October 2, 2020 ☼ art ☼ economy ☼ pandemic ☼ nyc
Source: The Washington Post - Link
For New Yorkers, the prospect of seeing the normally brilliant west side of Lincoln Center darkened for another year — as the Metropolitan Opera announced last week that it has canceled its entire 2020-21 season — is heartbreaking. For the rest of the country, though, it should be equally alarming. If even the Met, one of the nation’s premier cultural institutions, can’t come back, is covid-19 now pushing America’s performing arts past the point of no return?
Absent intervention from Congress, the answer may well be yes. But the gravity of the situation should give the political camp that usually resists government support for arts organizations — conservatives — good reason to help revive them.
Conservatives will not rescue the arts. Public art will revert to the wealthy patrons or disappear. I fear for orchestras most. We’ll have to rely on Europe for public art.