Quo vadis ars?

The situation in the cultural sector has been described and discussed in numerous interviews, corona diaries, comments and reports in the past few weeks. Our annotated collection of currently 193 sources gathers voices from different sectors and media. This creates a picture of the cultural landscape in crisis, whose temporal transformation can be explored interactively via a dedicated tag cloud.


 

Jeff Koons, Gagosian Gallery, and Many Other Blue-Chip Art Operations Received Millions of Dollars in Government Stimulus Money

by Taylor Dafoe (07 Jul 2020)
Original source: artnet news

Art seems to be a different business in the US if you look to the public aid during the crisis not only for museums, but also for galleries and artist studios. According to the data released by the federal Treasury Department not only galleries as Pace, David Zwirner and Gagosian received millions but also the studios of Jeff Koons or Meow Wolff. The lists of who received how much is publically available. 

tag USA Galerien Soforthilfe Museum
Visual Arts/Design Bericht

Contra: Kunst hat eine schlechte Klimabilanz . Pro und Contra Kulturreisen
Contra: Art has a poor carbon footprint . The pros and cons of cultural travel

by Catrin Lorch (05 Jul 2020)
Original source: Süddeutsche Zeitung

With the new requirements for visiting exhibitions, mega-exhibitions are a thing of the past. Visitor numbers are becoming incalculable, and even the municipalities themselves will probably be short of money in the near future. With a reduced number of visitors, horrendous costs for loaning and for the exhibition concept can no longer be paid. It is not only the climate balance and economic efficiency, but also common sense that calls for a return to the local audience.

tag Bildende Kunst Kulturtourismus Klimabilanz lokales Publikum
Performing Arts/ Cinema Diskussion

Pro: Kunst ist Kulturverständigung - und deshalb politisch . Pro und Contra Kulturreisen
Pro: Art is cultural understanding - and therefore political . The pros and cons of cultural travel

by Nicolas Freund (05 Jul 2020)
Original source: Süddeutsche Zeitung

Cultural trips are more than luxury? Historically, art has long been reserved only for the ruling classes. If one follows the thesis formulated by the writer John Berger in his essay "Ways of Seeing", the consideration of art is not only a democratic act, but also a place of confrontation with the past precisely because of the detachement of the ruling caste. The change of perspective in the present makes art at the same time an ideal place for the negotiation of social discourses. Therefore, one should not recklessly give up the privilege of participating in a rt events, just because it is a little more difficult to reach exhibition cities at the moment.

Read More Read Less

tag Bildende Kunst Kulturtourismus Original Demokratie Austausch
Visual Arts/Design Diskussion

What’s the ideal post-pandemic art market? One that's no longer a Disneyland for the rich . Capitalism has gobbled up the art world over the past decade—it is high time for a reset

by Jane Kallir (22 Jun 2020)
Original source: The Art Newspaper

The art world expanded beyond the limits of sustainability even before Covid 19 states art dealer and curator Jane Kallir in her comment. A few big galleries and auction houses have taken over the art world and turning it into a big commerce for the rich jetset. Diversity changed to a “limited market of the bankable recognisable few” (Melanie Gerlis) pushing the smaller galleries out of the market.
For Kallir this trend to commercialisation was initiated in the 1980’s expanding in the last decades massively the art market and turning art works on the one side into a speculative object for short-term profit and on the other side into crowd-pleasing entertainments. An ideal post-pandemic world art would be no longer such a Disneyland for the rich.

