Arts news

• MOWAA Archeological Project Releases Findings

  04-11-2025 22:42 via artnews.com
  A little more than a week from today, the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) in Benin City, Nigeria, will open its MOWAA Institute, the first building to be finished of a planned 15-acre campus that will also include a contemporary art exhibition space (the Rainforest gallery), among other facilities. The complex is expected to be completed in 2028.In advance of the opening, Antiquity magazine has published an updated report on pre-construction archeological investigations conducted at the Insti
  
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• Trump’s Tariffs Upending Decorative Arts Trade, FAMSF Gifted 1,600 Works by Kirk Edward Long: Morning Links for November 4, 2025.

  04-11-2025 21:21 via artnews.com
  The Headlines TARIFF WOES. The tariffs introduced by President Donald Trump’s administration were designed to support American manufacturers in industries like construction, pharmaceuticals, and automobile production. However, these measures have unintentionally harmed international trade in antiques and decorative arts, the Art Newspaper reports. Memphis-based antique dealer Millicent Ford Creech expressed dismay over the new tariffs on all furniture imports, noting that wh
  
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• Performa Delays Golden Lion–Winning Artist’s New Work Due to US Government Shutdown

  04-11-2025 21:07 via artnews.com
  With just one day to go, New York’s Performa biennial said it had made the last-minute decision to postpone a new work by Lina Lapelytė because the piece’s venue remained shuttered by the government shutdown.The work, titled The Speech (NYC), involves 100 children making what a description labels “primal sounds—coos, cries, barks, howls, and roars.” It’s a new version of a preexisting work that has previously been shown at venues such as Paris’
  
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• Philadelphia Art Museum’s Director Is Out Following Controversial Rebrand

  04-11-2025 21:05 via artnews.com
  Sasha Suda, the director and CEO of the newly rebranded Philadelphia Art Museum, was dismissed on Tuesday, according to reports from the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Magazine. ARTnews has reached out to the institution for comment. The museum continues to list Suda as its leader on its website.Philadelphia Magazine reported that Suda was told of her dismissal this morning via an email that stated she was being terminated for “cause,” though the email reportedly did not expl
  
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• Some Folks Are Not Happy About Philadelphia Art Museum’s Rebrand, And That Includes Some Board Members

  04-11-2025 20:59 via msn.com
  
  “Critics say the new logo and its angular griffin look severe — more like a soccer team, a clothing brand, or a beer label than an art museum.” What’s more, some board members say they weren’t shown the final design for approval and only learned about the rollout from the press. – The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
  
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• Opera America Names New President And CEO

  04-11-2025 20:31 via broadwayworld.com
  
  Michael Bobbitt comes to OPERA America from the Mass Cultural Council in Boston, MA, where he served as Executive Director since 2021. – BroadwayWorld
  
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• Anne Sexton’s Horror Short Stories, Rejected By The New Yorker

  04-11-2025 20:02 via lithub.com
  
  Editor Roger Angell called the three stories “interesting and wholly original” but said “they seem to work in very different ways on different readers.” At least he allowed that “I’m not at all sure that we aren’t making a mistake.” That must have stung Sexton, always unsure of herself when writing prose. – Literary Hub
  
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• Meet The New Head Of The UK Opera Association

  04-11-2025 19:44 via thetimes.com
  
  “The perception that opera is only for posh people, with which I fundamentally disagree, has taken a grip on a lot of decision-makers,” Thangam Debbonaire says. “But even if we do win them over, we have to accept that constraints on public finances aren’t going away any time soon.” – The Times (UK)
  
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• Choreography By AI?

  04-11-2025 19:31 via blog.google
  
  AISOMA is a Google AI-powered choreography tool that acts as a creative catalyst by generating new, original dance rooted in my choreographic language. – Google
  
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• Neanderthals May Have Created Ochre Tools for Drawing, New Study Finds

  04-11-2025 19:17 via artnews.com
  A recent analysis of ochre fragments from several Neanderthal sites indicated that Neanderthals used ochre for drawing and marking surfaces.It has been long-believed that Neanderthals used the iron-rich pigment to adorn their bodies, clothing, and surfaces. Many ancient civilizations, for example, used ochre to preserve animal hides and tan clothing. However, there has not been much definitive evidence around other uses of ochre by Neanderthals.For this study, recently published in Science Advan
  
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• Sasha Suda Fired As Director Of Philadelphia Art Museum

  04-11-2025 19:15 via phillymag.com
  
  Suda, who has been leading a change campaign at the museum since she arrived in 2022, reportedly has both supporters and detractors on the board. – Philadelphia Magazine
  
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• Medieval Tower Near Colosseum Partially Collapses

