What We're Reading: 7/17/24
Millennium Park turns 20 on Tuesday. But the 24.5-acre expanse became the king of Chicago city parks almost as soon as it opened in 2004 — four years late and with a price tag of $490 million, more than triple the original estimated cost. About $220 million of that came from private donations.
At a black-tie cocktail party before the park opened, former Chicago Park District CEO Forrest Claypool, speaking with the late WTTW-Channel 11 host John Callaway, dismissed the tardiness and cost overruns.
“The park is so beautiful that in 15 years nobody will remember any of that,” Claypool said.
Via Chicago Sun–Times
Do Art History Majors Really Face the Worst Job Prospects of Any Profession?
Art History majors face the worst employment prospects of any profession after graduating from college, a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has found. The data, released by the Fed in February, became a talking point online this week, just as students close out the academic year and many start the job hunt.
Diving into the report, specifically it found that Art History majors face an unemployment rate of 8 percent, the most of any university major. The vast majority that have jobs are holding down positions they are overqualified, according to the underemployment rate of 62.3 percent.
Via Artnet
18 New York Artists Tapped to Create Works for JFK’s New Terminal
John F. Kennedy Airport, one of the world’s busiest crossroads, will soon be its destination in its own right for world-class art. Eighteen artists hailing from seven countries have been tapped to create installations for the airport’s new Terminal 6, set to open in 2026, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced on Tuesday.
The $4.2 billion terminal is now set to host works by artists based in New York, including Sky Hopinka, Charles Gaines, and Barbara Kruger. The group also includes a significant amount of artists who are based in New York City or New York State but were born abroad, such as Felipe Baeza and Uman, who were hail from Mexico and Somalia, respectively.
Via ARTnews
Christie’s first half auction sales decline 22% year-on-year, to $2.1bn
The latest proof that the art market is down but not out arrived today (16 July), as Christie’s announced select results from the first half of 2024. The auction house’s total revenue from live and online auction sales during this period reached $2.1bn worldwide, around $600m less (-22%) than it made under the hammer during the opening six months of 2023. The drop is even steeper when compared to the same period in 2022, when competition for the collections of Anne Bass, Thomas and Doris Ammann and Hubert de Givenchy propelled Christie’s to a hearty $4.1bn in revenue from auction sales—nearly double its equivalent results this year.
Yet several other metrics showed that Christie’s has held surprisingly steady in the face of recent turbulence. Its healthy 87% sell-through rate was on par with that in both 2023 and 2022. The index of hammer price to low estimate was 111% through this June, meaning that the winning bids for all lots sold (before fees) outperformed their minimum expectations by around 11%.
Via The Art Newspaper