ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

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Portland Art Museum Got Rid Of Its Volunteer Docents. Was There A Problem?

Does reflecting the communities they serve mean reducing the role of senior white women, who made up a large proportion of the docent council? - Willamette Week

A New Alabama Sculpture Park Aims To Tell The Story Of Slavery In The U.S.

"When the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park opens in Montgomery, Ala., in early 2024, on a bluff flanked by railroad tracks overlooking the Alabama River, visitors will be able to arrive by boat — retracing the footsteps of tens of thousands of Africans." - The New York Times

Princeton Art Museum Decides It Has A Rubens

"The work in question appears to be The Death of Adonis, an oil sketch on a wood panel depicting the hunter laid flat as a boar attacks." - ARTnews

Chinese Porcelain Worth Millions Has Been Stolen From A Museum In Cologne

"The suspects ... broke into (the city's Museum of East Asian Art) on the night of September 12 and stole nine Chinese porcelain objects dating from the 16th to 19th centuries. … The museum has faced security vulnerabilities this year and a crime spree it has been trying to address." - Artnet

Changes At The National Museum of Women In The Arts

"Following several years of planning, a pandemic closure, a temporary reopening and a $67.5m makeover, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, officially reopens on 21 October, showcasing reconfigured galleries and event spaces, as well as a cleaned exterior." - CNN (The Art Newspaper)

Living The Archaeology Dream

A team of Egyptian and German archaeologists has found multiple hidden chambers in a pyramid - and they say the work "has completely changed our understanding of the architecture of pyramids in the Old Kingdom." - Hyperallergic

As Frieze London Turns 20, The Art World Is A Radically Different Place

Fairs expanding geographically? Nope. Smart phones? In the future. Instagram? No way. - The New York Times

The Lost Buildings Of Britain’s Most Influential Modernist Architect

Georgie Wolton launched the careers of Norman Foster and Richard Rogert, but all that's left of her legacy now is a house in deep disrepair. - The Observer (UK)

The Painter Asserting Personhood, Against Picasso And Gauguin

Claudette Johnson: "It’s good to know that there will be another story being told about women, Black women, Black people, that counters some of the stories that Gauguin, for example, told." - The New York Times

Generative AI Is A Real Mess

But tech companies certainly don't care one bit. - Vice

After Popular Vote, Here’s This Year’s Winner Of ArtPrize

Artist Abdoulaye Conde has won the ArtPrize 2023 public vote grand prize for ‘Raining Wisdom,’ a massive, bright and colorful mural depicting elephants in the African wilderness that captured the attention and imagination of festival attendees. - Michigan Live

How French Museums Are Addressing The Mental Health Of Their Visitors

"The aim is not to cure, but to empower, outside of the medical framework." When it comes to relieving depressive episodes, discouraging suicidal thoughts and supporting people with autism spectrum disorders, the art world does not claim to replace medicine but, more simply, to play its part. - Le Monde

Study: Working Conditions At US Museums Are Terrible

68% of art museum workers have considered leaving the field, 74% cannot always cover basic living expenses, and it takes an average of 12 years before a worker receives a promotion. Turnover is high — art museums lost 30% of full-time employees hired between 2020 and 2022. - Los Angeles Times

American Tourist Attacks Two Ancient Roman Statues In Jerusalem

"Police identified the suspect as a radical 40-year-old Jewish American tourist and said initial questioning suggested he smashed the statues (at the Israel Museum) because he considered them 'to be idolatrous and contrary to the Torah.'" - AP

UNESCO Is Developing A Virtual Museum of Stolen Cultural Artifacts

"Developed with Interpol, whose database of cultural objects stolen from museums, collections and archeological sites worldwide lists more than 52,000 artefacts, the $2,5 million virtual museum should open in 2025. Visitors will be able to navigate a succession of virtual spaces containing detailed 3D images of the artefacts." - The Guardian

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