  04-11-2025 19:10 via artnews.com
  The Torre dei Conti, which was built in 1283 and is located near the Colosseum in Rome, partially collapsed on Monday, November 3, according to a report in the New York Times.One worker was seriously injured, while another was trapped in the structure for nearly 11 hours. That worker, identified by officials as Octay Stroici, was rescued, but he died soon afterward, according to Italian officials.In a statement to the Associated Press, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said, “I express
  
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• The Persistent, Pernicious Myths About Shakespeare And Marlowe

  04-11-2025 19:04 via yahoo.com
  
  The Romantic ideal of a singular creative genius remaking the rules of his era doesn’t really match William Shakespeare, who was (for a theater guy) fairly conventional. Christopher Marlowe is a better fit, and he transformed more than he gets credit for, but mythmaking distorts his image as well. – The Atlantic (Yahoo!)
  
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• Spotify Reports Strong Subscriber Gains, Record Profits

  04-11-2025 18:44 via deadline.com
  
  Music streamer Spotify saw third quarter operating profits grow a cool 28%, as its paying subscribers hit 281 million. – Deadline
  
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• Australia Imposes New Streaming Quotas

  04-11-2025 18:30 via deadline.com
  
  The rules require Netflix, Prime Video and the other global streamers with more than one million Australian subscribers to spend 10% of their total Australian expenditure – or 7.5% of their revenues – on local originals. – Deadline
  
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• Wright of Derby: From the Shadows review – science, skeletons and a suffocated cockatoo

  04-11-2025 18:22
  National Gallery, LondonJoseph Wright of Derby’s vivid paintings depicted Enlightenment thinking and illumination amid the dark. So why are they so terrifying?He looks like he’s up to no good. In the depths of the night, under trees and clouds turned silver and black by the full moon, a man is at work with a shovel. Is he burying a body or digging bits up for a Frankensteinian experiment? After all, this painting was done by Joseph Wright of Derby, a friend of pioneering scientists a
  
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• 9 Works to Know in “View Finding: Selections from The Walther Collection” at the Met

  04-11-2025 18:20 via artnews.com
  Last May the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York announced that photography collector Artur Walther, via his Walther Family Foundation, had made a promised gift to the museum of more than 6,500 works. Now, as a foretaste of a larger exhibition to come in 2028, 40 pieces from the promised gift are on view in the show “View Finding: Selections from The Walther Collection.”Walther, who has been collecting photographs and time-based media for 30 years, is best known for the breadth of
  
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• What Immanuel Kant Still Has To Teach Us Today

  04-11-2025 18:15 via newyorker.com
  
  The central insight that these disparate thinkers took from Kant is that the world isn’t simply a thing, or a collection of things, given to us to perceive. Rather, our minds help create the reality we experience. – The New Yorker
  
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• Newsmakers: Artissima Director Luigi Fassi on Italy Slashing VAT on Art Sales and Why ‘There Are No Excuses Left’ for Italian Dealers

  04-11-2025 18:14 via artnews.com
  Editor’s Note: This story is part of Newsmakers, a new ARTnews series where we interview the movers and shakers who are making change in the art world.In July, Italy’s government finally bowed to two decades of lobbying from galleries, auction houses, and antique dealers and slashed VAT on art sales from 22 percent to just 5 percent, the lowest in the European Union. This year’s edition of Artissima, Italy’s largest contemporary art fair, closed its doors on Sun
  
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• Movie Theater Owners Are Freaking Out Over Possible Sale Of Warner Bros. Discovery

  04-11-2025 18:06 via yahoo.com
  
  “Multiple theatrical executives … conveyed a sense of grave concern, if not panic, over the possibility of a studio that grossed more than $4 billion worldwide this year and provided many of the box office hits of the past six months being assimilated into another company and having its output dramatically curtailed.” – TheWrap (Yahoo!)
  
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• Norman Rockwell’s Family Speaks Out About Homeland Security’s Misuse of His Artwork

  04-11-2025 17:55 via artnews.com
  The descendants of Norman Rockwell are speaking out against social media postings by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that they say misuse the artist’s work.Since this summer, the DHS has shared reproductions of Rockwell’s paintings on its X, Instagram, and Facebook accounts that promote anti-immigrant rhetoric.The first, posted on August 20, depicts Rockwell’s Salute the Flag (1971) with the caption, “Protect our American way of life.” The p
  
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• Duane Michals Photographs Jacob Elordi for Bottega Veneta

  04-11-2025 17:51 via artnews.com
  A new ad campaign by Italian luxury house Bottega Veneta features dreamy black-and-white images of actor Jacob Elordi, photographed by Duane Michals.The collaboration is the first since Bottega creative director Louise Trotter debuted her first collection for the house during the Milan Spring 2026 shows in September.Michals is best-known for his “Sequences” series of images that tell enigmatic tales that never fully resolve but are thrilling to witness and experience. He often accomp
  
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• What Do We Need Hobbies For?

