January 6, 2023
Good morning. 🌧️ Today, the National Library of France gets an impressive facelift while London’s National Portrait Gallery puts $3.5 million into acquiring a public toilet that will be transformed into an exhibition space. Don't pee on the art, please!
This one is difficult but had to be reported: A former director of a children’s museum in Connecticut was sentenced to five and a half years in prison for distributing child pornography, often from his museum office.
You should also check out Required Reading, our daily reviews, and Guillaume Vandame's moving tribute to his late partner Brody Mace-Hopkins, who died during an artist residency in Scotland last year.
— Hakim Bishara, Senior Editor
London Museum Drops $3.5M on Public Toilet
The loo in question is a former Victorian lavatory that could become one of the National Portrait Gallery’s new exhibition spaces. | Sarah Rose Sharp
SPONSORED
The National Museum of the American Indian Presents Fresh Focus on Native American Photography
Hear directly from Native American photographers who are defining what it means to be Indigenous today. Attend the program in NYC or online. Learn more.
WHAT'S HAPPENING
Team observing post-storm re-growth on a mound and invasive species (photo by Michelle LeFebvre)
Researchers have set out to examine the level of destruction to the heritage sites of the Native Calusa people impacted by Hurricane Ian.
- Former Lutz Children's Museum director Robert Eckert is sentenced to 66 months in prison for distributing child pornography.
SPONSORED
Join SVA MA Curatorial Practice for Weekly Conversations With World-Renowned Curators and Museum Directors
Curatorial Roundtables take place online once a week through April. Don’t miss a special lecture by artist and theorist Hito Steyerl on January 18. Learn more.
LATEST ART REVIEWS
Siobhan McBride Unsettles the Familiar
What makes Siobhan McBride's work as a whole interesting is her interest in the ambiguity, suggestibility, and elusiveness of everyday life. | John Yau
SPONSORED
Stony Brook University’s Graduate Arts Programs Prioritize Experimentation and Innovation
Funding and competitive scholarships are available for the MA/PhD in Art History & Criticism as well as for the MFA in Studio Art. Learn more.
The Wondrously Defiant Art of Contemporary Ceramics
Strange Clay at the Hayward Gallery demonstrates the conceptual and technical innovation of contemporary ceramics with riotously joyful art. | Olivia McEwan
MORE ON HYPERALLERGIC
In Loving Memory of Artist Brody Mace-Hopkins
Mace-Hopkins, who died at age 24 during an artist residency in Scotland, was my partner and collaborator. | Guillaume Vandame
Required Reading
This week, the National Library of France gets an upgrade, finding the enslavers at the US Capitol, the beauty of MetroCards, headsets that kill, a fed-up librarian, and much more. | Hrag Vartanian and Lakshmi Rivera Amin
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TRANSITIONS
Lydia Melamed Johnson was appointed executive director of the Association of International Photography Art Dealers.
John Kenneth Paranada was appointed curator of Art and Climate Change at the Sainsbury Centre.
Chelsea Ryoko Wong is now represented by Jessica Silverman Gallery.
AWARDS & ACCOLADES
Art historian T. J. Clark and critic Tausif Noor were announced as the winners of the Robert B. Silvers Foundation’s Grace Dudley Prize for Arts Writers.
