Arts news

• How Theatre Etiquette Is Changing

  29-06-2026 15:45 via cbc.ca
  
  One actor: “We’re used to it at this point, you know, people just munching away on popcorn, ripping open candy in very tense moments. … If something is making you want to talk to us, we’re not afraid of it. We’ve got it under control up here.” – CBC
  
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• Three Swiss Museums Return Trove of Benin Bronzes to Nigeria

  29-06-2026 22:36 via artnews.com
  
  Three Swiss museums have returned 18 royal and religious artifacts from the Kingdom of Benin to Nigeria, marking another significant repatriation of the so-called Benin Bronzes.A handover ceremony took place today at the University of Zurich between Swiss Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider and Nigeria’s Minister of Culture, Hannatu Musa Musawa. The university returned 14 objects from its Ethnographic Museum, while two additional Benin Bronzes came from Museum Rietberg Zurich and
  
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• Refik Anadol to Stage Monumental AI Installation on Smithsonian Castle in DC

  29-06-2026 22:27 via artnews.com
  
  Fresh off the opening of Dataland, Refik Anadol’s new AI art museum in Los Angeles, the media artist has partnered with the Smithsonian Institution for a new monumental installation.Dubbed Smithsonian Dreams, the new project will see Anadol transform the Smithsonian Castle, the headquarters of the Institution on the National Mall, with an immersive performance of light, sound, and visuals on July 17 and July 18 at 9 p.m..For the work, Anadol built a custom AI system that reinterprets 200 y
  
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• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Announces Replacement for Long-Toppled Lenin Monument in Kyiv

  29-06-2026 22:23 via artnews.com
  
  A pedestal that once supported a Lenin monument in Kyiv that has remained empty ever since 2013 may soon host a statue of a Cossack leader Ivan Mazepa, who is revered by many in Ukraine as a national hero.A 12-foot-tall red quartzite sculpture of Vladimir Lenin stood on the pedestal at the intersection of two main roads in Kyiv for almost 60 years, until it was toppled during the Euromaidan Uprising. The Euromaidan demonstrations had begun the previous month when then-president Viktor Yanukovych
  
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• Chyrum Lambert’s Paper Cutouts Open New Dimensions

  29-06-2026 21:47 via artnews.com
  
  Chyrum Lambert moved to Los Angeles in 2012 and was immediately struck by the community of artists and poets he found there. “I didn’t go to art school, and I don’t have any formal education other than high school, so I’ve never had friends who are artists,” he said. “There’s just so much here that I never had in my life. This whole practice came out of LA.” For around a decade, Lambert has ventured beyond typical painterly techniques to creat
  
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• National Museum Cardiff in Wales May Close for Repairs to Address ‘Deteriorating Condition’               

  29-06-2026 21:39 via artnews.com
  
  The National Museum Cardiff in Wales may close for much-needed repair work, according to a workers’ union claim that it is in early discussions about a temporary closure in the wake of work last year to address what the institution’s director general described as the building’s “deteriorating condition.”As reported by the BBC, “The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) said it understands that Amgueddfa Cymru, which runs the site, is ‘consideri
  
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• 70-Ton Statue of Lionel Messi Appears in Argentina Amid World Cup Fervor

  29-06-2026 21:01 via artnews.com
  
  Lionel Messi, the Argentine superhero of soccer who is the highest-scoring player in World Cup history as of last week, has been monumentalized in a remote town in Patagonia. The stats: 85 feet tall, 70 tons in weight, and $130,000 to fabricate.As reported by the New York Times, the statue by artist Aldo Beroisa follows from other creations of his including statues of dinosaurs and Jesus, and has been in the works for more than a year. “This is going to be our Sistine Chapel,” said t
  
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• As the California African American Museum Celebrates 50 Years, Its Leader Looks Ahead

  29-06-2026 20:56 via artnews.com
  
  This week, the United States marks its 250th birthday, arguably no closer to agreeing on how the story of its journey should be told—or who gets to tell it. Under the second Trump administration, museums have become one of the clearest arenas for that struggle. These are places where America’s myth of exceptionalism collides with its lived reality: a contested memory of race, class, and political ambition. As the unfolding case of the Smithsonian at
  
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• Heir of German Jewish Collector Seeks Return of Van Gogh Painting from Musée d’Orsay

