A lot of movies are delayed, awards ceremonies postponed, movies (including the new Bond movie and the live-action Mulan) put off until later … and a lot of places are now closed “indefinitely” or until a date that may change later. – The Guardian (UK)
Category: issues
Does Democratization Of Culture Mean The End Of Audience?
“My current research situates audience development within work on culture as a vocation, and wider debates around the democratisation of culture and cultural democracy. Audience development both replicates and reproduces (rather than challenges) the dominant cultural hegemony – most notably in subsidised cultural institutions. As such, it has traditionally been seen as a management tool for the democratisation of culture.” – Arts Professional
Was London’s Millennium Dome Really The Enormous Fiasco Everyone Remembers? Not Entirely …
It cost more than £750 million (that was well over a billion dollars then), the grand opening at the turn of the millennium was one snafu after another, actual visitor numbers were half of projections, and the UK government eventually sold it for a pound. But families loved it at the time, and it’s now the most popular live music venue on Earth. Imogen West-Knights recounts how it all happened in this week’s Guardian Long Read. – The Guardian
A High Stress Threat To The Arts
There will soon be lots of demands for emergency funds, to bail out small businesses, cab drivers, restaurants, and so on. Cultural workers, who contribute so much to urban life in normal times and who will be so severely missed in abnormal ones, need relief starting now, before the world they belong to withers away. – New York Magazine
Virus Could Cost $5 Billion Worldwide To Live Events Business
Coronavirus-related event cancellations seem to be barreling in by the hour, and the $26 billion global live events industry is watching with bated breath. Several sources across the booking, management, and venues sectors either declined to comment to Rolling Stone on the subject because of the uncertainty around the matter, or say they do not yet have them in place. There’s also the issue of unpredictability. – Rolling Stone
Crowds Continued To Fill Disneyland As Warnings Increase
Aimee and Charlie Cotherman, of Oil City, Pa., said that ahead of their trip to Orlando last week, they were worried about the coronavirus, but decided to still visit with their children, ages 8, 6 and 3, as well as their two-month-old baby, because “percentages are in our favor,” Mr. Cotherman said, referring to the low number of children infected. – The New York Times
Ex-President’s Estate Sues Otis College
The legal complaint by Bruce Ferguson’s sister, who is executor of his estate, alleges that Otis committed discrimination, retaliation and wrongful termination related to Ferguson’s illness at the height of a power struggle on campus, when faculty members whose jobs were threatened by organizational changes waged a letter of no confidence campaign against Ferguson after his illness became public. – Argonaut News
How Coronavirus Might Change The Arts
As was the case during the AIDS crisis and in the months following the Sept. 11 atrocities, “regicide, civil strife and anarchy” tend to be replaced with great writers musing on the existence of God or the utility of religion, as Tony Kushner did in “Angels in America,” and they start to see that there are forces in the world that level us all. And the marketplace tends to reward those writers. – Chicago Tribune
Most Arts Events Canceled In Seattle
If the future is unclear for arts organizations, it’s even scarier for individual artists, backstage artisans and stage hands, many of whom survive job to job. Those who are union members may have access to specific emergency funds, but others are left adrift. – KUOW
Broadway Closing – Also Met Opera, Museum, Etc. As NY Restricts Crowds
“There is no question that Broadway shows should be closed,” Racaniello said. “Any large gatherings of people, especially here in NYC where we know the virus is circulating, need to stop.” Joining Broadway, other New York City institutions that have closed because of the pandemic include the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. – HuffPost