The COVID-19 lockdown, which has caused overall unit sales to drop by 27 percent, places Canadian publishers under huge financial pressure. Indigo’s continued delays in payment could push them to the brink. At the moment, their revenue is largely dependent on shuttered independent bookstores, which are limping by on online orders, Indigo-style diversification into gift sales, and home delivery. Indigo, by contrast, can’t afford to limp by; its shareholders demand a profit. – The Walrus
Tag: 07.14.20
The Arts in America — Is the Pandemic a Perfect Storm?
At a moment when culture could vitally contribute to national pride and resilience, the arts are newly challenged financially. The reverberations, internationally, disclose a sudden, naked disparity in the role of long-inherited culture as a component of the national experience in the US compared to attitudes abroad. – Joseph Horowitz
Garrulous Gary Garrels: The Thought-Police Nab Another Unguarded Curator
I’m again risking the wrath of the thought-police by coming to the defense of another consummate museum curator who has had the misfortune of wandering into the cancel-culture crosshairs. – Lee Rosenbaum
Why COVID Demands Our Best Design Thinking
You may not think of architects as the problem-solvers we need now. But now that interacting with people in any enclosed space is fraught, they are who you need. Though we have been living in a world ruled by public-health experts, few doctors and scientists can interpret their mandates in three dimensions, or understand the dynamic movement of people (and the hazardous droplets they spew) through a busy airport or sports stadium. – Medium
Remains Of Aztec Palace Discovered Near Mexico City’s Main Square
“While carrying out renovation work on the Nacional Monte de Piedad building – which dates back to 1755 and is now a historical pawnshop on Mexico city’s central plaza – workers came across unusual basalt slab floors underneath the building. According to the archaeologists, the floors had been an open area in the palace of Aztec ruler Axayacatl — father of Moctezuma, one of the final rulers of the Aztec empire — between 1469 and 1481.” – Deutsche Welle