US politics

Wake up call: artist Hank Willis Thomas wants to spur voter turnout with the Wide Awakes group

Based on the 1860 Wide Awake movement that mobilised against slavery and helped elect Lincoln, the new network of artists and creatives has launched Kickstarter's largest collaboration to date

Incarceration is part of the American experience for many—its art is explored in a major new show at MoMA PS1

Exhibition in New York will include works made by those who are part of—or who have ties to—the largest prison population in the world

Labournews

It is not just artists who are starving: how the US can rebuild its creative industry post-Covid

A proposal issued to both presidential campaigns by Americans for the Arts outlines a national strategy to put creative workers back to work

Will US Congress finally pass anti-money laundering legislation?

A recent Senate report found that secretive art market enables sanctions circumvention

As monuments to Christopher Columbus come down across the US, Italian-Americans campaign to protect a symbol of 'culture heritage'

Some Italian-Americans, including the New York governor Andrew Cuomo, say statues of Columbus symbolise the history of Italians in the US

Booksnews

Former US president George W. Bush unveils portraits of immigrants in new book

But blowback has been swift against the hobbyist painter, whose immigration policies while in office included the creation of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Senate investigation finds art market secrecy allowed Russian billionaire brothers, friends of Putin, to evade government sanctions

A detailed report calls the trade “the largest, legal unregulated industry in the United States” and recommends increased transparency and government oversight

'Get rid of prisons': artist Stanley Whitney speaks out against US judicial system in online show

Initiative highlights disproportionate number of African Americans incarcerated in the US

Murals that ‘whitewash’ American history come under fire

Monuments are not the only problematic depictions of the past

International art students may be forced to leave the US under Trump's new ICE policy on remote learning

Harvard and MIT filed lawsuits against the US government while the president of CalArts calls the move an act of "political theatre" amid the pandemic

Artists call out the injustices immigrants suffer in the US ahead of Independence Day

A collaborative sky writing project featuring contributions from Patrisse Cullors, Dread Scott and Hank Willis Thomas will mark 80 sites used to limit immigrants

LGBTQinterview

Art can help the public engage in personal advocacy: Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign

The nation's largest LGBTQ civil rights organisation recently unveiled an incisive installation by Hank Willis Thomas on its Washington, DC headquarters

The war over racist monuments is escalating throughout the US

The disposal of Confederate monuments will not erase America’s history, but some say removing them from public view is crucial to moving forward

Art history fact check: Trump can’t tell the difference between Teddy Roosevelt and an anonymous Remington cowboy

Defending problematic monuments as educational opportunities, the US president misidentifies a famous bronze as a presidential portrait in a Fox News interview

Controversial Roosevelt statue will be removed from entrance to New York’s American Museum of Natural History

The former president’s great-grandson supports the removal of “relics of another age”

Hank Willis Thomas covers US Justice Department with thousands of words from inmates

Launched last night, the guerilla intervention is the latest public work in Washington, DC to address structural racism—but can art effect change?

Could a Nixon-era employment scheme get artists back to work?

The Comprehensive Employment and Training Act provided a lifeline for thousands of artists during the 1970s economic crisis

New artist resale rights contract in the US has a charitable twist

Kadist in San Francisco and Paris is promoting a new agreement that artists can use to make sure profits made from their works go to a cause

Virginia vows to remove monument to Confederate general Robert E. Lee amid ongoing anti-racism protests

Governor says that the state will "no longer preach a false version of history" as calls for racial justice echo across the nation

Monuments across the US are toppled, damaged as protests over George Floyd's death continue

Lawmakers mobilise the National Guard to quell destruction while demonstrators deface Confederate memorials and public works emblematic of white supremacy

US government recommends that the Supreme Court hear German museums’ appeal on Guelph Treasure claim

The solicitor general’s recent filing suggests the Nazis’ looting of Jewish collections in Germany was a domestic rather than international crime

Racismcomment

The US has a big racism problem and the art world is not helping

A looted Kaws sculpture and museums' silence reveal a predatory not progressive industry as protests flare following the killing of George Floyd

Steve Bannon wins first major battle for medieval monastery

Italy retaliates with criminal prosecution of right-wing religious group funded by US President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist

Mayors of major US cities urge Congress to provide additional support for the arts and culture sector

Spearheaded by the San Francisco Arts Alliance, more than 20 mayors have signed a letter requesting additional aid in its next relief package

The unsung agency working to maintain museum and library access in the US

The leader of the Institute of Museum and Library Services tells us what his organisation is doing to help spaces reopen

The NEA hopes to keep arts jobs alive in the US—with limited federal relief funds

Up to 30% of arts spaces may close permanently, and agency chief fears rural areas in the US will be the hardest hit

Cultural figures discuss ‘Art in the Time of Coronavirus’

The UN-sponsored event led by Christopher Bailey, the WHO’s lead on art and health, included art critic Jerry Saltz, Brooklyn Museum director Anne Pasternak, and artist Mona Chalabi

US coronavirus legislation could do more for the arts, Boston museums say

The coalition is asking for $6bn in federal aid, and to permanently expand the charitable giving deduction to encourage US taxpayers to donate to non-profits

Labournews

New York art-handling company lays off pro-union workers, while others are paid to stay home during coronavirus pandemic

Teamsters union has filed charges against the company with the National Labor Relations Board claiming the cuts are retaliation against efforts to organise

Coronavirus complicates US Census—and the arts funding tied to it

Art + Action has launched a multi-pronged initiative to reach Bay Area residents in hard-to-count communities, and galvanise the art world to get behind the national headcount