This isn’t even about COVID. According to the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art, the austerity measures that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador introduced in May of 2019 have led to budget cuts of 50% in the capital’s museums and 75% in regional museums; many staffers haven’t been paid for weeks or even months. And museum directors won’t raise this with the public or high officials for fear of reprisal. – Artnet
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French Arts Workers March Against Extension Of COVID Restrictions
“Cinemas, theatres, museums and concert halls had been set to reopen, but days in advance Prime Minister Jean Castex announced a change of heart in response to France’s stubbornly high infection rate. No reopening will take place now until at least 7 January. … Holding slogans like ‘we’re going to die, and not even on stage’, some of the demonstrators told the BBC of their anger and distress at the lockdown.” – BBC
Ballet Company Ordered To Reinstate Dancer Fired For Breaking Quarantine
In February, the Korea National Ballet was on tour in the city of Daegu when a major coronavirus outbreak arose; the company cancelled the remaining performances and ordered its dancers to self-isolate. Na Dae-han, a corps dancer who had achieved some fame on Korean reality TV, skipped off to Japan with his girlfriend instead, and he was sacked. Now the National Labour Relations Commission has ruled Na’s dismissal unfair and told the KNB to take him back. – Gramilano (Milan)
Bruk Up: A Street Dancer Talks About Moving In Pieces
Jamal Sterrett, 24, from St Ann’s in Nottingham, performs a style known as bruk up, which originates from Jamaica. It means thinking about your body broken up in pieces. BBC
How Country Music Obscured Its Black Roots
“Much of the history of country music has been displaced by convenient myths created during the genre’s commercialisation in the early 20th century. Travelling the American South in the 1920s looking for white performers and songs, Ralph Peers, a white record executive, played an important role in obscuring the Black roots of the genre.” – The Conversation
Who The Book Thieves Are
“Historically, book thieves have come in two varieties. First, there are the rogue custodians, those who exploit their privileged access to literary treasures. In June this year, Gregory Priore, an archivist at the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh, was convicted of stealing more than 300 rare books and other artefacts estimated to be worth around £6m over a 20-year period. Then there are the academics – or, at least, those who profess an academic interest in the texts they go on to steal.” – The Guardian
Struggling Museums Turn To Artists For Help
“As many donors pull back from giving or feel institutions’ needs dwarf what they can offer, museums have upped the ante with an irresistible draw: the opportunity to buy art that collectors might not otherwise have access to. As the need for funding grows greater and hits institutions of all sizes, artists are increasingly offering up their work—and their time—to help the cause.” – Artnet
Proposed Hirshhorn Garden Makeover Faces Skeptical Park Commission
Commissioners repeatedly expressed skepticism about core elements of the redesign proposed by the artist Hiroshi Sugimoto, with one warning the end result could make the Sculpture Garden look like an “Olive Garden.” – The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Gitxsan Got Talent: Indigenous Community Harnesses Internet To Champion Its Culture
By harnessing the very technology that once threatened to erase it, the group is renewing interest in the language. Gitxsan communities also have a mobile app, available on both the Google play store and the Apple App store, which they use as a resource for learning the language by listening to stories and spoken words. – Global Voices
Archaeologist Deciphers 4,400-Year-Old Writing System, Now Tied For World’s Oldest
“François Desset has succeeded in deciphering Linear Elamite, a writing system used in Iran 4,400 years ago. In its archaic proto-Elamite version (from 3300 BC), it joins the two oldest writing systems known in the world, the proto-cuneiform of the Mesopotamians and the Egyptian hieroglyphics.” (in French; for Google Translate version, click here) – Sciences et Avenir (France)