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Coronavirus-Related Layoffs
The Cleveland Museum of Art will “furlough all part-time staff and temporarily lay off a portion of its unionized staff, which includes security guards” as it anticipates $5 million in lost revenue. [Cleveland.com]
Endeavor, the Hollywood talent agency which also owns a majority stake in the Frieze art fair and magazine, laid off roughly 250 employees across its portfolio. [Variety]
The Hammer Museum, which is affiliated with UCLA, has laid off 150 part-time student employees. [Los Angeles Times]
The Art World During Coronavirus
Smartify, an app that has catalogued some 2 million artworks from around the world, will make all of its audio guides free through the end of the year. The Guardian]
Art Dubai’s annual Global Art Forum shifted to an online version after the in-person fair was canceled. Billed as a “news hour special” it looked “what are the new stories suddenly emerging.” [ARTnews]
Jason Farago surveys the global art world as it has ground to a halt: “The Merry-Go-Round Stopped. What Sort of Art Will Emerge?” [The New York Times]
James Tarmy looks at how New York’s institutions are beginning to cope with the cancelation of their big spring fundraisers. [Bloomberg]
In their own words, the directors of three Boston museums talk about their decision to close amid the coronavirus outbreak. [The Boston Globe]
Artists
Louise Lawler has created 12 drawings based on her photographs that can be downloaded for free to be used as coloring sheets. MoMA curator Roxana Marcoci writes, “This gesture comes from the artist’s interest in the way art can reach viewers beyond the museum and gallery system, and can playfully contribute to personal creative transformation.” [MoMA Magazine]
See images by the Kamoinge Workshop, a group of photographs that came together in the 1960s to document Black life in America. The group’s work is the subject of a show at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, which is currently closed. [The Guardian]
Ajay Kurian previews “Polyphemus,” his solo exhibition scheduled to open in the fall at Baltimore’s Goucher College. The show draws on various texts dealing with the cyclops and how it relates nationalism, fascism, and anti-Semitism. [Artforum]