Read More Read Less

tag Kunstmarkt Galerien Kommerzialisierung Jetset
Visual Arts/Design Kommentar

Eight ways museums could make most of the coronavirus crisis . Failure to seize this opportunity to make changes would be a graver error than any breach of etiquette

by Adrian Ellis (11 Jun 2020)
Original source: The Art Newspaper

This article by Adrian Ellis draws from conversations in early May 2020 with museum directors in New York, Salem, Buffalo and Kansas City. They all agree to use the crisis to redefine the tasks of a museum by the following opportunities:
- Revaluating a new metrics of success
- Reviewing the strategies for exhibitions and education programmes
- Local social binding as «community anchors» by engaging the neighbourhood and deepening local partnerships
- Nurturing the virtual community
- Recalibrating the (conservative) organisati onal culture establishing mission and values
- Harnessing art to reimagine society
Read More Read Less

tag Museum Neuausrichtung Museumspädagogik Strategie Digitalisierung
Visual Arts/Design Bericht

Das Eine-Milliarde-Euro-Baby
The One-Billion-Euro-Baby

by Dirk Peitz (05 Jun 2020)
Original source: Zeit

Dirk Peitz explores the question of how the crisis of culture in Germany can be described exactly and who is currently bearing the costs that arise in the cultural sector. The »latent lack of systemic relevance« could become a problem for the industry if the economic crisis becomes more severe or lasts longer than currently expected. While the approximately 1.7 million employees are currently an argument in favour of artists, cultural funding could be discontinued very quickly in times of tight budgets.

tag Monika Grütters Konjunkturpaket Kulturförderung Systemrelevanz
All sections Analyse

Was wir im Lockdown über das Digitale gelernt haben

by Anika Meier (02 Jun 2020)
Original source: Monopol

The corona crisis has accelerated the shift to the digital world. Art exhibitions were also presented online in times of lockdown. If there is no other choice, even these institutions who have tended to avoid online media are now turning to social media to communicate and exchange ideas. In her column, Anika Meier examines what we have learned with regard to the digital world during the crisis, presenting various activities of the recent months, from livestreams via Instagram to online viewing rooms and augmented reality. In doing so, she urges art critics to think about new standards for evaluating art on the Net. Naive euphoria or unreflected criticism of the fact that virtual exhibitions cannot replace real museum visits do not do justice to either the artistic-curatorial claim or the medium.

Read More Read Less

tag Online Viewing Room Streaming Augmented Reality Hans Ulrich Obrist Iwan Wirth Koo Jeong A Krise als Chance
Visual Arts/Design Kolumne

Kultur-Sofortprogramm: »Das reicht nicht aus«
Immediate Action Program for Culture: »This is not sufficient«

by Olaf Zimmermann, Jürgen Deppe (25 May 2020)
Original source: NDR Kultur

For small and medium-sized cultural institutions, the resumption of their program in compliance with the rules of hygiene entails expenditures. For this purpose, support can be applied for from the "Neustart" emergency program launched by the federal Ministers of State for Cultur, Monika Grütters. Last week, Grütters announced that the originally budgeted funds had to be doubled because of the high demand. Olaf Zimmermann welcomes this initiative of the Ministers of State for Culture and the gradual return to normality in the cultural sector, but also points out in an interview with the NRD that this program is not sufficient. On the one hand, it merely involves reallocated funds from the State Minister of Culture's budget that are currently not needed elsewhere, but on the other hand it also requires a specific culture pool to support the industry. Here he sees the federal government as having a duty. In the individual German states, the freelance artists have received support in very different ways, but this support will expire at the end of June. Here it is urgently required to think about new concepts, because the crisis is far from over for the cultural sector.

Read More Read Less

tag Kulturförderung Monika Grütters Neustart Kultur
All sections Interview

»Die Blockbuster haben ausgedient« . Museen nach dem Shutdown
»The blockbusters had their day« . Museums after shutdown

by Hans D. Christ, Iris Dressler (23 May 2020)
Original source: Welt

In a conversation with WELT newspaper, the heads of the Württembergischer Kunstverein in Stuttgart Iris Dressler and Hans D. Christ make an argument to take advantage of the lockdown for a deeper reflection on the art world. Their text is not only a plea for a reasonable payment for the artists, but at the same time an invitation to the art institutions not to focus on a mass audience in the future, but rather to understand the houses as spaces of ideas and discourse, in which sociopolitical issues are negotiated.

