US politics

Non-profit art collaborative using craft to promote cross-border relations returns to Los Angeles

Ambos (Art Made Between Opposite Sides) has been working with communities on both sides of the US-Mexico border for nearly a decade

Museum’s decision to remove artist’s monograph from its bookstore sparks questions about freedom of expression

Doug Argue’s exhibition at the Weisman Art Museum last year was not accompanied by the book that inspired it due to sensitivities Argue likened to “book banning”

Hunter Biden’s art dealer questioned by House Oversight Committee

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee questioned New York art dealer Georges Bergès this week about representing US President Joe Biden’s son

Divisive Los Angeles dealer Stefan Simchowitz runs for US Senate

Once dubbed “the art world’s patron satan”, the gallerist is hoping to take the Californian seat formerly held by the late Dianne Feinstein

Minnesota picks 24-year-old artist’s design for new state flag

While some may have preferred an endearing photo of a Minnesotan’s dog for the new flag, Andrew Prekker’s winning design is widely popular

Confederate Memorial coming down at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, DC

Now that a judge lifted a last-minute injunction, the monument will be gone by the end of the week

Border Biennial showcases art across the Texas-Mexico border

It’s the first physical iteration of the El Paso and Juárez exhibition in five years, after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the 2020 edition

Ron DeSantis’s ‘war on woke’ goes to college

The Florida governor’s recent education reforms are damaging arts and humanities programmes across the state—but educators and students are fighting back

Arts loom small in Ron DeSantis's proposed state budget

The Florida governor's proposed budget for the the next fiscal year includes some provisions for museums—and continuing to transport undocumented migrants to Democratic states

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

Proposed US legislation would penalise use of AI to generate someone’s likeness without their consent

The No Fakes Act has been proposed by four US Senators and garnered support from organisations representing creative industries

New York City Council bill calls for an accounting of all monuments to beneficiaries of slavery

The bill, currently under review by Mayor Eric Adams's administration, renews conversations about the role of public statues that lionise America's history of slavery

Federally funded museums in the US brace for government shutdown

The Smithsonian Institution and National Gallery of Art are making plans for continuing operations amid a government shutdown that appears increasingly likely

The Guerrilla Girls take on an Arkansas music festival

The activist art collective is bringing an installation of its work and a series of workshops to the Format festival in Bentonville

US public art project seeks to combat rising antisemitism

The latest billboard campaign by For Freedoms follows an alarming rise in attacks and threats against Jewish people and sites

Second judge rules that Vermont Law School did not violate artist's rights in covering up problematic murals

The decision comes after the artist, Sam Kerson, appealed a district court’s 2021 ruling

Arizona city accused of censorship for postponing museum exhibitions over Shepard Fairey police brutality print

Municipal officials in Mesa have come under fire for postponing the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum's autumn shows

Capturing the ‘spectacularly unspectacular’ reality of abortions and reproductive health facilities

Carmen Winant’s new installation at the Minneapolis Institute of Art conveys how unremarkable spaces and procedures that have become intensely politicised are

Planned Centre Pompidou outpost in New Jersey is ‘a circus of waste and excess’, according to Republican report

A Republican state senator is taking Jersey City’s mayor and New Jersey’s governor to task over the delayed museum project

Republican lawmakers move to block funding for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino

Under a new bill, the planned museum, which was created by an act of Congress in 2020, would be banned from receiving federal funding

Joe Biden to establish US national monument honouring Emmett Till, whose 1955 murder shocked the nation

The Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument will include sites in Mississippi and Illinois

Last resort: antiquities Israel loaned to Trump are stranded at Mar-a-Lago

Originally loaned to the White House in 2019, the items followed Donald Trump to his Florida residence and have yet to be returned

Unesconews

The United States officially rejoins Unesco

Following a five-year absence, one of the founding members of the UN's cultural agency is readmitted as the organisation's 194th member state

Racenews

New Orleans Museum of Art faces public outcry for hiring white curator of African art

The museum is facing heated critique on social media over the appointment of Amanda Maples, a white woman, to oversee its African art collection

Unesco members vote overwhelmingly—but not unanimously—to readmit the United States

The US will have to repay $619m in dues that accrued after it ceased paying in 2011 but before its formal departure in 2019

Museum in Philadelphia under fire for hosting far-right group's event

The Museum of the American Revolution is facing pushback for its decision to rent some of its spaces to Moms For Liberty, an ultra-conservative non-profit

Artists’ depictions of climate data can cut through politicisation of science, study finds

A study conducted recently in the US suggests artistic depictions of environmental data can help counter climate scepticism

Agnes Gund's fund to end mass incarceration reveals its final round of grants

The collector and philanthropist's Art for Justice initiative has awarded $125m over the six years it has been active

Florida bill would allow civilians to sue over damage to or removal of Confederate monuments

The proposed legislation is seen as an effort to defend Confederate monuments and markers in the public sphere by streamlining civil lawsuits

Artist Nancy Baker Cahill projects exploding uterus atop the US Supreme Court

The artist’s augmented-reality artwork addresses the evisceration of abortion rights in the US