“Pictures which are interpretable, and which contain a meaning, are bad pictures.” A good picture “takes away our certainty, because it deprives a thing of its meaning and its name. It shows us the thing in all the manifold significance and infinite variety that preclude the emergence of any single meaning and view.” – New York Review of Books
Blog
Antiquities Traffickers Are Using COVID Crisis To Ramp Up Trade In Looted Items
“The Antiquities Trafficking and Heritage Anthropology Research (ATHAR) Project … has found an uptick in posts on Facebook groups involved in buying and selling looted objects from the Middle East and North Africa in recent months, as many countries went into lockdown.” – The Art Newspaper
Iconic Seattle Record Store, Once Named One Of The Best In America, Will Close After 41 Years
Dave Voorhees estimates that the store’s chockablock bins hold half a million recordings of rock, R&B, jazz, classical, country and other musical genres — an inventory his business manager, Bob Jacobs, values at $3 million. About 200,000 of those records are vintage 45 RPM singles, many extremely rare. – Seattle Times
Barney Ales, Motown’s Master Marketer, Dead At 85
“Mr. Ales was one of [Berry] Gordy’s most indispensable executives throughout the 1960s, when Motown became a ubiquitous force in American pop culture and a prime symbol of black enterprise at the height of the civil rights movement. Officially, he was in charge of sales and promotion. But as a high-ranking white executive at a black-owned label, Mr. Ales was also instrumental in promoting Motown’s music to the white-dominated industry — most importantly the programmers who decided what songs were played on Top 40 radio stations.” – The New York Times
Drive-Up Dance
Guided by pins on a digital map and a downloaded soundtrack — featuring songs, poetry, a couple of old voicemail messages and mysterious clues — ticketed audience members drive through the city and visit performers at their homes. The dancers perform from porches, sun rooms, front yards, alleys and balconies while the audience, cocooned in 20 cars (one per household), drives up to watch at 10-minute intervals. – Crosscut
Theatre Architects Consider How COVID Could Change Theatre Design
“The proposed addition of hand-washing stations and health screening areas means that theatre lobbies will have to grow. The whole theatre building will have to grow, in fact. If social distancing becomes a commonplace circulation pattern, theatres will require more space in the lobby, around the box office, at the bar, and in line for the restrooms. Not to mention in auditorium seating. … But this theatre-half-empty situation provides an opportunity for future theatre builders.” – American Theatre
Music That Was Just Made (Or Could Have Been) For The Pandemic
Michael Andor Brodeur: “Lately, my social media feeds are filled with musical experiments that take a head-on approach to the current crisis, or works composed before the outbreak that resonate anew in the context of covid-19. Rather than escape the moment, they arrest it. Here are four works, new and recent, that you can stream (and, in some cases, sing) over the next several days.” Top of the list: David Lang’s Protect Yourself From Infection. – The Washington Post
L.A. May Turn Real Estate Developers’ Arts Fees Into Relief Funding For Arts Groups
“For every private development project of $500,000 or more in the city of Los Angeles, the developer must pay an arts fee to the city based on the square footage of the building or a percentage of the value of the permit. Those funds are then allocated to cultural events such as festivals and other public arts happenings. But with dense public gatherings not possible for the foreseeable future, L.A. City Councilman David Ryu hopes to use those funds as relief grants for arts organizations.” – Los Angeles Times
AMC/Odeon, World’s Largest Cinema Chain, Boycotts Universal Pictures
AMC has announced that, in both its U.S. outlets and its Odeon Cinemas abroad, “it will refuse to show movies released by Hollywood studio Universal. The latter had just declared it would continue to release films simultaneously via cinemas and streaming, after the coronavirus pandemic restrictions are lifted.” – The Guardian
To Avoid Staff Furloughs, Smithsonian’s Top Execs Take Pay Cuts
“The salaries of 89 senior-level executives — all nonfederal employees — will be cut by 10 percent for 12 months, starting May 24, with Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III and Deputy Secretary Meroe Park taking 15 percent cuts. The senior executives include museum and science directors and officials overseeing investments, security and facilities … The majority of the institution’s 6,300 employees are federal workers and will not be affected.” – The Washington Post