“Lynch’s decision on Wednesday comes after a Washington Post report revealed widespread condemnation of AFTA by advisory council members and current and former staff, who criticized what they have deemed insufficient efforts toward racial equity, transparency and accountability. The article also described charges of a hostile workplace that included sexual harassment, retaliation and intimidation.” – The Washington Post
Blog
Court Rules For Museum, Against Heirs In Case Of Kandinsky Bought Under Nazis
“In a decision watched closely by restitution experts, a court in Amsterdam ruled on Wednesday that the Stedelijk Museum there can retain a Wassily Kandinsky painting that it acquired during World War II and which came from a Jewish collection. The 1909 work, Painting with Houses, has been the focus of a restitution battle that has been viewed as a litmus test for Dutch restitutions policy.” – The New York Times
Man Who Burned Down Kyoto Animation Studio Charged With Murder
In July of 2019, Shinji Aoba, now 42, allegedly poured gasoline around the studio building and set it alight; the fire killed 36 people and injured 33 more, including the suspect himself. (Prosecutors had to wait until he had recovered from his burns and undergone an extended psychiatric evaluation before they could indict him.) Aoba now faces trial for murder, attempted murder, arson, trespass, and breaking Japan’s arms-control law. – Variety
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
The Double Bind For Writers Of Color
The writer of colour is thus trapped in a double bind. Racism must be investigated and challenged, but what does it mean if there is only one acceptable framework for addressing the issue? What does it mean if diversity initiatives laud only one kind of story? – The Walrus
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
Giant, Centuries-Old Headless Buddha Discovered In Chinese City
“The 9m-high (30-foot) statue, with its head missing, was uncovered on a cliff between two high-rise residential buildings in the Nanan district of Chongqing. It is not clear when the statue was carved” — it’s believed to date to the Qing dynasty — “and local authorities are still investigating its cultural value.” – South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
Frick Tricks: Reinvention to Convention, as Peripatetic Displays Move from Brutalist to Beaux Arts
While many museums are experimenting with quirky new ways of organizing their permanent-collection displays, the Frick Collection is going in the opposite direction: It will use its planned temporary occupation of the Breuer building to unveil a more conventionally coherent presentation of its holdings than was seen in its flagship building. – Lee Rosenbaum
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