Category: issues

“Simple public [statues are] one thing. Real art is complicated. An artwork, such as a film or play, an opera or a pop song, can contain many ideas, some that we may endorse wholeheartedly, others that we might argue about, and still others that we might all find repellent, offensive or even painful. Thus, [ten Chronicle writers] look at some of the ‘Confederate monuments’ in various arts disciplines and ask: What should be our response?” – San Francisco Chronicle

Deborah Fisher, A Blade of Grass’s executive director, had to make an unenviable decision. She could retrofit the organization’s model to a pandemic-shaped world, continuing to employ her full-time staff, and ask an increasingly depleted pool of cultural funders for more and more money. Or she could make changes—big, fundamental, tough changes that would necessitate the sacrifice of people’s jobs for the prospect of a brighter future. – Artnet

The ticketseller, which took on giant Ticketmaster, has been a favorite of thousands of arts organizations for selling tickets. But since March, the company has failed to pay event organizers for the tickets they sold. – Seattle Times

Among the findings in “COVID-19 and the Performing Arts – Six Months After Closure,” the fourth report from TRG Arts on the effects of the coronavirus shutdown, are that ticket revenues are down more than 80% from last year in North America and the UK and that individual donations have fallen by a quarter in North America but by almost two-thirds in Britain. – TRG Arts

“Despite reports from some officials that have characterized the illicit trade in antiquities as a multi-billion-dollar industry and the third largest black market after the drugs and arms trades, the new [World Customs Organization] report reveals that the scale is much more modest. In fact, cultural heritage crime is so minor compared with other risk categories globally that it barely registers on Customs’ radar.” – Artnet

Americans for the Arts: “The next Administration must boldly activate the nation’s 5.1 million arts and cultural workers to address critical infrastructure, community development, innovation, and public health needs. Creative workers, and the hundreds of thousands of creative businesses they drive, have been devastated by Coronavirus more than almost any other sector —one study pegs the creative worker unemployment rate at 63% and a collective income loss of over $60 billion but stand ready to heal, strengthen, rebuild, and reimagine our communities.” – Americans for the Arts

Parks worldwide shuttered in March. Many are open now but at reduced capacity, including Disney World in Orlando, which resumed most operations in July. Disneyland in Anaheim, California remains closed. – Deadline

At a moment of such considerable environmental hostility and uncertainty about the future, we offer this report as a celebration and reminder of the arts’ enduring importance, resiliency, and vibrancy. – SMU Cultural Data

“As of 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, performance venues in Greater Montreal, Quebec City and Chaudière-Appalaches – regions now considered ‘red zones’ for the coronavirus – must close to audiences for 28 days as part of wide-ranging new measures announced by the provincial government on Monday [amidst a second wave of infections].” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

“Russian president Vladimir Putin’s 120bn ruble ($1.6bn) project to build a string of regional cultural centres with branches of leading federal museums and theatres has come under fire after … two dozen former staff members of the National Cultural Heritage Foundation, which is building the centres with funding from Russian state oil and gas profits, said that 120 contracts had been terminated in June with no notice, no severance pay and four months of salary arrears.” – The Art Newspaper