Author: Douglas McLennan

What Art Restoration Might Have To Teach Us About Repairing The Environment

“I discovered that there are important parallels between the theory and practice of repairing damaged art and that of repairing damaged nature. But there’s an important difference. The environmental sciences investigate processes of nature that have endured billions of years, and yet scientific thinking about the repair of ecosystems is but decades old. Artistic production is, on the other hand, of relatively recent origin, yet systematic thinking and writing about the repair of tarnished art is centuries old. It seems very likely that ecological restoration can learn a considerable amount from this senior literature.” – Aeon

A Historic Detroit Music Venue To Become An Amazon Factory?

“Amazon, you’re building a new $400-million, 3.8-million-square-foot distribution center on the old State Fair site. The area where the bandshell sits is slated to become a parking lot. The bandshell is an important piece of American music history, as well as Detroit music history. It would be a tragic loss if it were to end up, like so many historic Detroit buildings, as a parking lot. The music industry has suffered greatly in 2020 due to COVID-19 and we’re not out of the woods yet.” – Detroit Metro Times

NYC’s 4,500 Teaching Artists Are Out Of Luck

The Department of Education’s arts budget was $21.5 million in the last school year. The line item pays cultural organizations that find and pay artists to go into classrooms and teach kids how to dance, act, sing, paint, write, and learn all kinds of other creative skills. The arrangement works pretty well because New York City has two things in abundance: public school students and artists with both creative expertise and rent coming due. So business was booming for the city’s 4,500 teaching artists. Then Covid struck. – Gothamist

Are Movie Studios Killing Theatres In Favor Of Streaming?

The Wall Street imperative now is too strong to resist. The conglomerates are sacrificing the future of moviegoing for the pandemically friendly practice of moviestaying. We were heading that way before COVID. Now we’re there. Outside the river of streaming content, for most studios the rest is just sentiment and small potatoes. – Chicago Tribune

Calls Grow For Americans For The Arts’ CEO To Resign

Volunteer members of an AFTA advisory council on Friday publicly called for Robert Lynch and his senior executives to resign, saying that after three months of working behind the scenes for reform, they realize AFTA is an “organization with no desire to change.” At the same time, current and former staff have alleged that senior leaders “created and condoned a hostile work environment . . . rife with bullying, intimidation, retaliation, and harassment.” – Washington Post

City Of Seattle Starts An Arts Real Estate Company

“In an effort to combat cultural displacement and gentrification, the city is taking the rare step of creating a “mission-driven” real estate development company so that it can create, purchase, manage and lease property for arts and cultural spaces — which could include a wide range of venues and organizations, including galleries, bookstores, nonprofit dance companies and cultural community centers. The new entity would likely also develop and manage a new “Creative Economy Hub” on the second floor of the city-owned King Street Station.” – Crosscut

AI Can Now Translate Movie Dialog In The Actors Voices

Deepdub, which came out of stealth on Wednesday, has built technology that can translate a voice track to a different language, all while staying true to the voice of the talent. This makes it possible to have someone like Morgan Freeman narrate a movie in French, Italian or Russian without losing what makes Freeman’s voice special and recognizable. – Protocol