  29-06-2026 20:20 via artnews.com
  
  Klaus Kallmann is 98 years old, but he still remembers being a little boy and looking at a painting by Vincent van Gogh that hung in his grandfather’s Berlin villa until the early 1930s. The work depicts the artist’s doctor, Théophile Peyron, standing by a gnarled tree, his hands on his hips, in front of the mental hospital he ran, where Van Gogh was also a patient. That painting, titled Hôpital Saint-Paul à Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (1889), is now in the
  
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• Why You Need To Be A Better Reader

  29-06-2026 19:40 via theconversation.com
  
  Navigating today’s digital information landscape requires strong critical evaluation skills. Reading plays a central role in this process by serving not only as a means of acquiring information but also of distinguishing credible claims from misinformation. But only a specific kind of reading builds that capacity. The difference is between passive and active reading. – The Conversation
  
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• When Being A Critic Was Glamorous

  29-06-2026 19:22 via theideasletter.org
  
  If you look at these people—literally look at photos or watch footage—you discover that they were either beautiful or charismatic, or both. They all appeared on television. Among fiction writers of that time, maybe Philip Roth had some of that swagger, quick wit, amused air, though he also had a professorial, sweater-wearing side.  – The Ideas Letter
  
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• Did Marcel Duchamp Wreck Modern Art?

  29-06-2026 18:59 via theatlantic.com
  
  Duchamp left behind a legacy that people either love or loathe. He is known as the father of conceptual art, but his so-called ideas were mostly idle notions, provocations, speculations. Opinion divides on whether he snuffed out or emancipated art.  – The Atlantic
  
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• Restorers Discover How A Rembrandt Painting Was Altered

  29-06-2026 18:40 via theguardian.com
  Layers of overpaint have been removed from a 17th-century painting, confirming that it was painted by Rembrandt and revealing that a turban on one of the figures had been replaced with a traditional Dutch soft cap. – The Guardian
  
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• How Do We Learn To Read Books Again?

  29-06-2026 18:21 via theatlantic.com
  
  I don’t necessarily believe that reading books is going to automatically fix everything in your life or anything. I do think, however, it is kind of a panacea for a lot of the ills and a lot of the struggles that we’ve brought into our life through these tech platforms. – The Atlantic
  
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• What the Hell Is That Weird Painting Donald Trump Just Posted?

  29-06-2026 18:13 via artnews.com
  
  The point of art, arguably, is to make us ask questions, including such open-ended queries as: What the hell is that? Indeed, that’s a question one might ask while staring at the latest artwork posted by President Donald Trump to his social media platform Truth Social.Late on Sunday night, he posted an image of an artwork—apparently a framed painting—that sets out to provide a full picture of American history. Represented here are George Washington, American soldiers planting t
  
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• Man Pleads Guilty in Fraud That Swindled Bruce Springsteen Manager

  29-06-2026 18:09 via artnews.com
  
  Thomas Doyle, a man who was once described by a federal judge as a “career criminal,” pleaded guilty Friday to wire fraud in a scheme involving a Gustave Courbet painting that eventually ended up in the collection of Jon Landau, Bruce Springsteen’s longtime manager. According to the New York Times, Doyle persuaded London dealer Patrick Matthiesen to send him Courbet’s Mother and Child on a Hammock, painted around 1848, after promising to broker its sale. Ma
  
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• Why Are GenZers Flocking To Movie Theatres To Watch Reality TV?

  29-06-2026 18:05 via washingtonpost.com
  Where binge-watching reality TV used to happen in the secret and safety of your own home, the popularity of “Love Island USA,” and shows like it, are redefining community for millions of viewers. – Washington Post
  
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• Higher Ed Has Lost Public Trust. What To Do?

  29-06-2026 17:40 via theatlantic.com
  
  The reports differ in their diagnoses of where higher education went wrong and, by extension, of what should be done now. But their mere existence proves, if nothing else, that America’s universities have finally gotten the message: People don’t like them very much. – The Atlantic
  
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• How AI Is Reviving Dying Languages

  29-06-2026 17:20 via nytimes.com
  Over the months, as the learning language model is trained on bits of the language — such as an old-age French nursery rhyme — it brings centuries-old dialect closer into the digital age. – The New York Times
  
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• American Playwrights Are Meeting The Times, But Are Audiences?