  04-11-2025 17:44 via newyorker.com
  
  Although many have outward-facing aspects, a hobby is ultimately a form of self-cultivation, pursued for reasons of personal satisfaction. Our society values publicity and productivity: perhaps that’s one reason that hobbies seem like they’re in decline. – The New Yorker
  
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• Not Bulldozing The White House Was A Convention, Not A Law. Many Things In Government Have Been So

  04-11-2025 17:31 via theatlantic.com
  
  After the architects’ convention in 1900, public officials turned to specialists to address questions of aesthetic and space planning that had previously been matters of politics and patronage. Over the decade that followed, most public-building projects in D.C. came under a system of formal design review. – The Atlantic
  
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• Documenting The Present Is Resistance

  04-11-2025 17:15 via commondreams.org
  
  Let this be painfully clear: The future will only remember what is preserved today, and the choice is between standing by as stories are diluted or destroyed—or fighting for the record, for the archive, and for the truth with steady, everyday work that anyone can participate in. – Common Dreams
  
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• Ohio Law Could Void Cleveland State University’s Transfer Of Its Student Radio Station To City’s Public Radio Outlet

  04-11-2025 17:01 via cleveland.com
  
  “The Cleveland State University-Ideastream deal over WCSB 89.3 could be invalidated because the college did not follow Ohio public meetings law, an expert on public meetings laws said.” – Cleveland.com
  
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• A New Hall Of Fame For Dance, Complete With Its First Inductees

  04-11-2025 16:33 via broadwaynews.com
  
  “A new Dance Hall of Fame has been established to honor the significant contributions to the discipline of dance. Included in the freshman class of inductees are Alvin Ailey, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss, Misty Copeland, Bob Fosse, Martha Graham, Gene Kelly, Kenny Ortega, Jerome Robbins and Twyla Tharp.” – Broadway News
  
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• Arts School In New Jersey’s Largest City Abruptly Closes

  04-11-2025 16:05 via theviolinchannel.com
  
  Without warning, a note appeared on the website of the Newark School for the Arts that it is “closed until further notice.” Founded in 1968, the school’s mission was to provide training in the performing and visual arts to students of all ages and financial backgrounds. – The Violin Channel
  
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• Actress Diane Ladd, Three-Time Oscar Nominee, Has Died At 89

  04-11-2025 15:30 via hollywoodreporter.com
  
  She received nominations for Best Supporting Actress for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Wild at Heart, and Rambling Rose; she performed in the latter two (and several other films) alongside her daughter, Laura Dern. Ladd appeared in a dozen or so other movies as well as scores of television shows. – The Hollywood Reporter
  
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• We Don’t Need an Alt Cultural Policy

  04-11-2025 15:27 via artsjournal.com
  
  In a recent post comparing the White House’s proposed “compact” with universities to the situation facing the nonprofit arts in the United States, I wrote:The administration’s interventions into the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian museums have received a lot of press, and these “anti-woke” interventions have a lot in common with the Compact. But you might have noticed, we don’t really hear much about the rest of the art world. Why not? Becau
  
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• Las Vegas Philharmonic Makes Surprise Announcement Of New Music Director

  04-11-2025 15:02 via neon.reviewjournal.com
  
  After artistic advisor Leonard Slatkin finished conducting Saturday night’s concert, he introduced the audience to the orchestra’s next music director, Japanese-American conductor Rei Hotoda. She begins her four-year term next July and will also continue in her position as music director of the Fresno Philharmonic. – Las Vegas Review-Journal
  
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• Revered Pianist Maria João Pires Retires From Performing

  04-11-2025 14:34 via moto-perpetuo.com
  
  The 81-year-old — who found viral fame through an old video where she’d been told to prepare the wrong Mozart concerto but pulled off the performance nevertheless — has retired at least once before, only to return to performing. But she suffered a stroke in June and has not played in public since. – Moto Perpetuo
  
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• The art of the possible: the Nottingham art gallery being run by citizens’ assembly

  04-11-2025 14:15
  New Art Exchange believes it is first cultural institution in world to hand permanent leadership to the community“I used to see this place on the street but I didn’t know what was here, I didn’t even know it was an art gallery,” says Felix, a 20-year-old nursing student. “And now I’m here shaping its future.”Felix is one of 40 residents of Hyson Green in Nottingham who run the show at New Art Exchange (NAE), which believes it is the first cultural instit
  
