Tag: 07.16.20

New Waves Of Arts Layoffs In Chicago – A Profession Dismantling

You might argue that furloughs are inevitable, given the inability of theaters to perform indoors in front of more than 50 people under current city and state guidelines. But it’s not the furloughs that have been so surprising: It’s the permanent layoffs, indicating that the boards of non-profit organizations just don’t see any imminent return to normal operations. Time and time again, I’ve heard that the job losses were necessary to protect the future of the institution. – Chicago Tribune

Where Classical Crossover Is Headed Now

James Bennett, II: “First, we looked at the technology and market realizations that set crossover up for a late 1980s-90s boom. Then we explored how that bubble burst. But crossover today isn’t dead — it’s just assumed a new form, as it’s done throughout its long history. Now, it’s less opera-pop and more chamber covers of popular music. And if recent pre-COVID concerts are any indicator, concerts centered around popular film and television scores might be selling out for years to come. At least if you’re Hans Zimmer.” – WQXR (New York City)

The Trump Organization And Insurance Companies Kept This Film Off U.S. Screens For Four Years. Now It’s Finally Coming Out

Documentarian Anthony Baxter writes about how his 2016 film You’ve Been Trumped Too — which shows how the seizure of land for and the construction of Trump’s Scottish golf resort affected nearby residents, including one farm family whose water supply has been cut off ever since — was suppressed by legal threats from the Trump Organization and the exorbitant premiums demanded by companies for providing errors-and-omissions insurance. – The Guardian

France Begins Process Of Returning Looted Artworks To Benin

“The government examined the first draft of a law … which legislates that specific items known to have been looted must be returned permanently to their places of origin within one year. … The objects the law would see deaccessioned from French collections include 26 objects taken from the royal palace of Abomey in 1892, which are currently held at the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac.” (There is also a historically important sword that would be returned to Senegal.) – Artnet

One Of Off-Broadway’s Top Theatres Announces A Season With Artists But Without Plays

“In place of what most theatergoers have come to regard as a ‘season,’ the New York Theatre Workshop — the birthplace of Rent [and Slave Play], among other landmarks — is offering what you might call a 2020-21 un-season. A programmatic embodiment of the possible, fueled by the percolating brains of more than two dozen playwrights, directors, actors and performance artists.” Peter Marks explains how it will work. – The Washington Post

London’s Southbank Centre Will Lay Off Up To Two-Thirds Of Its Staff

“The job losses are expected to affect all areas of the organisation, which comprises venues including the Hayward Gallery and Royal Festival Hall, as well as being home to eight orchestras, the National Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. The [Centre] has furloughed the majority of its 600 employees, and in May predicted it could face a £5.1m deficit for the 2020-21 financial year.” – The Guardian

How The LA Phil Is Moving Forward

“Whatever we do right now,” Gustavo Dudamel said, “has to have an impact not only in the time we are living but also to help us achieve what we can do in the next years. That’s why we were not rushing to do a thousand things, to do this or that. We went to the heart of what transformations we need to make and what we think can work.” – Los Angeles Times