Dispatches

COVID-19 Will Likely Be With Us Forever. Here’s How We’ll Live With It.

Experts say that SARS-CoV-2’s exact post-pandemic trajectory will depend on three major factors: how long humans retain immunity to the virus, how quickly the virus evolves, and how widely older populations become immune during the pandemic itself. (National Geographic)

How Arts and Cultural Institutions Have Responded to the Pandemic #1

It has not been easy for UK institutions, but there has at least been emergency funding from public bodies, foundations and the government’s cultural recovery fund. The future of arts and cultural organisations is uncertain but, for now, they are mostly still there. There – but doing what? (François Matarasso)

Museums Around the World Step Up to Be Transformed into Vaccination Centres

Museums worldwide, which are currently closed due to coronavirus restrictions, are doubling up as Covid-19 vaccine centres. In England, London's Science Museum is expected to open up for vaccinations, as is the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, while the Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds has been vaccinating patients since December last year. In Italy, the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art outside Turin will become the first gallery in the country to be used as a vaccine centre. (The Art Newspaper)

New Research Shows UK Museums Have Lost Over 74% of Visitors in 2020

The UK’s wide array of museums and galleries had no choice but to close their doors multiple times last year (2020) as the country became overwhelmed by the Covid-19 pandemic. New research has found that overall, from all the reviewed museums and galleries in their research, there was an average 74% decrease in visitor numbers from January to September 2020. (FAD Magazine)

An Untapped Income Opportunity for the Arts: Jennifer Rosenfeld

Jennifer Rosenfeld believes there is a massive financial opportunity for arts organizations between the very extreme zone of low ticket prices and enormous major gifts. In this episode, she shares how arts organizations can create significant new earned income revenue streams through in-depth educational and experience-oriented programs. (CI to Eye Podcast)

3 Trends for Museums in Monetizing Virtual Offerings

During this time when many museum halls are closed or at reduced capacity, the art world has moved online. As the timeline stretches in many parts of the world, art institutions have found new, innovative ways to offer content — and in some cases, are finding avenues for revenue in their digital initiatives. (Advisory Board for the Arts)

English National Opera and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust Announce National Rollout of ENO Breathe Programme for People Recovering from COVID-19

A partnership between ENO and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, ENO Breathe is an integrated social prescribing programme of singing, breathing and wellbeing, breaking new ground as the first of its kind created to provide crucial support to people recovering from COVID-19. (English National Opera)

Impact Investment and Diversity in the Arts: Outlining the Challenge I Want to Solve

Racial inequality in arts funding will not be resolved by grants alone. A BAME-led investment fund would be a pragmatic and transformative solution. (Kevin Osborne)

Trump Tried to End Federal Arts Funding. Instead, It Grew.

Each year, President Trump’s proposed federal budget eliminated funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. But the agency survived, largely by relying on bipartisan support in Congress. (The New York Times)

The Relationships Between Cultural Organisations and Local Creative Industries in the Context of a Cultural District

Commissioned by the Nesta-led Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre in 2020, AEA Consulting has released a report exploring the relationships between cultural organisations and local creative industries in the context of UK-based cultural districts. Focusing on Culture Mile in London as the key case study of a cultural district, AEA compared emerging findings to five other UK cultural clusters. (AEA Consulting)

WeWork, Miami, and the Future of Cities

To date, the economic debate has been focused almost exclusively on the physical movement of people between sovereign countries. With the advent of remote work, additional questions come to mind: 1) Where will people migrate to if they could live anywhere?, 2) How will remote-work-driven immigration reshape urban politics? (Dror Poleg)

A Building as Big as the World: The Anarchist Architects Who Foresaw Endless Expansion

Italy’s Superstudio collective warned against rampant development by imagining one continuous structure stretching around Earth. But did their warning actually inspire new Saudi plans for a 100-mile linear city? (The Guardian)

The Science Museum’s Never Before Seen Website Show You Objects with Zero Views

In an era where huge value is placed on high numbers of views and shares, people are increasingly craving the opposite – the excitement of seeing something enigmatic and undiscovered. the Science Museum Group's latest web tool Never Been Seen offers some of that esoteric discovery. (It’s Nice That)

Prompted by the Pandemic, Opera Philadelphia Innovates Online

Opera Philadelphia pluckily spent 2020 commissioning new work and launching its own streaming service, OperaPhila.tv. Compared with other American companies, Opera Philadelphia is laying claim to the mantle of making new material during the pandemic. (The New York Times)

Esa-Pekka Salonen and S.F. Symphony to Debut a Streaming Services Meant to Go on Beyond Pandemic

Now, the San Francisco Symphony has a designated home for its digital offerings – one that Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen says will outlive the current constraints to become a regular part of the Symphony’s activities. The new on-demand streaming service, dubbed SFSymphony+, is scheduled to launch on Feb. 4 with a chamber program curated by Salonen as part of the orchestra’s SoundBox series. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Climate of Change

Julie Decker, PhD, Director/CEO of the Anchorage Museum in Alaska, writes about the museum as an influential setting for the climate change narrative, and how museums may adapt practices, professional development and HR management to better respond to the change that confronts the communities they serve. (Coalition of Museums for Climate Justice)

The MET’s ‘About Time’: What is the Museum Industry’s Role in Sustainability?

Art museums are being called upon to reduce their large carbon footprints from transporting art, conserving it, to keeping the buildings themselves running, but they are also being called upon, as cultural institutions to use their influence on the masses to promote education on contemporary issues and their impact on society.  Is the art world changing directions, and if so, is enough being done? (Observer) 

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