Sep 16, 2020 • View in browser

Happy Wednesday. ☀️ Today, we review Spike Lee and David Byrne’s American Utopia, which debuted this week at the Toronto International Film Festival. Critic Kambole Campbell says it “genuinely feels like a balm.”

Matt Stromberg looks at the 50 artists who will take turns delivering a Presidential address, a report discovers that only a quarter of public sculptures in the UK are of women, and Brooklyn activists are rallying to save a 40-year-old collective house of artists and organizers.

– Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief

50 Artists Step Into the Role of President

Constance Hockaday’s presidential portrait (photo by Constance Hockaday)

For her new project, Artists-In-Presidents: Fireside Chats for 2020, Constance Hockaday invited 50 artists, including Miranda July, Edgar Arceneaux, and Coco Fusco, to deliver a five-minute presidential address.

When describing the project, she asks:

“What does it look like for radical imagination to be put into the office of the presidency? For me, it’s not just about the presidency, but how we perform leadership and power.”

In Other News

About 60 housing activists, elected officials, and community members rallied outside a building in Fort Greene in solidarity with tenants who say they are being pushed out.

A new study found that less than a quarter of public sculptures in the UK honor women. In fact, statues of women in the country just barely outnumber those of men named John.

What's New in Film

David Byrne and Spike Lee Consider the Oxymoron of "American Utopia"

American Utopia, Lee’s film of the stage show, recontextualizes some of Byrne’s greatest hits as musings on modern life.

Kambole Campbell

Catch Exciting Work by Black Women and Nonbinary Filmmakers

The Black Women’s Film Conference is showcasing films about Black coming of age and transcendence, and is hosting a series of conversations between filmmakers, scholars, and curators.

Dan Schindel

Outdoor Viewing

Hungarian Pickling and Coconut Juicing Are Just Two Perks of This Art Fair

The Other Places Art Fair has promised to offer more than “online viewing rooms.”

Elisa Wouk Almino

Public Art to Ease the Anxiety of Waiting

Installed in over 500 bus shelters and 1,700 wifi kiosks around the five boroughs, Art on the Grid softens, just a little, our long waits, for the bus, for the pandemic to be over.

Ilana Novick

Opportunities

Center for Craft: Craft Research Fund Grants

Two $20,000 artist fellowships and grants of up to $15,000 for craft-centered research, exhibitions, catalogs, and projects in the US are available from the Center for Craft. Read more on Hyperallergic.

Application Fee: Free–$15 USD

Deadline: October 1, 2020 | centerforcraft.org

View more opportunities.