“She was a wise and idealistic young girl, a cartoon kid with a ball of black frizz for hair, a passionate hatred of soup and a name, Mafalda, inspired by a failed home appliance brand. Although her creator, a cartoonist [named Joaquín Salvador Lavado Tejón and] known as Quino, drew her regularly for just nine years, the Argentine comic strip Mafalda became a cultural touchstone across Latin America and Europe, examining issues such as nationalism, war and environmental destruction just as Argentina’s democracy was giving way to dictatorship.” – The Washington Post
Blog
Activists Call For Boycott Of All US Museums
The group’s demands, issued on its Instagram page with the hashtag #NoMuseumOctober, stipulate that until every institution publicly announces that frontline workers will be provided hazard pay and benefits for their labour until a Covid-19 vaccine is available, the museum-going public should “refrain from providing these ‘democratic’ institutions the admission dollars they so desperately crave”. – The Art Newspaper
How Exactly Should We Define ‘Book’ In 2020? (Or Anytime, For That Matter?)
“[Considering] this great variety of materials and uses that define books over some 5,000 years and in every part of the globe, … how adventurous can we be in attributing to material objects — from clay to digital tablets — the characteristics which make them books? … And as forms of print and print in conjunction with script and illustration increased in complexity, how catholic does our definition of ‘book’ become? Do we include maps and sheets of music, fold-out panoramas, and gathered-together illustrations and prints?” – Literary Hub
Smithsonian Lays Off 237 Staff
The layoffs are the first permanent staff cuts made by the world’s largest museum organization since it was forced to close its sites March 14 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The Smithsonian lost $49 million — from store and restaurant revenue as well as canceled ticketed events, classes and tours — between March and September, spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas said. – Washington Post
NPR Wants To Broaden Its Audience. What Could It Learn From The BBC?
“The BBC eventually had to succumb to the public’s demands to hear what it wanted, not what [BBC founder John] Reith wanted them to hear. … In the United States, public radio never attracted an audience near as diverse as NPR’s founding purposes hoped. Public radio sincerely welcomed all, but those who chose to listen represented such a narrow type that ‘NPR listener’ became a meaningful term.” – Current
Unheard Recording Of Ella Fitzgerald’s 1962 Berlin Concert Rediscovered
“These tapes” — of Fitzgerald’s return to Berlin two years after her 1960 debut there, a concert which became a Grammy-winning bestseller — “come from impresario and Verve Records founder Norman Granz’s private collection. As Ella’s manager, he had a habit of recording Ella live – sometimes for radio broadcast, sometimes for later release, sometimes just to have. He also had another habit of focusing on his next project rather than harnessing what he had just recorded, thus the tapes being lost.” – Glide Magazine
Britain’s National Theatre Has Been Closed For Six Months, But What’s Left Of Its Staff Has Been Working Hard
“Rufus Norris, the theater’s artistic director, has been spending his time lobbying Britain’s government for extra funding and putting together a reopening plan. Its digital team has been running NT at Home, a streaming service of recorded plays from the theater’s archive, some of which have been viewed millions of times. Other staff members have been working out how to run the theater in a world changed by the coronavirus. Even the theater’s pest controller has been busy.” Seven of those staffers, including Norris, talk about what it’s been like. – The New York Times
‘Confederate Monuments’ In The Arts: What Do We Do With Once-Admired Works That Now Seem Unacceptable?
“Simple public [statues are] one thing. Real art is complicated. An artwork, such as a film or play, an opera or a pop song, can contain many ideas, some that we may endorse wholeheartedly, others that we might argue about, and still others that we might all find repellent, offensive or even painful. Thus, [ten Chronicle writers] look at some of the ‘Confederate monuments’ in various arts disciplines and ask: What should be our response?” – San Francisco Chronicle
Joffrey Ballet Cancels All Of Its 2020-21 Season
“The Joffrey said that the decision, sparked by the COVID-19 crisis, will cost the non-profit institution in excess of $9 million at the box office. … [The company] also announced a new virtual programming initiative, the Joffrey Studio Series, … [and] said it was beginning a new ’25 for 25,’ a year-long series of ‘free performances, programs, and partnerships with peer organizations’ from around the city, celebrating 25 years since the company arrived in Chicago.” – Yahoo! (Chicago Tribune)
Whitney Biennial Postponed Until 2022
The enormous contemporary art show that had been planned for next spring was put off for the sake of the artists themselves (the pandemic has interfered with their access to materials and studio space) as well as to make room in 2021 for the major shows — of work by Julie Mehretu, Salman Toor, Dawood Bey, and the Kamoinge Workshop — that had been scheduled for this year and for the big Jasper Johns retrospective. – The New York Times