Neiman Marcus announces the closure of its Hudson Yards store, museums across the U.S. are in jeopardy of closing as a result of COVID-19, and Black designers shed light on how the industry falls short. All this and more in this week’s Five on Friday.
Artist Janet Echelman’s latest work is timelier than ever
Installed in St. Petersburg, Florida, Bending Arc is artist Janet Echelman’s largest work to date and features more than one million knots and 180 miles of twine. The name of the aerial sculpture comes from a quote from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King (“the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,”), and pays tribute to a little known civil rights movement, reports Fast Company. One year after Brown v. Board of Education established “separate but equal” unconstitutional, six Black individuals were denied access to a St. Petersburg, Florida pool and sued the city. Their case, Alsup v. St. Petersburg, made its way to the Supreme court, and they won. “I’ve been working on this piece for four years,” Echelman says, “and I never would have guessed when the piece opened, it would open in such a pivotal time for social justice.”
One third of U.S. museums could shutter due to COVID-19
According to a new report from the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), one in three U.S. museums may have to close permanently due to the financial strain inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey collected data from 750 museum directors, reports The Art Newspaper. “Even with a partial reopening in the coming months, costs will outweigh revenue and there is no financial safety net for many museums,” says AAM president and chief executive Laura Lott. “The permanent closure of 12,000 museums will be devastating for communities, economies, education systems, and our cultural history.” These institutions, which support 726,000 direct and indirect jobs and contribute $50 billion to the economy, are currently lobbying for increased aid from the government.
Neiman Marcus to close store at Manhattan’s Hudson Yards
Only 16 months after hosting a lavish invite-only opening party, department store Neiman Marcus is vacating its 190,000-square-foot location in the Hudson Yards shopping mall, reports CNBC. This announcement—which also included the closure of two stores in Florida and one in Bellevue, Washington—comes shortly after the Dallas-based company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 7th. “A physical location at Hudson Yards is no longer an ideal space for us given the preponderance of restaurants and future office space in that mall,” a spokesperson for Neiman Marcus said. “We are always assessing our store footprint to ensure it is optimal to enhance revenues, overall profitability, and our integrated retail strategy.”
Tourism industry workers recount their experiences
A recent New York Times article delves into the recent encounters and obstacles those working in the tourism industry are facing. The piece interviews six individuals—a chef, bartender, room attendant, flight attendant, front-desk agent and entertainer, and reservations manager—about their personal experiences with quarantine, reopening, and new protocols. “Everything has changed,” says Beatrice Menendez, a room attendant at luxury hotel Fontainebleau Miami Beach for 34 years. “We walk in fear, we work in fear, we don’t have the same compassion with each other because it’s just scary to be in there. It doesn’t seem like a hotel, it seems like a hospital.”
Black designers discuss navigating a predominantly white industry
In a candid roundtable discussion hosted virtually along with IIDA executive vice president and CEO Cheryl Durst, four Black women designers—all IIDA members—reflect on the shortcoming of the architecture and design industries for people of color. The insightful and illuminating conversation, which was featured in HD’s July issue, highlights the lack of representation in the industry, the daily microaggressions many people of color face, and what it takes to transform this moment into a movement. “A lot of organizations are coming out with their statements [in support of Black Lives Matter and against racial injustice],” says Durst. “Words matter, but we need to take those words and move toward action.”
