Salt water from the lagoon covered 80% of the city, reaching levels of up to six feet, the second-highest since records began about 90 years ago. The Biennale, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, La Fenice opera house, and St. Mark’s Basilica are among the many museums, archives, and other institutions that have temporarily closed while trying to contain the damage. – Deutsche Welle
Category: issues
The End Of The “Rude” Press
When I was growing up, every major American metro area had both a polite press—the local dailies—and a rude one: the alt-weeklies. The alt-weeklies were funded by advertisers the family-friendly media wanted nothing to do with. In the end, many of these publications were also simply killed by rich idiot owners or corporations that routinely purchase publications and ruin them out of both greed and incompetence. And so we (mostly) don’t have alt-weeklies anymore. – The New Republic
Cookie Monster’s Lifelong Love Affair With Art
“I’ve suspected there is something life-affirming in Cookie Monster’s unabashed love and joy for cultural stimuli — so pure and brash that if he could eat it all, he would. Cookie Monster was once a bad example, designed to teach children about self-control — one mustn’t always eat cookies — but so much of Sesame Street’s ethos is about love and kindness for others, for the nuances of the human race, for oneself.” – Hyperallergic
The Movement To Turn Away BP’s Money Is Giving Britain’s Arts Fundraisers Heartburn
BBC arts editor Will Gompertz: “It has never been an easy task, but … what has become absolutely clear over the past 12 months is that arts organisations have to up their game when it comes to basic due diligence before accepting a sponsor’s money. It is no longer good enough to check the credentials of the sponsoring company. They now have to make sure the personal values of those who run and own it are compatible with their own charitable objectives.” – BBC
Ready For The National Medal Of Arts, Trump Edition?
Under Trump, the awards stopped: He passed up chances to hand out the medals in 2017 and 2018—the longest drought in the past 35 years. But now, I’m told, he’s poised to announce his first slate of winners later this month. It not only includes names that seem, in part, to be tailored to the president’s personal preferences—namely, the actor and MAGA enthusiast Jon Voight and all five U.S. military bands. But in choosing the winners, Trump appears to have ignored input from the committee that typically recommends artistic luminaries as candidates for the award. – The Atlantic
Inside The 1811 Louisiana Slave Rebellion Re-Enactment
“It took years [for the organizer, artist Dread Scott,] to raise the funds of over $1m, which included money from 500 individual donations, to pull off the spectacle. But as word of mouth about the project got out, African Americans from all over the country signed up.” Reporter Oliver Laughland joined the re-enactors as they marched 26 miles from the LaPlace, La. plantation where the original rebellion started to the center of New Orleans. – The Guardian
Arts Groups In Belgium’s Richest Region Brace For (More) Funding Cuts
“Flemish Culture Minister Jan Jambon … envisages cuts of up to 6% in the subsidies given to cultural institutions to cover their operating funds and 60% in the subsidies given to cover the costs of specific cultural projects.” This follows nearly a decade of consistent funding cuts for arts organizations in Flanders; as one administrator protested, “We have already had to made 25 million euro in savings in recent years.” – VRT (Belgium)
Lin-Manuel Miranda On The Role Of Artists In Uncertain Times
“What artists can do is bring stories to the table that are unshakably true—the sort of stories that, once you’ve heard them, won’t let you return to what you thought before.” – The Atlantic
Production Company Pulls Out Of Iconic Seattle Festival
Bumbershoot, the Labor Day arts festival is almost 50 years old. But it’s changed significantly over the years and in its latest configuration began to resemble just another generic expensive music festival. AEG, the producer, says it won’t continue to produce it. – The Stranger
Valentine Monnier Is The Sixth Woman To Accuse Roman Polanski Of Raping Her When She Was A Teen
In the French newspaper Le Parisien, the photographer and former actress and model says that in 1975, the director raped her at his ski chalet in Switzerland. “She said she remembered fearing she would die. ‘I said to myself, this is Roman Polanski. He can’t take the risk that this would be known, so he will have to kill me.'” – The New York Times