latest news: 13% of museums may never reopen after pandemic

meanwhile Turner Prize 2020 is axed, Munch Museum rebrands, and artists design facemasks to raise £100,000

May 28, 2020

another newsletter comes along and lockdown is still with us. just about. some museums in Europe are tentatively reopening, but many aren’t, especially in the UK. i can just about remember what it’s like to visit.

there is some happy news as you’ll see below. but really, the museum world is going to have a torrid time ahead. the financial blackhole - for every museum - is only going to get bigger. museums will be doing less for many months and years to come. the ones that survive that is.

already emergency fundraising is cropping up everywhere out of necessity. one of the most successful current campaigns is from the Contemporary Art Society (CAS) who’ve already smashed their target by selling artist-designed face masks. this week’s interview is the CAS Director, Caroline Douglas, who told me about the project, and her fears for the future.

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catch up // NEWS

told you it was bleak. UNESCO warns that 13% of the world’s museums will never reopen again after the pandemic. Hyperallergic

there are swings. the universally acclaimed Titian exhibition at London’s National Gallery was in danger of only having a three day opening run. but it will be back! The Art Newspaper

…but also roundabouts. the Turner Prize 2020 is officially AXED. BBC News

normality is a long way off. New York’s Met Museum pushes back its opening, and cancels all events for the rest of year. The Art Newspaper

some green shoots. Europe's tourist hotspots begin to reopen. MailOnline

museums next? British theatres are warning about their perilous financial state due to coronavirus, with the Southbank Centre - including the Hayward Gallery - saying it may stay shut until April 2021. my fear is that museums are just further back on the same track and have this all to come. The Guardian

is nothing sacred?! a man in a hazmat suit tried to steal a £5 million Banksy donated to an NHS hospital. The Sun

Gogh By Car. drive-in exhibitions are now a thing, as an immersive Van Gogh experience is to open in Toronto. Time Out

follow your nose? Museums are considering exhibits children can smell rather than touch to adhere to new safety rules to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The Telegraph

viral paintings. news articles are getting smeared in paint at the hands of artist Marc Quinn. The Guardian

love this so mu(n)ch. its massive new slanting home might be delayed, but the Munch Museum in Oslo has still revealed a new slanting logo and a stunning new visual identity. Creative Review

listen up // INTERVIEW

these tough, make-or-break times for the arts are causing fundraising campaigns to be launched at light speed. last week the Contemporary Art Society (CAS) revealed their CAS Rapid Response Fund which will help artists and museums across the UK by raising cash through the sale of newly-designed facemasks by artists David Shrigley, Eddie Peake, Linder and Yinka Shonibare CBE. they’ve gone down a storm and after an original target of £20,000, the total raised as i type is pushing £100k. great work. money raised will be spent purchasing artworks by British-based artists for museum collections. i spoke to the Director of the CAS, Caroline Douglas, this week.

were facemasks the obvious choice to help you raise money during this time?

There has been so much controversy over the supply of PPE to the front line services, and mixed messaging about whether the general public should be wearing them. Face masks could very well end up being the archetypal object of the pandemic, so yes, once we thought of it, they did seem like the obvious choice.

why these four artists?

Well, because we love them, first of all. Because they are artists that we have supported in the past, in one way or another. And I think we were looking for four very different approaches.

how important is this money going to be?

A museum purchase right now can inject investment that gets into all the layers of the art world, and make the difference between an artist being able to pay the rent, the studio assistants, the fabricators, technicians, framers etc. Financially, it is an incredibly risky business being an artist, and yet there is a whole industry that relies on them.

you smashed the target very quickly, and extended it. what do you think this positive response tells us?

Because of the comments function on the Crowd Funder site, we know quite precisely why people have responded to the campaign: because art plays an important, central part in their lives, because they want to be able to go back to museums and spend time with it, because there is a powerful sympathy out there for the situation that artists find themselves in now.

are you worried for the future, for artists and museums?

Yes I am. When the world starts to open up again, I think we are going to see a serious contraction in all areas of activity: fewer exhibitions, fewer sales, probably fewer art fairs and biennales. The impact of the crisis on art schools and universities may also close off an avenue of work for a lot of artists. A lot of public museums went into the crisis in a weakened state after ten years of austerity and deep cuts to their budgets over that time. So yes, of course, I am concerned that, amid the terrible toll the situation is taking on so many areas of society, the powers that be recognise how vital a place our museums hold in their communities.

what’s the future looking like for CAS?

This is the first time in my professional life when long-range planning doesn't seem like the wisest thing. Because so much is still uncertain. So short to mid-term planning, and monitoring the evolving situation extremely closely is where we are at. The CAS has survived two World Wars and the Spanish 'Flu, so we will get through this too.

you can donate to the CAS Rapid Response Fund, in partnership with Frieze London, here.

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last up // AND FINALLY

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