Week in Review
May 28, 2021 • View in browser
Protesters marching toward the Museum of Modern Art in New York with “LOVE Gaza” posters
Protesters marching toward the Museum of Modern Art in New York with “LOVE Gaza” posters
Arts Support for Palestine
In an open letter, 250-plus artists, including Fred Moten and Angela Davis, charged MoMA trustees, including Steven Tananbaum, Leon Black, and Paula Crown, with being “directly involved with support for Israel’s apartheid rule.”
Hundreds of activists blockaded the entrance of MoMA with a teach-in, condemning the ties of board members to violence against Palestinians.
Over 1,000 artists and scholars, including Judith Butler and Angela Davis, have signed a statement in solidarity with the Palestinian city of Lydda in the wake of mounting racist violence.
Censorship and Protest
A Belarusian art exhibition untangling the country’s response to the coronavirus was closed by authorities this March, leading to the arrest of five of its organizers.
Toga-clad activists from BP or Not BP? crashed the British Museum’s reopening weekend to protest British Petroleum’s backing of the forthcoming exhibition Nero: the man behind the myth.
Michael Zelehoski’s plywood obelisk sculpture “Miguelito” reflects on a year of racial justice protests and is crafted with materials used to board up businesses during last summer’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
In Other News
Brooklyn Museum workers are unionizing.
San Francisco’s program to pay artists $1,000 per month has been extended and expanded thanks to a $3.46 million donation by tech entrepreneur Jack Dorsey.
Painter Julie Mehretu is donating the proceeds from a sale of her work “Dissident Score” (2019–2021), which is expected to fetch between $3 and $4 million, to an incarceration reform nonprofit.
You can sponsor a statue at Notre Dame to help the historic cathedral rebuild.
The public can now add their name to a letter addressed to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch urging him to enact a plan that ensures the National Museum of the American Latino gets a proper place on the National Mall.
Awards & Accolades
  • Juana Williams has been named Detroit Art Mile’s inaugural Curatorial Fellow.
  • Fanglu Lin was awarded the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize.
  • The Graham Foundation has announced the recipients of its 2021 grants to individuals.
Transitions
  • Laurence des Cars has been named Director-President of the Louvre Museum.
  • Ryan Lee Gallery now represents the Estate of Camille Billops.
  • Allison Glenn was appointed Senior Curator and Director of Public Art at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.
  • David Zwirner Gallery now represents artist Merrill Wagner and the Estate of Robert Ryman.
In Memoriam
  • Eric Carle (1929–2021), The Very Hungry Caterpillar author and illustrator | NYT
  • Mary Beth Edelson (1933–2021), artist and feminist activist | Washington Post
  • Anna Halprin (1920–2021), experimental choreographer | NYT
  • Alain Kirili (1946–2021), sculptor | Le Journal des Arts
  • Mark Lancaster (1938–2021), artist and stage designer | The Guardian
  • Paulo Mendes da Rocha (1928–2021), architect | Architect Magazine
  • Terence Riley (1954–2021), architect and curator | Architect Magazine
Did you enjoy this issue?
If you were forwarded this newsletter and you like it, you can subscribe here.
Hyperallergic Media
181 N 11th St., Suite 302, Brooklyn, NY 11211