August 26, 2022 • View in browser
Good morning. 🌦️ The International Council of Museums (ICOM), a body with some authority over museums worldwide, adopted a new definition for museums that includes all the familiar buzzwords: inclusion, diversity, sustainability, and so on. A more radical proposal that defined museums as institutions that should strive to “contribute to human dignity and social justice, global equality and planetary wellbeing” faced opposition at ICOM's 2019 conference. Still, the new definition makes some strides toward dismissing the ill-advised notion that museums should operate in a neutral sphere above the lived realities of the communities they're supposed to serve. What do you think the definition of a museum should be?
Also today: The Wisconsin Triennial scandal continues, public art in the least expected places, and Required Reading answers the question: Why are there so many pigeons in NYC?
— Hakim Bishara, Senior Editor
The German Modernist Who Painted a Multicultural United States
From the Blackfeet reservation to Harlem, Winold Reiss immersed himself in the world of the people he represented, forming close ties with many individuals. | Joanne B. Mulcahy
SPONSORED
Henry Luce Foundation Conversations on American Art and Museums at the New-York Historical Society
On September 9, the first event in this free, virtual series will focus on how museums of Native American art and culture are leading the reinvention of art museum missions and practices in the 21st century. Learn more.
LATEST NEWS
A "die-in" protest organized by Nan Goldin's activist group PAIN in the courtyard of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London in 2019. (Naomi Polonsky/Hyperallergic)
Introducing terms like “accessibility,” “inclusivity,” and “community,” the International Council of Museums updates its definition of a museum.
- The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art has apologized to Lilada Gee for damage caused to her artwork in the Wisconsin Triennial but rejects racism allegations.
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ART & BOOKS
Debunking Myths About Public Art
The Ent Center for the Arts’s program Art WithOut Limits pops up in unexpected spaces. | Kealey Boyd
Lynne Tillman Explores How Her Mother Was Transformed by Aging and Illness
Doubt and uncertainty mark her account of family inheritance, photographic portraiture, and eldercare. | Nicole Miller
Required Reading
This week, an architect designs his own home, unraveling the white supremacy of archives, pigeons in New York City, being “Asian” in the United States, apologizing to Sacheen Littlefeather, and more. | Hrag Vartanian
IN OUR STORE
“Champfleurette #2” Mouse Pad x Louise Bourgeois
Back in stock at long last! This popular mouse pad takes its design from “Champfleurette #2” (1999), a print by the acclaimed French-American artist that now resides in the Museum of Modern Art.
TRANSITIONS
Andrew Connors, Albuquerque Museum director, and Michael Findlay, Acquavella Galleries director, were appointed to the Cultural Property Advisory Committee by President Biden. See the full list of recent boards and commissions appointees here.
Charles Boyd and Lynn Arsht Gandhi were elected as Board of Directors co-chairs at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.
Andrew Harris was appointed deputy director for finance and chief financial officer at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Andrés Jaque was named dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.
Gaëtane Verna was appointed executive director of the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University.
Gilbert Vicario was named chief curator at the Pérez Art Museum Miami.
Luder Whitlock resigned from his role as interim director of the Orlando Museum of Art.
AWARDS & ACCOLADES
Joseph Kosuth received the National Arts Club’s Medal of Honor for Fine Arts.
Anonymous Was A Woman and the New York Foundation for the Arts awarded their inaugural Environmental Art Grants to 14 women artists. See the full list of recipients here.
