“We need to recognize that the business of the arts is not like an automotive assembly line that regularly turns out new homologated “products” for eager consumers. The play is not the thing. The skilled actors, directors, playwrights-in-residence, choreographers, dancers, musicians, designers and technicians of all kinds are the thing and always have been the thing. It is their daily labour that fashions and molds this creative art form we call the theatre.” – AisleSay
Category: issues
An Opportunity To Restructure How Arts Organizations Are Governed?
For performing arts venues where a high level of public funding is invested, this may be the time to let go of the myth that somehow, a member of the audience of venue A is exclusive to that organisation and not recognised as being a potential participant in all local performing arts. Letting go of protective control over relationships with single customers and integrating sales and marketing functions – including the box office – could yield several hundreds of thousands of pounds in many areas. – Arts Professional
Can Copyright Catch Up To The Coronavirus Boom In Digital Culture?
From just about everything on TikTok to Broadway performers singing Sondheim on YouTube, there’s a lot of culture on the internet right now – and very few of the creators of that culture are getting their cut. “Streaming images, video, music and books turn every interaction and event into a performance, display or broadcast of intellectual property. And the law requires licenses for such streaming to protect the content of the creators.” – Los Angeles Times
COVID-As-Opportunity: Enough With Utopias, We Need Practical Ideas
“Maybe I’ve missed the more nuanced views, but if feels like the only people out there – in my echo chambered world at any rate – who admit that they can’t be sure are those with the most wisdom to express some degree of certainty – our epidemiologists and other medical scientists. Too many other people are using this crisis to justify their own existing view of the world’s dystopia, and already-formed hopes for a future utopia.” – Cultural Learning Alliance
Please (Don’t) Touch (Without Hand Sanitizer): How Children’s Museums And Interactive Exhibits Are Trying To Reopen Safely
“As states ease restrictions, many museums and animal attractions are next in line to reopen, if they haven’t already. Like other businesses, they must enforce social distancing rules and reduce touch points, measures that run counter to their high level of interactivity. … To better understand how attractions are reimagining their experiences, we reached out to several museums, aquariums, zoos and wildlife centers in the country. Here is a snapshot of their look-Ma-no-hands plans.” – The Washington Post
Boris Johnson’s Government Releases ‘Roadmap’ To Restarting Live Performance; Arts World Says, Is That All There Is?
“On Thursday, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden published the five-stage plan for a ‘phased return’, which will initially let performances take place outdoors, with indoors performances to follow later.” The plan is being widely dismissed as inadequate: one theatre exec called it “as useful a map as a snakes and ladders board,” and the chair of the Writers’ Guild said that “a road map is only any use if you have enough petrol to get you where you need to go.” – BBC
We’re Witnessing The Death Of Shopping Malls
By mid-May, 28 percent of the surveyed members of Restaurants Canada, which represents 30,000 restaurants and food-service operations across the country, either said they were never reopening or predicted they would close unless conditions quickly improved. After rent came due on June 1, nearly half of the members of the Retail Council of Canada reported they had not been able to pay their rent at all; over a quarter of them said that landlords had threatened to either change their locks or formally evict them as tenants. – The Walrus
Survey: Racial Gaps In Perception Of Benefits Of Higher Education
New America found that 86 percent of whites and 89 percent of Asian Americans believe that those who pursue higher education will have more job opportunities than those who do not. But only 69 percent of Black people surveyed and 74 percent of Latinos agreed. The study also found generational differences. Nearly all of those in the generation preceding baby boomers, 99 percent, thought higher education brings economic mobility. Ninety-five percent of baby boomers agreed. – InsideHigherEd
Australian Government Announces $250M Rescue Package For Arts
The program includes $90 million to underwrite bank loans to fund new productions, $35 million in additional money for organizations already funded by the federal government, $50 million to finance the restart of film and video production, and $75 million in grants to events businesses to fund new touring shows and festivals. (But will it be enough?) – The Guardian
Pandemic Has Shut Down The Cultural Economy Of The Berkshires
The COVID-19 crisis has devastated the Berkshires, where tourists flock for theater, art, music, and dance, as well as yoga, spa treatments, and hiking and biking amid wooded hills. One after another this spring, world-renowned organizations canceled their seasons or shut their doors, some for the entire year — crippling the Berkshires’ tourism industry and the more than 8,000people working in it. – Boston Globe