Casts were a booming trade in the late 19th century and museums competed for the most sought after examples. The availability of casts, even though they were multiples, was limited, especially towards the end of the century when the damage caused by taking moulds was finally acknowledged.
Tag: 02.05.18
Australian Broadcaster To Break Up Historic Music Library And Ship It To Samoa
Guardian Australia revealed last week that the ABC is breaking up its historic music and reference libraries and making 10 librarians redundant to free up floor space and save on wages. Sources say management plans include packing up all 22,000 books in Sydney and Melbourne – apart from a few “special items” – and sending them to Samoa. The books have been targeted because management wants the library space for the IT division. But insiders have mocked the idea, saying developing countries do not always want discarded books because of the high cost of transporting and storing them as well as question marks over their relevance.
Women Explain What It’s Like To Work As A Director In Not-Actually-Progressive Hollywood
The stats are deeply ugly: “In 2016, only 7 percent of the directors behind 250 of the year’s highest-grossing domestic releases were women. (In television, things are a bit better: Thirty-two percent of first-time episodic directors during the 2016-17 television season were women.) From there, women directors get lower budgets on average, and their projects are played on only one-third as many movie screens as male-directed films, according to a study cited in 2016 in The Hollywood Reporter.”
How The Music Of America’s First Black Female Composer Was Rescued From Destruction
Alex Ross looks at Florence Price (1887-1953), whose works are undergoing a modest revival that, Ross argues, ought to be much bigger.
Minnesota Public Radio Begins Somali-Language Service
Walking the walk in terms of serving underserved communities, MPR has beta-launched an online local-and-global-news channel for Minnesota’s 31,400 Somalis, the state’s second-largest group of foreign-born residents.
WNYC Reels, Staff And Listeners Seethe Over Handling Of Harassment And Bullying Complaints
Two months after two longtime hosts were fired from the New York public radio giant – which was shortly after news broke of John Hockenberry’s egregious misconduct as host of The Takeaway – stories of a dysfunctional workplace culture are spreading, the station’s number-two has been demoted but not dismissed, and WNYC’s president tries to correct longstanding problems and fend off complaints about her management and high salary.
‘Texas Monthly’ Hemorrhages Staff Under New Owners
“Eleven major fixtures of Texas Monthly‘s editorial team have quit since a hedge fund bought the publication for $25 million in October 2016 … According to multiple interviews with former staffers, the environment inside the Austin-based publication is now largely characterized by fear and precariousness, with employees worried about job stability and unsure if they can trust their leadership.”
Why Does The American Museum Of Natural History Have A Climate Change Denier On Its Board?
We cannot say that Rebekah Mercer and her family foundation are dictating museum exhibitions by virtue of her board seat, and the museum, in a statement, has said that she is not and that “its funders do not shape its curatorial decisions.” But that’s not really the issue. As a funder of climate-science disinformation, Ms. Mercer stands in direct contradiction to the museum’s mission “to discover, interpret, and disseminate — through scientific research and education — knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe.”
Is Artforum Magazine Really Taking Its Sexual Harassment Problem Seriously?
New beginnings often start with a truthful assessment of a situation. But it would seem Artforum has not followed through on their promise of being a “place of transparency, equity, and with zero tolerance for sexual harassment of any kind,” which they trumpeted on their website in October.
A “Museum Of Failure” That Embodies Its Very Name
A pseudo-scientific chart on the side of each label purports to rate objects according to “Innovation,” “Design,” and “Implementation,” resulting in a final “Fail-o-Meter” score, with no explanation as to the metrics involved. In essence, the Museum of Failure is a BuzzFeed listicle come to life.