covid19

Hermitage Amsterdam close to reaching €1m in urgent crowdfunding appeal to survive Covid-19 crisis

Faced with a “dramatic” deficit after being closed for six months by stop-start pandemic restrictions, the Hermitage Amsterdam launched an unprecedented crowdfunding appeal on 25 March: “Keep the Hermitage Open”. The museum, an independent offshoot of the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, is now close to reaching its ambitious €1m target after racking up more than…

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While US museum attendance nosedived in 2020 amid pandemic, disparities in reopenings yielded a few surprises

Amid months-long shutdowns across the country beginning in mid-March in response to the coronavirus pandemic, which resulted in a 70%-80% drop in attendance for most US institutions, two museums fared relatively better. The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California, ranked fourth among US museums, attracting 547,500 visitors as a result…

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Collaboration the Key to Success of Pandemic-Themed Art Exhibit

For the first time in the history of the Museum Administration Master of Arts (M.A.) degree program, St. John’s students curated an exhibit outside of the Dr. M. T. Geoffrey Yeh Art Gallery in a virtual gallery, custom-designed by students to display more than 30 pieces.  The new exhibit, “UNPRECEDENTED: Posters from a World on Pause,” showcases posters, gifs,…

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Calling all (digital) bookworms: virtual art book fair gives publishers a lifeline during the pandemic

Prompting by the global pandemic, galleries and art fairs have migrated online in the past year to provide new commercial and curatorial digital platforms to view and sell art. Now art books are getting their place in the virtual sun with the launch of Printed Matter’s Virtual Art Book Fair (25-28 February), an online event comprising more…

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Governments are ‘weaponising’ Covid-19 to silence dissident artist voices, report says

Seventeen artists were killed, 82 were imprisoned and 133 detained over the past year in 26 countries, according to Freemuse in its latest State of Artistic Freedom report. The survey, published last week by the the Copenhagen-based human rights organisation, is based on the analyses of 978 incidents regarding “violations to the right to freedom of artistic expression”…

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Entrepreneurs Bet Big on Immersive Art Despite Covid-19

Even as the pandemic takes its toll on tourism, immersive museums and experiential art centers are expanding to new cities and wooing investors willing to gamble on the future of the emerging industry. Fotografiska wanted to introduce New Yorkers to a different type of museum when it opened in December 2019 in Manhattan, welcoming visitors…

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Desert X postpones opening amid Covid-19 surge in California

As California hits a bleak coronavirus milestone this month, with nearly 10% of the population infected, organisers of Desert X in the Coachella Valley have announced that the forthcoming edition of the outdoor sculpture exhibition will be postponed until lockdown restrictions have been lifted in the state. The third edition of the exhibition, which has become…

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Lost art: Measuring COVID-19’s devastating impact on America’s creative economy

The COVID-19 crisis hits hard at arts, culture, and the creative economy. This study estimates the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on the creative economy, which is comprised of industries such as film, advertising, and fashion as well as creative occupations such as musicians, artists, performers, and designers. We estimate losses in sales of goods…

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