The team, led by archeologist Pieter van Dalen, were caught digging at the Macatón cemetery in the town of Huaral during the state of emergency on Sunday, April 4. The group from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos were taken into custody for breaching Peru’s strict lockdown measures, despite their claim that they were simply securing the national heritage that was left exposed at the site as agreed with the ministry of culture. – Artnet
Tag: 04.08.20
Emergency Aid To Artists (Without Lots Of Paperwork)
The emergency package has an initial pot of $10 million for 2,000 grantees. The funds are culled from the operations budgets of the seven US-based organizations: Academy of American Poets, Artadia, Creative Capital, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, MAP Fund, National YoungArts Foundation, and United States Artists. With most of the arts programming cancelled, the grants-giving organizations formed a group to design a mechanism that will allow them to give money to artists directly. – Quartz
What Explains Why Millions Are Tuning In Online To Watch Orchestras?
What explains why the Philadelphia Orchestra’s BeethovenNOW concert, with two full symphonies webcast from an empty Verizon Hall on March 12, is up to 771,000 YouTube views? Or why the Rotterdam Philharmonic’s abbreviated Beethoven 9th video — with each instrumentalist playing separately from home, titled From Us to You, is closing in on 2 million views since its March 20 posting? – Philadelphia Inquirer
Theatre Moves Online
It has been difficult at times, looking at the closed doors of theatres and remembering there are no productions to leave the house to go see or participate in. But if the last couple of weeks of new art, streamed productions, and archival releases (and Andrew Lloyd Webber giving everyone a full weekend of Donny Osmond’s Joseph) have shown anything, it’s that there is still an absolutely overwhelming amount of art out there to consume. Theatre artists may be stuck inside, but it’s certainly hard to argue that they’re not as vibrantly creative as ever. – American Theatre
Another COVID Casualty: Superheroes
Superheroes can fight secret quasi-Nazi conspiracies, invading aliens and android armies. But they are ill-equipped to fight the coronavirus. Superheroes on screen have saved the world repeatedly. But, in this real-life crisis, the Marvel Comic Universe’s vision of empowerment via teaming up to blast things to smithereens seems woefully inadequate. – The Guardian
Arts Philanthropist Anne Bass Dead At 79
The first wife of Fort Worth oil billionaire Sid Bass, she ultimately “became one of New York’s most respected philanthropists, supporting, in large but unflashy ways, the New York Botanical Garden, the Museum of Modern Art and … the New York Public Library and its Jerome Robbins Dance Division.” She was best known for her long support of New York City Ballet and its school, though she left its board in 2005 after giving warnings, then unheeded, about the behavior of the company’s and school’s leader at the time, Peter Martins. – The New York Times
TicketMaster Does It Again: Infuriates Fans With Its Refund Policy
Online, fans are fuming about being unable to get refunds for concerts that have been postponed, often with no rescheduled dates in sight. As they see it, ticketing outlets are being greedy at a time of crisis, holding billions of dollars in consumers’ cash that people now need for essentials. Their anger is being stoked by the sense that some vendors switched their refund policies mid-crisis to avoid repaying consumers. – The New York Times
‘Quarantine Soirées’ And ‘Confinement Concertos’ — How Classical Music Performance Is Developing In The Days Of Social Distancing
“So far, nothing has approached the embarrassment factor of the quarantine meditations from Madonna’s bathtub. But is this classical music’s brave new world? A temporary novelty? A dead end? And will there be some viable mechanism for getting the artists paid?” David Patrick Stearns looks at how some of the new content turning up online for homebound fans is (or isn’t) panning out. – WQXR (New York City)
Reclaiming The Private Art Experience
If we are cut off from experiencing art with others, we are perfectly placed to consider an old and out of fashion idea: the power of private contemplation and solitary engagement. The silence in the room as you read a poem or look at a print, or prepare to listen to a piece of music, isn’t absence. It is the presence of your undivided attention. – Washington Post
Original Drawings Of The Statue Of Liberty Have Been Discovered
Several drawings appear to depict a bulkier shoulder and more vertical arm—a more structurally sound arrangement. But one of these sketches (below) was marked up by an unidentified hand with red ink that tilts the arm outward. – Smithsonian Magazine