Mostly, they’re knuckling under. One might, if one were a student of history, think of this as totalitarian. “The chilling effect on museum programming at the heart of artistic experimentation and the historic role of art to occasionally provoke strong reactions in viewers.” - The New York Times
It is noteworthy that as strikingly photographic, familiar, dramatic — what have you — the painting is, one source of its pleasure has nothing to do with the content of the image but its shape, a shape that forces the viewer to find the rhymes. - MITPress
This is not simply a disagreement over museum curation; it’s a dangerous and calculated attempt to whitewash our history, silence uncomfortable truths, and undermine the very institutions we trust to preserve and interpret our collective past. - The Contrarian
“The president's office announced that it has begun the process of ending the current contracts connected to the cathedral and will launch a further ‘forensic audit’ that may lead to the project being halted entirely. … Around $58 million ... has already been spent on the $400 million cathedral despite construction not starting.” - Dezeen
For 75 years, Wyeth’s five-panel, 60’x19’ Apotheosis of the Family hung at the Wilmington Savings Fund Society in Delaware — and was pried down in 2008 when the building was sold. Now his grandson, Jamie, has built a new home for the mural, and reassembling it was quite a task. - The New York Times
“The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future,” Trump’s post said. - Washington Post (MSN)
“Resembling idealized flowers, many (of what are called) bloom patterns are rotationally symmetric around the center. The bloom patterns, with their set of attractive properties, appear promising for future engineering uses, especially for large structures that are sent to outer space.” - The New York Times
Brian Ferriso came to Portland in 2006 after a series of art museum leadership roles in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Milwaukee and Chicago. During his tenure, he boosted the Portland Art Museum’s endowment by $40 million while eliminating millions of dollars in unfunded debt and raised its national and international profile. - The Oregonian
“We’ve got to get patriotism back in the Smithsonian,” conservative Texas Congressman Sam Johnson said, on being appointed to the museum’s Board of Regents shortly afterward to provide so-called ideological “balance.” “We want the Smithsonian to reflect real America and not something that a historian dreamed up.” - The New Republic
The White House started an audit of the Smithsonian earlier this month. But what about other institutions? It is unclear what legal and financial pressures his administration might pursue in trying to align American museums to his vision. - NPR
“Ferriso, 59, will succeed Agustín Arteaga, who stepped down in December after eight years at the helm. Ferriso’s first day will be Dec. 1. … He will soon be tasked with steering the DMA through its own expansion, which could cost upward of $150 million.” - KERA (Dallas)
“Researchers say that its swirling sky is uncannily similar to some of the ‘exotic vortex patterns’ produced by a classic scientific phenomenon known as quantum Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI).” - Artnet
I’m not arguing for the original statue to go anywhere, but do we need Stallone’s exact replica of it a few hundred feet away on top of one of our most iconic buildings, a place where we go to protest and to celebrate? - Philadelphia Inquirer
"The Museums throughout Washington, but all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of "WOKE," he wrote. The post emphasized his ongoing displeasure with the Smithsonian, describing it as "OUT OF CONTROL" and suggesting that museums around the country may face similar scrutiny. - NPR
Museums were repurposed to emphasize heroic and nationalist themes. Military museums glorified past victories while erasing defeats. Archives were cleansed of inconvenient truths: Jewish soldiers’ service in World War I was omitted from military histories. “Un-German” books by Freud, Marx, Einstein, and others were burned in 1933. - Berkshire Eagle
