Author: Matthew Westphal

Dorothy Gill Barnes, Sculptor In Wood And Tree Bark, Dead Of COVID At 93

“From strips of mulberry tree bark, she produced an intricate vase. To make a stout bowl, she folded hunks of poplar bark. She once wove a basket on a loom with lichen. She also created sculptures from wood, like a hollowed-out oak tree she encased with apple suckers and a work featuring branches of cherry and paulownia linked together like a necklace with glass and wire.” – The New York Times

How The New Yorker Got Tricked In One Of Its Best-Known Articles

“This week, The New Yorker attached its own extraordinary editor’s note to a National Magazine Award–winning 2018 article by staff writer and novelist Elif Batuman about Japan’s so-called rent-a-family industry, in which desperate and lonely people hire actors to play their absent fathers, wives, children, and so on. The New Yorker reported that three central figures in the story had ‘made false biographical claims to Batuman and to a fact checker,’ undermining the veracity of large swathes of the article and revealing this particular rent-a-family business to be something of a scam.” Ryu Spaeth looks into how and why this could have happened. – The New Republic

Venice’s €6 Billion Flood Barrier Probably Won’t Be Enough

“For all its exquisite engineering, MOSE is essentially a stopgap, a $6 billion duct-tape fix that could work just long enough to induce complacency. The fact that it took so long to design and build means that the technology predated the latest science. … A 2011 UNESCO report concluded that MOSE ‘might be able to avoid flooding for the next few decades, but the sea will eventually rise to a level where even continuous closures will not be able to protect the city from flooding.” – Curbed

It’s Been Six Months, And Australian Arts Organizations Still Haven’t Gotten Any Rescue Fund Money

“The $250m rescue package to arts and cultural organisations affected by Covid was announced in June, … [yet] in October it emerged in budget estimates that still no emergency funding had been disbursed.” Now the government says that some money has been designated for specific organizations, but those groups say no cash has actually arrived. – The Guardian

Pay Cuts At U.S. Orchestras May Last Beyond The Pandemic

“While musicians at some major ensembles, including the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, have agreed to steep cuts that would have been unthinkable in normal times, others are resisting. Some unions fear that the concessions being sought could outlast the pandemic, and reset the balance of power between management and labor.” – The New York Times

Classical Music’s Real Heroes Of 2020? Video Engineers

“Crowds of listeners gathering in front of crowds of musicians has been all but impossible, so ensembles have rushed to replace in-person performances with online programs — often well produced and sometimes more daring than the live concerts that had originally been planned. In the process, media departments, now much more than promotional supplements, have been the linchpins.” – The New York Times

French Senate Nearly Squashed Return Of Statues To Benin

“On Thursday, the French Senate blocked a bill that would bring 26 statues back to Benin and a sword from West Africa to Senegal. Then, the National Assembly, which has the power to rule on matters on which the Senate cannot reach a consensus, decided that the plan must move forward, putting France on track to repatriate the objects within a year.” This after the Senate unanimously approved the plan last month. – ARTnews