United States

US pavilion features first Indigenous artist to have solo show

Jeffrey Gibson mixes Native American motifs with modern materials to investigate issues of identity and history

Boston science museum brings climate action to the fore with year-long initiative

Year of the Earthshot features more than 1,000 interdisciplinary programmes that explore climate solutions, from immersive exhibitions to a project with Unesco and four World Heritage Sites—and an online cooking show

US museums blame falling visitor numbers for staff redundancies

Institutions including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art have let staff go

Black museums face greater peril in the climate crisis

The Association of African American Museums outlines heightened issues facing Black cultural centres, including old infrastructure, coastal locations and lack of access to funds and resources

Nevada lithium mine threatens cultural sites

The US federal government’s manoeuvres to boost domestic lithium extraction are raising fears from tribal communities about archaeological and environmental impacts

Obituariesfeature

Remembering Henry Kissinger, master of art politics, whose Cold War diplomacy still had resonance in 2023

Kissinger, one of the most photographed men of his time, with an instantly recognisable pair of spectacles, was a powerful graphic gift to artists including Philip Guston

Installations by Theaster Gates and James Little reinvigorate riverfront park in Memphis

The public space on the banks of the Mississippi, which honours a Black skiff boat operator who saved 32 people from drowning, features work by Theaster Gates and James Little

Museumscomment

Why do US museum workers want to quit?

Employees in the sector increasingly find their jobs exhausting and unfulfilling—but how can they avoid burnout at work?

MoMA raises ticket price to $30 as US museums face tough choices on entry fees

Many of the biggest art museums in New York and elsewhere have raised the price of general admission to $30, while others continue to pursue free-entry policies

Race to save Marcel Breuer’s 'magical' retreat on Cape Cod

The architect’s son is selling the Modernist summer house and a trust hopes to raise the funds to buy it

Lawnews

US drag show laws are a threat to artistic freedom and an attack on LGBTQ communities, say critics

A wave of local and state legislation “protecting” minors from drag shows has been denounced as a morally subjective, an anti-queer dog whistle, and likely to lead to the censorship of performance art

Bitter row rages over ownership of marble sculpture of Indigenous man

Restitution dispute between Chrysler Museum of Art in Virginia and Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association came close to a deal in 2020

'Go outside and protect what already exists': AI-generated dawn chorus of songbirds has a sinister edge

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg's immersive collaboration with Superblue highlights declining numbers of songbirds

The Buffalo AKG Art Museum reveals its $230m transformation

More than three years after it closed, the museum in upstate New York has made major upgrades across its campus and added more than 500 works to its collection

Booksreview

Origins of US photographer William Eggleston’s trailblazing images go on display in new book

Ninety previously unseen photographs from the early 1970s reveal the foundations of his practice

Is the graphic designer who refuses to create websites for same-sex couples an artist?

US Supreme Court justices debate whether obliging a Colorado woman to create wedding websites for same-sex couples violates her free speech rights as an artist

Charleston reckons with its role in the international slave trade through its museums

The historic Charleston Museum and the forthcoming International African American Museum will explore the city's painful past

US considers rejoining Unesco despite more than $616m membership debt and Israel-Palestine controversies

America left the United Nations heritage organisation in 2019 after its members voted to accept Palestine as a member state

US government withholds art made by detainees at Guantánamo Bay

Five years ago, a landmark exhibition of art created by detainees began touring the US. But a government U-turn has blocked works from leaving the prison, raising the question: whose art is it?

Once the US’s largest slave port, Charleston will open African American museum next year

Opening on 21 January 2023, the new International African American Museum will include ways for Black Americans to research their ancestry

Cold War era returns as cultural ties are severed between Russia and US

Cultural understanding “cancelled” as Russia withdraws from 1998 memorandum and museums wind down “all direct communications and collaborative work”

Inside the US military’s vast but rarely seen art collection

Many works depict enlisted soldiers’ day-to-day routine while some are even anti-war

Time is up on relaxed rules for US museums wanting to sell their works—did this brief shift have any lasting impact?

As stringent restrictions on art sales return after a pandemic reprieve, American institutions seem more polarised than ever

'The only way to stop the bleeding is to stop writing policies': climate change is making it more expensive to insure art

Global warming’s effects are impacting collectors’ bank accounts, especially in disaster-prone states like California and Florida where risky conditions have become the norm

Labournews

Can New York's imminent salary transparency law pierce the art world's smokescreen?

City council's move to enforce wage disclosures in job adverts could usher in a sea change at major US cultural institutions—challenging persistent pay inequality in the sector

US bans import of art and antiquities from Afghanistan

Experts in the trade question whether items seized by US customs under the new four-year policy will be returned to the Taliban

The US and Nigeria sign cultural property agreement

The five-year memorandum of understanding comes at a moment when Nigeria is taking increasingly proactive measures to secure its patrimony and recover artefacts that were looted and stolen

Exhibitions’ carbon footprints come under growing scrutiny

New reports from Artists Commit, which analyse the life cycle of a show, join an increasingly broad push for transparency and data sharing to promote a more climate-conscious sector

Jeff Koons accused of appropriating sculpture for 1989 series featuring his ex-wife

Michael Hayden has sued the artist for copyright infringement in latest legal battle