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• Climate-Protesting Art Vandal Who Targeted Degas In D.C. Gets 18 Months

  04-11-2025 14:09 via newsobserver.com
  
  “A federal judge in Washington, D.C., sentenced Timothy Martin after a jury found him guilty in April on two counts of conspiracy and injuring government property. He and fellow activist Joanna Smith smeared washable paint on the case containing an Edgar Degas sculpture” at the National Gallery. – The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC)
  
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• Climate Protestors Who Vandalized Stonehenge Acquitted

  04-11-2025 14:06 via news.artnet.com
  
  “Niamh Lynch and Rajan Naidu sprayed orange cornstarch-based powder over three of the megaliths at Stonehenge; … Luke Watson helped plan the protest and drove Lynch and Naidu to the site. … After a two-week trial, the jury returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty for all three defendants on October 31.” – Artnet
  
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• Why Are American Nonprofit Arts Organizations Failing? It’s Not as Complicated as You Think.

  04-11-2025 14:00 via artsjournal.com
  
  The easiest explanations tend to be the right ones.
  A lost Magritte. Or possibly an AI-generated image. Hard to tell. Maybe Tilly Norwood has the answer.I’m surprised that anyone in the nonprofit arts sector has any skin left on their hands with all the wringing that’s been happening in the industry about the loss of audience, money, and favor. Every article on the nonprofit arts seems to be the announcement of a death knell, a merger, slashed budgets, layoffs, resignations and retir
  
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• Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Receives Gift of 1,600 Works from Local Collector

  04-11-2025 14:00 via artnews.com
  The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), which includes the de Young and the Legion of Honor, has received a gift of 1,600 works from local collector Kirk Edward Long.The donated works will be stewarded by FAMSF’s Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, and the donation marks one of the largest single-owner gifts in the foundation’s history. Long’s holdings are particularly strong in early modern European prints from Italy, France, Germany, and the Netherlands.His collect
  
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• Artist Matthew Day Jackson Launches Luxury Skiwear Line with Aspen-Based Brand Aztech Mountain

  04-11-2025 14:00 via artnews.com
  Matthew Day Jackson, an expansive artist working in multiple mediums, contributed 10 artworks to a new 23-piece collection of luxury skiwear on offer from Aztech Mountain, a ski brand based in Aspen, Colorado. In addition to being an artist, Jackson, per the brand’s announcement, is also a a “passionate skier, cyclist, and adventurer.” His new line, titled Planet Aspen, includes ski jackets, pants, and innerwear, all adorned with designs from works by Jackson for Aztech Mountai
  
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• See the light: the beautiful, and radical, art of Anna Ancher – review

  04-11-2025 11:09
  Dulwich Picture Gallery, LondonA solo exhibition devoted to the Danish painter who lived and worked in Skagen, a remote tip of northern Denmark, reveals her to be an artist of tenderness and visionWalking into the Anna Ancher exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery feels like walking into a pat of butter, or, perhaps, more aptly, a ray of sunlight. The luscious pale yellow walls of the first two galleries immediately immerse you in what Ancher is most known for: her remarkably radical practice of
  
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• Vocab Quiz: The Most Misused Art History Terms

  04-11-2025 11:00 via artnews.com
  Think you know your exhibit from your exhibition? Your Realism from your photorealism?As an editor at an art magazine, it’s my job to notice when art history terms get used incorrectly. I’ve rounded up some of the most commonly misused terms below. Take this quiz to find out if your art history vocabulary is museum-quality—or if it needs a little restoration.
  Take Our Survey
  
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• Women behind the lens: ‘I envisioned these slaves whose lives were exchanged for indigo’

  04-11-2025 09:00
  Stacey Gillian Abe’s Indigogo project explores how the dye was used in the slave trade– and how those enslaved people lost their identitiesIn 2018, I ended a 10-year relationship and it left me broken. I became quiet and irritable; I craved isolation and found myself putting up emotional barriers to avoid having to talk to anyone about it. It felt like I’d never recover.Taking long walks has always been one of the ways I’ve dealt with my emotional and mental state. On one
  
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• Good morning.

  04-11-2025 02:15 via artsjournal.com
  Art outpaces policy as audiences vote with their feet.Highlights from today’s stories:
  Institutions in flux:
  Princeton’s new museum balances scale and intimacy — ARTnews.
  Academia contracts as Harvard cuts Ph.D. cohorts — Harvard Crimson — and the humanities push back against “vibe” thinking — LA Review of Books.Power and policy:
  Cultural leadership calls for coherence amid disruption — Artnet.
  Labor unrest hits Rockstar Games, with union-bus
  
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