The $750-million building project is on schedule, with the completion planned for the end of 2023. The new Peter Zumthor-designed building has stirred controversy for its square footage as well as its cost. A symbolic groundbreaking will be set “when possible given the pandemic.” – Los Angeles Times
Blog
Male Film Critics Still Get Published Twice As Much As Female Ones: Study
“Female film critics contributed 35% of the film reviews across print, broadcast and online outlets, up 1% from 2019, according to the report, titled Thumbs Down 2020: Film Critics and Gender, and Why It Matters. Though the increase in numbers of female film critics seems marginal, the numbers show a marked improvement from the 73% male to 27% female breakdown in 2016.” – Variety
Why Are There So Few Black Directors In The Criterion Collection?
“In such an expansive catalog, encompassing films from more than 40 countries, the relative absence of African-American filmmakers stands out. There are, for example, more directors in the Criterion Collection with the last name Anderson than there are African-Americans.” Criterion president Peter Becker acknowledges the problem: “There’s nothing I can say about it that will make it OK. The fact that things are missing, and specifically that Black voices are missing, is harmful, and that’s clear. We have to fix that.” – The New York Times
White Leaders At Some U.S. Theaters Are Ceding Their Jobs To People Of Color
“The theaters are mostly small, and it remains unclear how calls for change in the industry will (or won’t) affect life at larger institutions, many of which have been programmatically and financially hobbled by the coronavirus pandemic.” But this year’s calls for equity are starting to have an effect. Says William Carden, outgoing artistic director of New York’s Ensemble Studio Theater, “The key to antiracism is sharing power. It takes a lot of work and a lot of humility, and it requires that white people step aside.” – The New York Times
Berlin Medical Institute Study Says Concerts And Operas Could Safely Have Full Houses — Then Institute’s Board Disavows Study
“Earlier this week, leading German epidemiologists from the prestigious Clinic Charité published a revised study suggesting that the opera houses and concert halls should allow every seat in the audiences to be occupied. …
However, in a major twist, the Charité’s Board of Directors … stat[ed] that ‘the paper on the resumption of opera and concert operations under the COVID-19 conditions had not been coordinated and did not reflect the position of the board.'” – OperaWire
14,000-Year-Old Engravings Are Oldest Art Ever Found In British Isles
Well, as long as Jersey, 14 miles off the coast of France but 85 miles from England, counts as the British Isles. “The designs were scratched into small ornamental tablets known as plaquettes … [which] were made by the Magdalenians, a hunter-gatherer culture thought to have expanded out of Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal) and southern France after the peak of the last Ice Age.” – BBC
Italy To Tourists: Please Come Back — Just Don’t Climb All Over The Old Stuff, Okay?
A German couple going swimming in the Grand Canal. An Austrian breaking the toe off a statue when he climbed on it for a selfie. A French woman writing her name in felt-tip pen on the Ponte Vecchio. A woman posing for a selfie on top of 2,000-year-old thermal baths in Pompeii. Italians badly want to revive the all-important tourism industry in the wake of COVID, yes, but not if tourists vandalize. But which will be more effective, education or harsher punishment? – The New York Times
U.S. Court Of Appeals Rules Madrid Museum May Keep Nazi-Looted Pissarro
“The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in California has ruled that the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation in Madrid is the owner of Camille Pissarro’s 1897 painting Rue Saint-Honoré, Après-midi, Effet de Pluie, which it purchased in 1993 from the collector Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza. In 2005, the heirs to the work’s original owner, Lily Cassirer Neubauer, alleged in a complaint that the foundation knew upon acquiring it that the painting had been stolen by the Nazi regime in 1939.” – ARTnews
How Hollywood Reacted To Women Getting The Vote 100 Years Ago
This early promise of a more equitable industry didn’t last. Once the studio system kicked into gear, women were largely muscled out of positions of authority. There are exploding opportunities for women in TV and streaming today, but film writing and directing are still overwhelmingly dominated by men, and white men at that. – Variety
A Viral Video Puts Spotlight On Tiny Community Dance Company In Lagos, Nigeria
“In the beginning, people kept saying, ‘What are they doing?!’” Mr. Ajala said. “I had to convince them that ballet wasn’t a bad or indecent dance, but actually something that requires a lot of discipline that would have positive effects on the lives of their children outside the classroom. I always say, it’s not only about the dance itself — it’s about the value of dance education.” – The New York Times