Category: issues

As the arts sectors in the rest of the world look on and sob, “the German federal government has announced that it will increase its culture and media budget by more than €120 million ($140 million) in 2021, bringing the culture ministry’s total budget up to €1.94 billion ($2.26 billion). … Culture minister Monika Grütters says that such a strong budget for the final year before the German elections underscores the country’s commitment to culture, especially on top of its existing billion-dollar coronavirus rescue program.” – Artnet

Society’s attention to them has always been spotty, but they had at least been visible—one saw them on the way to school, in their blue or burgundy uniforms, or in the park and the playground afterward. Now they were behind closed doors, and so were we, with full license to turn inward. While we dutifully stayed home to flatten the curve, children like Shemar were invisible. – The New Yorker

When making your decision, John Swartzberg, an infectious disease specialist and clinical professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, suggests asking yourself: How important is this versus the risk of it? – The New York Times

“One of the things we’re learning in the Covid-19 era is that is that community is not defined only by proximity, or space. It’s defined by interest, and I think a lot about the music that we have in our repertoire and the music that should be more a part of the traditional canon of our repertoire.” – Medium

“Rio’s League of Samba Schools, LIESA, announced Thursday night that the spread of the coronavirus has made it impossible to safely hold the traditional parades that are a cultural mainstay and, for many, a source of livelihood. … And while the decision is being characterized as a postponement of the event, no new date has been set.” – AP

The money being made in the cultural sector isn’t being made by artists. It is being made by digital platforms and corporate conglomerates. These are deliberate transfers of wealth, not unintended consequences. – ArtsFuse

The Ford Foundation this week is announcing an unprecedented $160 million-and-growing initiative called America’s Cultural Treasures, with substantial grants going to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) organizations across the country. The grants are, in most cases, the largest ever for the 20 recipients in the first round. – Washington Post

Although the enrollment declines were steepest at community colleges (-7.5 percent), undergraduate enrollment fell at all types of colleges, including private nonprofit four-year colleges (-3.8 percent) and private for-profit four-year colleges (-1.9 percent). The decline was more modest at public four-year colleges (-0.4 percent), although there were differences across public four-year institutions according to location, with rural institutions seeing the biggest decline (-4 percent) and urban institutions seeing slight gains (+0.5 percent). – Inside Higher Ed

Artists, designers, filmmakers, and writers and the organizations that serve them have a unique power to craft and circulate art and stories that illustrate what is at stake — schools, hospitals, infrastructure, and more — and inspire people to respond. They can adapt quickly and touch people in our new digital reality. The census and organizers in the civic engagement space need them right now. – Hyperallergic

“We look at the toll the shutdown is taking through data (jobs vanished, revenues gone), visuals (picturing the season that isn’t) and personal stories (22 arts workers who should have been working this weekend, and what they’re doing instead). One weekend, lost, but also, so much more.” – The New York Times