Items

• 
  2020-06

  Shuttered storefront in Chelsea, June 2020

  A shuttered storefront in the predominant art gallery section of Chelsea that has paper signs some which say, "Nowhere to Go", "Nothing to see". During this time, the stores in the Chelsea area were closed - either temporarily or indefinitely. Simultaneously, many were boarded up in fear of looting or protest which added to the eerie apocalyptic atmosphere.
• 
  2020-03-26

  ‘This Is the Biggest Challenge We’ve Faced Since the War’: How the Coronavirus Crisis Is Exposing the Precarious Position of Museums Worldwide

  The article discusses the financial hit to museums caused by the pandemic and fear and anxiety over how long museums can sustain amid a global shutdown. Whereas federal aid has come to the rescue of some museums provided by select countries for example, Germany and Britain; however, the United States does not have the same relief plans in place for cultural institutions. The pandemic has revealed weaknesses in the current museum model in relation to funding and what the article describes as a “winners take all mentality”. These problems have been compounding for decades but is the pandemic the straw that breaks the camel’s back? What might a new museum model look like if the old one is no longer sustainable?
• 
  2021-06-01

  Museum Recovery Expected to Take Years Due to Devastating Financial Losses, New Survey Reveals

  The American Alliance of Museums report highlights financial problems and some of the more negative long-term impacts resulting from COVID-19 such as reduced overall net revenue for the institution, lower employment numbers, and lower average salary for their staff members.
• 
  2020-09-29

  Is This the End of Contemporary Art As We Know It?

  Artist Liam Gillick and a writer for ArtReview, J.J. Charlesworth talk about the changes brought by the pandemic and the many ways that everything will most likely remain the same. Interestingly, they examine the beginning and end of “contemporary art” and the complex web of economic, social, political and cultural factors that are shifting and breaking down in different ways from our current crises. 

In the end, the feeling that art will survive but the idea that this particular period of art and the art world has reached its end is contemplated.
• 
  2020-06-30

  What Might the Artworld’s ‘New Normal’ Look Like?

  The ArtReview article comments on the new normal and the possible dangerous path we are propelling towards as a society with accelerated speed. The article specifically discusses the use and imminent fears on future reliance of technology in the art sector. Looking on the positive side, social justice and pressure from activism groups and the Black Lives Matter movement have spurred the beginning of greater reform within the art world including decolonization efforts in museums, diversity in collections, exhibitions, and staff.
• 
  2021-07-20

  Art Handlers, Contract Workers at Galleries Faced Steepest Losses During Pandemic: Survey

  The ARTnews article uses ADAA (Art Dealers Association of America) data from their official survey to consider the far reaching implications of the pandemic on the art world. Examples of staggering job loss in art handlers and contract workers in particular provide a look into possible changes in the artillery model for the short term while in lockdown. Quantitative data on online art fair participation, and percentages of galleries that received the PPP loan are included as well.
• 
  2020-04-16

  Gagosian Furloughs Part-Time Staff and Interns as Covid-19 Impedes Business

  All galleries felt the immense economic pressure of shuttering their doors. There was uncertainty and furloughs or imminent possibility of losing ones job was a looming presence especially in the spring of 2020. Even international blue-chip galleries like Gagosian were financially struggling. Those that lost their jobs were 

The article discussed job loss - whose jobs - and what this means for the art world in the present and in the future. Other methods of main tenting financially during the pandemic included furloughs and salary cuts where the percentage was determined by how much someone made per year.
• 
  2020-03-20

  Art Basel Hong Kong Moves Its Art Fair Online in the Wake of Coronavirus

  W Magazine’s “Art Basel Hong Kong Moves Its Art Fair Online in the Wake of Coronavirus” discusses the complete digitization of the 2020 Art Basel Hong Kong edition. The feeling of losing the general energy of art events or the excitement of an art fair booth setting more specifically that I and many of my friends and colleagues had when transitioning to remote work was echoed in the article. More interestingly, the article touches on the artistic responses to the pandemic - augmented reality or digital works playing with the new virtual lens that constituted our world during the height of Covid.
• 
  2021-02-09

  Artists Reimagine How Covid-19 Will Shape the Art World

  This Wired piece by Lydia Horne starts off with a really interesting point about the viewer relationship with art as social distancing before Covid and the distance in museums and galleries for the artwork’s protection. It is more than just considerations about virtual auctions and virtual viewing - the way that the art itself translates is something that many artists are struggling with. The article also speaks to the ways that artists are redefining themselves and their work. The changing structures and changing methods reaching an audience or sharing work, some artists are using the pandemic to explore possibilities to reshape the art world. For example, non-profits and community-based models instead of the traditional gallery model.
• 
  2020-12-31