tag Museen Blockbuster Honorar
Visual Arts/Design Interview

When Will We Want to Be in a Room Full of Strangers Again? . Theater, an industry full of optimists, is reckoning with a heartbreaking realization.

by Helen Lewis (12 May 2020)
Original source: The Atlantic

Theatre matters to Britain not only in economic term being a drive of tourism. As Helen Lewis underlines commercial run theatres are more interconnected with the subsidized theatre sector as expected. Especially smaller theatres function as percolators for the future careers of actors and directors. This ecosystem is no under threat: The state funding distributed by The Arts Council spent  £160 million ($200 million) as crisis grants to organizations and individual workers in need. This helped indeed theatres to survive. But the question looms large what will come after when these funds will be exhausted this summer. Above all the economic but the hygiene restrictions will reduce the program and the size of the paying audience. But the author fears in the context of the pandemic also a shift in quality from “excellence” to “relevance.”

Read More Read Less

tag Arts Council Theater United Kingdom
Performing Arts/ Cinema Bericht

News

Twitter


The signet of facing arts joining the faces of STORM.

Facing arts is a non-profi project. Feel free to support it and get in touch with us!

The Team

Facing arts is a projet by STORM.

STORM is an acronym playing with the initials by Miriam Seidler & Tim Otto Roth, who are hit both by the Corona crisis. Dr. Miriam Seidler is a scholar in German literature and currently works as specialist in public relations. Dr. Tim Otto Roth is a scholar in art and science history and works as a conceptual artist and composer. He is known for his huge projects in public space, cooperations with leading scientific institutions and his immersive sound and light installations. Miriam and Tim collaborate regularly for years. With facing arts they reaslize their first common art project.
You find more informatin on both initiators on www.miriamseidler.de and www.imachination.net.

Special thanks to Paco Croket for the tag cloud programming!

Getting in touch

Get in touch

Write an email to
or use the following form to contact us:

Impressum


Adresse

Privacy Notice

Content
The content of this website has been carefully prepared and reviewed. However, it does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness or quality of the information provided, or that it is up-to-date. Liability claims against the publisher in respect of material or immaterial damage caused by the use or non-use of the information offered or by inaccurate or incomplete information are in principle ruled out provided that there is no provable culpable intent or gross negligence on the institute's part.
The publisher reserves the right to alter, amend or delete parts of the site or the entire offering, or to cease publication, without prior notice.

Links
Where the publisher provides direct or indirect references (i.e. links) to external websites, it is liable only if the publisher has precise knowledge of the content and if it is technically possible and reasonable for it to prevent use in the event that they contain unlawful content.
The publisher expressly states that the linked websites had no illegal content when the links were set up. It has no influence whatsoever on the current and future design of the linked sites and hereby distances itself expressly from any alterations to the content that were made after the links to those sites were set up.
The Publisher is not responsible for the content, availability, correctness or accuracy of the linked sites or of the offerings, links or advertisements therein. It is not liable for illegal, incorrect or incomplete content or in particular for damages arising from the use or non-use of the information provided on linked sites.

Copyright
In all publications, the publisher endeavours to comply with applicable copyrights. If, in spite of this, an infringement of copyright should occur, the publisher will after notification remove the relevant object from its publication or indicate the appropriate copyright. All brand names and trademarks mentioned within the Internet offering that are possibly protected by third parties are without limitation subject to the provisions of the law on trademarks and related signs and the property rights of the registered owners. The mere fact that they have been mentioned should not be taken to mean that trademarks are not protected by third-party rights.

Privacy Policy
The use of the internet pages of www.facingscience.net is possible without any indication of personal data; however, if a data subject wants to use the contact form or image upload form of our website, processing of personal data could become necessary. If the processing of personal data is necessary and there is no statutory basis for such processing, we generally obtain consent from the data subject.