  29-06-2026 17:00 via msn.com
  “These writers aren’t on a sociological mission. They’re not trafficking in grievance or appealing to a particular political base. They let their plays do the talking. And they’ve been trying to have a conversation that isn’t hijacked by the most doctrinaire voices in the room.” – Los Angeles Times (MSN)
  
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• What Bookmobiles Mean To Kids

  29-06-2026 16:30 via lithub.com
  
  “My reading journey began with a story that stretched more than 5,000 miles away, from Denmark to Alabama. While my siblings searched for new books, I always checked out the same one: The Marsh Crone’s Brew.” – LitHub
  
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• Swiss Institute to Move to Permanent Home on the Bowery Next Spring

  29-06-2026 16:00 via artnews.com
  
  The New York–based Swiss Institute has acquired the ground floor and lower level of 250 Bowery, which will become its permanent home when it opens in spring 2027.In an interview, Swiss Institute director Stefanie Hessler described the move as a “new chapter” in the institution’s history as it celebrates its 40th anniversary. The organization had been looking for about 2.5 years for a new home while also securing the funds needed to purchase the space.“We wanted to f
  
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• Oh Studios, Why Must You Undermine Women-Led Superhero Movies?

  29-06-2026 16:00 via salon.com
  
  “With DC’s slate wiped clean, the studio had the chance to swing bigger with a woman-led movie than it ever has before — to make something so confident and audacious that, by the nature of its existence alone, it could be unimpeachable in a sea of superhero sameness.” – Salon
  
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• An Aboriginal Artist Reclaims The Ocean

  29-06-2026 15:30 via theguardian.com
  Dharug artist Billy Bain: “You know, the beach was and still is an Aboriginal space, but in popular culture it has been represented as a very white space.” Bain has set out to change that. – The Guardian (UK)
  
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• Writing The Most Realistic, And Most Optimistic, Heterosexual Marriage On TV

  29-06-2026 15:15 via newyorker.com
  
  First, Tina Fey wrote Liz Lemon, whose character was “heteropessimistic.” But in Four Seasons, she writes (and plays) a member of “an emotionally grounded romance that captures both the rewards of a successful, decades-long marriage and the challenges of maintaining one.” – The New Yorker
  
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• What Should Music Festivals Do To Make The Experience Better For Neurodivergent Fans?

  29-06-2026 15:00 via bbc.com
  
  In the UK, “The Culture, Media and Sport Committee released guidelines earlier this year setting out ways for disabled people to feel more included at live music events.” – BBC
  
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• Seven Artworks to Catch Up On During the FIFA World Cup

  29-06-2026 15:00 via artnews.com
  
  A ceaselessly ticking clock, sweat-drenched players, and howling crowds: Soccer is a game of extremes. A few minutes spent watching a heated match proves why it is the most popular sport on earth. Fans obsess over what most of the world calls football for its glorious display of the desire to win. The emotional complexities and the politics of competition and stardom make the game an attractive subject for artists as well. Footage from canonized matches and emblems associated with the game have
  
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• Some People Hate Horror Movies While The Rest Of Us Can’t Get Enough

  29-06-2026 14:45 via theguardian.com
  “A horror film builds a safe enclosure where we can rehearse terror, chaos and helplessness with no adverse consequences. … But the body can’t always tell the rehearsal from the real thing.” – The Guardian (UK)
  
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• A Montreal Chemical Lab Is Planning To Close, Leaving Analog Film In Limbo

  29-06-2026 14:30 via cbc.ca
  
  The MELS post-production studio “is closing a Quebec facility that houses one of North America’s only laboratories capable of developing film for professional productions.” – CBC
  
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• Family of Venezuelan Artist Trapped in Earthquake Rubble Pleads for Help, Workers Dismantle JR Work Impacted by Heat Wave, and More: Morning Links for June 29, 2026

  29-06-2026 14:23 via artnews.com
  
  The HeadlinesVENEZUELA FALLOUT. The painter Onai Quiñonez is one of thousands still missing since Venezuela’s devastating double earthquake on Wednesday, June 24, reports Hyperallergic. His family has issued a call for help in rescuing the artist, whom they believe remains trapped under rubble from his collapsed residential building in the coastal town of Caraballeda in La Guaira. “We need to give visibility to Onai’s situation,” his sister
  
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