Amid the worries on Wall Street, stock prices have tumbled for Orlando-based SeaWorld Entertainment, which operates 12 theme parks across the country. The stock, previously trading above $35 per share for several days in February, fell to about $15 Wednesday before the market had closed. – Orlando Sentinel
Category: issues
Germany Promises Help To Cultural Institutions For Virus Disruption
German Culture Minister Monika Grütters promised government financial help to cultural institutions and artists whose livelihoods are threatened by the coronavirus as theatres and concert halls close and dwindling numbers of people attend events and museums. – The Art Newspaper
What’s In The UK’s First Post-Brexit Culture Budget
The next overall budget for the Department for Digital, Media Culture and Sport (DCMS) will increase by £100 million to £1.7 billion; it will include £250 million to support local libraries and museums (which could help reverse the hundreds of library closures due to austerity in recent years), £27 million for maintenance at national museums, £90 million for cultural development outside London, and £25,000 given to every secondary school each year for “arts activities.” – The Art Newspaper
Cancel The Concerts And Close The Theatres Now, Says Leading Critic — This Virus Is Too Dangerous
Justin Davidson: “It’s easy for me to call for a shutdown. I’m not the one who’ll be hemorrhaging millions every night or facing months of unemployment. … [But] the evidence suggests that the choice is not between a shutdown and no shutdown; it’s between shutting things down now, when the disease is still relatively rare in our area, or waiting until more people have died, the virus has propagated further, and the medical system starts to be overburdened.” (Charles McNulty agrees.) – New York Magazine
Arts Activist Named New NYC Cultural Affairs Director
Gonzalo Casals is an immigrant from Argentina who identifies as queer. Since 2017, he has led the Leslie-Lohman, a museum with roots in the L.G.B.T.Q. civil rights movement, diversifying its collection and programming with contributions from the gay community. Mr. Casals previously served as deputy and interim director at El Museo del Barrio in East Harlem, a major center for Latino art and culture, where he stepped in after Margarita Aguilar left amid turmoil. – The New York Times
Radical Artists Are Running Performance Space New York. Here’s How They Showed A Journalist What They’re Doing.
To mark its 40th anniversary, the East Village venue (formerly P.S. 122) turned itself over to 11 loosely connected artists of various stripes for the whole of 2020. Not even PSNY’s director knows everything they have planned. When Siobhan Burke went to talk to them (at PSNY’s invitation), they met her in matching black garments that obscured their faces, declined to identify themselves, and stuck strictly to a prepared script that included such phrases as “There is no consensus,” “Welcome is a warning,” and “Artist exceptionalism upholds empire.” – The New York Times
Berlin Closes All Cultural Venues For A Month
The shutdown, ordered to prevent the spread of COVID-19, mandatory for all state-owned arts institutions and strongly recommended for others, is in effect at least until after Easter (April 12). – The Berlin Spectator
American Arts Organizations Take Ad Hoc Approach To Coronavirus Response
In a vivid example of the ad hoc and highly inconsistent way arts organizations are dealing with the spread of the potentially deadly coronavirus, the Seattle Symphony is operating as usual and played to large audiences over the weekend. Meanwhile, the San Francisco Symphony canceled all performances this week and next. – Los Angeles Times
National Museum Of American Jewish History Files For Bankruptcy
In filing for Chapter 11, the museum is “seeking relief from what museum officials characterize as a crushing debt burden [of more than $30 million] incurred by construction of its home on Independence Mall a decade ago.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
‘I’m Not Entirely Sure’ How South By Southwest Can Recover From Cancellation, Says CEO
Devastated by having to call off this year’s event due to the coronavirus epidemic — as it turns out, cancellation due to infectious disease is not covered by the festival’s insurance policies — SXSW LLC doesn’t even know yet how much money it will lose and has laid off a third of its staff. – Austin American-Statesman