Category: issues

The current crisis is also a policy crisis. It illuminates the need to support artists more fulsomely and creatively throughout the various stages of their careers. Central to this is imagining ways to limit the precarity of the gig economy which, perhaps surprisingly, characterizes the careers of even the highest echelon of performers, classical or otherwise. – The Conversation

“For a number of weeks, we have been talking about what would it take to be able to bring people back, how seating in the theaters could be with social distancing and thinking about the performers onstage. But it became increasingly apparent, for the safety of our artists and audience and our staff, it was going to be impossible to do that in the near term.” – Washington Post

“Whether it’s the artist Tschabalala Self discussing the fraught experience of seeing her paintings be sold, like her ancestors, at auction or the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Michael R. Jackson searching for his characters’ interiority, their perspectives distill what it means (and what it has meant) to be black in America.” – T — The New York Times Style Magazine

According to the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, film, TV, theater, music, advertising, publishing, and digital content in New York provide 305,000 jobs, and an annual economic output of $104 billion. What happens when the very things that bring so many people to New York are forced to shut down? When we’re banned from congregating in sanctuaries of art, drama, dance, comedy, literature, and music, where does the culture go? – National Geographic

Arts lecturers tend to be employed on casual contracts. With universities closing in-person classes, these lecturers are being laid off en masse. – The Art Newspaper

Gone are the days of monolithic support. The philanthropic field is diverse, dispersed, and interconnected. As such, funders must collaborate in order to move forward. These alliances should also include partnerships between for-profit and not-for-profit businesses. They have the same stakeholders; why not bring them to the table? – Artsy

“City Council has put money for the arts back into the administration’s revised COVID-19-ravaged 2021 budget, including full restoration of the subsidy for the African American Museum in Philadelphia. But the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, the city’s key funding apparatus for arts support, has been restored to only about one-third its pre-COVID-19 level of $3 million.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer

One problem is that our arts palaces lock in comparably palatial costs. In this grave new world, bigness, in fact, is actually a bug, not a feature. Producing in mega-venues like Portland5 or the Hult Center is so expensive that they discourage artistic risk as well as affordable tickets. The unviability of the centralized, large-scale approach will be exacerbated by the new virus-imposed restrictions coming down the pike if this crisis proves to be more than a one-time aberration. – Oregon Arts Watch

According to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s timetable, theaters and concert halls will be part of the fourth and last phase of reopening, but even the brand-name institutions wonder how easily they can pick up where they left off. – New York Magazine