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The Challenges – And Rewards – Of Curating A Small Town Art Museum

The Sun Valley museum has no permanent collection, a small exhibition space, and an audience that’s mixed - contemporary art-fan resort visitors and local kids. The curator says, “I think about exhibition schedules in terms of what schools or what teachers, what grades might be interested in." - Slate

The Cafe Where You Order Art Supplies From A Waiter

“At Happy Mediums Café, there’s nothing edible on the menu." - The New York Times

The Charming Boldness Of Frida Kahlo’s Celebration Of Her Affair With Trotsky

"Kahlo’s red lipstick and fingernails, the yarn decorating her woven hair and blouse, and perhaps even the high blush of her cheeks are thought to symbolize her Communist sympathies.” Then there’s the letter she holds. - Washington Post

What Do New Yorkers Think About The New Museum’s Expansion?

It’s not incredibly popular, "with some viewing the project as 'hostile' and ‘corporate' when juxtaposed with the original building as well as the surrounding Bowery neighborhood.” - Hyperallergic

Was The Artist Of The Adultery Plaque A Really Angry Spouse, Or Banksy?

The people of Clifton have their theories about the bench plaque whose text ends with, “Yes, Roger, I knew." - The Observer (UK)

Norman Foster’s Firm Designs A Billion-Dollar Office Tower For Sunset Boulevard

"The eye-catching proposal, which was formally submitted to (Los Angeles) city planning authorities this week, will transform a two-acre site on Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard into a 22-story entertainment industry workplace dubbed The Star … (with) greenery spilling out from a series of terraces spiraling up its façade." - CNN

The San Diego Museum Is Selling Buildings. What About The Art?

The sale of the downtown facility will dramatically alter perceptions of the museum’s long-standing binational mandate, aimed at artists and audiences in the border area of San Diego and Tijuana. Closure also raises difficult questions about the fate of several works of art in the permanent collection. - Los Angeles Times

One Of America’s Leading Public Art Programs, Mural Arts Philadelphia, May Lose $1 Million A Year In City Funding

"The long-running arts organization, which specializes in project-based community programming, currently has more than $3.68 million in funding for the year. However, (Mayor Cherelle Parker's) new financial plan could reduce the total to $2.68 million per year for the next five years." - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

What Does It Mean To Be An Artist In The Era Of Everyone-Has-A-Camera-At-All-Times?

How much skill does it actually take to be a photographer? Is photography really and truly an art? These questions about photography  – what it is, what it does – have been with us since the first photographic images were produced in the early 19th century. - The Easel

For The First Time In 450 Years, Eight Panels Of Piero Della Francesca’s Augustinian Altarpiece Are Reunited

"Museums have tried and failed in the past to assemble the (surviving) eight panels, spread among five museums in Europe and the United States, of the original 30-piece polyptych." The paintings are currently being exhibited at the Poldi Pezzoli in Milan. - AP

Three Rubens Works, Allegedly Looted By Nazis, Must Remain At London Museum

"A trio of paintings by Peter Paul Rubens will remain with their current owner, the Courtauld Gallery in London, the UK Parliament’s spoliation advisory panel ruled. … The panel, which determines the rightful ownership of contested artworks, rejected three separate claims for the Rubens works." - ARTnews

Banksy Tree Mural Defaced With White Paint Days After It Appeared

Despite being surrounded by a protective metal fence, white paint was thrown onto the artwork and discovered by local residents on the morning of March 20. - ARTnews

The Artworld Hoax That Fooled Virginia Woolf

For most of their adult lives, the two women employed an elaborate hoax in which Hepworth’s paintings were exhibited and sold under Preece’s name. Their trick was particularly successful in the 1920s and ’30s, when they fooled not only Woolf and Bell, but other major art-world figures. - Hyperallergic

The 18th-Century Engineers Who Saved Michelangelo’s Dome At St. Peter’s From Collapsing

"When Pope Benedict XIV sent a team of three mathematicians to inspect the dome in 1742, they found, as Benedict suspected they might, a cataclysm waiting to happen." They worked out calculations to get the dome in balance, and, in the process, invented modern engineering. - The American Scholar

Reconstruction Of Notre-Dame In Paris Is Headed Toward Conclusion

"The iconic medieval monument immortalized in history, film and literature has been gradually rebuilt over the past five years, through challenges that have included delays during the pandemic and the loss of the project’s leader. … Here is a timeline of events in the restoration." - AP

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