienced two episodes of delirium caused by alcohol withdrawal after he cut off his own ear.” – BBC
Fierce Debate About Whether Iowa Senate Candidate Should Have A Wikipedia Entry
During the past several months, while Joni Ernst and Theresa Greenfield debated each other (and gave us viral clips about the break-even price of corn and soybeans), a separate debate raged among Wikipedia’s volunteer editors about Greenfield’s eligibility for a page of her own. – Wired
Is Kenyan Literature Finally Finding Its Footing?
“Kenya’s literary dwarfism is partly a result of the virulent anti-intellectualism of the longest running regime in the country, the period from 1978 and 2002 when Daniel arap Moi was President. Those years were characterized by arbitrary arrests, detention, and the exile of scholars including world-renowned author Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Micere Mugo, both former professors of literature at the University of Nairobi.” – Guernica
Nasty Fight Breaks Out Between Joffrey School, Former Director
Christopher D’Addario, who quietly resigned as executive director in March, temporarily shuttered the Greenwich Village school’s website Sept. 16, then threatened more disruptions if he wasn’t paid a hefty $450,000, the school claims in a Manhattan Federal Court lawsuit. – New York Post
China Has Wrecked Two-Thirds Of Uyghur Mosques: Report
“Drawing on satellite imagery, data analysis and on-the-ground reporting, the think tank [Australian Strategic Policy Institute] estimated that, since 2017, 65% of the [Xinjiang] region’s mosques and 58% of its important Islamic sites — including shrines (mazars) and cemeteries — have been either destroyed or damaged.” – The Art Newspaper
“Fullnaming” Famous Composers Is Silly
Chris White’s “fullnaming” idea—an invented word for his invented crusade—seems to belong more in a social studies department at a middle school than a music department at a university. Johann Sebastian Bach versus Bach. We get the point. Doesn’t insisting on full names for everyone seem a little pretentious, annoying, tedious, and dare I say . . . elitist? – The Bulwark