Tag: 12.11.20

Mexico’s Museums Are Desperate — And Afraid To Say So: Commission

This isn’t even about COVID. According to the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art, the austerity measures that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador introduced in May of 2019 have led to budget cuts of 50% in the capital’s museums and 75% in regional museums; many staffers haven’t been paid for weeks or even months. And museum directors won’t raise this with the public or high officials for fear of reprisal. – Artnet

Vox Media’s CEO Doesn’t Want It To Be Like Condé Nast. He Wants It To Be Like Disney.

Jim Bankoff: “Disney makes money by bringing its properties to consumers in different ways. … We have everything from programmatic advertising to podcasting, to creating TV shows to having a magazine, to affiliate e-commerce to subscriptions. So we have our own way of making money off our creative franchises.” – Vanity Fair

New York City’s Arts Groups May Start Performing Again This Spring — Outdoors

“The City Council passed legislation on Thursday that allows any [city- or borough-] funded artist and cultural organizations, venues or institutions to be able to utilize public outdoor spaces for ticketed events and performances. And any artist and venue can partner with an eligible organization for permits as well.” The program, called Open Culture, begins March 1. – Gothamist

Controversial Korean Filmmaker Kim Ki-Duk, 59, Dead Of COVID

“[He] was known as the bad boy of Asian art-house cinema and made his name with a series of visually stunning but extremely violent films, including The Isle (2000) and Bad Guy (2001). … Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Spring (2003), .. a sharp contrast with Kim’s previous work, was an international art-house hit. Pieta (2012), a story of redemption featuring a loan shark mobster (and more of Kim’s trademark visceral violence), won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Kim’s directing career was derailed in 2018 when three women came forward accusing him and his Bad Guy star Cho Jae-hyun of rape and sexual assault.” – The Hollywood Reporter

How Notre-Dame’s Enormous Grand Organ Was Taken Apart For Cleaning

Amazingly, the 8,000-pipe, five-keyboard instrument escaped serious damage in last year’s catastrophic fire. But all the pipes and mechanisms were covered in lead dust from the collapsed roof, and they require decontamination and repair. The organ’s disassembly was recently completed, nearly two months ahead of schedule (!), and it’s expected to be back in place in April of 2024. (But will it be?) – Smithsonian Magazine

Could The Streaming Wars Hit Their Peak In 2021?

The problem with all this growth is that eventually streaming services will just run out of households to sign up. This year, video-on-demand services have seen more growth than any other time in their history… But in 2021 the industry could see a massive cooling. Everyone will have tried everything and pretty much decided which ones they’re sticking to. – Wired

Dancing on Stone and in Water

I’ve said it before, and forgive me if I say it again: Dancers can’t not dance. There they are on my laptop’s window — at work in their apartments, in parks, on piers, and in empty streets. Maybe partners and roommates have filmed you performing; maybe you just attached your cell phone to a music stand and shooed the cat away. Dušan Týnek’s Quarry Dance IX is nothing like that. – Deborah Jowitt