“[It] inhabits essentially the same universe as most of the museums that preceded it a century ago: It hopes to raise up the discourse, and spread the blessings of the educated and elite to those who hope to be educated and elite. … Everything is up to date in this museum of video screens and touch panels except its founding principle, which is the old noblesse oblige.” – The Washington Post
Author: Matthew Westphal
Quibi’s Founders, Jeffrey Katzenberg And Meg Whitman, Explain Why And How It’s Closing
Katzenberg: “There was no question that keeping us going was not going to have a different outcome, it was just going to spend a whole lot more money without any value to show for it.” Whitman: “Most entrepreneurs just keep on going [until] they literally run out of money and we just didn’t think that was the right thing to do.” – Deadline
Quibi Shuts Down After Six Months
“Quibi, the mobile-first streaming service to specialize in original shows with short five to 10-minute-long episodes, is shutting down its business operations and selling its assets little more than 6 months after launching. … It was an abrupt ending for a company founded by big names in entertainment and business worlds and seemed poised, at one point, to reinvent the streaming TV game.” – NPR
Arts Council England Gives Out Another £76 Million In COVID Relief
This round of money to 588 organizations, part of the government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund, “comes under a week after the council awarded £257 million ($333 million) to 1,385 organizations. … For the latest round of funding, institutions are eligible to receive up to £1 million in individual grants.” – Artnet
Munich’s Entire Ballet Company Quarantined After Six Dancers Contract Coronavirus
“As part of the testing strategy at the National Theatre, … one person from the Bavarian State Ballet initially tested positive for the coronavirus and subsequent tests showed up five further cases. A spokesperson said, ‘The artistic staff are now in quarantine until further testing in the coming days.'” – Gramilano (Milan)
Australian Universities Are Axing Their Theatre Programs
“Among the wide staff and course cuts prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic, multiple theatre and performance degrees” — among them the Centre for Theatre and Performance at Monash University in Melbourne, considered by many to be the best in the country — “have been closed or suspended indefinitely in recent months. … The peak body of arts educators has warned that this could wipe out future generations of Australian entertainers and disproportionately affect regional students.” – The Guardian
Another Of Yemen’s Historic Mud-Brick Palaces Is ‘At Risk Of Collapsing’
“The seven-story Seiyun Palace in Hadramawt province, currently a museum, fell into disrepair after the country descended into civil war in 2015. That left it vulnerable to the heavy rains and flash floods that hit Yemen this summer, killing dozens of people” and ravaging the medieval mud-brick buildings of Sanaa, Yemen’s capital. “An engineer said the [Seiyun Palace] was now ‘dangerous’ and appealed for help.” – BBC
“Central to the Museum’s Collection”: Arnold Lehman Blasts the Baltimore Deaccessions
“The fiduciary responsibility of a museum’s board of trustees is not to use its institution’s collection as an ATM, but rather to search out all other means to secure the future, including important changing social dynamics, while protecting the collection.” – Lee Rosenbaum
Ed Benguiat, Titan of Typefaces, Dead at 92
“He became one of the go-to designers of the second half of the last century, especially in matters of typography. His hand was behind more than 600 typefaces, several of which bear his name.” – The New York Times
Pandemic Has Turned American Theatre’s Ecosystem Upside-Down, And That Might Be A Good Thing
“COVID-19 is the great disruptor, forcing long overdue introspection and reinvention. … Theatres with lovely large venues, lots of seats, and the wherewithal to attract large numbers of people to pay large amounts of money to view virtuosic work may now be at the bottom of the theatrical food chain. Meanwhile, nimble, itinerant companies that don’t rely on ticket sales for viability may surface as the new sages.” – HowlRound