  The Top Ten Online Exhibitions of 2020

  In an end of the year article, Smithsonian lists the top ten virtual museum exhibitions of 2020: 1. The Smithsonian’s National Picture Gallery, “Every Eye Is Upon Me: First Ladies of the United States”  2. Peabody Essex Museum, “Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle” 3. The Whitney Museum, “Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925-1945” 4. The Museum of Modern Art, “Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures” 5. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, “Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation” 6. Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Making the MET, 1870-2020” 7. The British Museum, “The Museum of the World” 8. The Rijksmuseum, “The Night Watch” 9. Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent, “Van Eyck an Optical Revolution” 10. Instituto Cervantes, “Wise and Valiant: Women and Writing in Gold Age of Spain”
• 
  2021-10-22

  How the Supply Chain Broke, and Why It Won’t Be Fixed Anytime Soon

  This New York Times article from October 22nd, 2021 - updated October 31st - explains the current status of the global supply chain. Global Correspondent, Peter S. Goodman, writes that Covid exacerbated existing problems in the supply chain. 
 This is relevant to the art industries in ways people often overlook. Coordinating shipments to meet deadlines in international art exhibitions, loaning works or consigning are all things that I used to struggle to plan for in light of covid when there would be unprecedented shipping delays and costs. Additionally, clients always want lower costs for shipping newly acquired works, however, it is now even more difficult to marry sales and client relations with the realities of shipping.
• 
  2020-04-17

  “Can You Teach Art Online?”

  “Can You Teach Art Online?”, published on Art in America online, examines the questions artists-instructors are asking amidst a transfer to online learning. Different instructors who teach in various mediums are interviewed and expose difficulties of teaching art virtually as well as the positives and new innovations that have come out of necessity. I found the argument by Carissa Rodriguez, a Harvard professor in the arts, very interesting. She discussed the limitations of platforms like Zoom and how it is difficult to engage others in an artistic subject behind a screen. Rodriguez teaches a screen-based artistic medium and she explains that for her subject matter “the platform seems a notch too self-reflexive, collapsing screenings, critiques, and discussions onto the equalizing plane of her students’ monitors, the same site where they browse social media and binge-watch TV shows”. The article highlights how instructors are using lockdown to explore ways to make art and complete projects without institutional resources. Therefore, questions of shifting models in academia arise.
• 
  2021-04-23

  Shipping during COVID-19: Why container freight rates have surged

  UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) included an article on their website which examines the shipping container shortage. More broadly, it comments on the staggering domino effect of the pandemic on industry and consumers and offers future solutions for avoiding current problems. The article concludes with a section that provides insight into how to avoid shipping container shortages in the future.
• 
  2021-01-24

  Pandemic aftershocks overwhelm global supply lines

  The Washington Post article discusses the disruptions in the supply chain and the repercussions such as inflated prices, failure to meet schedules, and effects on different industries. The domino effect was set off by the pandemic but we continue to see the fallout. 

Shipping artwork is a cost that galleries, advisories, collectors, and museums have to factor into their finances. Inflation in the cost of international shipping in particular and unpredictable delays negative effect openings and coordinating with clients and vendors.
• 
  2020-03

  Image from Inside a Closed Museum During Lockdown, Musée du Louvre

  This is an image included in the article, "Museums, Curators, and Artists Find Innovative Solutions for Showing Art in a Pandemic". Taken from a bird's eye view from within the Musée du Louvre, the image shows an empty museum gallery save for a solitary employee. The image is captioned "An employee walks next to Martin Desjardins’s Quatre Captifs in the Musee du Louvre, Paris, closed to the public indefinitely amid concerns on the COVID-19 outbreak, 2020. "
• 
  2020-03-19

  Museums, Curators, and Artists Find Innovative Solutions for Showing Art in a Pandemic

  This Artsy article written in the beginning of the pandemic discusses the innovative ways that museums and art professionals used technology to maintain relevance and viewership during lockdown.
• 
  2021-05

  Financial vs. Public Health In Planning for Art Fairs

  When Art Basel, Hong Kong did happen I remember the internal debate within the art advisory where I worked at the time of whether or not clients and members of the team could or would attend. 
 New considerations arose for the businesses and people like me who worked in administration and logistics. There were major complications that none of us had previously faced in planning for art fair events, client dinners and logistics. For example, booking flights was complicated. In the case of Hong Kong, some people had no choice but to reroute in strange places due to restrictions of certain passport holders or location of origin. Another consideration, were the fancy client and networking dinners that are staples of the art fair culture and booked months in advance. Due to closure or half-capacity seating, many of the premier restaurants were no longer feasible to solidify reservations.
• 
  2021-05-21

  “'It’s impossible to compare 2019 and 2021; it’s a completely different world': what has sold at Art Basel in Hong Kong”

  Art Basel, Hong Kong did finally happen in person in May 2021. In the article, Lisa Movius discusses the reception to the hybrid-model art fair, the change in demographic, noteworthy sales, and spotlighted works, artists, and gallery booths.
• 
  2020-10-20

  "In the Return of Art Fairs, Smaller Is Better", The New York Times

  This New York Times article from October 20, 2020 comments on the positive spotlight smaller art fairs and lesser known galleries have bene thrust under due to restrictions on social gatherings and a changing public perspective amidst uncertainty and turbulent political and social issues exacerbated by Covid-19. The pandemic has provided an opportunity for smaller, more niche art fairs such as 1-54 or Viennacontemporary.
• 
  2020-11-17

