April 21, 2023
Buenos días. 🌞 In case we haven’t met yet, I’m Valentina Di Liscia, Hyperallergic’s News editor, chiming in with the latest this morning. Museums and universities across the US and the world have dropped the disgraced Sackler name, which immediately evokes the hundreds of thousands of deaths caused by the ongoing opioid epidemic. But Harvard University is holding strong. Yesterday, around 100 students and PAIN activists staged a die-in at Harvard's Arthur M. Sackler Museum; Senior Editor Hakim Bishara has that on-the-ground report from one of the family’s last bastions.
There’s been an avalanche of art and culture news in recent weeks, not all of it pretty. The Smithsonian Institution is reviewing allegations against the inaugural director of its American Women’s History Museum, Nancy Yao. In settled lawsuits, workers at the Museum of Chinese in America in Manhattan accused Yao of retaliating against employees who spoke out against harassment, a claim she has denied. The Smithsonian’s renewed scrutiny proves that years of advocacy by Lower East Side activists and outspoken workers is not being ignored.
I hope these stories can help us think through difficult questions of power and accountability. And nothing illustrates our collective exhaustion with the capital-A Art World like the fact that The Exhibit, a show produced by the Hirshhorn Museum and MTV, was a flop, as Staff Writer Rhea Nayyar finds in her analysis of ratings data from the series.
Finally, don’t miss Julia Curl’s review of a reissued global history of women photographers that she calls “a new encyclopedia of the overlooked.” If Graciela Iturbide’s 1979 photograph of a Zapotec woman wearing a crown of live iguanas doesn’t put a smile on your face, perhaps it’s time for a vacation.
— Valentina Di Liscia, News Editor
In Surprise “Die-In,” Protesters Demand Harvard Take Down Sackler Name
About 100 students and PAIN activists participated in the action the day after a screening of Nan Goldin’s documentary on campus. | Hakim Bishara
SPONSORED
American Folk Art Museum Presents a Benefit Concert With Lonnie Holley, Special Guests
Hosted by Harvey Fierstein, the evening features performances by Mourning [A] BLKstar, Marshall Allen of Sun Ra Arkestra, and Suzanne Vega. Learn more.
WHAT'S HAPPENING
A Roman mosaic being uncovered in a British shopping mall (courtesy Colchester Archaeological Trust)
An Ancient Roman mosaic is uncovered beneath a shopping center in Colchester, Essex, the first Roman capital of Britain.
The Smithsonian Institution is reviewing allegations made against Nancy Yao during her leadership at the Museum of Chinese in America.
Alleged Hezbollah financier Nazem Ahmad is charged with money laundering and evading sanctions in an art and diamond scheme.
SPONSORED
Watch Indigenous Cinema at the Native New York Film Festival
See what makes New York a Native place on the big screen at the National Museum of the American Indian from May 5 through 7. Learn more.
LATEST REVIEWS
Rick Rivet Evokes His Arctic Origin
The artist’s solo exhibition in Santa Fe transports viewers away from New Mexico’s adobe-clad chile-tinged capital city. | Rachel Harris-Huffman
A Global History of Women's Photography Includes Over 300 Artists
This book unearths a trove of unseen images from the past two centuries. | Julia Curl
SPONSORED
Enjoy Summer Marathons in Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture at New York Studio School
Join us in-person or virtually for a 10-day Marathon and experience new strategies, techniques, and methods of inquiry that will expand your practice for years to come. Learn more.
ALSO ON HYPERALLERGIC
John Akomfrah Is Optimistic About the Future
A founding member of the Black Audio Film Collective, Akomfrah has explored Black life in Britain and beyond through acute observational films. | Dan Schindel
Required Reading
This week, digital media and virality, sleepovers at LA’s Last Bookstore, deconstructing “fusion” cuisine, Harvard’s dubious donors, Mr. Pillow owes $5M, and more. | Hrav Vartanian and Lakshmi Rivera Amin
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IN OUR STORE
Object Enamel Pin
When balmy spring days turn into brisk nights, let this teeny adaptation of Meret Oppenheim’s surrealist fur-covered teacup warm your soul.
TRANSITIONS
Carolyn Ramo will be stepping down from her role as executive director at Artadia.
Denise Ryner was appointed curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art Pennsylvania.
Michelle Cotton was appointed director of the Kunsthalle Wien.
Corinne Erni was appointed chief curator at the Parrish Art Museum.
The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles has released the artist list for the next edition of its Made in LA biennial. The list can be found here.
AWARDS & ACCOLADES
E´wao “Rocky” Kagoshima and Beatriz Santiago Muñoz were named fellows by the first Center for Art, Research and Alliances.
Theaster Gates, Edmund de Waal, and Hanya Yanagihara are the recipients of the 2023 Isamu Noguchi Award.
Natalia Arbelaez, Claudia V. Solórzano, Paige O’Toole, Jolie Ngo, and Luke Shalan were selected as the American Museum of Ceramic Art’s new artists in residence.
