Breaking up (the art collection) is hard to do

May 28, 2020 -- Today’s instalment of the Daily CurveFlattener is brought to you by Editorial Director Allan Ryan, broadcasting from high atop Chronicle headquarters in scenic Etobicoke, Ont.

deaccession (verb, to officially remove an item from the listed holdings of a library, museum, or art gallery, typically in order to sell it to raise funds)

The possibility of deaccessioning is a hard fact facing cultural centres due to the economic effects of Covid-19. With galleries closed and no admission fees being collected or souvenirs sold, some museums and art galleries are considering putting parts of their collections on the block to help pay for the bricks and mortar. That process was made a bit smoother when recognizing the peril its members face, the Association of Art Museum Directors relaxed its rules on selling individual pieces. For years, the Association’s code of conduct discouraged museums from selling art to pay for employee salaries or hydro bills. But these Covid-19 times are different, and silent galleries with no revenue may force directors to sell for what they call the ‘care of their collections’ or just to survive.

Meanwhile, some people don’t even have to own old masters to imitate them. This initiative, called the Getty Museum Challenge, encourages people in social isolation to recreate a work of art using items found around the house. There is a good sampling of the results here. Some funny, some hilarious, and some more serious, but all creative. Here’s the Getty Museum Twitter link, so you and your family can post your own. Send your creations to the Daily CurveFlattener as well. We’re curious.


COVID CHRONICLE 05/28/2020

• One effect of Covid-19 has been the recognition of the potential for abuse in families practising social distancing as dictated by the various government agencies. The Canadian Women’s Foundation has created a hand signal that can be used during a video call to alert others that the caller needs help, all without leaving a digital track.
• The British Columbia Poison Control Centre is getting more calls about the ingestion of hand sanitizer. And, what a surprise, it is not always children who ingest the sanitizer, according to this report.
• This article from the Detroit Free Press describes how genealogy companies like Ancestry and 23andMe are putting their huge data pools of DNA samples to work on Covid-19 research. The first wave of the research is asking adult customers in the U.S. how the virus affected – or didn't affect – them. According to the article, Dr. Catherine Ball, chief scientific officer at Ancestry, said: "From the early days ... I think it was clear to all of us that some people were getting very, very sick when they were affected with coronavirus, and some people had hardly any symptoms at all . . . It turns out that there are plenty of people who have no symptoms. The spectrum of human response to the same pathogen is unusual.”
• New neuroimaging research is revealing the effects of Covid-19 in the brain, according to a paper published in the journal Radiology. Researchers from the United States and Italy report that an altered mental state and stroke are early signs of Covid-19 infection and could act as ‘red flags’ to emergency personnel.

STORIES CHRONICLE IS WORKING ON TODAY
Chronicle's assistant editor in the Buffalo, N.Y. office, Cory Perla, is working on an article outlining the potential impact of Covid-19 on babies who are being breastfed, for inclusion in the upcoming edition of Pediatric Chronicle.


RIGHT NOW WE ARE LISTENING TO...
Seem to have a hankering for some music that is out of this world, and that might be a very good place to be, for a while at least. Usual go-tos for other-worldly transport are the Irish singer Enya or Loreena McKennitt. A resident of Stratford, Ont., McKennitt has developed a reputation as a mesmerizing performer, and built her own record publishing business and booked her own concert tours long before that became more commonplace. This is Mummer’s Dance.


TONIGHT WE ARE COOKING...

Kinda hot in Toronto, and not much of an appetite. Will maybe just break out the iced tea, top it up with something substantial, and go sit on the porch with the dogs and watch them consider the squirrels.


THE WEEK AHEAD
Please make use of the comments section at the Daily CurveFlattener, to let us know what you're up to today. Or feel free to check in via LinkedIn, email, or your choice of connector. By all means, pass this newsletter along to your colleagues.


That's it. Stay in touch, stay safe. Chronicle's Mitch Shannon will pick things up tomorrow.