The letter notes that museums annually contribute $50 billion to the US economy, generate $12 billion in local, state, and federal tax, along with supporting 726,000 jobs, expressing worry that great losses in the cultural sector will displace thousands of workers and act as a blow to the greater economy. – Hyperallergic
Category: visual
Thieves Steal Bronze Gates To Seattle Arboretum In The Middle Of The Night
They were made by sculptor George Tsutakawa. The theft was discovered Thursday morning when gardeners arrived for work and discovered the gates missing and bolt cutters on the ground, said Ray Larson, curator of living collections at the arboretum. Thieves also stole downspouts from the visitor’s center. Known as the Memorial Gates, the artwork was commissioned in 1971 by the University of Washington and the Arboretum Foundation as a memorial to all who have loved and cared for the arboretum. Considered a community treasure, the gates are an irreplaceable signature of the park. – Seattle Times
How The Scientists Leading The Notre-Dame Restoration Are Working, And What They’re Learning
“Even as they try to reclaim what was lost, they and others are also taking advantage of a rare scientific opportunity. The cathedral, laid bare to inspection by the fire, is yielding clues to the mysteries of its medieval past. ‘We’ve got 40 years of research coming out of this event,’ says LRMH Assistant Director Thierry Zimmer.” Here’s an in-depth look at what the teams are doing. (Well, were doing, before work was suspended.) – Science
SCAD Hong Kong Will Close Permanently This Spring
SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) Hong Kong, which has been in operation since 2010, has a $4 million financial deficit due to low enrollment. The tuition fee of $38,440 per year for full-time undergraduate students is considered unfeasible for most local students, while students from mainland China who would be able to shoulder the financial cost of the institution often prefer to go abroad for their educations. The school only recruited eighty-eight students, or 40 percent of its target, in 2010—last year only half of its target, 156 students. – ArtForum
Be The Curator. New Online Tool Lets You Create Your Own Show
The charity Art UK, which lists every publicly owned oil painting on its online database and is in the process of adding every sculpture, has announced details of a new curation tool. It will allow members of the public to curate their own online shows, choosing from more than 200,000 oil paintings and 16,000 sculptures in UK galleries from the Shetlands to Scilly. – The Guardian
Met Museum Expects To Be Closed Until July And To Lose $100 Million
The projections were included in a letter senior management sent to department heads on Wednesday. The museum has a three-phase plan that includes likely job losses, cutting operating costs, and reduced programming for at least a year. – The New York Times
Holland Cotter’s Five-Point Plan To Save The Souls Of Traditional ‘Encyclopedic’ Museums
“They need to rethink the Temple of Beauty branding they’ve coasted on from the start. They need to acknowledge the often conflicted relationship between aesthetics and ethics. They need to address what their collections leave out. They need to reconsider their own role as history-tellers and history-inventors. In short, they need to redefine what ‘encyclopedic’ and ‘museum’ and ‘art’ can mean. … Here’s a five-point plan to move that process along in a post-coronavirus future.” – The New York Times
Take In A Museum – Ten Museums That Offer Cool Virtual Tours
These virtual tours take you right inside some of the world’s most iconic institutions. Been putting off that trip to Amsterdam to explore the Van Gogh Museum? Here’s your chance to take it all in. Dreaming of a trip to Paris that includes taking in the Louvre? You can do that, too. – Yahoo!
My Pal Inigo Philbrick, The Bernie Madoff Of The Art World
“When I first met Inigo Philbrick in 2012, he was all of 25, looked an awful lot like Justin Timberlake, and … I was immediately smitten, professionally and personally; Philbrick was sharp, fun, and funny. … And for a long time, I thought that was one of the most fortunate days of my life.” Dealer-collector-curator-Artnet columnist Kenny Schachter, for whom Philbrick made and then lost a few million dollars, writes about watching his best bud run amok, run aground, and run away. – New York Magazine
British Public Discover Treasure With Metal Detectors
The British Museum on Tuesday announced that 1,311 finds which are defined as treasure had been found by members of the public across England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2019. They also included an iron age drinking set, a solid gold bronze age arm ring and a coin which helps tell the story of Carausius, a usurper emperor who in 286AD broke Britain away from Europe, in an adventure which ended badly. – The Guardian