What We're Reading: 2/5/24
It’s 50 Degrees in Minneapolis. Goodbye, Ice Shanties.
It’s not every art installation that instructs visitors to take small steps like a penguin. Then again, there’s nothing quite like the Art Shanty Projects, in which intrepid Minnesota artists in insulated jumpsuits and ice cleats annually recreate traditional ice fishing huts, called shanties, in their own eccentric style on a frozen lake in Minneapolis.
The structures they dream up — such as a “Hot Box Disco Inferno” wrapped in space blankets, with a pulsating LED floor — draw thousands of visitors to a temporary public space resembling a Burning Man on ice.
This year, it was thin ice.
Via the New York Times
Put More Culture Into The South Shore Cultural Center, Neighbors Tell Park District
As the Park District drafts its first “strategic plan” in more than a decade, some residents say they want officials to take full advantage of the South Shore Cultural Center’s potential as a hub for arts and culture.
Via Block Club
Egypt’s Bid to Restore a Giza Pyramid Ignites Backlash From Archaeologists
A scheme recently unveiled to reconstruct one of the pyramids at Giza in Egypt has sparked backlash from archaeologists.
In a video on January 25, Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, announced the Menkaure pyramid project. Its goal is to restore the facade of monument, which once held 16 layers of granite, by using granite blocks lying at its base. The project is slated to take about three years to complete.
Via Artnet
Sotheby’s ‘Overhauls’ Fee Structure, Lowering Buyers Premium and Standardizing Commissions Rate
In an effort designed to bring clarity to an often-murky corner of the art market, Sotheby’s will simplify its fee structure for both buyers and sellers, a move that the house believes will ultimately raise hammer prices and bring in new clients.
The change will see buyer’s premiums, essentially commissions paid by those who win lots at auction, lowered across price points. Sotheby’s says the new structure will result in a 26 percent reduction on most lots sold.
The new rate, according to a charts provided to ARTnews by Sotheby’s, will be 20 percent of the hammer price for works up to $6 million, above which the rate lowers to 10 percent.
Via ARTnews