How Are the Arts in LA, the US Southwest, and Beyond Weathering the Pandemic?

News about new museum layoffs and other problems, art galleries closures, and the cancellation of the Indian Market in Santa Fe are all part of this week's episode with Hyperallergic’s news editor Jasmine Weber, LA Editor Elisa Wouk Almino, and Ellie Duke, our Southwest editor based in Santa Fe, NM.We discuss the Museum of Contemporary Art's decision to furlough most of its staff and then lay off 97 part-time workers, the impact of canceling Santa Fe's Indian Market, and the launch of our series that looks at some of the Native American artists and artisans who won't be able to show at the August gathering. We also talk about images from the 1918 influenza pandemic, the complicated problems of museum endowments, and how museums the world over are slowly opening up, not to mention a few that have been forced to close again because of a new wave of infections. And on a lighter side, we discuss Alan Nakagawa's social distancing haiku project.Then I reach out to writer Anthony Majalathni in Rome, who discusses his recent article about the history of disease, faith, and recovery in the Italian capital, and what life in Rome is like today. As a historian of Rome, Majalathni is a great source of information on the city's long history with disease.And a very special thanks to Apollo Kings for letting us use their new song, "Trust Issues."Subscribe to Hyperallergic’s Podcast on iTunes, and anywhere else you listen to podcasts.