  "Art Basel in Hong Kong postponed to May as coronavirus throws 2021 art fairs into disarray"

  Anny Shaw writes for The Art Newspaper about the postponement of the 2020 edition of Art Basel, Hong Kong. The art fair was previously cancelled in February one month ahead its standard date in mid-March. It was tentatively rescheduled for May 2021 in hopes of vaccination and improvement in daily numbers of contraction and death rates.
• 
  2020-06-15

  "Art World Coronavirus Tracker"

  This Artforum article lists the Rescheduled and Canceled Events in 2020 as of June 15, 2020. It also includes funds and organizations working to help artists and art institutions in addition to museum and gallery closures and those open for appointments.
• 
  2020-06-06

  "Art Basel Has Canceled the 2020 Edition of Its Flagship Swiss Fair, Citing ‘Tumultuous and Challenging Times’"

  The Artnet article discusses the trepidation in decisions to resurrect in-person events, specifically annual international art fairs. Businesses and institutions prematurely made plans for the reopening of in-person events in the summer of 2020 in hopes of recouping money lost during the initial lockdown in the spring. Art fairs are premier money making events and networking opportunities in the contemporary art world that are ultimately economically beneficial for gallerists, art advisors, fine arts shipping companies, local restaurants and businesses, and hotels alike. Organizations such as Art Basel rake in enormous sums of money each year through their hosting of mega-art fairs in various international locations. The article focuses on Art Basel’s announcement of yet another change in the program for Art Basel as the art world grapples with the decision of public health versus economy. The fair looked to digital alternatives as a way to sustain in the interim.
• 
  2021-08-27

  "New York Art Fairs Are Returning, Eyes Open and Fingers Crossed"

  The New York Times article from August 27, 2021 discusses the anticipation for the Armory Show 2021 edition to go forward after many art fairs decided to cancel this year’s editions in light of the decline in progress since the resurgence of the coronavirus in the summer of 2021. The article also comments on the changes in the art world, lower attendance, loss of participating galleries and a shifting demographic. There has been a notable transition away from blue-chip gallery-centric art fairs to include smaller businesses, in which many more are women-run and or owned by people of color.
• 
  2021-01-21

  "Art Basel postpones Basel show to September and announces three Online Viewing Rooms for 2021"

  Released in January 2021, the press release from Art Basel announced another delay in their most prominent art fair after the cancellation of the in-person 2020 addition. The company worked to create Online Viewing Rooms (OVRs) as a makeshift solution for the inability to host these events in public. Thematic OVRs were also announced for the upcoming year.
• 
  2020-10-31

  Socially Distanced Halloween

  This image shows Xs marked in tape on a sidewalk outside a brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The owner(s) of the home marked the spot for each child to should stand in order to remain socially distanced when trick-or-treating.
• 
  2020-05

  Images from George Floyd Protests and BLM Demonstrations in New York City

  Images taken of signs held while listening to speeches from BLM activists. Another image shows a cluster of police during a demonstration in Midtown Manhattan.
• 
  2020-03-13

  A, C, E Line 23rd Street

  This video was taken on March 13, 2020 on my way home from my last day of in-person work at my gallery where I was employed at the time. I sent this video to my family who lived outside the city and the severity of the situation had not yet hit the town where they lived. Waiting on an empty subway platform after my workplace had shuttered its doors was surreal. I think many of us had a personal experience that we could identify as the moment when we were hit by the realization of how serious the pandemic was (and is).
• 2020-05

  Waiting to be Connected

  I moved out of New York City for a month in the spring of 2020 during the period where my gallery furloughed most employees aside from the principal directors and a select number of sales people. I spent that time with my father in upstate New York in a close quarters quarantine. I was always struck by the quiet during the day and how visible and bright the stars were at night. Two things that seemed foreign to me at times as I grew up in cities and had lived in various Brooklyn neighborhoods for the past year. The passing sound of car stereos and people’s voices on fire escapes from a floor above were white noise. All vibrant - completely alive - no stars. His apartment was a studio and at the time he had not yet begun paying for internet service. Some nights we would drive four or so minutes down the road to the apartment complex where my Dad used to live a few years prior. We would camp outside the complex’s gym which housed one or two treadmills and the outside looked like a glorified garage - but it had wifi. As we were no longer residents and owners of a key pass to the facility, my Dad would pull up to the side entrance and put on his hazards. I would jump out and begin to search for a signal and attempt to connect to the complimentary internet. Whenever a stray person would emerge from their units to retrieve Amazon packages from their front stoop, I would make uncomfortable eye contact with them, as I held up my phone. Yes, yes, this is what you think it is. They hastened back up and quickly closed their door behind them. I found that the most expedient way of downloading content was to position myself by the exterior front left corner and stand with my back flush against the wall. Every night my Dad and I listened to podcasts and drank tea. Despite everything, moments like these helped us laugh and I look back at this memory fondly.